NSS product code change on Nokia E72 caused bricked device.
by Carl Farrington on Feb.09, 2010, under Tips & Tricks
I picked up a Vodafone branded Nokia E72, because I was getting really fed up of my Palm Pre for loads of reasons.
The Vodafone UK supplied E72 doesn’t seem to be sim-locked and took my o2 sim card just fine, but I wasn’t happy with the Voda customised firmware, and I wanted the latest firmware update which isn’t available for the Voda product code.
As I have done many times before, I used Nemsis service suite to change the product code to 0573569, which is some EURO – BLACK product code. This product code had the latest firmware available anyway.
I then used Nokia Software Updater and it told me there was new firmware available and it did the upgrade.
That was over an hour ago and the phone has been bricked since, that is until I did a hard reset just now. Phew!
When the USB cable was plugged into the phone, the Nokia USB Flashing Parent device would be detected in device manager for about 10 seconds, then the phone would bleep and it would disappear. NSS, Nokia Software Updater, and Phoenix all couldn’t see an attached deviced.
I was getting ready to tell my supplier that I’d broke another phone (I had an E55 die after not very long ..)
I’m still not quite sure if it’s *, 3, Green/Dial that have to be held down on the full QWERTY Nokias, or if it was Shift, Space, Backspace. I think it was the latter. Anyway, the phone has sprung into life.
Update: It’s definitely Shift, Space & Backspace. Thanks to everyone for the confirmation. Here is a picture of the keys that need to be held down for the hard reset/factory reset:
February 21st, 2010 on 11:53 am
Thanks Carl! I got breath back to my E72!
February 24th, 2010 on 3:59 pm
Shift, Space, Backspace did it for me. thanks for the tip
February 24th, 2010 on 4:05 pm
You’re both welcome! Cheers
February 25th, 2010 on 11:25 pm
i have a question after the update fails. was the phone not startin and only vibrate and goes of. i had the same problem and i have change the phone i will it try again if Shift, Space, Backspace is a solution for disapionted updating
February 25th, 2010 on 11:28 pm
Yeah, basically. Shift-space-backspace whilst powering on did a hard reset/reformat/whatever, and although all data was gone (phone was new anyway..) it worked and the phone is up to date now.
February 26th, 2010 on 12:14 am
thx for your nswer did you have the same problem like me only vibratin when you try to start the phone if yes iwant try again to update
February 26th, 2010 on 12:27 am
Yes.
February 26th, 2010 on 2:25 am
ohh s***t its not working its not formating
February 26th, 2010 on 2:57 am
Hold the keys down while switching on and keep them held down for a while.
March 8th, 2010 on 7:51 am
Saved my day. Bricked the phone after changing product code and upgrading firmware.
Hard reset fixed it. Hold shift+space+backspace while turning on power, seems like keys need to be held down a few seconds to initiate the reset sequence…
March 17th, 2010 on 8:17 pm
You saved my life!
shift – space bar – back space!!
All I can say is thank you – I owe you!!
March 18th, 2010 on 11:50 pm
Hi guys,
I’ve debranded my E72 and now it’s stuck on the black screen on boot after hard resetting.
Any ideas? Did it stay on black screen for you guys and then load the OS? Not sure if I should try turning it off and doing it again?
Thanks
March 19th, 2010 on 12:57 am
What I mean to say is, does the black screen stay on for ages and then the factory reset happens or do you guys see the factory reset straight away?
I hope to god this phone isn’t bricked for good…
Any help is MASSIVELY appreciated.
please email me nirave@mobile-users.net if you have any suggestions! thanks
March 19th, 2010 on 1:01 am
Erm, I think mine was just not powering on, or maybe that’s the same as being stuck on black screen. Try the shift-space-backspace again, maybe after pulling battery out, and keep the keys held down too.
March 19th, 2010 on 10:55 am
Hi Carl,
I took the battery out and left it out overnight.
Just held the keys down for about 5 minutes and all that happens is the phone vibrates several times (as it used to vibrate when turning off or on) and the black screen comes and goes to be replaced by a grey screen (which is when the phone is off)…
Still nothing has happened, not sure if you’ve got any more suggestions or am I left with a very expensive paperweight?
Any help would be seriously appreciated.
Thanks
March 20th, 2010 on 2:20 pm
Hi Nirave,
The same thing happend to me.
When you turn the the phone it vibrates – to confirm the action.
Take out the battery so you know the phone is off, then put it back in. Then when you power up, hold down – shift – space bar – back space and puch the power button, when you feel the start let go the power button – BUT keep holding the other 3 – you will see a dim\grey Nokia logo appear – then let them go. Its tricky to get all buttons down at once, but once you get it right it should work with luck.
March 20th, 2010 on 4:14 pm
THANK YOU ALL!
It works. Took me an hour. Press the 3 keys and power on. let go of power key when vibrate BUT hold on to the other three keys. I takes about 30 seconds before you’ll see a dimmed Nokia logo. Don’t give up. good luck!
March 21st, 2010 on 12:10 pm
Hi Nirave,
Had the same prob like you. shift-spacebar-backspace holding and pressing the power button on etc didnt work at all. What i did wrong was holding a different key than the right SHIFT key. I was holding the key right down in the corner, but it had to be the key next to it. Its the arrow key left from the bluetooth/symbol key.
