Posted by N.M.E.
Hi All.
I haven't made a post here in such a long time (a few months after getting my T610 I think) but recently I bought a K750i and remembered this place was great for information.
Anyway, I'm with Vodafone and have a distinct dislike for the Vodafone Live! stuff, especially once I read about the DRM on mp3 crap. Unfortunately for me, I bought my phone from All Phones and only had the option of a Live! or an Optus Zoo phone. As the Optus phone had no physical changes I went with it (even though it cost an extra $120AU).
Right. So now I have a phone and really the worst part is the big blue 'Optus Zoo' button on the main screen. Not tragic, but not really what I want, so it was time to start researching.
I found a LOT of helpful information about how to flash with custom firmware using the davinci stuff, but nothing specific for what I wanted. I read a lot and eventually pieced together what I needed and thought I'd share.
NOTE: This is not free as it requires you to buy a 'log account' from DaVinci Team which will cost around $16AU
First things first is to install the USB Flash drivers for the phone. The process/files for that can be found on the SE Support Site
First thing is to download the client from the DaVinci Team website: http://www.seuniverse.com/sonyericsson_files/k750flasher_13.7.zip
I used 13.7 because it said that it is made for the K750i over the standard USB cable. Unzip the client and load it up. Click the button at the top that says 'Flash files', select "K750 R1L002 EU2: EN FR DE ST ZU TR", tick the 2 download boxes and hit "Get Files".
While the files are downloading, go and grab your log account from DaVinci Team (http://www.davinciteam.com./index.php?page=logaccount) and get your login and password.
Once the files have finished downloading, hit the "Flash" button at the top and it should populate the Main and FS boxes with "K750i_R1L002_MAIN_EU_EMEA.DVT" and "K750i_R1L002_FS_EU2.DVT" respectively. Change your CDA to "CDA102337/10 - Europe2", tick the Finalization box, enter your account details at the bottom, switch your phone off, plug in the USB cable and hit the big Flash button. Follow the prompts on screen and you should be away. The process will take about 10 minutes and you'll have a nice unbranded K750i. The theory now is that you can update via the SE website and get the EU2 version of the firmware and not the Optus one. I haven't tried this as there is no need so if someone could confirm, that would be good.
If there are any questions/corrections or anything I've missed, please let me know.
EDIT: Hid the long SE URL.
_________________
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing - Edmund Burke
[ This Message was edited by: N.M.E. on 2005-09-06 04:49 ]
Posted by Redback
Hi,
I've also got the Optus Zoo icon on the right button but it's not really a big deal. What I want to know is, is it worth upgrading from R1J002 to R1L??
What are the differences? I've had the phone for a month and R1J seems fine, except for a few crashes but you'd expect that. Is there any better camera quality with R1L?
Posted by N.M.E.
Sorry, don't know.
I only got my phone a week ago and it already had R1L. Look around and I'm sure you'll find posts with a comparison.
Posted by MonkeyButler
How can you tell if the firmware's been upgraded? I got my K750 a few weeks ago (for $530 AUD!!! Although it was Vodaphone branded) and I have no idea what version it is. And does flashing/upgrading return the original software replaced by Vodaphone's crap? Seriously, what good are demos for three games and a stupid Vodaphone welcome message?
Posted by N.M.E.
You can get to the service menu by pressing
>*<<*<*
from the main screen.
From the menu that pops up, go Service info -> Software info and have a look what the firmware version is.
I have no idea if this debranding process will work for the Vodafone Live! phones. I don't know if the hardware itself is different. If it does work, then I pretty much paid $120AU to remove the Vodafone badge from the phone
If you try it and it works, please let us know. You may want to look around first though..I'm sure other people have tried it.
Posted by numb
debranding also works with Vodafone Live phones, they are the same hardware, only difference is in firmware.
Any operatorbranding can be removed by flashing generic firmware to the phone regardless of operator.
Posted by max_wedge
N.M.E , what besides the OPTUS ZOO right softkey button was changed after debranding. I assume the OPTUS ZOO link in the menu - but what does it turn into - a link to SE online content, or just a link to the homepage specified in your internet settings maybe?
btw, thanks for sharing!
