Hello everybody.
From what I have seen the last few days, in this forum and in HTC Spain, there are a lot of us who have the same problem. I've an HTC Touch (P3450, or Elf) that started with strange and spontaneous resets (I think you call it "Data crash") after being flashed. Also, the IMEI detected by the system changed to the number everyone's getting:
IMEI 00440000350111201.
This IMEI appears when *#06# is entered; it also appears in Start > Settings > System >Device Information > Identity.
I think this is the IMEI I'm sending to the service network. Of course, that IMEI is blacklisted, so I don't have signal nor service at all. Anyhow, "deviceinfo" (by dsixda) does read the correct IMEI. Therefore, I assume that the device DOES have the correct IMEI in the eprom (or wherever it is stored), but the OS, or the bootloaders or whatever, isn't reading it well (the weird thing is that everybody ends up with the same IMEI because of that error).
Well, we know that the "changing IMEI" subject is illegal and nobody wants to discuss that in public forums, but I ask you to leave the thread open in case anyone knows or reaches eventually to a solution.
Cheers from Argentina-
Juan Pablo.
IMEIs numbers are expensive for phone manufacturers...
So, when mading a copied phone, some chineese manufacturers are using the same IMEI for a lot of devices...
Do your device is a real HTC, or it is a fancy chinese name like THC, HiTC, etc... ?
If it's a legal one, just bring it back to the carrier or the seller, and you'll have without a doubt a new one...
If it's an... HiTC... Then... You payed for what you've got... **** ! Sorry...
And if the problem is caused by the flashing, it's certainly because the provider of the ROM have left its own IMEI in the ROM...
This thread explain the problem http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=456082
Well , i've been banned for this post ...
I want to make myself clear .. that's NOT my IMEI , not even a legal one i guess ... maybe the moderator misundestood my problem and didn't take the tome to read what I was explaining.
Then again ... THAT IMEI NUMBER APPEARS IN ALL THE PHONES WITH THE SAME PROBLEM. THE EXACT SAME NUMBER.
Ok , I hope it's clear now.
Thank you both for your replies. I keep looking for an explanation and solution for my problem , I'm even in contact with HTC about this.
Thanks again.
this is a legal thread as many of the samsung, Asus and htc WM phone's imei number changing exact that imei on the header just after a unperfect rom upgrade.
Wishing to change someone's imei number as it's original condition is called REPAIRING IMEI, NOT Changing its to another one.
Related
Hi all
I was wondering if anyone knew the answer to the above question.
to explain a bit better:
If i change the IMEI on my XDA it will obviously show up on the phone. What i want to know is will the network see the new of old IMEI. Ie whis is sent out by the phone.
Also:
From that i have found out the new service which blocks off stolen phones work that runs in the UK work by the IMEI code of the phone.
How do i make sure i don't change my IMEI to a number that is registered as stolen and in turn block my phone off.
Also again:
If at a later stage my phone does get blocked will changing it back to the original IMEI unblock it?
After all this i'm wondering if i should bother changing the IMEI. Although it would be nice to have my DOB there.
Oops I think I posted this in the rwong place!!
To Adminstrators:
Sorry
If it is in the wrong place could you move it?
The IMEI is stored in two places: one is displayed, the other is used to send to the network. The Manipulator changes both locations. The chance you'll change your IMEI to one of a stolen phone is small, very small. (It's six digits if you exclude the manufacturer part, so the chance is definitely bigger than getting hit by a meteorite, but still)
We included the IMEI change bit because:
a) We could
b) Privacy concerns: we'd like to live in a world where people can have multiple identities that are hard to connect, even if their opponents happen to run the country / telco.
WOW!!
Thanks for the great answer. As soon as it is possible to change my imei and unblock my phone i'll be doing it. (I have version 4.20 so it don't work yet).
Does anyone know of a web site where it list all the imei that are recognised as stolen or a number i can call in the UK to find out. The local police are useless and don't know anything.
A number to report a stolen phone would be useful as well cos my little sis got her knicked.
I have 2 of these phones. One of them was used in France and on one of my visits there the phone (GSM) stopped working. My account with O2 is in order and Roaming was enabled. It never worked again after that. I tried upgrading from WM5 to WM6, I unlocked it with HTC Uni Unlocker v 1, and read all the forums I could find. I have been trying to solve the problem for the last 2 months.
Along the way, I found out that the IMEI number has changed. I don't know at which point this has happened however the reported EMEI number with lot's of 0000000 in the middle doesn't change any more after ROM upgrades or Unlocking.