Now with the correct SHIFT key it worked like a charm. Thanks Marc for the instructions. good luck !
March 21st, 2010 on 12:27 pm
Widjay, hopefully that’s all that Nirave is doing wrong. Perhaps I’ll add a photo of the keys in question.
thanks,
Carl
March 21st, 2010 on 1:04 pm
Hi Carl,
Yes is hope that is all Nirave is doing wrong. Now i have a another problem with the qwerty layout. the q=a, a=q, w=z, z=w. My e72 phone was a branded dutch tmobile with the productcode, 0594728. Did changed it to 0591739: BENELUX QW BLACK. Do you know wich productcode should work fine with my phone? Thanks in advance,
thanks,
Widjay
March 21st, 2010 on 1:45 pm
Hi Carl,
Solved the problem, did found a another dutch productcode, 0573569. With this productcode i got the correct software form the nsu.
March 22nd, 2010 on 6:55 pm
http://forum.telefonino.net/showthread.php?t=635653
List of product codes.
Carl,
Good idea on the picture for which buttons to push. Think that is a common problem.
Cheers
March 23rd, 2010 on 10:30 pm
FYI, the backspace button is not holding left on the optical nav button (the center button). The backspace button is the button above the “return” key the arrow with an x on it. As mentioned above, the “shift” key is the key to the left of the SYMBOL/Bluetooth key. Here is the user guide for the e72 http://nds1.nokia.com/files/support/china/phones/guides/Nokia_E72_UG_English_HK.pdf
Peace.
S
March 30th, 2010 on 7:36 pm
Hi all,
Just got NSS to see my E72 and shows Vodafone product code (0590128). Seems easy to change but my question(s) are: after I’ve changed the code and run NSU is it always necessary to hard reset the phone, and, if I have to, when I do are all contacts and messages lost (which I’m guessing I can restore with a backup made immediately prior to changing the code)? How about things like licenses for maps etc?
TIA.
Adam
April 1st, 2010 on 1:22 am
Hi Adam. I don’t know about licenses for maps. I thought it was all free now? My experience was that a hard reset was necessary, and it looks like I’m not alone, so you would want a backup, if you are not already syncing to an Exchange or Google server or something, or use PC Suite to sync to Outlook or something. You obviously want a backup that’s as minimal as possible, it’d be no good if the backup contained the brick-causing information/settings.
April 1st, 2010 on 9:25 pm
Hmm hadn’t thought about the possibility of brick inducing settings. Have a very recent full back up but at the moment am struggling to do a data transfer to a spare donor phone in the event it all goes horrible. See this as a holiday job. Will let you know how it pans out. Useful photos BTW. Cheers. Adam
April 4th, 2010 on 11:57 am
You only need to perform a hard reset IF you run into boot issues after the firmware update.
In terms of the backup, it should be fine you are not backing up “bricked settings” – your phone is working fine when you back it up, so therefore the backup should be fine.
Once the phone has had a hard reset, just restore…
Mine worked perfectly apart from an icon or 2 missing and an app or 2 had icons but would not launcg so just installed them again..
April 6th, 2010 on 7:25 pm
Hi, NSS a doddle to use and software upgrade went very well AFTER I decided to use my PC to update software as every time I tried with the laptop (XP pro SP3) it froze leaving me in a right panic as NSU suggested that removing USB lead not good. However updated in minutes with PC (XP pro SP2). Hard reset afterards returned phone with 22.007 and all photos but no SMS or contacts which were restored from a recent back-up. Happy as Larry and phone seems faster. Thanks all. Adam
April 7th, 2010 on 2:17 am
Excellent, good stuff
April 11th, 2010 on 2:58 am
Hi everyone, was looking to get rid of my Vodafone firmware as it was not allowing to sync my mail (i am on O2). Thank you for all the details in here as i managed to debrand my e72.
Just to clarify a couple of things if it helps others.
Follow all the procedures as described above by others. Mine got stuck on the ‘test’ screen. I pulled out the battery and turned it on, but it went back on the old firmware. I did a hard reset after taking the battery out, then the phone booted back onto the unbranded firmware. Or maybe the firmware update actually removes all the network related crap.
Anyways, thanks guys.
April 12th, 2010 on 11:54 pm
I tried to debrand a T-Mobile phone, and I bricked it also. This hard reset did not work for me… Neither flashing it with Phoenix or JAF…
April 23rd, 2010 on 10:00 pm
Hy guys,
I wish to debrand my E72 so I can update to new Firmware version 031.023
Has anyone done it? Maybe Zide has problem with new firmware version 031.023 which maybe prevents from debranding so even hard reset doesn’t work?
April 30th, 2010 on 7:18 pm
help please, like widjay i flashed to a version that destroys the qwerty/azerty layout, how do i now go to a different version like 0573569?
May 19th, 2010 on 1:06 pm
Can anyone confirm that the debranding of an E72 to the latest firmware 31.023 worked?
May 31st, 2010 on 1:45 pm
I just debranded mine with no problems at all. I went from 0595585 UK T-Mobile to 0584245 Euro. I already had 031.023 installed on my phone but I hated the T-mobile stuff that came with it so re-installed the generic version after changing the product code using NSS.
June 1st, 2010 on 6:59 pm
Hi, I just purchased my e72 in HongKong. How i can change the code to have hebrew fonts and hebrew english system?