STRAIGHT TALK SIM NOT BEING RECOGNIZED by GALAXY NOTE I717

edfx00 · Jul 8, 2012

I have a Straight Talk Sim.. with my Unlocked NOTE ..actually now I have 3 ST SIMS as the 1st 2 were thought maybe defective and ST sent me 2 replacements.

None of them get recognized as the message " No SIM Card" just pops up with all 3. Its not the APN settings, as I have tried all suggested and they are primarily for data and not the phone.

Any suggestions here? I have talked at length to both Samsung and ST and tehy each say its the other. Phone works fine with a TMOB SIM.

Thank you.

alewis2k12 · Jul 8, 2012

edfx00 said:
I have a Straight Talk Sim.. with my Unlocked NOTE ..actually now I have 3 ST SIMS as the 1st 2 were thought maybe defective and ST sent me 2 replacements.

None of them get recognized as the message " No SIM Card" just pops up with all 3. Its not the APN settings, as I have tried all suggested and they are primarily for data and not the phone.

Any suggestions here? I have talked at length to both Samsung and ST and tehy each say its the other. Phone works fine with a TMOB SIM.

Thank you.

It seems to me its gotta be the sim cards...bcuz i use ST with my note with no problems...and now using it with my s3 without any issues at all...from wat u posted its the sim cards...especially if phone recognize the Tmobile sim card...

rangercaptain · Jul 8, 2012

Just stick the sim cards in another phone, then you'll know for sure its the ST sims.

madpb · Jul 8, 2012

That is interesting because there a quite a few Note's on ST SIM cards..
Rarely if ever does a SIM card go bad unless it was chewed by a dog or hit by a lightening bolt.
There is something very simple yet wrong. Wrong SIM card? It is in backwards or upside down something like that.
Why is your phone 'unlocked'? The StraightTalk SIM card should already be for the AT&T phone so no need for unlocking.

aj_vogtman · Jul 8, 2012

You don't need to unlock but if your ESN was carrier locked that would explain it. Phone under contract but customer stops paying on 2 year contract and it gets the boot. Just one of many examples of how to get a carrier lock.
My AT&T carrier unlocked/rooted Note ran on Tmobile and is now on ST.

These are the only settings that work right for me. Although the phone should boot with the ST SIM even if these are wrong.

edfx00 · Jul 9, 2012

Yes I messed with the APN settings .. and yet those are for data . The phone as you have mentioned should boot automatically and yes many Galaxy NOtes are using Straight Talk. Now I have 3 different SIMS not working !? And yes they are in correctly etc.. if they weren't the Tmob SIM wouldnt work either.

I bought the phone New and it came unlocked as I prefer it that way rather than deal with ATT. I also travel abroad.

It's been a head scratcher.... Though I know the answer has to be out there.. I cant believe I have 3 bad SIMS in a row.

I am open to suggestions. Thank you.

pangyahit · Jul 9, 2012

ok good to know, please let me know how it goes for you, as I am also in the same boat and trying to use SL for my lovely note

Twiq · Jul 9, 2012

did you flash custom roms?
you might want to take a look at your device informations, especially the IMEI, if its not your correct IMEI it means you've wrecked your /efs partition, search for EFS recovery to fix your imei and your sim card not recognized issue

edfx00 · Jul 9, 2012

Originally I did not..I inserted into the stock ROM. That didnt work , So then I flashed custom ROMS.. 3 different ones.. and they didnt work.

I dont understand what you mean by not the right IMEI ? Its a number.. the SIM doesnt screen IMEI's ? I bought it brand new about 6 weeks ago from Negri Electronics which specializes in unlocked phones.

aj_vogtman · Jul 9, 2012

They have a very good resellerating but one customer Lawrence reports something that would explain your case:
"Some of their unlocked phones (unlocked-originally branded) have the problem that they come with generic IMEI 004999010640000, this imei is generic and it is not unique. Phone won't get service in some countries(i.e UK) and it is a matter of time before this imei gets banned in US. Negri recognizes the problem but won't repair or exchange the phone, read their store policies before buying......................".

edfx00 · Jul 9, 2012

Well... then why would it work with T Mobile? I mean after all, its an ATT phone and designed to run on their networks? So it works with ATT and T MOB but not Straight Talk?

As well Thats not my IMEI, not to say perhaps its another generic one, I have no idea. You make some interesting points that I haven't heard before.

Twiq · Jul 9, 2012

edfx00 said:
Originally I did not..I inserted into the stock ROM. That didnt work , So then I flashed custom ROMS.. 3 different ones.. and they didnt work.

I dont understand what you mean by not the right IMEI ? Its a number.. the SIM doesnt screen IMEI's ? I bought it brand new about 6 weeks ago from Negri Electronics which specializes in unlocked phones.

once again look at your device information - imei, and look at your imei on the box package or from under your device's battery, if they don't match then your EFS is ruined

flashing roms could cause these, but its pretty rare

Twiq · Jul 9, 2012

edfx00 said:
Well... then why would it work with T Mobile? I mean after all, its an ATT phone and designed to run on their networks? So it works with ATT and T MOB but not Straight Talk?

