Regular loss of signal after fixing phone

pnz · Apr 29, 2014

Hi, sorry if this has been answered, but I can't find it.

I recently combined two broken i9300's (one with a bricked motherboard (gets into download mode, product name blank, think it's SDS), the other with a smashed screen) by transferring the motherboard from the smashed one to the other.

It seemed to work fine for a while, but after a week the phone lost signal, showing no service. Rebooting the phone fixed this, however this has now been happening more and more often, and now doesn't have any service even after booting.

Does anyone know what the problem could be, and how to fix it?

Thanks.

EDIT: I managed to restore service again by flashing the stock ROM through Odin (was running stock already), but it lost it again after a few hours.

Benko111 · Apr 29, 2014

pnz said:
Hi, sorry if this has been answered, but I can't find it.

I recently combined two broken i9300's (one with a bricked motherboard (gets into download mode, product name blank, think it's SDS), the other with a smashed screen) by transferring the motherboard from the smashed one to the other.

It seemed to work fine for a while, but after a week the phone lost signal, showing no service. Rebooting the phone fixed this, however this has now been happening more and more often, and now doesn't have any service even after booting.

Does anyone know what the problem could be, and how to fix it?

Thanks.

EDIT: I managed to restore service again by flashing the stock ROM through Odin (was running stock already), but it lost it again after a few hours.

Check IMEI and serial if corrupted. If it shows your correct IMEI and serial then it's fine. Otherwise you may have an EFS problem.
Report back please.

pnz · Apr 29, 2014

Benko111 said:
Check IMEI and serial if corrupted. If it shows your correct IMEI and serial then it's fine. Otherwise you may have an EFS problem.
Report back please.

IMEI and serial are both fine (non-zero and non-null anyway). IMEI matches the label from the smashed phone. However, it's connected at the moment (just re-flashed the stock ROM again). Will update again the next time it loses service.

EDIT: Just lost service again. Only took about 10 minutes after flashing. IMEI and serial are still fine. I also forgot to mention that the motherboard I'm using is from a New Zealand phone, whereas the casing/screen is from a French phone. Don't know if that makes a difference. I tried flashing a French stock ROM, but that gave me an unknown baseband and null IMEI. Flashing the NZ ROM again fixed that.

EDIT2: And another correction. IMEI and serial showed fine after losing service, but I then rebooted the phone. Still no service, baseband is now unknown, IMEI is null and the serial number is non-zero but different than it was. However, I'm sure if I reflashed the ROM again I'd have service for a few minutes, so it doesn't seem like the EFS is entirely corrupt. I'm scratching my head a bit at this one.

Benko111 · Apr 29, 2014

pnz said:
IMEI and serial are both fine (non-zero and non-null anyway). IMEI matches the label from the smashed phone. However, it's connected at the moment (just re-flashed the stock ROM again). Will update again the next time it loses service.

EDIT: Just lost service again. Only took about 10 minutes after flashing. IMEI and serial are still fine. I also forgot to mention that the motherboard I'm using is from a New Zealand phone, whereas the casing/screen is from a French phone. Don't know if that makes a difference. I tried flashing a French stock ROM, but that gave me an unknown baseband and null IMEI. Flashing the NZ ROM again fixed that.

Judging from your last two sentences you actally have got an EFS problem. Just to clarify: you get generic IMEI & serial with every other ROM you flashed besides the original NZ stock?
Otherwise it might just be the modem not fitting the ROM, try another (if possible original 3-part stock firmware), but make a Nandroid backup or save your EFS otherwise in case you need it later.

pnz · Apr 29, 2014

Benko111 said:
Judging from your last two sentences you actally have got an EFS problem. Just to clarify: you get generic IMEI & serial with every other ROM you flashed besides the original NZ stock?
Otherwise it might just be the modem not fitting the ROM, try another (if possible original 3-part stock firmware), but make a Nandroid backup or save your EFS otherwise in case you need it later.

Not generic IMEI but null IMEI. Not sure about generic serial, not sure how to tell the difference. And I'm now seeing the same on the NZ stock firmware after a reboot.

Is a Philz Touch EFS backup sufficient? Anything else I should backup as well?

Benko111 · Apr 29, 2014

Well, since EFS is broken already it should be sufficient. To be on the safe site you can additionally save the EFS folder with Root Explorer.
If you have a working EFS you would need to save it with an EFS saving tool like 'Samsung Tool' in this forum somewhere.
Then you got to go through the EFS threads for i9300 and hope to be able to fix this.

pnz · Apr 29, 2014

Benko111 said:
Well, since EFS is broken already it should be sufficient. To be on the safe site you can additionally save the EFS folder with Root Explorer.
If you have a working EFS you would need to save it with an EFS saving tool like 'Samsung Tool' in this forum somewhere.
Then you got to go through the EFS threads for i9300 and hope to be able to fix this.

I've already gone through all the EFS threads I could find. Haven't seen anyone with the same problem (sometimes it works, briefly, then it stops). Everyone else with the baseband unknown, IMEI null/null problem seems to have that all the time. Was hoping someone would be able to tell me what's different with mine.

Benko111 · Apr 30, 2014

pnz said:
I've already gone through all the EFS threads I could find. Haven't seen anyone with the same problem (sometimes it works, briefly, then it stops). Everyone else with the baseband unknown, IMEI null/null problem seems to have that all the time. Was hoping someone would be able to tell me what's different with mine.

How should anybody know from the distance? We can just give hints and point you into directions, now you've got to read & google and if you're
persistent enough you will solve your problem - as long as it's not hardware related.
Another great but a bit chaotic resource:

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/

pnz · Apr 30, 2014

Benko111 said:
How should anybody know from the distance? We can just give hints and point you into directions, now you've got to read & google and if you're
persistent enough you will solve your problem - as long as it's not hardware related.
Another great but a bit chaotic resource:

http://forum.gsmhosting.com/vbb/

Sorry, just meant that I thought somebody might have seen this exact problem before.

pnz · May 1, 2014

I think I've solved this. Used the repair NV data option (to fix broken baseband) in EFS Professional, and it seems to be working fine. Will see if it's still working after a few days though.

My best guess is that this was a file permissions error.

pnz · May 10, 2014

pnz said:
I think I've solved this. Used the repair NV data option (to fix broken baseband) in EFS Professional, and it seems to be working fine. Will see if it's still working after a few days though.

My best guess is that this was a file permissions error.

No, not fixed. Worked fine for a few days then the problem came back. Just tried a non-stock ROM (Omega) and same thing. Trying a CM-based ROM now (ParanoidAndroid), but not too hopeful.

Still don't understand why it works for hours/days, then suddenly stops. Rebooting it fixes it the first few times, then that stops working as well (and I get baseband unknown at this point). Flashing a new ROM always fixes it, for a few hours/days anyway.

boomboomer · May 10, 2014

Sounds like a hardware issue, possibly nand memory becoming corrupt hence why it works for a while on a fresh install.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

pnz · May 10, 2014

boomboomer said:
Sounds like a hardware issue, possibly nand memory becoming corrupt hence why it works for a while on a fresh install.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

Any workarounds you can suggest? Just had the problem happen again on cyanogenmod, so that didn't fix it.

boomboomer · May 10, 2014

Try reading the freezing thread in general forum, see if the memory test tool will compete after a full wipe and fresh install of a stock firmware.

Other than that only a new motherboard, as the emmc chip is damaged.

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