Help Activating my Boost Prevail

[kolosus]

For reasons I cannot discuss at the moment I cannot call up Boost and help tech support this issue. I was hoping someone here could help me out.

I have a Prevail. It was activated previously. I reset the phone (##786#). After, I'm trying to put it onto a different account that I started with Boost. The original owner of the Prevail moved on to a different device and let me have the Prevail.

So. I started the account and wrote down the MDN/MIN numbers. I activated the account, paid the $10 reactivation fee. The phone cannot do a hands free activation. It errors with "Internal Error" as the message. Settings> About Phone> Update PRL/Profile is not working either. So I manually programmed the phone. I can make calls from the phone but data is a no go. I do not get a 1/3g icon at all.

I left the phone on for a while hoping that data will connect and I'd be able to do a profile update but under Settings> About Phone> Status> Mobile network state at first it'd say "connecting..." but after a few hours it just says "disconnected".

So here I am. Can make calls but data is not working at all. Is there a step that I'm missing? What are the steps EXACTLY that Boost uses to activate the phone the first time. I vaguely remember them having me manually program the phone the first time but it's been a while and I cannot remember exactly.

The phone used to work perfectly before when the original owner gave it to me and this is the first time I'm trying to put it into another account.

Any help, ideas, random thoughts anyone is willing to share is very much appreciated.

 

[cyberapps]

For reasons I cannot discuss at the moment I cannot call up Boost and help tech support this issue. I was hoping someone here could help me out.

I have a Prevail. It was activated previously. I reset the phone (##786#). After, I'm trying to put it onto a different account that I started with Boost. The original owner of the Prevail moved on to a different device and let me have the Prevail.

So. I started the account and wrote down the MDN/MIN numbers. I activated the account, paid the $10 reactivation fee. The phone cannot do a hands free activation. It errors with "Internal Error" as the message. Settings> About Phone> Update PRL/Profile is not working either. So I manually programmed the phone. I can make calls from the phone but data is a no go. I do not get a 1/3g icon at all.

I left the phone on for a while hoping that data will connect and I'd be able to do a profile update but under Settings> About Phone> Status> Mobile network state at first it'd say "connecting..." but after a few hours it just says "disconnected".

So here I am. Can make calls but data is not working at all. Is there a step that I'm missing? What are the steps EXACTLY that Boost uses to activate the phone the first time. I vaguely remember them having me manually program the phone the first time but it's been a while and I cannot remember exactly.

The phone used to work perfectly before when the original owner gave it to me and this is the first time I'm trying to put it into another account.

Any help, ideas, random thoughts anyone is willing to share is very much appreciated.

have you try going to www.boostmobile.com and try to re-activate the phone. What version does your adriod has.

 

[Deleted User]

Did u do the reset after the activation? Did you enter you msl?

 

[Apache Thunder]

There are two menus that reset the phone settings. The DSN reset in the 786 menu and the ##72786# reset menu that then activates the OTA activation after restart. Try those and if that doesn't work, try using Odin to flash the phone back to a stock rom. It may help wipe out what ever screw up that occurred in the system.

However, do NOT use Rom Manager to flash your phone. That app will brick your phone.

 

[kolosus]

Thanks for your suggestions cyberapps, downthemachine and Apache Thunder.

Yes. I activated my phone through their website. The phone was activated and as far as voice is concerned everything is going smooth. I can make and receive calls. I know my MSL code and after I got the phone I did do a factory reset and a reset through ##786# too.

My Prevail is on 2.2 ED13. I recently changed back to that in the hopes that my data might start working. It used to be on the latest (EJ19?) with CTMod.

I forgot about the ##72786# and I tired that too... but that didn't help.

I changed my MSL code. The reason for changing is because I want to get my Prevail on a Pay as You Go plan. I want to use it as a data only device... text through one of the apps available in the market and make calls very seldom. I had to get the Prevail recognized as a different phone on the network for that.

So. I got it recognized as a different phone. Different MSL and all. But I cannot get data to work. Maybe someone has more ideas?

EDIT:
The Hands Free Activation exits with the following error.
The profile update could not be completed. Please try again later.
If the problem persists, you may need to contact Customer Service.
Error: Internal Error.

 

[Apache Thunder]

I'm out of ideas. The only thing I can think of at this point is that the MSL change might be causing the problem. What about the MSID? Did you change that as well? I heard changing the MSID can cause problems. Usually the MSID is the phone number that was originally assigned to that phone when it was brand new and first activated. If it was activated properly, the MSID should still be that number but with your area code.

Mine had major data speed issues until I did a DSN reset and reactivation. Before that my MSID had a different area code then my current number. After the re-activation and such, the area code changed to match mine and I noticed better data speeds. Data speeds are kinda still crap, but at least now I am not getting connection errors in the Market anymore. I'm thinking my small town just has a crappy cell tower.

Try changing the MSID back to the original one it had before you changed it but keep the area code the same as the area code that your account phone number currently is. See if that improves anything.

