I have a V20 h990N that is not working well with 3G. I bought it as faulty, and after an endless number of experiments I now realise that I will have to buy another mobo if I want it to work well. I have exp. with a V20 H990DS, which works well, so it would be tempting to buy one of those boards. Can anyone by exp tell me if I might run into problems with other hw doing so, eg. camera etc.
I can also buy a H990N, to be more safe with matching other hw. Are there any of you living in Europe that can tell me if that works well with the frequencies? It should do so, according to the specs (same as H990DS)
Finally, the F800 is tempting, since that definitely will be updated to android 9. Any Europeans who have tried that - will it work with the frequencies?
What would you do?
It doesn't matter which one you buy as long as it's not ARB_1, I think any one of the single sim versions except the Sprint version. Because you can flash any KDZ between those versions. That would be VS995, H910 and possibly others. For best bloatware free and best network support flash the US996 usa firmware.
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So my motherboard is toast (yes, I'm positive) and I'm shopping around for a used one. Since I'm pretty sure all versions of the S8 use the same internal layout & connectors I can probably put any version motherboard in as its replacement.
That being said, which model motherboard would be my best bet for the following:
-Must support T Mobile USA (all the bands they utilize) if unlocked
-Has the best ROM support
a third bonus would be having great worldwide band support since I travel, given it's already covered my first requirement (having all t mo band support).
Thanks.
Well your kinda hindered a little bit because you have to go for the snapdragon variant of the board.
There is root but there are issues with it, and as far as I know not many people are developing roms for the snapdragon variant.
Also the snapdragon variant probably isn't going to work world wide, just like the exynos version doesn't support American bands, the US variant won't work in European countries
sofir786 said:
Well your kinda hindered a little bit because you have to go for the snapdragon variant of the board.
There is root but there are issues with it, and as far as I know not many people are developing roms for the snapdragon variant.
Also the snapdragon variant probably isn't going to work world wide, just like the exynos version doesn't support American bands, the US variant won't work in European countries
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Are you sure they aren't pin compatible? I'd be somewhat surprised if Samsung actually had two board produced (but maybe). If this is confirmed by teardown or whatever then thanks for the info
Hello motherboard issue here
I have a s8+ G955FD international version, apparently my motherboard died when i was charging my phone, somebody told me that i have to replace the motherboard but looking online the "FD" version it's very hard to find and also very expensive, any recomendations that i can do, can i replace it with a diferent version of the motherboard or i have to stay with the "FD" version?
alex010911 said:
I have a s8+ G955FD international version, apparently my motherboard died when i was charging my phone, somebody told me that i have to replace the motherboard but looking online the "FD" version it's very hard to find and also very expensive, any recomendations that i can do, can i replace it with a diferent version of the motherboard or i have to stay with the "FD" version?
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I have a bad S8 plus board and my friend has a working one but it's S8 not Plus....can I use S8 board to replace S8 plus ?
So I got burned on ebay on two separate US996 phones. The sellers never stated a provider and just said factory unlocked (some on ebay actually say US Cellular) so I naively assumed they were the same as the unlocked version B&H photo has been selling.
However after buying them I found a thread on how to tell the difference and the factory unlocked should say USA under the battery. However, the phone I got says UCL (which I think is US cellular) and my wife's phone says BPL (no idea what provider that is).
So, I am wondering if I should just keep these at this point. I paid $268 for my wife's phone about a month or two back and $250 for mine a week ago, so not a terrible deal, but I could have gotten an AT&T unlocked version for not much more new.
So anyway, these phones don't come with any carrier bloatware which is nice and why I'm considering just keeping them. I don't really care about rooting, however I am concerned about 2 things: future updates and cellular bands.
Does anyone know what the differences are hardware wise between these 3 variants or is the only thing that's different the software?
If it's just software shouldn't there be a way to flash these with the real factory unlocked firmware?
Here's a page with the latest ROMs for each variant of the US996:
https://lg-firmwares.com/lg-us996-firmwares/
The BPT one is the BrightPoint version.
The odd thing is that the US Cellular version of the US996 has a much newer version of firmware than the USA Factory Unlocked US996.
