Need help un-branding / delimiting Nokia 6303i

Fatscally

Hi.
I just got a new Nokia 6303i from Vodafone. They've put software on it so that I can't change the purpose of the right shortcut button (it's fixed to web).
Can anyone here tell me how to format the system and default it back to a Nokia standard OS? Also if I could change the language on it be useful too.

Mimikyu

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Fatscally

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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Good man CM. I'll give that a go.

Fatscally

Sods law... everytime I hit "write" the application crashes. I'll try it on another pc later.

Mimikyu

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drunkmonkey

are you sure your looking in the right place where to change that button I doubt it's locked.

Fatscally

The field "Order Number" = Not Available. Helpfile sez I need a PKD-1CS dongle. What's the story with that?

Mimikyu

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Fatscally

Captain Morgan wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I just want to regain control over the phone and have it back the way I want it that's all. I'd sooner fire it in the bin than have it irritate me. Or maybe post it back to VF and let them fire it in the bin for me. Or maybe ask them to go mooching the net and forums for hacks to undo they're dirty tricks. --- I can dream

WaterWolf

I've just got a Nokia 6303i from o2 and it has an o2 shortcut on the main screen in the same place. It's driving me mad. You are able to change the shortcut for the left button in the settings but not the shortcut for the right button so clearly o2 have purposely gimped the software so you can't do it. I was able to change it on my previous phone from o2.

This is extraordinarily intrusive. Whenever you are pressing the back button to exit out of whatever menus you are in, if you press the button one too many times it will try to load up the o2 website.

Surely there must be some way to change this without having to flash the whole phone. I just want to get rid of this one button! I tried 'reset to factory defaults' but it asked for a code - what's the story with that?

Mimikyu

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WaterWolf

Yep, resetting to factory default didn't help although when the phone first reset it showed the nokia theme for a few seconds with no O2 shortcut then something else kicked in and applied the o2 theme and shortcut.

I don't think I can change the access point, I think o2 have gimped this too. When I go to 'preferred access point' it only shows o2 and gives me no options to add a new one.

Mimikyu

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c-note

hi guys,
I was facing the exact same issue when i got my matt black 6303i from vodafone on tuesday.
I was so annoyed that with it that i valued the handset at zero, and have decided not to buy from vodafone again.
the rhs soft key was locked to web
it was NOT possible to alter access point or add a dummy access point for web application.

having said that i did manage to "de-brand" the phone last night.
i've never done anything like this before but was prepared to risk destroying the phone.

i will outline what i did below,
The only important difference it made to the phone is that the pop3 mail client previously available under menu>messaging>email?
has been replaced with a e-mail application.
the disadvantage of this is that you cant download emails to the handset for veiwing offline. it is just an application that connects to a mail account.

proceedure:

1 > following online advice i uninstalled all nokia software from my pc
which included pc-suite, and any other nokia software listed under the add/remove programmes.

2 > reboot computer.

3 > download and install
"Phoenix_2010.8.exe"
if you google it you should find it

4 > download and install
"rm638_CareDP_3.00_NDT_09.83_6303i.exe"
again google it and you should find it

5 > reboot computer

6 > connect phone to computer via usb cable
and select "nokia mode" or "pc-suite" on the phone
make sure the battery is fully charged

7 > run the phoenix software
? select file>open product
along the bottom bar a code including rm-638 should appear
indicating your phone has been recognised

8 > perform a firmware upgrade
select product code 0593988
and upgrade the firmware

9 > it should take 5-10 mins
dont touch anything untill your absolutely sure the process has
completed, it should give a "success" message.

Thankfully i now have full control over the shortcut keys
i can also connect to the web using isp.vodafone.ie, which is much
much cheaper provided your traffic is very low, which in my case it is
as i only check emails on odd days, costs 3-4 cent vs live.vodafone.com which costs 99c

the main thing you need are the phoenix software, the firmware pack and the product code, the rest you should figure out.

vodafone and 02 by the sound of it, should be made aware that this is a deal breaker, especially if your on prepay, where buying the phone direct from nokia is the same price if not cheaper than buying from vodafone.ie

i will not be buying a phone from vodafone.ie again.

hope this solution works for you also

Mimikyu

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c-note

fair comment captain.
But for me personally its a deal breaker.

i'll may three and meteor to my list if their firmware is designed to scam customers also !
i'll be buying direct from nokia etc in future.

I suspect most people wouldnt care about the firmware because they dont know that it is changeable. i certainly didnt untill tuesday.

however, given the option, only a complete idiot would select
to have the rhs soft key locked to web, with non-editable web config.

Especially with this model of phone where the rhs soft key and the
"hang up" button are physically the same button, on a rocker.

i can guarantee you vodafone are skimming tens of thousands of euro's ever year from their customers by locking the firmware in this way.
i dont think its a practice that any consumer advocate can condone.

i have no problem with company logos/ sim locking, carrier specific application / firmware being on the phone. but this is an obvious scam, and i challenge anybody, vodafone included, to present a vaild arguement otherwise.

Fatscally

c-note Thanks a mil for the detailed unblock routine. I got it after a couple of goes. Seems like a great little phone now, the brain inside it seems a lot faster than my old one.

Captain and others thanks for the help and interest too.

