[Q] Defy+ with a gophone sim

[Marvelicious75]

Please pardon my noobishness, I've been reading til my eyes crossed, but I can't seem to find a straight answer.

I just purchased an unlocked (UK) Defy+ because I need a durable phone and they don't seem to offer many options here in the US. I don't use many minutes and I just wanted text and phone coverage without a data plan: I have wifi coverage much of the time and can live without internet when I don't have it. Therefore, I snagged a cheap gophone ($20 got me a sim, a backup phone, and an extra charger) planning to run the sim in the Defy.

The problem is that while the gophone works fine, when I put the sim in the defy it tells me I have an invalid sim. The phone is supposed to be unlocked and it doesn't ask me for an unlock pin.

One possibility that I haven't tried yet - I have bypassed the motoblur setup so far, since my reading has had nothing good to say about it, and I don't use facebook, twitter or really any major social media (and if I did, I wouldn't want motorolla messing with it anyway). Could this be my problem? I didn't plan to root the phone (at least not yet...) since I didn't think I needed this level of access. I wanted to simply skip the motoblur service in the first place. I did run across some references on google of other motorolla phones having these symptoms because of not setting up motoblur. Should I just bite the bullet and set it up, or maybe root the phone and get rid of it? How intrusive is the motorblur service?

 

[labsin]

I don't think it matters. Try a friends phone with that sim?

Verstuurd van mijn MB525 met Tapatalk

 

[Marvelicious75]

The sim works fine in the cheap gophone I got when I set it up. I can't imagine it being any different anywhere else. I tried plugging in an ancient cingular sim I still had floating about for some reason which gave me a different message - no service instead of invalid sim card.

 

[Marvelicious75]

Further reading, could this be a baseband version issue? They never intended the defy+ for the US market. I knew from the start that web access would not function except by wifi, but I was given to understand that I could make phonecalls. Not much of a phone without that...

 

[Marvelicious75]

I think maybe I'm on the right track with the baseband issue. I need to be running at 850/1900mhz which the phone will do according to the box... UK is 900/2100, correct? Is it possible that baseband ver. epu93_U_00.60.00 doesn't support my frequencies?

Thanks to everyone responsible for all the info on this forum. I'm overwhelmed at this point, but hopefully it will become more clear with time. I need to walk away from this for the night. Hopefully, tomorrow some of this stuff will have sorted itself out in my head. If anyone has any input, please weigh in!

 

[labsin]

If you want to see if baseband change helps.
Root the phone, install baseband changer (or something) and try out the Argentinian. They also use the 850/1900 frequentie band. T-mobile uses 850/1700/2100.

But normally I thought that was only needed to get 3g working.

 

[Marvelicious75]

Further updates and no luck.

I made the mistake of letting the phone update via wifi, thinking that might help, so now at 2.3.6 I can't seem to unlock it - tried superoneclick and doomlord, no luck so far. I'm very close to seeing if I can't get my money's worth of frustrations out of this phone with a 12lb sledgehammer. Wouldn't be the most expensive thing I've ever destroyed!

Its funny, this same kind of crap with the SLVR I bought years ago was why my last motorola product was going to be the last thing I ever purchased from them. Fool that I am, I thought I'd give them another chance.

 

[labsin]

For rooting the phone on 2.3.6 check the 'bl7 finally rooted' threat.

 

[Vicsa]

Have you tried factory reset? Read somewhere that that helps

 

[Marvelicious75]

Yes, I had tried the factory reset. The "BL7 finally rooted" thread did root the phone. I haven't done the baseband switch yet, but I'm hopeful.

 

[Vicsa]

Baseband switcher thread

 

[Marvelicious75]

Well, I should've listened to labsin in the first place - go figure.

My phone is now unlocked, rooted and baseband switched - it now recognizes US 3G, but the sim is still invalid. On the upside, I think I know what the problem is now. Turns out AT&T sometimes locks their sims for 180 days to the phone you activate it with. I guess I need to go to the store and try to get a different sim out of them.

 

[bobbi1972jo]

If its at&t go phone u need to call at&t and have ur sim unlocked . Its locked to the phone u activate it in for so many months. Just tell them that ur go phone wont work and u cant return it . Hope this works for u . I had to do this couple times .

Sent from my MB525 using XDA

 

[bobbi1972jo]

Didnt read all of ur last post before i posted . Sorry . But just give them a call . U shouldnt need a new one ..

Sent from my MB525 using XDA

 

[Marvelicious75]

Probably ought to call them from a landline, huh?

I tried going into the store yesterday. The girl there told me it was locked for 30 days, which is different than the six months I had heard elsewhere. I wonder if she was just trying to keep the great big scary guy (aka me) from losing his temper. I get it, I guess. They don't want people with smartphones using their $50 prepay unlimited, then tethering their laptop off it... What kind of person would do such a thing. On the other hand, don't call it unlimited if it isn't!

 

[Marvelicious75]

Ahhhh, victory. Thanks for all the help. By the look of things, switching basebands was necessary in the end, so I'm glad I went through all the trouble. I can't believe some of you guys do this as a hobby, I'd rather slam my privates in a car door than go through this again!