My conclusion is that this EMEI number is barred on the networks with various symptoms ie. TMobile and Vodafone let you connect but you cannot phone or receive phone calls. Orange and o2 shows NO SERVICE straight away.
It seems to be impossible to change the EMEI number, besides I have been warned that it is illegal, despite the fact that I have a perfectly legal phone with a perfectly legal EMEI number. I cannot have this phone serviced by o2 any more as I have changed to Orange
Howevefr I have a second phone which works perfectly with the Orange SIM (on contract) and with it's original EMEI number. I have upgraded this phone to WM6 with the following ROM : SPVM5000_WWE_21208_212010_11500 (excellent work btw) and with radio v 1.18
Any solutions ?
This is what I have been thinking (might be impractical though). If I could copy the EEPROM data (that's where I THINK the EMEI number is stored) from my working phone and write it to the non working phone it might work but the EMEI number might be the same as on my working phone. If that then could be edited with my legal EMEI number of my non working phone that would even be better.
I have a French SFR (Vodafone in France) contract and I would love to use this second Universal when I am on the continent (weekly).
It all depends on the possibility to read and write the information from and to the storage media that holds the EMEI number on the device. First I need to know where it is stored and a solution to do just that. I tried Iwizard with WM5 on this phone and that doesn't work (returns an EMEI number that has nothing to do with what I have and the structure of an EMEI number - something like C4BC6400C4BC640 and doesn't let you update to another number).
If anyone out there needs more info, I am available to answer any questions. I have read on forums that other people seem to have the same problem, I even read that someone had the same problem after Roaming in France as well. Any solution would not only help me but others as well. It would also be interesting to know exactly what has happened. Thanks to anyone to is willing to contribute to solve this problem.
komfurt said:
I have 2 of these phones. One of them was used in France and on one of my visits there the phone (GSM) stopped working. My account with O2 is in order and Roaming was enabled. It never worked again after that. I tried upgrading from WM5 to WM6, I unlocked it with HTC Uni Unlocker v 1, and read all the forums I could find. I have been trying to solve the problem for the last 2 months.
Along the way, I found out that the IMEI number has changed. I don't know at which point this has happened however the reported EMEI number with lot's of 0000000 in the middle doesn't change any more after ROM upgrades or Unlocking.
My conclusion is that this EMEI number is barred on the networks with various symptoms ie. TMobile and Vodafone let you connect but you cannot phone or receive phone calls. Orange and o2 shows NO SERVICE straight away.
It seems to be impossible to change the EMEI number, besides I have been warned that it is illegal, despite the fact that I have a perfectly legal phone with a perfectly legal EMEI number. I cannot have this phone serviced by o2 any more as I have changed to Orange
Howevefr I have a second phone which works perfectly with the Orange SIM (on contract) and with it's original EMEI number. I have upgraded this phone to WM6 with the following ROM : SPVM5000_WWE_21208_212010_11500 (excellent work btw) and with radio v 1.18
Any solutions ?
This is what I have been thinking (might be impractical though). If I could copy the EEPROM data (that's where I THINK the EMEI number is stored) from my working phone and write it to the non working phone it might work but the EMEI number might be the same as on my working phone. If that then could be edited with my legal EMEI number of my non working phone that would even be better.
I have a French SFR (Vodafone in France) contract and I would love to use this second Universal when I am on the continent (weekly).
It all depends on the possibility to read and write the information from and to the storage media that holds the EMEI number on the device. First I need to know where it is stored and a solution to do just that. I tried Iwizard with WM5 on this phone and that doesn't work (returns an EMEI number that has nothing to do with what I have and the structure of an EMEI number - something like C4BC6400C4BC640 and doesn't let you update to another number).
If anyone out there needs more info, I am available to answer any questions. I have read on forums that other people seem to have the same problem, I even read that someone had the same problem after Roaming in France as well. Any solution would not only help me but others as well. It would also be interesting to know exactly what has happened. Thanks to anyone to is willing to contribute to solve this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i read an article not long ago i forget where just popped up during a random goole search but someone created a beta IMEI changer for one of the earlier HTC phones ( i almost wanna say it was for a wizard or blue angel ) anyway if your imei got corrupted, I can't see why if the tool will work, changing it back to the IMEI on the BOX OF YOUR LEGAL PURCHASED PHONE and that match's the sticker on the inside of your device as you are only restoring what was already assigned to it. other option. chargable repair via htc or a 3rd party
Do any one know how a windows mobile sends the IMEI to the network?
