Database Users

IMEI issue on a USA T-mobile MDA

Hi,
I just bought a MDA off ebay and the phone works great!
BUT the problem is IMEI numbers dont match ANYWHERE!!
Box, Back of phone and *#06# They are 3 different #'s
I can still make and recieve calls and go on the net.. phones works properly.
Is there anyway some1 could have changed the IMEI? Or is there a Rom flash that could have done this?
OR could a Unlock have altered the IMEI?
And is there a way i can change the IMEI to the same one as the one on the back of my phone?
The Seller has agreed to refund my money, but I want to exercise all my options b4 I return it. Bc the price was actually great!
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks in Adv!
Brit.
:thumbup:
PS i did search for this issue and did come accross some good threads, but there was alot of "THIS IS ILLEGAL" i know this so please post somthing meaningful...

Your best bet is to get your money back. At best the phone was serviced and the guts placed inside the wrong case by accident (which would explain 3 different IMEI) but at worst there could be something hinky in the phone's history that will come back to bite you as the current owner.

I wouldn't worry about it.
1) The phone works
2) You know the phone's actual IMEI
That's all there is to it. Don't worry about it.

both of you bring up a good point.
I am leaning towards keeping theh thing b/c of the price i paid for it b/c of a mislabeling of the auction. It was a super low price..
I will check to see if the guts were changed, there probably will be a sign if the casing was opened.
Can you give signs to look for tampering?
Second, I read were some1's IMEI changed b.c of a Unlock could this have happend to my MDA?
Thanks for you replies agian!

HTC (or T-Mobile Warranty) might me able to confirm if any (or all) of the IMEIs you have are from serviced phones.
As for the Unlock changing the IMEI, I know one user reported it but I seriously the validity of their story.
I've CID unlocked 5 HTC Phones (3 BlueAngels, 2 Wizards) and SIM unlocked them also with the IMEI never being changed.
Just remember though, if there is something hinky and the phone is hot you can lose the phone and never see your money.

I would imagine that if the phone was put up for sale, sold, shipped, turned on and found to work and it is hot, the heat has probably cooled considerably. Or, in other words, if it was going to be banned by the network, I would think it would have already happened. As far as unlocking changing the IMEI, I second the above. Few things are impossible but a simple unlocking changing the IMEI has to be close. If it was my phone, I'd first look for some obvious sign of tampering. Crooks aren't very smart (they are crooks, after all) so it shouldn't be hard to find. If nothing jumped out at me, I'd shrug my shoulders and call it mine.

Cool, I will call HTC.
I just called Tmobile and they said that they dont BAN phones, they just ban simcards. but I doubt they would admit the truth.
the phone working is a Positive sign to me.
But I will call HTC and confirm. ALSO I will Call Paypal and see if i have any kind of warranty to buying a stolen item.
if all else fails i will return the phone to the seller.
Brittany

the IMEI should look exactly like the IMEI on the back of the phone rite? not shorter or longer?
i will reverify if its' shorter or something. b/c i read some where about a 17 and 15 digits are needed.
ALSO say if my MDA was stock right out of the box would the phone have these 4 lines on the top left corner in red with some numbers and stuff.. possibly rom info and model info?

Usually the stickers with IMEI numbers are difficult to forge since it requires a special paper (Nokia at least) and a special kind of file.
Although the theory of mixing boards, cases and boxes is very plausible there's still the chance that the IMEI on the back of the phone is the hot one. You can always try to change back to it (but taking note of the one stored presently in ROM for future use) and see if it gets barred/blocked or you get a visit from the authorities :twisted: In any case, this forum's posts could help to prove your innocence in court (just kidding :lol: )
As for the procedures to achieve it, get back to me via PM
cheers

Well i took it to a local Tmobile store and they exchanged the phone for me. WOOT! WOOT! this was a pure sealed one. so prob solved.. now i just have to do a CID and Sim Unlock and upgrade to the latest rom.
Any recomms? i will try to do my NEWBIE duties and search and learn, if anyone wants to make it easy for me. well hooka sista up!..lol
Brit

Wow! Not bad! If the 2.26 ROM is already on it (I got a new one a couple days ago on warrantee and that was the case), you may want to think twice before changing that. I've been real happy with 2.26 and it's gotten to where the ONLY thing I bother changing in the registry is the glyphcache and menu settings and I uninstall OZ, the DAT MailTrigger thing and the Hotspot login utility. And...bonus time....you don't void the warrantee that mayb prove handy in the future.