Interesting. It looks like the US Cellular firmware works on the unlocked version so I guess there is no difference. I wonder if that means I can flash my wife's phone with the US cellular firmware as well. Never heard of brightpoint.
shawnmos said:
Interesting. It looks like the US Cellular firmware works on the unlocked version so I guess there is no difference. I wonder if that means I can flash my wife's phone with the US cellular firmware as well. Never heard of brightpoint.
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not sure how true it is, but if you flash the US Cellular firmware on the unlocked version and try to unlock through LG then it would no longer be recognized as the unlocked version. that said you can unlock first and then flash... which is what I did so I can't confirm the former to be true
I have always owned either Nexus (non-LG versions) or Samsung so I'm not really familiar with LG products. I'm going to get a V20 and the question now is which one? Is there any difference in the DAC in the H990DS version vs the North American versions? I've heard that the H990DS is the official B&O version and the North American ones are "tuned by B&O". The quad DAC is one of the reasons why I want this phone so if there is a significant difference I may consider it. If not, I'll probably go with the US996 unlocked version or the AT&T version.
The US996 will cost me slightly more but the unlockable bootloader may be worth it. I'm in Canada and the AT&T bands are close to ours and generally work well with our carriers. so the H910A will be OK. AFAIK the second SIM in the H990DS only supports 2G so that will be useless to me since 2 out of 3 of our largest carriers were originally CDMA and never supported 2G. Both of the North American versions do come with a warranty, which is a bonus. The AT&T is the cheapest of the three but I have heard that their bootloader is a pain.
An unlockable bootloader and the ability to root is the most important. I'm going to keep it until it dies. Music quality and warranty is next. I do love music and I plan to invest in a good set of new headphones once I get the V20. I want to take it with me and test several so I don't have anything in particular in mind at this time.
I appreciate any help and guidance that anyone can give me. I have spent a lot of time trying to find out about the DACs and I really can't find any information. Thank you!
hello guys, im planning to get this phone, used if i can find it for 200$ usd, max. thats my budget, im from venezuela and i came here to ask, which model should i get? which variant? what are the differences and all the variants have the same dev support? thanks for your answer, and if anybody knows where can i get this phone used in good conditions in the USA (i have a friend over there who can send this to me with relatives who are coming next month) thanks.
I can tell you to not buy the H918 TMobile one. It's locked down hard. It seems the unlocked version (US996) it's the one to get at least here in the US. You'll have to verify bands to make sure you can use it there.
My wife and I use the Verizon variant (VS995). We just upgraded from the V10 a couple of weeks ago and have been mostly pleased so far.
Pros:
-carrier unlocked from the start (works with GSM carriers)
-rootable with no anti-rollback mechanism if you want to update
Cons:
-FM radio doesn't work (at least not without some effort from the end user)
-lots of bloatware (can be removed if rooted)
-Bluetooth connectivity is crap (but ROMs are available which may address this)
Hope that helps!
rivethead23 said:
I can tell you to not buy the H918 TMobile one. It's locked down hard. It seems the unlocked version (US996) it's the one to get at least here in the US. You'll have to verify bands to make sure you can use it there.
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yeah im thinking to get the unlocked version, anywhere where i can get it used for a good price? maybe 200$ usd.
rhythm_dx said:
My wife and I use the Verizon variant (VS995). We just upgraded from the V10 a couple of weeks ago and have been mostly pleased so far.
Pros:
-carrier unlocked from the start (works with GSM carriers)
-rootable with no anti-rollback mechanism if you want to update
Cons:
-FM radio doesn't work (at least not without some effort from the end user)
-lots of bloatware (can be removed if rooted)
-Bluetooth connectivity is crap (but ROMs are available which may address this)
Hope that helps!
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Thanks for your reply, isnt the verizon version just cdma thing? we dont have cdma carriers anymore over here.
I made the mistake of buying the H918 without realizing the limits on it. On swappa the H918 is around $200. The unlocked is around $275 - $300 so it's more than you want to spend.
rivethead23 said:
I made the mistake of buying the H918 without realizing the limits on it. On swappa the H918 is around $200. The unlocked is around $275 - $300 so it's more than you want to spend.
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Which limitations? 275$ used?
ramerax said:
Thanks for your reply, isnt the verizon version just cdma thing? we dont have cdma carriers anymore over here.
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Verizon phones are carrier unlocked out of the box and will work on GSM networks, even though they default to CDMA. I've put an AT&T SIM (GSM) into a bone-stock V10 from Verizon and got calls without a problem.
rivethead23 said:
I can tell you to not buy the H918 TMobile one. It's locked down hard. It seems the unlocked version (US996) it's the one to get at least here in the US. You'll have to verify bands to make sure you can use it there.