As well Thats not my IMEI, not to say perhaps its another generic one, I have no idea. You make some interesting points that I haven't heard before.

in this case, i think you have 2 problems..
1. your device is sim carrier locked (which you could unlock manually)
2. your /EFS partition which hold your original IMEI is corrupted (you could restore/fix this too)

if you happen to have some files mentioning EFS on the root of /sdcard then you should backup those files.. you might need those to restore/fix your EFS partition

edfx00 · Jul 9, 2012

Twiq said:
in this case, i think you have 2 problems..
1. your device is sim carrier locked (which you could unlock manually)
2. your /EFS partition which hold your original IMEI is corrupted (you could restore/fix this too)

Thank you for your insights Twiq.

OK... The IMEI #s match. SO that's not the issue ( I think).

It's unlocked, so even though its an ATT phone, it works with Tmob SIM.

As for the EFS corruption possibility, well, it didnt work with all original Stock ROMS on Android 2.36. I rooted it thinking maybe ATT had something in there..but it still didnt work after 3 different ICS ROMs. I restored the original ROM yet still zero.

It works for Tmob. If the EFS was corrupted, then even a Tmob SIM wouldnt work.. right?

Twiq · Jul 9, 2012

edfx00 said:
Thank you for your insights Twiq.

OK... The IMEI #s match. SO that's not the issue ( I think).

It's unlocked, so even though its an ATT phone, it works with Tmob SIM.

As for the EFS corruption possibility, well, it didnt work with all original Stock ROMS on Android 2.36. I rooted it thinking maybe ATT had something in there..but it still didnt work after 3 different ICS ROMs. I restored the original ROM yet still zero.

It works for Tmob. If the EFS was corrupted, then even a Tmob SIM wouldnt work.. right?

nope, then my earlier posts are irrelevant..
i think what you need here is flashing a different modem version which works with your current carrier/location.

what is your Baseband Version? it's on the about screen

you could try several modems listed Here, but flash only modems compatible with your current rom (GB/ICS)

there should be modems for international versions of Note, but i couldn't find one without downloading full rom.

rangercaptain · Jul 9, 2012

edfx00 said:
It works for Tmob. If the EFS was corrupted, then even a Tmob SIM wouldnt work.. right?

Just cutting in here. . .

With a galaxy tab if you wanted to put in a sim from a phone T-mobile would block you and you would get a generic web page saying go buy a data plan for your tablet. The solution was to delete the efs folder and let the android system rebuild it. That rebuilt efs was the generic 0049etc. So a bad efs won't stop you on T-mobile's network.

As for esn, US GSM carriers don't block that. I asked a service rep why not, especially in the cas of stolen phones? He said those stolen phones are new customers.

Sorry there's no help in those paragraphs, but they eliminate some things. . .

I still haven't seen that you tested the ST sims in another phone. Its unlikely but a good possibility.

edfx00 · Jul 9, 2012

Twiq said:
nope, then my earlier posts are irrelevant..
i think what you need here is flashing a different modem version which works with your current carrier/location.

what is your Baseband Version? it's on the about screen

you could try several modems listed Here, but flash only modems compatible with your current rom (GB/ICS)

there should be modems for international versions of Note, but i couldn't find one without downloading full rom.

Baseband is i717UCLE2

I have flashed several of the ICS radios for T mobile... but that would effect the reception etc.. This didoes even recognize the SIM. From the moment the phone powers on it says "no SIM".

I talked to Negri, and they just unlock the phone just as you or I would with a code they buy in bulk.

So its no generic IMEI or any grey market stuff.

The radios it has are for ATT and this should work for an ATT StraightTalk SIM.. but it doesn't !?

aj_vogtman · Jul 10, 2012

Find someone with an AT&T unlocked phone. Your SIM should start up in their phone and their SIM should start your phone. If not then take it from there. I've had at least three radios that didn't work right with ST but all booted up fine.

edfx00 · Jul 10, 2012

aj_vogtman said:
Find someone with an AT&T unlocked phone. Your SIM should start up in their phone and their SIM should start your phone. If not then take it from there. I've had at least three radios that didn't work right with ST but all booted up fine.

Right.. this is beyond a radio issue . They dont boot. When I boot with a non activated TMOB SIM, it doesn't say " NO SIM". It boots, if I try to make a call, it will say "network unavailable".

With the ST SIMS, it immediately says "NO SIM" before it even accesses the network. Samsung said that since it reads the TMOB sim, it cant be the sim card reader.

I am grateful for all who have volunteered their expertise here, yet still have yet to find a solution though I know there is one out there. Thank you.

rangercaptain · Jul 10, 2012

Dude. . . The ST sims are dead.

STRAIGHT TALK SIM NOT BEING RECOGNIZED by GALAXY NOTE I717

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Member

Senior Member

Similar threads