Moral of the story.. get 3 old phone, inter change their IMEI (e.g. stickers and box) .. go to different local store to get 3 new phones

So last night i did
1. Sim Unlock
2. CID Unlock
3. installed AIM (wifi friendly)
4. Upgraded the rom to 2.26
5. installed Agile Msnger beta verson
phone's running like butter! Thou after i installed AIM phone RAN really sluggish! but i think it was b/c i put my orig sim card with 150 entirees.
so i rebooted charged the phone to 100% and did the rom upgrade from Tmobile's webiste..
the phone runs like a charm now.. I just need to find a good Instant Messenger software, wiht profile and away msg so my friends to hit me up with a huge txt msg bill..
I came, i read, i learned, i conquered the mda!

My HTC touch (ELF) has changed imei number automatically.

My original IMEI number was starting from 35XX and now its has been changed to 44XXXX i have not done anything just using phone as it is. Because of this whenever i inset my simcard my phone gets hanged.
Please help me. I am from Gujarat using HTC with Airtel.

How could this happen?
I dont think it will change automatically.
Someone must have changed it.
Bring back to Airtel and ask them about it.

there was a thread some time ago talking about a problem with some elfs going to a special imei, that its blacklisted so it wont work.
i think the mods have deleted the thread, but search in google the whole imei number u have now.

crapula512 said:
there was a thread some time ago talking about a problem with some elfs going to a special imei, that its blacklisted so it wont work.
i think the mods have deleted the thread, but search in google the whole imei number u have now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem has now one more thing when it starts the phone even without sim it gets hanged. now even i cant see IMEI number by starting and when it starts screen becomes red please help me...

Screen becomes red?
Is there 3 colours on the screen?
Are you still in warrenty?

no phone is not in warrenty

So now, your phone cant start?
Cant go to windows mobile?

jeremy89632 said:
So now, your phone cant start?
Cant go to windows mobile?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes i cant

Can you try to flash via SD?
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=Elf_SD_Card_Flashing
Works for elf and elfin.

late reply: phone had water damaged, the best thing you can do is stop messing around, remove battery, and take it to capable technician.
it happens often that imei gets to factory default, not 1st case I´ve seen...
br

that could be that your elf was reported in your operator and the lasted owner send to changued IMEI of the device for continues working with then.
your device dont have any problem for that IMEI only work again
Enjoy dont worry

[Q] Need some help with my vogue

ok guys i bought a sprint touch (vogue) phone about a 3 months ago when i started having problems with my older phone. well i finally decided to activate this new vogue phone and i cannot get good reception. Now compared to my old sonyo this phone stays searching for service almost all day. While the old sonyo would have three bars of signal. i started doing some searching online and found out that these phones were bad for signal reception. After all that searching i want to unlock my phone and install the newest rom, radio rom, and see if it will help my phone. i tried to return to the store but they will only give me 25 dollars for the phone and that made me very mad. At the moment it does not work and i have really nothing to loose if the phone becomes a brick.
i have downloaded the NuVogue and NSFan roms plus a lot of cabs. What i do understand completely is do i need to install a radio rom or is there one already in the Roms. if there is no radio rom in these roms then which one is recommended?
thanks

If you bought a sprint phone then it probably has a sprint stock radio. Does it show the sprint logo at boot?
Sent from my Full Android on Vogue using XDA App

yes it does have sprint logo at start.

sprintvogue said:
yes it does have sprint logo at start.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try reflashing a radio or rom with a radio, but I doubt it will help much... have you EVER been able to call with that phone? How did you provision it? If it's a new vogue from sprint(?) why won't they give you a full refund or a warranty replacement?

i cannot return it because i did not buy it from sprint store. i bought it from my friend but he did not tell me he was having problems with the phone. what should i do.
i do not know what else to do?
i really like the phone but i cannot get any reception, that is my problem. i do not use it for text, music, or online. i just need it for business.
any suggestions would be great.
thanks