Posted by P'cisT
Nice write up.
Did DaVinci get rid of the shutter sound on mute as well?
I noticed you chose the CDA for the UK region. The Aussie CDA is actually 'CDA102338/59', but its no biggy.
I'm also interested whether or not the phone can still be updated via SEUS
Posted by N.M.E.
@numb - Thanks for confirming that.I guess I did pay extra just to not have the logo
@max - The zoo button becomes a 'menu' button...Actually pretty useless
The link on the menu becomes "Internet Services" which takes you to that little SE start page (I dont think it actually makes a connection to get that far). Basically apart from that you don't have the optus startup and shutdown animations. I think that was it. I didn't look around too hard before flashing it. Oh. Also there is now only 1 link at the top of "Pictures" and menus like that.
@P'cisT - I have no shutter noise when the phone is on silent. The CDA you said wasn't in the list. I wasn't game enough to try typing one in manually so I chose the one closest to what I thought (I was going by the EU2 bit).
I haven't tried another firmware update via SEUS yet.. Will let you know when I do that.
Thanks for the replies guys
Posted by max_wedge
Cool, thanks for that. Probably enough improvements, even though minor, that it would encourage me to debrand.
I like the concept of having less chuff in the picutres mentu etc....
Posted by victorh017
@NME
This is a very good post, and very necessary. People NEED to know that the davinci update is not free!
The Davinci website lets you download the software, and its program actually flashes the phone but if you don't have a credit purshased beforehand the davinci flasher will leave your phone unoperative!!! BEWARE OF THIS!!!
That happened to my phone and luckily for me I already had a paypal account so I was able to buy the credit inmediately.
But I think that is very misleading and they should clearly warn you BEFORE you do anything of the risk involved.
Basically I paid 10 euros just to have the spanish T9 in my phone for it was already debranded. A RIP-OFF!!! And the worst part is that it actually deleted the English T9 (I don't use it that much for we speak spanish in Venezuela) but still I think it was an absolute scam. Then I wrote to let them know that I wanted to have the English T9 back in the phone, (it was already there) and basically they washed their hands.
Posted by N.M.E.
@max - Yeah. I find that the little things make it quite a bit nicer
@victor - That's an unfortunate story. What I would recommend is flashing your phone using a CDA that uses both English and Spanish and that way you can keep upgrading with it using SEUS with those 2 languages. Unfortunatley I don't know which CDA it is..Or even if there is one?
Anyone have any ideas?
Posted by shiggsy
Hello all .. this is my first post and all this phone flashing business is new to me! Just got a K750i and have succesfully de-branded from Vodafone onto R1L002, the intention being to then use SEUS to get the newest firmware.
I understand that SEUS will be checking my CDA to see if I can update, but it currently wont let me claiming that they do not support my provider (since I did the flashing). Everyone on this forum seems to be saying I should have updated the phone's CDA to CDA102338/38 (I'm in the UK), but that option is not in the list on my DaVinici program - does anyone know how I can get it there so I can have another go?
I'm much happier with the unbranded phone now anyway, so I wont be too upset if I'm stuck with it, but it'd be a shame if I'd banned myself from SEUS future updates?!
Posted by shiggsy
Oops.. forgot to mention that the CDA that I DID use was the one mentioned in the intructions at the start of this thread CDA102337/10 - Europe2) - so maybe this answers the question as to whether SEUS works after this update process?!
Posted by celtic mad
I was having trouble upgrading my firmware as I was on 02. I have used this useful guide and have successfully debranded my phone and upgraded my firmware to the latest R1N035 firmware.
Thank you once again for this very useful guide!
Posted by N.M.E.
@shiggsy - I just used SEUS to upgrade to R1N035 with no problems. I'm also using CDA102337/10 - Europe2 as my CDA. I'm pretty sure the CDA doesn't matter too much so long as you have the language pack you need. Perhaps try it again now. Maybe they just hadn't released the EU2 version of the firmware. I'm pretty sure with te DaVinci software you can type in whatever CDA you want (the actual aussie one wasn't there as someone said above) but I wasn't game enough to try.