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Would the H910 be similar to the US996? Where I am located I only can find H910 and H918 but I understand H918 is a bad option if I want to load roms or do anything more custom with it.
Hi there. I live in Canada and use A2017G. How to switch it to USA bands and is it safe to do? Or should I wait for Oreo (seems like November)?
Thanks
I think you are stuck with whatever bands that are hardcoded into the G. Probably has something to do with the baseband/radio/modem. I did find an article on XDA awhile back that claims you can add bands to your phone, but it seemed mostly suited toward Samsung. In any case, it doesn't really matter, a G model should still receive a minimum of 4G with most US carriers, but maybe not LTE. I'd imagine Canadian carriers are similar. But I do have to wonder, you live in North America, so why buy a G. The U is the variant that is designed for this region. And U has better support, ROMs, etc.
Maybe you can just flash the A2017U modem
ttkian said:
Maybe you can just flash the A2017U modem
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Maybe you can avoid suggesting things you clearly have no idea about.
While you're at it, why don't you flash a modem from another phone?
---------- Post added at 05:53 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 AM ----------
evilKabab said:
Hi there. I live in Canada and use A2017G. How to switch it to USA bands and is it safe to do? Or should I wait for Oreo (seems like November)?
Thanks
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You can't add bands that the phone doesn't have. By changing the daughterboard of an A2017U to an A2017's, a guy simply lost all connectivity, plain and simple. Antenna stuff is hardware stuff.
Oreo won't really add bands either
@Choose an username...: I have read other topics on XDA that say you can use QPST/QFIL to add basebands, on almost any device that has a Qualcomm CPU. But I havent tried this myself. It may just be a matter of placebo, or people wanting to believe that it works, when really nothing may be changing. You could also brick your phone during the attempt, which is part of the reason I havent tried yet.
I think that all A7s have nearly the same hardware, including the same (hardware) modem/radio, but with different basebands enabled/disabled depending on which model you have. But I have no proof of this. I will leave this to people that are willing to deeply dissect the hardware.
And then there are the modem files you can flash, which vary according to your model. I am not sure what would happen if you attempt to flash a A2017G/A2017 modem on a A2017U (or any other combo). I think the worst you will face is a loss of Internet/text/phone calls.
When I first bought my A7 I was going to get the Chinese version from AliExpress, because it has more RAM, storage, and ForceTouch. But then I realized that it doesn't have most of the basebands that my carrier (T-Mobile) supports. And you never know where most of the AE sellers get the hardware, they could be stolen, preowned, whatever. I have bought numerous 'new' items there before, but they ranged in quality, ranging from brand new to fair condition. So I thought better of it and bought a new A2017U from NewEgg, complete with ZTE's Passport warranty and 3 years SquareTrade insurance. And I'm glad I did, since a few months ago I had to make use of that warranty to get my A7 unbricked from DFU, before the tool was available.
I think only differences between A7 models are in processor i.e. bands. There are variants in SD 820.
AnonVendetta said:
... But then I realized that it doesn't have most of the basebands that my carrier (T-Mobile) supports.
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We're in the same boat... My carrier using AWS bands just like T-MO. A2017G was working perfectly fine maybe missing just one band on LTE. And recently new band was introduced - LTE band 13 (700mhz), which supposed to improve indoor reception - big issue for Axon 7 and AWS. They call it 'Extended Rabge LTE.
So A2017U has that band, but A2017G doesnt. My assumption was that both phones are sharing the same hardware and bands available are controlled by software.
I clicked some numbers and got into some engineering menu where I see choices: USA Bands, Cellular 800. So I picked USA and restarted.
EPIC FAIL!
I lost 3g AWS on SIM1! Only 4G present, which is actually working fine. Just imagine phone with perfect 4G connectivity internet is flying, but you cannot place a phone call... (My carrier - Freedom Mobile doesnt have 2G GSM). I tried to switch it back - no luck
Solution - I use SIM2.
Oreo
Just installed it no OTA had to use sd card. That actually fixed SIM1 band problem. It doesnt seem I have band 13 (that is what I wanted), but connectivity seems better and switching between 3g and 4g is very fast...