Have you tried *228?(or whatever the Sprint equivalent is)

sprintvogue said:
ok guys i bought a sprint touch (vogue) phone about a 3 months ago when i started having problems with my older phone. well i finally decided to activate this new vogue phone and i cannot get good reception. Now compared to my old sonyo this phone stays searching for service almost all day. While the old sonyo would have three bars of signal. i started doing some searching online and found out that these phones were bad for signal reception. After all that searching i want to unlock my phone and install the newest rom, radio rom, and see if it will help my phone. i tried to return to the store but they will only give me 25 dollars for the phone and that made me very mad. At the moment it does not work and i have really nothing to loose if the phone becomes a brick.
i have downloaded the NuVogue and NSFan roms plus a lot of cabs. What i do understand completely is do i need to install a radio rom or is there one already in the Roms. if there is no radio rom in these roms then which one is recommended?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, the device stays looking for signal? Does it ever get at least 1 bar of signal? I have an idea, which may sound a bit far fetched, but it may be the case. At one point in time, I remember trying to replace the E$N of my device with an MEID (turned into pseudo E$N). Needless to say, this cannot be done, and my device stayed looking for service forever. I have a feeling that maybe the E$N was changed and it was either input wrong, or simply someone tried to play stupid and replaced it with a pE$N.
Check for the E$N behind the battery and compare it to the one in the system (you can check this by going into PST, you don't even need the MSL as you are not editing the programing parameters of the device).

ok i took a look at the ESN numbers in back of the phone and i got this:
************
then i went to settings and looked in device information i get this:
*************
Does this mean anything?

sprintvogue said:
ok i took a look at the ESN numbers in back of the phone and i got this:
************
then i went to settings and looked in device information i get this:
********
Does this mean anything?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you mistyped the 36A152D number, it looks like it is not complete.
Decimal conversion from the one you gave me (without the dash, of course) should give you a Hex number that is totally different.
My guess is that your friend tried to change the E$N of the device and did it wrong/used an invalid serial. If you put an invalid E$N, the phone will stay searching for networks forever, which is what is happening with your device. You have to change the ESN back to the original (the one behind the battery), but if it was changed, I have a feeling it is probably black-listed by Sprint. I would call Sprint and ask if the device with the number you gave me can be activated on their network.
BTW, I edited the numbers you gave me to protect your device's serial.

ok i took a look again at the numbers and i did miss type. there is suppose to be an 8 between the 5 and 2.
ok so then i need to go back to sprint? What should i tell them? Do i tell them to put me back to the other EsN like the one on my phone?

sprintvogue said:
ok i took a look again at the numbers and i did miss type. there is suppose to be an 8 between the 5 and 2.
ok so then i need to go back to sprint? What should i tell them? Do i tell them to put me back to the other EsN like the one on my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't even talk to them about changing ESN. Remember that this is an illegal practice in most countries around the world (IMEI, MEID, and ESN for those who use other serial numbers). I have a feeling that you are better off trying to reactivate your older phone and try to get the guy who sold it to give you your money back.

i think you are right.
i will do that first.
thanks guys.

