[TUTORIAL] Android unable to Make Call and SMS caused by Invlaid IMEI/ NVRAM Error

[TUTORIAL] Android Unable To Make Call caused by Invalid IMEI/ Wi-fi NVRAM Error 0x10

If you see the following error at your Android Smartphone "NVRAM Error 0x10" or Unable to make a call or receive/send SMS, congratulation you have successfully turning your Android phone into Ipod or "Androidpod". Don't worry you have came to right place.

Depending on how serious is the problem, you may need to apply different step of action.

Symptom :  
In my real case, the phone can connect wi-fi and function as per normal, application (whatsapp, internet, etc) are working as per normal, except the phone can not make call and can't send/receive SMS. 

This tutorial is made base on my own experience of S860, 1GB version. The original phone came with China ROM, it was then flashed with International (ROW) version of Kitkat 4.4.2

Do it at your own risk.

Prerequisite:

1. Install USB VCOM Driver   tutorial here
2. Phone must be rooted
3. MTK Droid Tools_253     here
4. * IMEI1 and IMEI2 (in case of Dual SIM) and / or 
5. NVRAM backup file, 
• if you don't have it, pls ask someone using same models of phone to backup his/her and send you a copy of that NVRAM backup file.

NOTE on *IMEI:
You should enter the IMEI obtained from the box of your phone or information under the battery cover. In some cases, a dual SIM phone will have the same IMEI for both SIM slots. In the case that your carrier doesn’t allow this, or if you have other reason you need to change the stock IMEI, you may need to generate/calculate/find a new IMEI with the correct checksum / check digit on your MTK6589 MTK6589T MTK6592 MTK6595 MTK6572 MTK6582 MTK6577 MTK6516 phones

Instruction

Step 1: 
How To Fix/Repair/Generate the Phone Error with Invalid IMEI 

Skip this if you know your original IMEI1 and IMEI2 number, 

In case you do not know what is your original IMEI number, you can generate the IMEI number with several method.

Step 2:
Option 1:
Try the easiest way (no PC required),  (not yet tested by me ):
> Download Mobileuncle MTK Tools
> Engineer mode keypad, *#*#3646633#*#*)
> Connectivity tab
> CDS information
> Radio Information
> Phone 1: at+ egmr = 1,7, "IMEI1"
> Phone 2: at+ egmr = 1,10, "IMEI2"
> DONE

Option 2:
In Case you know your original IMEI1 and IMEI2 number 
(normally it can be found at phone box label or behind battery cover)

1. Rooted Phone, if not pls google how to root your phone
2. Install USB VCOM Driver on your PC to ensure that your PC can detect the phone, skip this if your PC already has it.
3. Extract the downloaded file and run MTKdroidTools.exe  as Administrator.
4. Switch On the phone and make sure USB Debugging is ON (enable),
1. Go to "Setting" >> "About Phone" >>  "Version Information" >> "Build Number" (press 7 times) to enter Developer Mode Activated 
2. Go to "Setting" >> "Developer Options" >> tick (enable)
5. Connect the phone to PC via USB cable data.
6. MTK Droid Tools should detect the phone, 
1. then click "Root" button
2. Look at the phone, the SuperSU or Superuser should prompt you for Root Access permission, click OK or Allow, yellow box at bottom left the colour change from yellow to Green.
3. Click IMEI/NVRAM
• 
4. Look for IMEI 1 and IMEI2 and input the value which you obtain from back of your phone battery cover, or the original boxes of the phone.

• 
  
5. Reboot
7. You can restart the phone
8. DONE

If the above method does not work, you may also try the following (some netter reporting this method also works, but I did not get the chance to try it myself)

Option 3:  (not yet tested by me )
Downgrade and the use MTK Droid Tools

1. If your phone is already upgraded to Kitkat 4.4.x, then you may try to downgrade to JB 4.2.x
2. Root the phone using Framaroot
3. Install Root Explorer, then delete the whole Folder of /nvram
4. Change IMEI using MTK Droid Tools (follow step 2 option 2,above)
5. DONE !