Which function in the api ?
i'm sure it is in the low level api , kernel or may be the coredll.dll but i cannot find any clue on it , and i don't have any idea on where to start to trace that.
Any help or clue would be grateful
Is it really sent??
I'm by no means an expert on this subject -- but is it really sent over the network? In my case the US ATT network? I'm not so sure it is...
...if so, why do they have to always ask me for it?
...if so, why aren't they automatically charging me an extra $30/mo. for a PDA data plan which they insist is REQUIRED for PDAs to connect-even though we all KNOW that's a lie and an ATT rip-off scheme?
...if so, why am I able to call them and give them ANY NON ATT IMEI over the phone and they not dispute it?
...jus a few questions to answer your question.
I'm not an expert either, but I can tell you that they see it. I like to think of the IMEI number as your "ip address" or your phone's "username" for the network. It has to be sent for access purposes and it would be stupid not to log that type of server access. Else how else would you be restricted from using other Cellular towers.
Wrong.
Read up on IMSI's and TMSI's
In the Netherlands the police used an IMEI number to send text messages to a stolen cellphone, even thought they had changed the simcard the phone would show: " This phone is stolen please bring it to the police" every 5 minutes...
Though I'm not an expert on this topic, I thought that the Radio Firmware handled all communications with the Cellular network, including IMEI. One reason I am inclined to go with the Radio Firmware is this simple reason: If it was handled by WM, somebody could probably figure out how to spoof it through WM at one point or another, in the same way that MAC addresses can be spoofed.
And as I said, I'm no expert on this, so please, somebody correct me if I'm blatantly incorrect.
Oh, and w00t! 400th post!
IMEI is for sure transmitted to the network, since this is registered on the BTS every time your signal "auth" on it , and the server logs it and checks if your phone is on the "blacklist" and then reject connection if it is the case.
Check here
But i wonder, technically, where from it is sent, maybe from the Radio firmware like previously posted ?
I guess, since we have some tools to read & change the IMEI on others HTC, it could be done on every models (if i understood right, the IMEI part is somewhere on "read only" and we first need to unlock the CID to unlock this part of memory and then modify / alter it.)
The tools is found here :
IMEI Updater
But works only for iWizard and some other models.
But couldnt we hook the function that retrieves the imei and alter it on the fly? (from the software point of view?) or should i digg in the flash memory?
Or is it hardcoded on the SPL or the IPL? When and what function is used to send it on the network ?
Also for al the legal issues, i might add that an opensource OpenBTS Project is running , and it is in a research-oriented initiative.
So no post saying that i want to change stolen Imei etc.. this is not the case.
I'm a developer for one year now, and i'm interested in mobile security and research.
ix0u said:
IMEI is for sure transmitted to the network, since this is registered on the BTS every time your signal "auth" on it , and the server logs it and checks if your phone is on the "blacklist" and then reject connection if it is the case.
Check here
But i wonder, technically, where from it is sent, maybe from the Radio firmware like previously posted ?
I guess, since we have some tools to read & change the IMEI on others HTC, it could be done on every models (if i understood right, the IMEI part is somewhere on "read only" and we first need to unlock the CID to unlock this part of memory and then modify / alter it.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you'd have to Security Unlock as well. And I'm certain that it's stored somewhere in protected flash memory, at least on the Qualcomm based devices, because there have been isolated reports of IMEI changes after using Olipro's Kaiser SIM/CID unlocker/changer.
It works by flashing a modified radio firmware which security unlocks the device (until a different radio is flashed), then a program is run in Windows Mobile which somehow changes SIM lock and CID information. If you're curious, those cases concerning IMEI changes as a result of this tool are here and here. And if you really want to know about this issue, a visit to the XDA IRC channel, or a polite PM to cmonex, Jockeyw2001, Olipro, or Pof could probably clear this up, as those are the people who really know these devices. Good luck
Thank you very much DaveTheTytnIIGuy, at least i have a lead now, on where to go and who to ask.
The sticker and box say one thing, but the IMEI on the handset is different.
All I have ever done to the phone was soft/hard (I forget which) SPL so that I could flash WinMo 6.5 following the instructions on the wiki, and everything has been fine since I did this back in May/June time.
Now I have decided to unlock it as I am on O2 with an iPhone, and thought I would use my HD as a backup phone, so I bought a credit on HTCCode.com after seeing several success stories, and it failed on the login with the software. No big concerns just yet, I emailed him the details to sort it, however as I was typing out the IMEI from the box, I thought to double check on the handset, and discovered they are different.
