Unlocking disabled 3G bands

[Burs]

According to the specs, V3 supports only WCDMA 850/2100.
Does anyone know if there's (hidden) hardware support for WCDMA 900Mhz?
If there is, could it be unlocked using this secret android menu: *#*#3646633#*#* ?
Or maybe MobileUncleTools or some other specific MTK tool could help?
Last option would be decompiling radio firmware, but that's SF for now.
Thanks.

[pletko]

i guess you're aiming at 900 MHz 3G at Croatia, right?

[Burs]

Bingo! I've also been trying to do it on my current Snapdragon platform, but I see there's much more MTK tools for such things, so I hope I'll find something. Unless ofcourse the chipset is not capable of 900Mhz. Then we'll have to wait for iNew to go worldwide with peta-band support Like that's gonna happen...

[chris_koz]

personally i think it is depedent to phone hw and modem.I am waiting for my inew v3 but i have also a blackview jk809 --->mtk6589T platform which officially supports wcdma 850/2100. Ι installed a modem.img file from cubot gt99 --->mtk6589 platform and in mtk engineer mode menu i saw that wcdma was enabled and 850 disabled but my phone had no gps signal and mobile signal was very bad both in 2g and 3g.So i assume that for real wcdma 900mhz the phone must have the proper hw,something that doesnt exist in mazority of mtk65xx phones

[Burs]

I found [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register] which are also based on MT6582 as our V3, support UMTS900 (B8). So, a logical assumption would be that V3 also has (hidden) support for that band, right? Is there some other hardware prerequisite, like another antenna or something? Can anyone check if 900Mhz band can be enabled either with phone's engineering menu (*#*#3646633#*#*) or Mobile Uncle Tools or with any other MTK specific tool? If not, I guess the last chance would be modifying radio firmware or importing it from one of those devices which support it out-of-the-box. Anyone?

[Burs]

I've updated my baseband version from the old one dated November 1st 2013 to new one dated February 15th 2014. I extracted it from the new 1.0.1 firmware (the one working at 900/2100). I was hoping I could have 900Mhz too, but I'm without luck. BT/WiFi/GPS/NFC are all working ok, so I will keep it anyway. Maybe some settings are stored in NVRAM, and maybe there are hardware changes too? What do you guys think about that? If someone knows where to get from or can make backup of his own NVRAM on new 1.0.1 version, I would appreciate if it can be uploaded somewhere.

If you want to update your baseband, first download a new baseband version from [Only registered and activated users can see links Click here to register], so you don't have to download a complete v1.0.1 rom, and screw around with unpacking system.img file.

After that, just unpack the archive and copy modem_1_wg_n.img from v1.0.1\system\etc\firmware folder into your \system\etc\firmware folder on your phone, and confirm the overwrite. Ofcourse, your phone must be rooted, and you should install one of the more advanced android file managers (like Solid Explorer or Root Explorer), so you copy the file into your /system, and afterall change the file attributes, owner and group to what the system expects (all of that must be like the original .img file had before, because new .img file gets some default properties which are not ok in our case).

The file should have file permissions like on the screenshot below (-rw-r--r-- 644), and owner/group must be set to root.

   

After that step, reboot your phone, and keep your fingers crossed
After all is settled down, go to Settings/About phone, and you should see your baseband version is updated.

   

The original .img file can also be found in v.1.0.7 folder if you by any chance want to go back.

I guess I don't have to mentition, but will do it anyway: you do all of this at your own risk! If something bad happens, well, that's just sad. I'm not held responsible for anything. It works perfectly on my phone, but your mileage may vary.

[paralog]

Zopo ZP780 uses MTK6582 and supports WCDMA 900/1900/2100 according to most sellers, so must be true. I tried using Zopo ZP780 modem_xx_.img file and BPLGU* file and replacing the ones on the phone. The phone boots up and all radios work, but mtk engineering tools still show the same WCDMA bands 800/850/2100. No luck enabling WCDMA 1900 which I need for 3G here.

I'm hoping someone will figure out how to enable other radio bands.

[Burs]

please do not start to clutter up this thread also.

Yeah, I totaly agree. Moderators should do a better job here. But first off all, users themselves should be also more careful. Either find the thread where the subject is already discussed, or open a new thread if it doesn't exists yet. I know it's easier to click on the newest thread, or the thread wich has many posts, but it's NOT a correct way. Other forums would delete your post within 5 minutes, or if they are more polite than you, they would move it where it belongs or create a new thread for it. This is not the case here, and I really regret that.

I tried using Zopo ZP780 modem_xx_.img file and BPLGU* file and replacing the ones on the phone. The phone boots up and all radios work, but mtk engineering tools still show the same WCDMA bands 800/850/2100. No luck enabling WCDMA 1900 which I need for 3G here.

This BPLGU* "modem database" (as others are calling it) doesn't even exists in 1.0.1 firmware (the 900/2100 one from which I took the baseband from). There is only TD-SCDMA one which is not interesting in our case. So now, I'm still using the old modem's database, and everything still works. And it works even without it after I completely removed it.

I even replaced the EngineeringMode.apk with the version from 1.0.1 and still have only the old basebands selected. Later I discovered APK files are the same, so there must be a place from which the data is gathered, and then the menu items are enabled/disabled and checked/unchecked.

I found a portion in NVRAM which holds the settings for this UMTS band selection menu, and effects are immediate (as soon as I change something, the change is reflected in the menu), but I still haven't found a way how to enable the disabled menu items. I would say that information is pulled out of some other part of NVRAM, or even some other part of the whole firmware (and ofcourse maybe the hardware, which we might not have!).

Last but not least, I've been playing around with modem's AT commands. We can send commands to our radio, but unfortunately even this way we can't enable wcma900 because the feedback message says the band is not supported (duh!). Maybe someone else can play with it even more, though I have tried everything what I could have think of. Go into engineer mode (*#*#3646633#*#*), then switch to Connectivity tab, then select CDS Information, then Radio Information, and lastly Phone1 or Phone2 (depending on which SIM card you're trying to change the bands for). Then use AT+CPBSE=x,y command to select desired bands, where 'x' is a bit flag for GSM bands, and 'y' is a flag for UMTS band. Do a google search on how to use them, but if I'm remembering correctly it should be '65535,128' (all GSM bands, and umts900 band).

[linr76]

good information Burs!
i'd give it a shot, but unfortunately mine is still on the way over the big ocean... (i never knew airmail could be THAT slow....)

[danyno1]

good information Burs!
i'd give it a shot, but unfortunately mine is still on the way over the big ocean... (i never knew airmail could be THAT slow....)

probably yours was on the plane that has been lost recently. the one which flew over the The Bermuda Triangle