GT-I9300 Not Registered on Network Problem Solved

Dear All,
I write to inform you that i finally solved my GT-I9300 'Not Registered on Network' problem. I decided to make this official announcement so as to assure others, most especially those who have tried almost all the tricks and steps found on this and other forum on the subject that all hope is not lost.
May be if i shed more lights on the problem which i encountered, and i suppose many other people, you will understand me very well. First, i did the upgrade through Samsung Kies and after the phone rebooted, it lost link to network. I called Samsung and chatted online with the Customer Service, i was asked to send the phone to South Africa where i bought it. I called South Africa and also chatted but they could not understand let alone solve the problem. I headed to XDA and other forum to find solution, I tried all versions of ARIZA Patch, none work. I tried all modified ROM, yet no solution. At one point, the problem became complex. The phone moved from not registering on network to 'Factory Mode'. I followed many other steps, but could not get past restoring it back to User mode. I gave up after a month and bought another phone.
My son shocked me last Friday when he said that it will be his first time of seeing me accepting that some problems cannot be solved. I mused over it and told myself that i will rather destroyed the phone totally than giving him the impression that i cannot solve the problem.
I got out my two computers - Mac and PC and reformatted them all. Installed ODIN and downloaded a 4.3 Stock ROM. I then began searching everywhere for any clue as to what went wrong with the phone. My research is simple; the PHONE could not register simply because the IMEI and Serial Number were wrong. My IMEI and S/N moved from 0000 to unknown. After reinstalling through KIES, it came back from unknown to another wrong numbers.
I finally decided to go inside the phone by activating everything on ODIN and see if i can get the wrong EFS on the phone wiped away and left empty. I repartitioned, wipe EFS, etc. and the only thing the phone did was to move from unknown to another incorrect IMEI and Serial.
Finally, i read on a post that the problem is simply software, so i began searching if it is possible to repartitioned the phone completely and turn it into a toy. I recalled that about ten years ago, i successfully installed Nokia OS on Blackberry through a poorly concerted code designed by a friend. In so far i still have the code, I thought that i could do same with my GT-I9300. It won't work, sadly. But in the process of doing so, i realized that using SRS, i can do so comfortably. With this 20 USD software, i gained control of the internal organs of my phone and started out by wiping out the EFS first and with my EFS Backup, i re-wrote it back on the phone. That done, i expected the phone to work, but sadly it refused to register on network.
Not ready to give up, i went further to see what other options are available to me. I realized that i can actually re-wrote my IMEI and Serial number back to the phone. I tried it and after about an hour and almost three attempt, T-MOBILE surfaced on my phone and the GT-I9300 came back to life.
Altogether, i spent two unbroken days reading and reading and applying one step after another, one procedure after another till i finally got the phone back.
SRS can not only do this, but can take back your contract and locked phone from those shylock and give you your phone. It go inside your phone and show you all the codes that locked you to a particular network, etc. It can remove those useless codes that make your phone patented to a particular country and give you an international version. It can also turn your international version to a local one, if you so desire.
I do not know who designed this software, i however testify to its immense ability to safe you from Samsung's irresponsibility.
I am open to helping others and answering questions on GT-I9300.
I have since been enjoying my phone.

what's the short version of the story?

tmzbeme said:
what's the short version of the story?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Going by the last lines, it seems this is the tl;dr version
"SRS can not only do this, but can take back your contract and locked phone from those shylock and give you your phone. It go inside your phone and show you all the codes that locked you to a particular network, etc. It can remove those useless codes that make your phone patented to a particular country and give you an international version. It can also turn your international version to a local one, if you so desire."

Hi! As i understood i need to get SRS and after?

where is the SRS software ? can you post a link ?

IMEI repair

Hello!
I have tried searching the g2 forums for a way to repair my IMEI, as the one I had has been set to all zeroes. Is there any way to fix this? I do not have any backups of anything on my phone, i have tried using maui meta, but for some reason it cannot interface with my phone, and neither can hyperterminal. i get it to connect, but then it doesn't let me type anything.
If anyone knows a way to fix this, i would appreciate your help greatly! PM or on the forum here, either work just fine!

evilkoal said:
Hello!
I have tried searching the g2 forums for a way to repair my IMEI, as the one I had has been set to all zeroes. Is there any way to fix this? I do not have any backups of anything on my phone, i have tried using maui meta, but for some reason it cannot interface with my phone, and neither can hyperterminal. i get it to connect, but then it doesn't let me type anything.
If anyone knows a way to fix this, i would appreciate your help greatly! PM or on the forum here, either work just fine!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried going back to stock ? Restoring back to the firmware that came with your phone? If not try that. But if you have You may just be out of luck

evilkoal said:
Hello!
I have tried searching the g2 forums for a way to repair my IMEI, as the one I had has been set to all zeroes. Is there any way to fix this? I do not have any backups of anything on my phone, i have tried using maui meta, but for some reason it cannot interface with my phone, and neither can hyperterminal. i get it to connect, but then it doesn't let me type anything.
If anyone knows a way to fix this, i would appreciate your help greatly! PM or on the forum here, either work just fine!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is a total shot in the dark, but did you try running maui meta or hyperterminal as an Adminstrator?

markrulesallnow said:
This is a total shot in the dark, but did you try running maui meta or hyperterminal as an Adminstrator?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried flashing back, but still no IMEI.
I have tried using administrator mode on both but it doesnt work., i wonder if i am using a wrong setting? maybe i am missing something? there is no CP-USB mode that i can see in the engineering menu...

evilkoal said:
I have tried flashing back, but still no IMEI.
I have tried using administrator mode on both but it doesnt work., i wonder if i am using a wrong setting? maybe i am missing something? there is no CP-USB mode that i can see in the engineering menu...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a stock ROM back-up of your device form before you lost the imei? if so, restore that and it should restore your imdi. Other than that i can't tell you much else, supposedly once your imei is gone, it is gone for good.