Option 4:  (not yet tested by me )

Some user feedback that changing IMEI using MTK droid tools many times,but does not works. also tried Maui meta, and error appear "Execution Warning: NVRAM database file is incosistent with target load"

This's ONLY Warning but no error ! MTK IMEI lid is almost standart and this fact use any tools that fix IMEI in META mode. Try further with this 

1. BPLGUI ====>"IMEI download" ===> "Upload from flash" if read IMEI OK(see Notification Area on the botttom :"Read NVRAM successfully") 
2. fix it and press "Save to flash" Good luck!

[TUTORIAL] SP Flash Tools Guide - Installing VCOM Drivers in Windows 7/ 8 / 8.1

Installing VCOM Drivers in Windows 7/ 8 / 8.1

So, you wanted to flash a ROM using SP Flash Tool or anything else and your PC/Laptop doesn't detect your device in Windows 8.1 ?? The following guide was made base on my own real experience, I hope this can help readers the solution for similar problem! Just read the blog and the tools will be able to detect your device..!

Pre-Requisites :

1. VCOM Drivers
2. In case of Windows 7 or Win 8/8.1, you may need to "Disabled Driver Signature Verification". Just goggle for the guide or I will provide simple guide in this blog (next post..)
3. Cup of Coffee Luwak 

The How To :

1. First You'll need VCOM Drivers.
2. Open Device Manager
3. Select the Disk Drives and click Action and click Add Legacy Hardware.
4. A Wizard may open up. Click Next and select "Install the hardware that i manually select from a list (Advanced)". Click Next. Click next one more time ( making sure that "Show all devices" is selected )
5. Click Have Disk at the next window and click browse and browse to the extracted folder of VCOM Drivers. Then open the Win7 Folder (for windows 7 & 8.1 ). Then if you're PC is 32 bit select the file named "usb2ser_Win7.inf". And if your PC is 64 bit select the file named "usb2ser_Win764.inf"
6. Click Next and select "MediaTek PreLoader USB VCOM Port" and click next.
7. Click Next again to begin the installation!
8. And if you have disabled Driver Signature Verification, you now have successfully installed the drivers! You come across a windows like the below one if the installation succeeded!
9. Don't worry about the message from "may not work correctly" .. Just ignore it!

The screenshot after successful installation:

Do not worry about the yellow triangle "exclamation" mark displayed at your PC Device Manager. It will just work flawlessly. The port will still be there even though your phone is disconnected from your PC.

Happy Flashing...

How to read your SPC/MSL code for carrier locked phone

This is often the first step we need to do when we have a smartphone locked to specific carrier (Telecommunications Service Provider), especially in CDMA phones, it is often that carrier will lock the phone to their specific programming code. This is normally because the carrier subsidy the phone and sell it at very cheap price (sometime "free" phone) with 12-24 months contract.

The Service Programming Code (SPC) or Master Subsidy Lock (MSL) are usually consist of a 6 digit code (GSM) or 16 digit code (Blackberry).

There's few way to know what is the SPC/MSL code:

1. Ask the Service Provider (Carrier)
• Some customer usually will ask this by the reason of travelling to a country where the current provider do not have Roaming agreement with.
• The Carrier usually will ask for IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity), which can be located at back of the phone, visible after remove the battery or we may press *#06# from phone keypad. 
2. Spend USD10 and get 3rd party to unlock your phone (ebay.com, etc..)
3. To find the code by yourself.

In this 3rd option, we will use one of most famous method use in xda-developer, by using RadioComn. The original thread can be found at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1365058