I agree plenty with c-note, it is a deal breaker if you like these little phones as we obviously do. If I can't have it my way then they can shove it. Initially VF set it to web but you could change it, that's ok whatever and not much worse than putting their colours on it. But locking the phone to web is another story, for me it's a deal breaker just for treating me with disregard like an a-hole. For the amount of customers p*d off Vs money collected it might be acceptable collateral damage on the balance books.

Vodafone could have been helpful and told me what to do just as c-note did but instead they cornered me into "can't return it if you open it" bs. So my reaction was this; Sent them a formal complaint stating that at the end of the contract term I would break away from them. Now I know that all the other companies are just as bad but it's still €2k per year moving away from them. This get's a very personal reaction, the automated emails and endless queues of robot answering machines are gone in a day and they're calling me now to do all they can including returning the phone that can't be returned and exchange it for a Win7 phone. I have my little phone working now so the Win7 brick can go in someone else's pocket i reckon.

I never wanted to scam anything. VF should be happy that I choose their service in the first place without trying to force my hand to buy extras that I just don't want. It's like "you must use this or we will deny you this functionality!" And ironically it wouldn't have worked because I had the service locked off anyway.

So I'm keeping my new 6303i now but will I still keep VF? hm? They'd want to change their attitude towards their customers me thinks.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

c-note

Captain Morgan wrote: »

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I think its probably fair to say you'd be a tech savvy customer captain, who's got some knowledge and skills when it comes to mobile phones.

but i'd say 99.9% of the population dont have thoose skills or knowledge.
I wasn't aware nor did i care about firmware upgradability untill last week, it took me the whole evening of web searching downloading and experimenting to figure it out.

I could of course live with the locked web soft key,
But it frustrated me, and i asked myself.
"why would a phone operator choose to lock this key to web, and why are the web configurations not changeable?"

The only answer i could come up with was

They have designed it so that i will inadvertantly spend money on their services when i do not require them.

its cynical and shows that they have no consideration or respect for their customer.
The acutal locking of the key/settings is symtomatic of this, and to me at least indicates the attitude of the company towards its customers. of which i rather not be one.

i'm sure it dosnt bother most people. But i know it bothers quite a few.

Fatscally

I completely agree with everything from c-note there. It's close enough to as if I wrote it myself. Also the attitude of Vodafone is "Well all the other companies are doing it"...so I'm thinking you're just as bad as the rest of them is that it?

Also the guy reccomended I buy a SIM Free phone from Amazon or Pixmania. ffs. What value am I to them?

Irritating to the bone.

rosco p coltrane

Well, i just got my 6303i today in the post and i have the same situation going on with the right key.

I'm going into a seller tomorrow to see how much an unbranded 6303i is and if its more or less the same as Vodafone charged me,€89.99, its going straight back to them.

To me it is a deal breaker.

c-note

Hey Rosco
If you dont have any success check out post#14 of this thread for how to De-Brand the phone yourself.

It will still be locked to vodafone afaik, but you'll be able to change the RHS key.

BE AWARE, Debranding the phone may void the warranty?

GOOD LUCK!

Posada

Hi all, I keep getting error messages saying Phoenix didn't install properly. Any ideas?

Air_Bass

Thanks for this c-note, it worked a treat.
Just dug out my old 6310 to lend to my Dad for a few months and didn't want him accidentally logging on to the web every time he hangs up from a call.
This fix makes the phone safer for the "non tech-savvy" older person.

c-note wrote: »

hi guys,
I was facing the exact same issue when i got my matt black 6303i from vodafone on tuesday.
I was so annoyed that with it that i valued the handset at zero, and have decided not to buy from vodafone again.
the rhs soft key was locked to web
it was NOT possible to alter access point or add a dummy access point for web application.

having said that i did manage to "de-brand" the phone last night.
i've never done anything like this before but was prepared to risk destroying the phone.

i will outline what i did below,
The only important difference it made to the phone is that the pop3 mail client previously available under menu>messaging>email?
has been replaced with a e-mail application.
the disadvantage of this is that you cant download emails to the handset for veiwing offline. it is just an application that connects to a mail account.

proceedure:

1 > following online advice i uninstalled all nokia software from my pc
which included pc-suite, and any other nokia software listed under the add/remove programmes.

2 > reboot computer.

3 > download and install
"Phoenix_2010.8.exe"
if you google it you should find it

4 > download and install
"rm638_CareDP_3.00_NDT_09.83_6303i.exe"
again google it and you should find it

5 > reboot computer

6 > connect phone to computer via usb cable
and select "nokia mode" or "pc-suite" on the phone
make sure the battery is fully charged

7 > run the phoenix software
? select file>open product
along the bottom bar a code including rm-638 should appear
indicating your phone has been recognised

8 > perform a firmware upgrade
select product code 0593988
and upgrade the firmware

9 > it should take 5-10 mins
dont touch anything untill your absolutely sure the process has
completed, it should give a "success" message.

Thankfully i now have full control over the shortcut keys
i can also connect to the web using isp.vodafone.ie, which is much
much cheaper provided your traffic is very low, which in my case it is
as i only check emails on odd days, costs 3-4 cent vs live.vodafone.com which costs 99c

the main thing you need are the phoenix software, the firmware pack and the product code, the rest you should figure out.

vodafone and 02 by the sound of it, should be made aware that this is a deal breaker, especially if your on prepay, where buying the phone direct from nokia is the same price if not cheaper than buying from vodafone.ie

i will not be buying a phone from vodafone.ie again.

hope this solution works for you also