MalignantQuechnitlan said:
Do you have a stock ROM back-up of your device form before you lost the imei? if so, restore that and it should restore your imdi. Other than that i can't tell you much else, supposedly once your imei is gone, it is gone for good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not. There is no way it can be gone for good. It has to be editable with a hex editor or something somehow. Just because it is illegal to change your info dies NOT mean that it is impossible or that people should stop finding out how to do it. I have tried all the simple tricks with terminal in su mode, but they don't seem to take. There has to be another way.

evilkoal said:
I do not. There is no way it can be gone for good. It has to be editable with a hex editor or something somehow. Just because it is illegal to change your info dies NOT mean that it is impossible or that people should stop finding out how to do it. I have tried all the simple tricks with terminal in su mode, but they don't seem to take. There has to be another way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the deal. You're effed. Do a warranty replacement. Once your IMEI is gone, you are out of luck. Sorry and I hope I'm wrong, but I have yet to see someone fix it.

How did you break it?
Sent from my g2 using xda app-developers app

evilkoal said:
I do not. There is no way it can be gone for good. It has to be editable with a hex editor or something somehow. Just because it is illegal to change your info dies NOT mean that it is impossible or that people should stop finding out how to do it. I have tried all the simple tricks with terminal in su mode, but they don't seem to take. There has to be another way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ha, never knew changing/adjusting your imei was a legal issue. As to changing it back, i suppose you are correct, the imei is on the box and the sticker from the device, you all you gotta do is find a working hex editor and type the imei back in.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk

where is it?
MalignantQuechnitlan said:
Ha, never knew changing/adjusting your imei was a legal issue. As to changing it back, i suppose you are correct, the imei is on the box and the sticker from the device, you all you gotta do is find a working hex editor and type the imei back in.
Sent from my LG-D802 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where would i find the file with the IMEI in it, so i can edit it? i mean, i tried the backup way, but the img files jack everything up so i cannot edit the imei in them.

Because of identification issues, imei is rarely changeable by average user, its not likely it will ever be some file you can edit just like that mwahhaha
Sent from my g2 using xda app-developers app

i had this same problem on a windows phone. i tried to reinstall the stock rom on it to get my imei back. i could get the rom installed but had no network connection because imei was still messed up. long story short, if you have no efs backup then you're just f'ed. you may be able to get it fixed with a jtag repair. there's a company that specializes in things like this if you google them. they are mobiletechvideos. i've delt with them before and they are nice people. the only option you may have is to change your imei. but that is illegal.

actually lg can do it also

freebee269 said:
i had this same problem on a windows phone. i tried to reinstall the stock rom on it to get my imei back. i could get the rom installed but had no network connection because imei was still messed up. long story short, if you have no efs backup then you're just f'ed. you may be able to get it fixed with a jtag repair. there's a company that specializes in things like this if you google them. they are mobiletechvideos. i've delt with them before and they are nice people. the only option you may have is to change your imei. but that is illegal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well how would I go about changing it, for educational purposes only, of course. We'll just say I'm not bound by the same laws as you folks because of where I live currently, and the fact that I purchased my phone.
if LG and companies can do it, then we can do it as well. The information is somewhere on the phone, accessible to these people, so it is there and accessible for us as well. There is no way that this is impossible if someone else can do it.

IMEI is what your service provider use to turn off phones if its stolen, and use it to track down people that stole your phone. Once its gone its gone, this is call a hard brick, you cant fix it, send it in or buy another phone. Stop being a hard head, or having faith, you cant fix this.
P.S Dont give him your IMEI, if he did manage to fix it with your IMEI (by an act of god), that means your phone is Effed...its like stealing identity.

