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> I boiled my P900!
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Yes, you read it right, i boiled my lovely P900
This was 6 months ago now, it fell in an 80*C boiler at work, and was in there a good few minutes before i actually realised it was in there! I quickly pulled the basket out of the boiler and retrieved the phone, burning my hand in the process, but i didn't care! It was dripping wet, water was pouring out of it, i never felt my heart sink so fast before. The phone was still on, but the screen was just full of garbage, and the keys were lit up, so i naturally pulled out the battery to prevent any further damage and took all possible things out of it (MS, Sim, etc) and left it on the side to dry.
This certainly ruined my day, and i thought i'd lost all my contacts, messages, pictures, etc. After a few hours under a hot grill, i tried putting the phone back together and turning it on, and suprisingly the keypad lit up, screen backlight came on, and the green LED came on, but that was all. Later that night i tried it again, and i saw that well known Orange startup screen, and i felt a sense of relief, but the phone didn't seem to go much further than this, so i left it again. The next day i tried it, and to my suprise the phone switched on, booted up, and was acting as if nothing had happened! The only thing i noticed was that the green LED was permanently on (as soon as the phone powered on), but that was the only thing that was wrong with it. Everything still worked fine (shockingly). I soon found out though that the phone refused to connect to the PC when it was in the syncstation, and it just said 'connecting' every time i plugged it in, but never actually connected.
Anyway, 6 months down the line to the present day, it has been working ok, but the green LED problem never went away. Due to taking the phone apart so many times i managed to snap the ribbon cable to the jog wheel, rendering it pretty much unusable in Flip-Closed mode, which i lived with for 5 months. Recently, after taking it apart one too many times, i managed to tear the ribbon cable leading to the screen, which has stopped the touchscreen and the backlight from working. I didn't think my luck could possibly get any worse.
Luckily for me, my friend had his eye on the Orange SPV C500, which another friend of mine sold to him for £100, and he sold his **brand new** P900 to me for just £100 (i thought i was dreaming, but i have it here with me!)
Now i have a brand new P900 which i am going to take VERY good care of, and it's going NOWHERE near any water!
This isn't the end of the story though. I'm attempting to repair my old P900 for my friend, a new screen has already been purchased for it, and a new jogwheel will be on the way shortly. I've been messing with it recently and sometimes when i turn the P900 on, the green LED doesn't come on, and it blinks normally as a P900 should. When i noticed this, i put it in the Syncstation, and the phone actually connected to the PC, which i was shocked to see. This is not a consistant thing though, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
This is where things start to get technical, and i need advice. I've come to the conclusion that the temperature of the boiling water has corrupted some of the data on the internal ROM of the device, thus when the P900 boots, its attempting to read config data on the ROM, and sometimes cannot read it, which would explain why the green LED is on permanently, and why it doesn't connect to the PC (incorrect parameters?). I noticed from searching the forums that when i go to Control Panel > Connections > Cable, and choose 'Modem', press OK, then go back into the options and choose 'PC Connect' again, it DOES connect to the PC successfuly, which supports my theory about incorrect parameters during the bootup process.
I tried doing a software update from the SE Website, but this did not solve the problem. I'm wondering if you guys could give me some advice here. My phone is out of warranty so i can't have it fixed, but i believe if i can find a way to get this phone flashed (ROM), then it might fix the problem of the possibly corrupted data, and i may be able to restore full functionality to the phone.
I've been reading lots of posts about 'Tornado' flashing utilties, but these are extremely expensive. There's plenty of websites selling data cables for the P900, some of which quote that you can perform 'EEPROM' flashes with them. Would this be what i need to do? I've been searching around on the internet for P900 flashing utilities, but i haven't been able to find anything.
My question is, if i bought the data cable for the P900, do you know of any software i can download in order to flash the phone? I'm not bothered about doing any hacks or such, i just want to reflash the entire phone. Also, if there is a flash software available, could you point me in the direction of some P900 flash images?
This would be seriously helpful, and i would greatly appreciate it if you could help me to resurrect this wonderful phone, and save it from the bin.
Sorry this is such a long post, but i like to be in-depth. Any questions, feel free to e-mail me
Thanks in advance,
-djkizlive
[ This Message was edited by: djkizlive on 2005-01-02 13:01 ]
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Posted: 2005-01-02 03:29:20
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You could try taking the phone to a SE Service Centre and get them to flash it.
I am very impressed by the way your phone survived that introduction to water; in fact I am amazed! I think you should keep it as a good luck charm.
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Posted: 2005-01-02 08:46:50
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Yes. Take it to the service centre and say the amount. Ask them to make it a brand new phone. I am pretty amazed by your story.
This message was posted from a K500
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Posted: 2005-01-02 09:04:39
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Hi, thanks for the replies.
If i took the phone to the service center, would they flash it for me even though it is out of warranty? Would there be a cost for this service?
It would be a lot easier if they could do it for me, but surely they only do the software flash and not a complete ROM flash? Correct me if i'm wrong. I just want to make sure the entire contents of the phone (C:, Z:) are reflashed to make sure there is no possibility of corrupt data.
I'm glad my story amazed you, i'm shocked myself. The P900 is certainly a robust machine. I thought it was a gonner, but i was wrong.
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to reply. Much appreciated.
-djkizlive
[ This Message was edited by: djkizlive on 2005-01-02 13:00 ]
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Posted: 2005-01-02 12:41:50
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Hi all,
Anybody know if there's any SE Service Centre's in the East Midlands? (Leicestershire)
I read that there are Carphone Warehouse stores around Nottingham which service SE phones - is this where i need to go?
Thanks.
-djkizlive
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Posted: 2005-01-02 16:27:37
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hi, im in nottingham, there is a car phonewharehouse store close to me that flashes em for a tenner i believe. its on 'alfreton road' in hyson green area.
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Posted: 2005-01-02 18:59:59
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Can anybody confirm that a firmware reflash would rewrite all data in the phone's ROM? (Z:)
I'm hoping this could fix problems i'm having with a potentially corrupt ROM drive.
Any suggestions?
Many thanks.
-djkizlive
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Posted: 2005-01-02 22:29:01
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DONT CHUCK IT IN THE BIN if u ever decide to send it to me instead
This message was posted from a WAP device
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Posted: 2005-01-02 23:58:32
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Quote:
On 2005-01-02 23:58:32, [T2K]Nitro wrote:
DONT CHUCK IT IN THE BIN if u ever decide to send it to me instead
This message was posted from a WAP device
Hehe - the part about throwing it in the bin was a joke. I'm not that stupid! If i can't resurrect this phone it will probably be broken down into it's parts and sold off as spares. Thanks for caring though!
-djkizlive
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Posted: 2005-01-03 00:04:49
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the idea of hot water corrupting some files (or sections) in your P900's ROM memory is kind of weird. i mean, if a phone stops working when you drop it into the water, thats because the circuits get full of oxid. I dont think it has anything to do with the memory getting corrupted.
You're lucky that your phone tries to work, but i dont think that the fact that it works weird has something to do with files missing after boiling it
its more likely to be a derivation at some section of the mother board that only happens sometimes (and maybe not with the same resistance).
i dont know, but i felt like telling my oppinion before (maybe) you waste your money to get it reflashed
i hope my post was of some help. really
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Posted: 2005-01-03 02:59:16
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