So I guess I've confirmed that using SEUS after debranding works fine and still keeps you with the vanilla firmware. Cool
Thanks for the feedback guys
Posted by TypeR
hmm, i had a Vodafone branded k750i, i used Davinci and unbranded it to R1L002.
It looks great and works great, except the camera is inferior to the past firmwares. i heard the a new firmware is out and fixed the camera, so i went to seus and tried to update.
it won't let me, it says:
"Your device is not permitted to use this service
Your operator does not approve the use of this service with this device.
We look forward to assisting you again soon.
Thank you for using the Sony Ericsson Update Service!"
@shiggsy- maybe Vodafone has some kind of special protection.
CDA: 102337/1 R6A (Hong Kong), i wanted chinese on my fone >.<
[ This Message was edited by: TypeR on 2005-10-01 06:14 ]
Posted by wobbly_rider
- SEUS service is down for all K750i's - see "K750 firmware overview" thread at http://www.esato.com/board/viewtopic.php?topic=92737
Everyone seems to be getting the same message as you (I still am as of 10 minutes ago, thats a UK O2 branded K750i)
[ This Message was edited by: wobbly_rider on 2005-10-01 14:13 ]
Posted by leebyatt
Do you need to purchase a lead to do this?
Posted by N.M.E.
@TypeR - Yeah it'll be the SEUS problem everyone is having. As someone else said in this post, it has been done ok with a Vodafone Live! phone.
@leebyatt - The USB cable that comes with your K750i is fine so long as you use version 13.7 of the client from DaVinci team.
Posted by leebyatt
Well im turning my phone off plugging in the lead and pressing "C" but nothing happens at all. ANy ideas?
Posted by N.M.E.
My guess is because you haven't installed the USB flash drivers properly. Refer to my original post for info.
Posted by leebyatt
Will this work with unlocking also. You were right in regards to the debrand. Thats all sorted. Just need another credit to unlock.
Posted by N.M.E.
What do you mean by "unlock"?
Posted by TypeR
hmmm, so from what i understand is that there is alot of issues with the new R1N035, and so SE is deliberately shutting down SEUS to all k750i users to prevent more users updating this buggy firmware?
nice work SE T.T
****unlocking****
Unlocking the phone means that the phone is not intact with the original network. Wel,, all i know is that DaVinci Debrands the phone but im not sure about unlocking if you using the original USB cable DSU60 (i think thats what its called)
Posted by N.M.E.
Oh right. I didn't know K750i's came locked to a network. I would have thought that debranding/changing the CDA would have been enough. Unless there is a different method of doing it?
So how new is this firmware?? I upgraded mine a couple of weeks ago. but I dont think it was R1N035.
Posted by TypeR
well, it seems SEUS is down for all K750i users until they fixed the firmware. From what i heard,R1N035 is the newest.
the only way to unlock your phone is to purcahse one of those dongle cables which are specifically made for unlocking. you can find them on the Davinci website.
Posted by Julleman
I unlocked my K750i using DaVinci client 13.9 with DCU-60, no problem.
Posted by shajiby
when i try to debrand, when it says press c and and plug cable, nothing happens...i have username/password, version 13.7, cable that came with the phone, and drivers installed, but nothin seems to happen...can someone help me?
(battery and sim card need to be removed?)
how long do i hold the c button?
Posted by N.M.E.
Does the phone just switch on or does it stay off? It sounds like you might not have the correct USB flash drivers installed. Windows can be a real dog about this.
What you need to do is crank open your device manager, expand the list of USB devices and plug the phone in. You'll see a device called 'Flash Device' pop up. When it does, click on it and select "Update Driver" and install the driver from the sony ericsson website (link in original post). Hope this helps!
Posted by shajiby
when it says to press c and plug in the cable, the phone just switches on again...
im pretty sure i have all the drivers installed, as when i try to update the drivers, it says theres nothing newer available...
is it because i use the original cable that came with the phone or something?
[ This Message was edited by: shajiby on 2005-10-08 12:45 ]
Posted by shajiby
i finally debranded it!!!
the problem was that the usb drivers were different from the k750i drivers, thats why the phone wasnt recognised!!!