All posts by Ryan Cullen

Debrand your P990 / M600 / W950 for FREE

Mobiles

Jan 2008 Update – A new EASIER way to flash your phone for FREE, which also works for the W960 and the P1.

WARNING: Doing this could brick your phone!
Whilst I have successfully converted a Vodafone M600i into an unbranded Australian, there are several reports of it not working and phone being broken. All actions are taken at your own risk!

Following on from my most sucessful blog post ever, we now have a method to debrand your UIQ3 phone for free.
No more Vodafone or Orange customisation!

However this method is slightly more complicated than using KulanKendiClient, so if you’re not too sure for only €6 KulanKendiClient is still worthwhile.

As per anything which involves changing the phones firmware any action you take on your phone is completely your own choice. If you’re not 100% confident then DON’T do it. I would recommend that you read the comments for opinions from other users before starting.

  1. Perform a back-up of your phone via the PC Suite (or however you prefer)
  2. Run the Sony Ericsson Update Service (SEUS) and update the firmware of your phone. Even if you have the latest firmware DO THIS! You’ll need to Continue anyway and confirm mulitple times.
  3. Download the patch file for your phone from here.
    For the P990 use P990_CDA162007/1_R9F011_Generic_World_1.rar, for the M600 use M600_CDA-162011/1_R9F011_Generic_World_1.zip and for the W950 try W950_CDA-162014/1_R9F011_Generic_World_1.rar
  4. Unzip / Unrar these files on to your Desktop (or any temp folder)
  5. Here’s the tricky bit. Open c:\Program Files\Sony Ericsson\Update Service\db\13740270\ and make a backup of the blob_fs folder.
  6. Now open the blob_fs folder and sort by file size. Right near the bottom you should have a file sized about 353 bytes (if you hover over the 1kb files a tooltip window will give the exact size). Right click this and select Rename, now hold Ctrl and press C (copy).
  7. On your Desktop find the file you unzipped which is about 353 bytes. Right click and select Rename, now hold Ctrl and press V (paste).
  8. Repeat for the file which is about 413 bytes.
  9. Now drag the two files from your Desktop in to the c:\Program Files\Sony Ericsson\Update Service\db\13740270\blob_fs\ folder, and press Yes to overwriting the files.
  10. Re-flash your phone with SEUS, pressing Yes everytime you are asked “Are you sure?”. This will now rewrite the CDA of your phone.
  11. Turn your phone on, press next through all the setup screens, then pull the battery out.
  12. Now for a final time re-flash your phone again with SEUS. This will now download the Generic firmware for your phone and install it.
  13. Turn your phone back on again and enjoy the debranded menus

Pictures:
Before
M600 Vodafone Startup M600 Vodafone CDA
During
M600 Vodafone Startup M600 Mixed CDA
After
M600 Sony Ericsson Startup M600 Generic CDA

Please leave comments below if you get this to work, as I would like to see how well it’s if works. Also if you are having problems please let me know which phone you have and if you leave an email address I can reply to you directly.

Live stats

LibDemBlogs

I’ve recently upgraded the MyBlogLog stats for LibDemBlogs. This now means that you see today’s most popular stories and not yesterdays on the site, and that I can see which posts were most popular over a period of time, making it a bit easier for Stephen Tall to do the weekly round-up each Sunday on LibDemVoice.

Whilst on MyBlogLog I noticed the option to add your Twitter status, after Facebook this morning it looks like Web 2.0 is getting smaller.

What to watch over the summer

TV

Today at work I was trying to work out what I could start watching over the summer period. 24, Smallville, My Name is Earl, Battlestar Galactica and Heroes are now over and it won’t be long before Lost stops too. This is now leaving me with around 5-6 hours of TV time free.
But then on the way home I remembered what I watch to fill my free time over the summer. Big Brother! With pictures of the new house in the papers and on the web, I can’t believe that I couldn’t put the two together. Season Eight is only 8 days away, so whilst all the good American TV is on it’s break, I’ll just put up with the cheap space filling stuff you get on Channel 4.

YAY: Whilst researching this post I had originally wrote

On top of that Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip has been axed.

but the NBC website shows a NEW episode to be aired this Thursday. Web reports show that there are 6 episodes still to be aired and that the future of Studio 60 is still being decided.

Eurovision – Live Blogging

TV

23:13 FIX – The Serbian Hiro was in the bottom half of my votes. Oh well, see you next year.

21:47 My top three: Ukraine, Russia and Sweden

21:43 Moldova – More leather 7/10
21:38 Armenia – More beer is needed! 4/10
21:35 Turkey – I suppose he’s ok 7/10
21:30 Bulgaria – ee! 3/10
21:26 Romania – Oh no 4/10
21:24 United Kingdom – Ouch my ears hurt, but better than most 7/10
21:22 Just realised my Stella has been imported from the Ukraine. Does the shop around the corner know something about the contest?
21:18 Ukraine – ai lyu lyu? 9/10
21:14 Serbia – Is that a Serbian Hiro? 5/10
21:11 Germany – German crooning – not good 6/10
21:07 Russia – Definitely no moustaches 8/10
21:03 Latvia – Not keen on the hats, can sing, but just not Eurovision 6/10
21:00 France – Are they French or English? 7/10
20:59 Back from getting beer and chocolate 🙂
20:53 Sweden – Finally something that is alright 7/10
20:50 Georgia – Dancers are the best bit of this one 5/10
20:45 Greece – A London Enrique 6/10
20:43 Lithuania – Looks like Gorillaz are in the band 5/10
20:39 Hungary – Did nothing for me 4/10
20:36 Need beer and chocolates, but have neither 🙁
20:34 Slovenia – hmmm 3/10
20:30 FYR Macedonia – Nice 6/10
20:26 Finland – Best so far, but not that hard 6/10
20:22 Ireland – Very Irish, but can’t understand her 4/10
20:19 Worried I might run out of negative words
20:18 Belarus – Not bad 6/10
20:12 Spain – zzzzzz 3/10
20:08 Bosnia and Herzegovina – Nothing exciting 4/10

EXCLUSIVE: Brown not to stand!

Labour

Word from my contact in the Treasury is that Gordon Brown WONT announce that he is standing tomorrow, nor will he ever.
Gordon has worked out that with inflation and interest rates at high levels, it’s time to bail. This way he’ll be remembered for being one of the best chancellors and not a poor one-term Prime Minister who had to deal with Iraq, Terrorism and Inflation.

Thank you and goodbye

Council, Labour, LibDems, Lincoln, Tories

Polling StationI would like to thank those who elected me last year, and voted for me this year. However with the boundary changes and all-ups unfortunately both Heather and myself are no longer the councillors for Park Ward. The Liberal Democrats did avoid a complete wipe out with Helen Heath taking one of the Labour seats in Carholme Ward.
The Tories did what they promised all year and took control of the council from Labour with 17 councillors (up 6). There was bad luck for Claire Metcalfe (Con) who got elected with me last year, she came 4th in Glebe, losing out to her 18 year old daughter Charlotte (Con) who came 1st and I wish Sandra Gratrick (Con) the best of luck next year having to stand for the third year in a row even though she’s been elected twice.
This years other losers were: Steve Allnutt (Lab); Lesley Rose (Lab); Larry Wells (Lab); Morris Cookson (Lab) and Geoff Ellis (Lab)