GT-i9100 ID - 2 Phones, Different Motherboards

I have two gt-i9100's. The stickers in the battery bay both match the IMEI on the phone.

Phone A is having issues connecting to data and phone networks, so I checked the ROM on Phone B (which works great), downloaded it, and flashed Phone A to that ROM. It still doesn't work.

I was going to swap the motherboards (Phone A body is mint, Phone B has a few nicks), so I could sell the mint one fully working, and the nicked one as not working with software issues.

When I opened them up, I found that Phone A has a stacked sim/sd card reader, while phone B has two separate reader slots. Of course, the motherboards couldn't be swapped because of that.

Both stickers say i9100GSMH, and the IMEI's match the stickers.

So, are these different versions of the same phone? Is phone A (with stacked card reader/sim slot) some other variant, that requires a different ROM?

Also, in looking at Phone B's motherboard, I-9100 is clearly stamped on one of the heat shields in the working phone. The non-working Phone A doesn't even have the same heat shields on the motherboard.

So, what is Phone A (double stacked sim/sd, no stamps, won't connect to networks).

The ROM for both is stock XWLSW, with XXMS2 baseband.

In the pics below, Phone A (suspect) is on the left, and B is on the right. The close up is of Phone A.

Thanks much.

Thanks for the reply. I'm wondering about it. Phone A's micro sd slot is stacked under the sim slot as opposed to being a separate reader.

The memory reports the same, but I haven't looked at the processor. I'll try to look at it.

Someone suggested that I might need a i9100T modem for Phone A, but I haven't seen any 9100T boards to see if it might be that model or not.

Thanks much.

wulsic said:

Looks to me like a clone if you watch that the camera modules are different and phone A is missing microsd slot on the left side from the sim slot. so phone B looks to me original but phone A i dont really know
Can you watch on phone A the processor speed and memory?


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So, everything but the modem works. It shows bars, like it sees the network, which makes me think it's not the antenna.

So should I just try flashing different modems until I find one that works? Everything else from the stock ROM seems to work just fine.

Thanks

wulsic said:

Gordonfink so can you check also in about or info model number?
If it matches then it should be right.
If so then were you live? I made a xwms1 odexed rom for recovery if you flash once philz kernel then flash the odexed rom and then you should have moden, recovery and system all to default without using odin.

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HI - I'm in the US.

It says i9100 in the settings --> about if that's what you mean.

Thanks

Fevves said:

Based on what is available on google, it seem like SGS2 Korean or Japanese version, see here without getting a clear conclusion (IMO): https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2514765/all

Look closelly at the pics posted there and see what fits the back of your version A (two posts shows similar if not same as yours).

So, the question is: from where did you get both of these (no hustle for the international SGS2 - your indicated as B) and if you're able to trace down the origin as bench tests and/or abouthone would show an OK results for both of them. What's the CSC version on each? It can give you a hint on the origin if you haven't flashed everything via Odin or CWM.

All the same, you might have modem/ril issues with A model if you flashed the wrong modem, or if you're out of modem/RIL parameters cause your SIM might not be properly supported by the phone re basebands (if it's indeed KOR or JAP version)...

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Thank you very much.

The Japanese and/or Korean versions look very much like my Phone A. I bought them both from the same wholesaler. I sold Phone A to a customer, and they returned it because it wouldn't connect to the network. They flashed two different custom ROMs prior to the return, so I have no idea what was on it originally.

The ROM seems to work OK. I will try to flash a Korean and/or Japanese modem to see if that helps.

I actually discovered it because I was going to just swap the boards, because A is in mint condition, and B is a little beat up, but the boards were different.

Thanks for helping to sleuth this out. I figured if I could identify it, I could get the proper ROM/modem on it, and maybe restore it.

Thanks again. I'll try a few things and report back.

Well, I could not get this phone to work with AT&T, so I sold it for parts.

The buyer informed me that she put her TMobile sim card in, and it worked perfectly.

Thanks for everyone's input.