[Q] Galaxy SII GT9100 IMEI lost after Factory Reset

First of all, hello everybody!

Now, straight to the point.

Yesterday I went ahead and upgraded my S2 to official 4.1.2 via Kiev. Was working fine. I then installed jeboo_kernel_i9100_v1-2a using Odin to gain access to CWM, as suggested in one of the articles on web. Done a backup (file sitting on my PC now). Turned phone on, did a factory reset(through phone menu) and that's when problems started. Phone wouldn't turn on/go past Samsung Galaxy s2 IG9100 logo (yellow traingle due to the kernel change, I presume). That's when I used a Siyah-s2-v6.0b4 kernel, which helped me get past the logo and into the system. Unfortunately, I now don't have IMEI/service. I have no idea what I've done wrong or what happened.

My phone is NOT rooted and I didn't install any custom rom. I tried getting the first kernel back and restoring my backup but that didn't work - first md5 mismatch, which I managed to get past but then something else interrupted the restoring process.

My phone is no longer on warranty. It was a contract phone with Orange UK (now out of contract and phone upgraded).

Now, I see a lot of this posted here so.

ODA: I9100XWLSY
Phone: Unknown
CSC: I9100ORALS8

I managed to get a hold of this official rom but I don't know whether I should flash it using Odin or not. I do not have any other copies of my phone, apart from basic copy->paste of the content (which I've done on older firmware) and earlier mentioned backup done using CWM.

I will greatly appreciate your help guys and girls. Handset was well cared for and it was supposed to be passed down but it seems like I've done more bad than good!

Thank you
-K

doctor_droid said:

Check ur internal storage for a file named efsbackup ... u just need to use that file ... also there a thread in gen sec HOW To recover lost imei... I hope u havent read it yet...

---------- Post added at 10:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:42 PM ----------

Here http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1264021

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Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately I can't see that folder. This is probably due the fact that I haven't actually rooted the phone. It was just different kernel, backup trough cwm and factory reset.

I already went through pages of how tos but I can't make much sense out of it and Im not sure how to apply what I've read to my case. Should I root the phone even with imei gone? If so, what's the best method? Sorry to be a pain. I probably just focused myself with all the reading and searching!

Cheers
-K

Done!

Quick update guys!

I went ahead and flashed the stock rom that I found on one of the websites. Phone is back up and running with correct IMEI I guess I was lucky mainly because I haven't actually rooted my phone thus leaving efs untouched. S2 got confused perhaps?

Either way, all is good.

I'm not sure if there's any way/point to backup the whole device even if I'm not planning to play about with custom roms. Not even sure if I should factory reset the phone given what happened earlier!

-K

doctor_droid said:

Just make sure u get a efs backup now

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Click to collapse

Can I do that whilst not rooted? Can I back up my phone whilst not rooted with any app or not really?

Have a good one
-K