G1_enthusiast said:
IMEI is what your service provider use to turn off phones if its stolen, and use it to track down people that stole your phone. Once its gone its gone, this is call a hard brick, you cant fix it, send it in or buy another phone. Stop being a hard head, or having faith, you cant fix this.
P.S Dont give him your IMEI, if he did manage to fix it with your IMEI (by an act of god), that means your phone is Effed...its like stealing identity.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you sir, are retarded. I am not asking for anybody's imei. if you could understand what was written, you would see that i am attempting to figure out how to edit the imei. it is not illegal to change your own phone's imei unless it is stolen, and i do not live in america or europe so i am out of those d-bag's jurisdiction. I can legally do whatever i want.
I cannot send in my phone because it is beyond the warranty, and i have already rooted it. it is not hardbricked, because it still turns on, wifi works fine, a hard brick is when your phone will not even boot up. learn your terminology. IMEI repair is possible, obviously, because tech companies can fix it, and so are the manufacturers. if it were hard coded, the manufacturer would have to pull a chip out of the phone, which is highly unlikely as it is neither cost nor time efficient.
you stop being a hard head, and thinking that things are impossible. if everybody thought like you, we would still be beating each other over the head with sticks.

I was once in the same boat whereby I accidentally restored the efs backup from my wife's g2. Fortunately I had a backup of my efs and everything was fine after I restored the original copy.
Sorry this info will most probably not helping you.

evilkoal said:
you sir, are retarded. I am not asking for anybody's imei. if you could understand what was written, you would see that i am attempting to figure out how to edit the imei. it is not illegal to change your own phone's imei unless it is stolen, and i do not live in america or europe so i am out of those d-bag's jurisdiction. I can legally do whatever i want.
I cannot send in my phone because it is beyond the warranty, and i have already rooted it. it is not hardbricked, because it still turns on, wifi works fine, a hard brick is when your phone will not even boot up. learn your terminology. IMEI repair is possible, obviously, because tech companies can fix it, and so are the manufacturers. if it were hard coded, the manufacturer would have to pull a chip out of the phone, which is highly unlikely as it is neither cost nor time efficient.
you stop being a hard head, and thinking that things are impossible. if everybody thought like you, we would still be beating each other over the head with sticks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are right, imei's are not hard coded. most of them are just a txt file in the partition that is read. but if you corrupt that partition then you cant get that txt file back. not all manufacturers use a txt file though, as was the case with my lumia 920. nokia uses something else, like a xml file that is harder to alter than a txt file. this is why i suggested a jtag. they will be able to get you back up and running but there's a possibility that you still wont have you imei repaired. in that case you wont have network connection. lg can also do this for you. if they wont be able to recover your imei they will just give you a new one that is not associated with any other phone. but i suspect lg will want some money to do this.

evilkoal said:
you sir, are retarded. I am not asking for anybody's imei. if you could understand what was written, you would see that i am attempting to figure out how to edit the imei. it is not illegal to change your own phone's imei unless it is stolen, and i do not live in america or europe so i am out of those d-bag's jurisdiction. I can legally do whatever i want.
I cannot send in my phone because it is beyond the warranty, and i have already rooted it. it is not hardbricked, because it still turns on, wifi works fine, a hard brick is when your phone will not even boot up. learn your terminology. IMEI repair is possible, obviously, because tech companies can fix it, and so are the manufacturers. if it were hard coded, the manufacturer would have to pull a chip out of the phone, which is highly unlikely as it is neither cost nor time efficient.
you stop being a hard head, and thinking that things are impossible. if everybody thought like you, we would still be beating each other over the head with sticks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
who's the retarded one? the one that got their IMEI deleted or the one telling you that its not possible? this issue was first discover on the Samsung Galaxy S2 and no one has an answer for it unless you backed up your EFS, which I'm sure you dint.
your right you can do whatever you want, but I'm telling people not to give their IMEI to you, in case they dont know. If they are dumb enough to give it to you, then they are just as dumb as you for deleting your IMEI.
you can send it in, if you dont have warranty, then pay for them to fix it...duh? if you want to play then you gotta pay. Your right your phone is not technically "hardbrick" but if you cant make call, cant connect to service provider, cant send text message, cant do what a phone suppose to do then its a hard brick or would you like to call it an ipod touch? because I'm happy to accommodate you. G-luck dummy lol.

We don't allow IMEI discussions on XDA, especially discussions which are heading the way this one is.
Thread closed.