1. Download the specific USB Driver according to the Windows PC you are using.
2. Download RadioComm  ( I am using RadioComm_11.12.2)
3. Start the phone is cold boot (for my Photon 4G, I have to off the phone then press "vol.down+power" few seconds to force  into fastboot, press "vol.down" few time until I reach "BP Tools" then press "power up" to select this mode).
4. Connect your Phone with USB cable.
5. Start the RadioComm, in start page I will select MSM6800 (since I am using Motorola Photon 4G for experiment) RadioComm will bring you to main page, you may verify that your selection was right "Main >> MA >> CDMA1X >> Wimax (MSM6800)".
6. Make sure the USB connection is "PST USB USB:MB855" or something like that.
7. Select tab "P2K1"
8. At left side navigate to STELEM/RDELEM section and input the following into each parameter:
• Eloement ID : 2786
• Record # : 0001
• Offset : 0000
• Length : 000E
9. Observer that indicator at top right shall turn into "Green" colour then Press "RDELEM" button.
10. You shall see at "Data (Hex Only" the result will be the SPC/MSL code encoded in Hex format, you may need to convert it to Decimal format (Dec) at this website :  
• http://www.string-functions.com/hex-string.aspx
• http://home2.paulschou.net/tools/xlate/  
• copy and paste the code at {Hex] section and click "decode" and see the result at [Text] area. 
• Just note the 6 or 8 or 16 digit of human readable character (my Photon 4G gave me 6 digit of number of human readable character).

Good luck.

Rooting Motorola Photon 4G (Sprint locked)

Motorola Photon 4G: How to Root Your Phone
(all the credit goes to xda developers and  Eric Finkenbiner)

The Android development community has been hard at work creating various ways for users to gain root access on their Motorola Photon 4G. If you need a pain free way to root your Photon 4G, follow these steps and you’ll have root access in no time.

First turn on USB Debugging.

1. Go to Settings >> Applications >> Development and  tick "Usb Debugging".
2. Now download the files needed to root the phone. XDA-Developer user edgan created a tar file with all the necessary files. Download photon-torpedo.tar to your computer then copy it to the sdcard on your phone — in this example, I used the download folder on my sdcard. (/sdcard/download/...)  USB connection must be in "USB Mass Storage" 
3. Once the file is copied, go to USB Connection in your notifications area and change it to "Charge Only". 
4. Unplug the USB cable.. 
5. On the Photon 4G, go to Market (Google Play) and install Android Terminal Emulator , and also install "Superuser" 
6. Open the Android Terminal Emulator and copy the photon-torpedo.tar to /data/tmp. 
• $ cp /sdcard/photon-topedo.tar /data/tmp 
• $ cd /data/tmp 
• $ chmod 777 photon-torpedo.tar 
• $ /bin/tar xf photon-torpedo.tar 
• $ ./photon-torpedo.sh  (it will produce some error, but just ignore that..) (you'll notice "root@localhost" listed at last line of the terminal..)
• root@localhost# ./install-su.sh 
• exit 
• exit 
7. Restart the Photon 
8. Verify the Root Installation by two method 
9. Go to terminal and type 
• $ su               or... 
• Install "root checker" from Market..

Enjoy your rooted Motorola Photon 4G.

Papago X5 for Android - Error: Unsupported Resolution

After successfully deploying the new upgraded ICS 4.0.3 base on Rooted Stock ICS ROM (AT&T) for few days I decided to go further to install one of most famous Navigation Software for Asian region.

I downloaded PAPAGO X5
and follow all the instruction given to do installation.

1. INSTALLATION

• Extract the downloaded file into temporary folder in PC  (select Android type during installation) 
• After extraction of the file, Copy the NaviSEA to SD Card and place at root folder (\.....) 
• Run the apk file 
• Copy the libpapago.so into NaviSEA folder in SD Card

2. Solving the Resolution Error

• Download "Spare Parts" (the blue color one and not the brown one) from Market or Google Play
• Launch “Spare Parts” and scroll down to “Compability Mode”. Un-tick the box and tick it back.
• Reboot the phone.
• Launch “Spare Parts” again, scroll down to “Compatibility Mode” and un-tick the box.
• Reboot the phone again.
• To match your screen resolution copy the nearest screen resolution (choose smaller than your screen size) of the installation and paste it back to the same folder. Rename the copied folder to match your screen resolution (match the resolution according to error code), my setup I end up to have error "Unsupported Resolution 480 x 853". The nearest resolution I am having as result of my original installation was 480x854, so I rename all related folder name in few related folders:
• X:\NaviSEA\Organic
• X:\NaviSEA\Organic\CHT
• X:\NaviSEA\Organic\EN
• X:\NaviSEA\Organic\IND
• X:\NaviSEA\Organic\MAL
• Start PAPAGO X5,

Cheers.......