Bricked my N97?...

Wow guys I had to register to say thanks for sharing the fix for this! I bricked my N97 (voda) on the 1st, the replacement arrives today. I was worried about trying it again but since reading this thread I'll be happy to give it another go 😊

I've changed the product code on my N80 once before, to switch it from being I think at the time Orange branded and b**tardised with features taken out to a generic firmware.

So I kept it within the same country.

I would never change a product from one contient or country to another because for me, Im not sure if it is the case, but surely there is a possibility that different phones are built for different markets and therefore possibly slightly different hardware. Im thinking in terms of things such as the various cellular bands and frequencies.

So I'll wait for genuine UK firmware first.

Cya
Simon

Gents - I'd just like to thank you guys for putting this solution up on the forum. Worked like a dream and now I'm on the latest firmware. Felt like a proper hacker 😎

Just one question though - if another firmware update comes along will I be OK using NSU? I'm on the Euro product code now as opposed to Vodafone.

Again many thanks for posting this solution 😊

This is a great thread. Thanks everyone!

However, I have followed the instructions and got the update to work from Three UK firmware to the Euro 1 unbranded firmware. All seemed ok and reset the phone. However, it did not come with the Facebook/ Aquweather widgets?

Anyone else encountered this? Is there anyway to sort this out?

More imrportantly, do you think there is anything else missing, maybe something more important?

Hi Everyone,

I have read through this thread, as I too suffered exactly the same fate. Vodafone N97, NSS change product code, then bricked via Nokia update.

I am keen to follow the process to fix it with JAF, but i'm clearly missing something. Do you ALL own JAF, because when I download it it keeps on about a Pkey and stuff.

I really want to fix my n97, and quick. Please could someone help me with a bit more detail about not to get JAF working?

Cheers.

James

JamesRossell wrote:Hi Everyone,

I have read through this thread, as I too suffered exactly the same fate. Vodafone N97, NSS change product code, then bricked via Nokia update.

I am keen to follow the process to fix it with JAF, but i'm clearly missing something. Do you ALL own JAF, because when I download it it keeps on about a Pkey and stuff.

I really want to fix my n97, and quick. Please could someone help me with a bit more detail about not to get JAF working?

Cheers.

James

I think all you need is the Pkey Emulator thingo.
Are you using Vista?

JAF PKEY Emulator v4.0
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ANG6RHPQ

You need that JAF PKEY Emulator thing, install it and then Run As Administrator and then JAF just magically gets emulated by it.

Thanks for that, but that seemed to just be a trojan! 😞

If anyone's phone hangs/dies/whatever after the 'Pooling' stage, make sure you are using the new firmware - v11.

My bro's phone was v10, he used NSU to update to v11 - it appeared to work - till it restarted and was bricked. I followed the instructions to unbrick but used the v10 firmware (thought it would be safer) but that failed at the Pooling stage. Tried the v11 instead and it worked first go.

Needless to say he is a lucky bugger 😉

Also if you're having problems with JAF detecting your phone (i.e. you're pressing the Power button but it can't find the phone) - just keep trying!!! It will get there eventually - press it repeatedly. I was getting a success rate of about 1/20 after the first manual flash failed.

Good luck!

JamesRossell wrote:Thanks for that, but that seemed to just be a trojan! 😞

Yes McAffee picked this up as a trojan for me too. Possibly it's just setting off some heuristic that's calling it that. AVG didn't flag it as one. I turned off the AV, used the thing, then did a full virus scan after and there was no sign of any virus.

At any rate I'd rather have a virus infected computer than a bricked phone 😉 A computer can be format/reinstalled very easily.

jimijam wrote:Yes McAffee picked this up as a trojan for me too. Possibly it's just setting off some heuristic that's calling it that. AVG didn't flag it as one. I turned off the AV, used the thing, then did a full virus scan after and there was no sign of any virus.

At any rate I'd rather have a virus infected computer than a bricked phone 😉 A computer can be format/reinstalled very easily.

Too True. I made the same decision!

😎
Hey Guys,

Just thought I would let you know that I managed to fix it!

OMG it was tricky, but following the instructions in this thread worked.

The hardest bit is turning the phone at the same time. Managed to add a bit of comedy to it, as I was getting soo annoyed i went to pull the battery just as it saw the phone and started flashing 😮, so there i was HOLDING the battery against the contacts, whilst it re-flashed my already dead phone. LOL

Either way it worked so thanks again.

Now i've got to reset it all up again!

James 😎

Just wanted to post thanks to all the people who have posted help here. Unbricked my n97 using jaf and a lot of swearing! Cheers!!

JamesRossell wrote:😎
Hey Guys,

Just thought I would let you know that I managed to fix it!

OMG it was tricky, but following the instructions in this thread worked.