Is this something likely to have been changed by the SPL thing when I flashed it?
I assume I can get it unlocked via the IMEI which is currently on the handset, but I am concerned that this is not the correct one.
Any help?
TIA
ive seen other threads for other devices where ppl have claimed flashing hardspl has changed there imei number ..... just use the one ur fone reports and nt the one on the box .... no big deal
Yeah I realise it works and it's not a problem, but it may look a little bit dodgy if I choose to sell it.
The unlock worked fine anyway, just seems a little odd that the IMEI is so easy to change on these handsets. I thought it was supposed to be almost impossible.
Oh well.
You've probably looked at your phone's system properties to see what it says the IMEI number is. You can also dial *#06# on your phone's key pad. When the final # is entered, a 15-digit number will appear. This is a free call regardless of whether you have a SIM card installed.
As long as you're not doing anything illegal, you should be okay. Within the past couple of days, I read something about crooks changing IMEI numbers mostly with stolen phones but also to evade the law.
I registered my new Blackstone Clone with T-Mobile today on their prepaid plan. I asked them what IMEI number they showed and the operator said she not disclose the number but could confirm it if I, the phone's owner, gave it to her. When I dialed in *#06# (I was on a land line) on the Clone, she confirmed the IMEI when I gave it to her.
So, I see previous thread have been blocked. This IS about a stolen phone, but not about stealing a phone....
My son had an S10+ stolen, and the insurance are not paying up.
He believes he has identified the phone on sale... saying it is unlocked and operational.
Assuming the phone provider DID block the original IMEI...
Questions:
Is it even possible to change the IMEI?
If it has been changed, and labels removed, can the phone be identified subsequently?
Can the 'new' IMEI be traced (i.e. is it a GUID, or is there a list of valid IMEI codes somewhere?)?
Is there a 'block' of IMEI assigned to Samsung? - i.e. if it now has a random one, can a random one be identified as fraudulent?
If it's a clone IMEI, can you go from IMEI to original phone model?
Grateful for any advice,
Simon
Hi mate
Tough situation....
To your questions:
Is it even possible to change the IMEI?
Yes , there are ways to do it but you need special equipment
If it has been changed, and labels removed, can the phone be identified subsequently?
Depends on how good this people are, that information is in the efs partition you need equipment and somebody who knows how to check it
Can the 'new' IMEI be traced (i.e. is it a GUID, or is there a list of valid IMEI codes somewhere?)?
Yes , there are pages like this (there are others), place the imei of the suspected phone there , usually you will get back information as if is blacklisted or to what phone model has been assigned to , usually when the imei is replaced this people uses imei´s from old phones
Is there a 'block' of IMEI assigned to Samsung? - i.e. if it now has a random one, can a random one be identified as fraudulent?
See above reply
If it's a clone IMEI, can you go from IMEI to original phone model?
Not sure what you mean but I think the above reply should answer your question. Each Imei is unique and is assigned to a particular phone , if you check an IMei it will tell that belongs to a Samsung S10 for example
If you have the IMEI of the suspected phone it will be easy to find out if it has been tamper with it, to find out the original IMEI may be another matter
---------- Post added at 04:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:35 PM ----------
With the page I gave you if you introduce your son´s phone imei it will give you the Samsung serial number of the phone, that may be something that they may have not changed, if you can get your hands on the suspected phone check Settings /about phone there it will show you the Samsung serial number.......
btsimonh said:
So, I see previous thread have been blocked. This IS about a stolen phone, but not about stealing a phone....
My son had an S10+ stolen, and the insurance are not paying up.
He believes he has identified the phone on sale... saying it is unlocked and operational.
Assuming the phone provider DID block the original IMEI...
Questions:
Is it even possible to change the IMEI?
If it has been changed, and labels removed, can the phone be identified subsequently?
Can the 'new' IMEI be traced (i.e. is it a GUID, or is there a list of valid IMEI codes somewhere?)?
Is there a 'block' of IMEI assigned to Samsung? - i.e. if it now has a random one, can a random one be identified as fraudulent?
If it's a clone IMEI, can you go from IMEI to original phone model?
Grateful for any advice,
Simon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, the imei and serial number is printed on the back of the device at the bottom.
Your welcome
Sounds very fishy. You can call carrier and report it stolen. Yes, if you claim u purchased the phone, u should have the original box with the imei printed on it