The hardest bit is turning the phone at the same time. Managed to add a bit of comedy to it, as I was getting soo annoyed i went to pull the battery just as it saw the phone and started flashing 😮, so there i was HOLDING the battery against the contacts, whilst it re-flashed my already dead phone. LOL

Either way it worked so thanks again.

Now i've got to reset it all up again!

James 😎

Did you have the facebook application widget afterwards?

seems to be the voda v10 firmware that is doing this to handsets

just debranded two n97s for friends uk sim free models , used jaf and nsu and worked fine

the other day i saw a voda bricked and read about many voda being bricked by nsu after p/c change to debrand

it seems that v10 voda firmware cant take the debrand and update at the same time and is causing the white screen off death that can only be saved by the jaf dead flash method posted here

users who have a v10 handset on voda and debranded to v10 were fine

its just voda users who are debranding v10 and updating to v11 at the same time

iam hoping that voda release a v11 soon and that this is changed in that firmware as it is very harsh to have messed up the v10 voda firmware that bad that a debrand can brick your device 😮😮😮

Has anyone had any experiences with or read about doing the upgrade with a 3 branded handset?

jimijam wrote:If anyone's phone hangs/dies/whatever after the 'Pooling' stage, make sure you are using the new firmware - v11.

My bro's phone was v10, he used NSU to update to v11 - it appeared to work - till it restarted and was bricked. I followed the instructions to unbrick but used the v10 firmware (thought it would be safer) but that failed at the Pooling stage. Tried the v11 instead and it worked first go.

Needless to say he is a lucky bugger 😉

Also if you're having problems with JAF detecting your phone (i.e. you're pressing the Power button but it can't find the phone) - just keep trying!!! It will get there eventually - press it repeatedly. I was getting a success rate of about 1/20 after the first manual flash failed.

Good luck!

Ah, that v11 business may just be it.

I only downloaded v10 off NaviFirm, as I did the proper NSU update to v11 and that bricked it.

I was a bit scared to try and just over-install v11 onto it.

Once I get it back from the Nokia Care & Share Centre i'll know a bit more.
Such as whether or not they can be officially re-flashed by Nokia.

But if it is completely ruined, then I'll give it a go with the v11.

And then if that doesn't work, I'll hurl it at people from my balcony.

Seft wrote:Has anyone had any experiences with or read about doing the upgrade with a 3 branded handset?

Yes, my 3 handset bricked with NSU. Used JAF to flash it again and it's all fine now, up and running with v11.

Hi guys, I've just received my replacement phone and now I'm not sure whether to attempt an update or not.

From what previous posters have said, it seems like the people that debranded and over-wrote the voda v.10 firmware with the nokia version and only then updated to V.11 were safe from bricking.

Is it still possible to do this?

Can I still get hold of the nokia v.10 firmware and install it somehow? Or because it has now been replaced by v.11 on the NSU is this impossible?

Any help appreciated.

cheers,

Grim.

I debranded to v10 and was running this for a few days before proceeding to v11. Mine bricked.

buxz777 wrote:

users who have a v10 handset on voda and debranded to v10 were fine

its just voda users who are debranding v10 and updating to v11 at the same time

buxz777 wrote:seems to be the voda v10 firmware that is doing this to handsets

just debranded two n97s for friends uk sim free models , used jaf and nsu and worked fine

the other day i saw a voda bricked and read about many voda being bricked by nsu after p/c change to debrand

it seems that v10 voda firmware cant take the debrand and update at the same time and is causing the white screen off death that can only be saved by the jaf dead flash method posted here

users who have a v10 handset on voda and debranded to v10 were fine

its just voda users who are debranding v10 and updating to v11 at the same time

iam hoping that voda release a v11 soon and that this is changed in that firmware as it is very harsh to have messed up the v10 voda firmware that bad that a debrand can brick your device 😮😮😮

Seems that way dude, but i did this, swaped p/codes to the """"162 UK non branded code from the voda p/code, unbranded the phone.
This step went fine, though i think it's important to note that even though phone was unbranded, several modules specific to a generic phone were missing (skype, GSM only mode and several other little things).

Today, trying to solve the vanishing phone memory thing, backed up my C: hard reset it (*#7370#) then tried to restore, this bricked my phone 😞 Seems that the Voda f/w has some serious holes in it relating to the locations of h/w (bus) you ask it to recognise this, and it fadges the phone.

I'll be trying the JAF method tonight, very anoyed as purposfully didn't change to the euro code and force the V11 patch to avoid this situation.

the jaf method worked for me although i did have to type in the paths to where I downloaded the firmware. Couldnt get the ini file thing to work. Also dont give up if jaf dosnt see your fone for the 1st half hour, timing the power on is a nightmare

Fats wrote:Holy crap this worked!!

Everyone that managed to brick their phone using JAF to debrand then NSU to update needs to check this out.

I used NAVIFIRM to download the v11 firmware set.
I had to fiddle with JAF because it didn't automatically pick up the correct ROMs, so I had to select them manually as follows:

MCU Flash file: C:\Temp\N97\firmware\RM-505_11.0.021_prd.core.C00
PPM Flash file: C:\Temp\N97\firmware\RM-505_11.0.021_prd.rofs2.V01
CNT Flash file: C:\Temp\N97\firmware\RM-505_11.0.021_C01_prd.rofs3.fpsx
APE Variant file: C:\Temp\N97\firmware\RM505_507_11.0.021_uda1_001.uda.fpsx

Select Maunal Flash, Dead USB, Factory Set and Normal mode and hit flash.

My N97 is now working again. I'm guessing it's on the right firmware because that's what I flashed, what's the *# code to check?

TYVM for the heads-up, andonevris.

I can confirm that this 100% works, however, I would like to note a couple of things that might help others:

1) even though JAF is pointing to the folder containing the firmware files from Navifirm you might have to copy and paste their names into the file name field, as on mine they were not selectable.

2) to turn my phone on I had to jam the power on button a few times until it vibrated.

nailed it, getting all the bits for it was the hardest, picked it up to flash at my first attempt 😊

ok guys so some of you have it, my uk 3 n97 tried to change to euro code as just know 3 are never going to post firmware upgrades from nokia, has shown the same symptons. If connected to the usb port of the pc it continually recycles. Very briefly sometimes it asks for a nokia usb rom driver, have any of you seen this as part of your fixing? I seem to have jaf all setup just have spent the last 1.5 hours trying to get the timing right to power on, oh what fun. Do you think I have an issue with this driver error? Thanks

fixed myself needed to install bb5 drivers from this post
http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/archive/index.php/t-531845.html
i have never installed pcsuite on this pc and therefore the correct drivers for windows to see the phone was the issue for jaf
sailed through flashing got to pooling, had to pull the battery twice to get it to boot succesfully but now going
now to see if the new firmware was worth all this hassle, roll on the next one!!!

May I just thank each and everyone of you for all your help.

Yes, my N97 is back up and running.

Thanks to the guy who told me how to manually put the files into Jaf.

Thanks more to the guy that said I should be uploading v11 which stopped that silly Pooling Issue.

But, No Thanks to the Nokia Care & Share Centre.

You see, I popped it in there, thinking it was the right thing to do.
I should have caught on when everyone was oohing and aahing at it.
One staff saying "Oh, i havent seen one of these yet"
...Um, you're Nokia. you make them.

But anyway, because my N97 was from Hong Kong, they were very confused
and unable to help me.

Giving it another go, with free v11 advice and everyones help from here, i'm now enjoying my slide up keyboard yet again.

I love you All About Symbian forum people.

Thanks heaps,
Aaron

Thanks guys - finally got it to work. Power on at the right time wasn't too hard as I cycled the battery BUT didn't have Nokia PC suite installed before hand as was on another pc... d'oh

This means that the USB init section never completed and I received an error - once I'd installed Nokia PC suite the usb drivers were there and although I received another error (couldn't back up CRT?) the process continued correctly.

Overview of the process:

Install Nokia PC Suite
Install JAF v 62
Get JAF v64 ini files and copy them to the JAF folder in prog files
Install the PK emulator
Run the PK emulator to start JAF 62 (with ini support)
make the changes to the phone code
update the phone with NSU
get the new firmware using NAVIFIRM
copy the firmware files to the specific RM-505 folder
run the PK emulator to start Jaf again
make the setting choices as per the forum threads
Put the battery in just before the start phone message
Get the message
Press the on key

watch in amazement as it works!

Genius guys - thanks a bunch. EURO firmware all ok AND all the widgets as I checked the normal and factory setting boxes.

Hi guys, I'm glad it looks like loads of people are getting this fix to work now.

I had a Vodafone branded N97 which had Facebook, Accuweather and BBC Iplayer installed as standard, does anyone know where I can download these applications?

cheers in advance,

Grim

Their are instructions for flashing a non-dead phone on the same site along with instructions for changing the PKEY as well.

Has anyone actually tried doing this rather than bricking it first?

Unplugged wrote:Their are instructions for flashing a non-dead phone on the same site along with instructions for changing the PKEY as well.

Has anyone actually tried doing this rather than bricking it first?

I'm going to try this eve, even though I fixed my N97 last night, i'd already blagged a fresh one off voda (free battery and accesories) which came today, so, will be trying a straight up flash with an auto matic p/code overwrite.

Just one thing though, last night when I was trialing various combinations, I couldnlt get a straight flash from a good setup to work, as instructed in the GSM forum guide.

I could only flash 'from dead' IE turning phone off, and powering on when requested.