Also note it is rare for an MSID to be the same as your phone number unless you bought the phone on a new account. After it gets resold as a used phone, that is where the MSID tend to diverge from the phone number as other users tend to be upgrading to new phones and then their number rarely ever matches the MSID. So it is normal for the MSID to not match your phone number. But if the area code of that MSID doesn't match your account phone number, then you "might" run into some issues.

EDIT: The main thing that "identifies" what phone the phone carrier sees the phone as is the ESN/MEID. You will have to change that to one from a doner phone that is compatible with the Pay As you Go plan. (perhaps try and change the MSID to match that of the Pay As you Go doner phone as well.

All android phones Boost has can't be on Pay As you Go (for reasons I can't fathom. Is there any real reason why Boost doesn't want Android phones on the PayAsYouGo plans?) So that means using the ESN/MEID of a Blackberry or one of the generic low end phones. I would recommend using Blackberries as a doner for the ESN change as they use the network in a manner closest to how Androids phones do. (from a cosmetic stand point anyway. No guarantees)

However the MSL is just a lock code to get into hidden menus. I don't recall the MSL having any involvement at all in regards to how the network sees your phone. It's the MEID/ESN that identifies your phone to the network.

 

[wetbiker7]

Kolosus , after reading everything that you have already tried , I've tried to figure this one out but it's got stumped .

The phone not doing the hands free activation has happened to me twice . Both times I had done a Master Reset in the hidden menu and I had no phone OR 3g .The only way that I was able to fix it was have Boost do a forced activation and I've read that you're not able to right now .

As for the PRL not updating , you can root the phone and change it manually . I don't know if this would make a difference but I would still try .

Since you're able to send and receive calls , this is leading me to believe the the ROM has become corrupt somehow . Either that or some of the hardware has gone bad .

Have you tried using Odin to install all of the tar files from EJ06 in the Odin thread ? I would maybe even try flashing a rooted version and then try to manually change the PRL . I have no idea if any of these things would fix your phone but it's worth a try .

Hope you get it fixed man .

 

[Dest1ny]

I'm out of ideas. The only thing I can think of at this point is that the MSL change might be causing the problem. What about the MSID? Did you change that as well? I heard changing the MSID can cause problems. Usually the MSID is the phone number that was originally assigned to that phone when it was brand new and first activated. If it was activated properly, the MSID should still be that number but with your area code.

Mine had major data speed issues until I did a DSN reset and reactivation. Before that my MSID had a different area code then my current number. After the re-activation and such, the area code changed to match mine and I noticed better data speeds. Data speeds are kinda still crap, but at least now I am not getting connection errors in the Market anymore. I'm thinking my small town just has a crappy cell tower.

Try changing the MSID back to the original one it had before you changed it but keep the area code the same as the area code that your account phone number currently is. See if that improves anything.

Also note it is rare for an MSID to be the same as your phone number unless you bought the phone on a new account. After it gets resold as a used phone, that is where the MSID tend to diverge from the phone number as other users tend to be upgrading to new phones and then their number rarely ever matches the MSID. So it is normal for the MSID to not match your phone number. But if the area code of that MSID doesn't match your account phone number, then you "might" run into some issues.

EDIT: The main thing that "identifies" what phone the phone carrier sees the phone as is the ESN/MEID. You will have to change that to one from a doner phone that is compatible with the Pay As you Go plan. (perhaps try and change the MSID to match that of the Pay As you Go doner phone as well.

All android phones Boost has can't be on Pay As you Go (for reasons I can't fathom. Is there any real reason why Boost doesn't want Android phones on the PayAsYouGo plans?) So that means using the ESN/MEID of a Blackberry or one of the generic low end phones. I would recommend using Blackberries as a doner for the ESN change as they use the network in a manner closest to how Androids phones do. (from a cosmetic stand point anyway. No guarantees)

However the MSL is just a lock code to get into hidden menus. I don't recall the MSL having any involvement at all in regards to how the network sees your phone. It's the MEID/ESN that identifies your phone to the network.

Correction on some of your stuff. I used to work for boost mobile in customer care. MSID is hardly ever the phone number and I've never seen a pattern as to when it is. MSID is always different everytime but it does however will always start with the first 3 digits as your current area code.

I don't know exactly why Boost doesn't want PAYGO on androids but the reason is probably cause you can just add the web, and use apps to receive msgs, and make calls. making your plan only 35 cents a day or ~$10.50 a month. Which will really hurt the network and boost will be low in funds to do anything about it.

I kinda resigned before the first android hit the market, but I do know that having the wrong MSID can affect your auto-dial voicemail and when someone tries to reach your voicemail, it will reroute to whatever number you have set as the MSID. The voicemail is usually a different number other than your PTN, your call just gets rerouted to it. Even thou is been rare that having the wrong MSID affects the network there is a chance it can still happen.

As for the reason not doing an OTA activation, the only way we got CDMA phones to do it again was a complete reset. I don't know about android but all other phones you dialed "##786#" type the MSL code, and hit reset.

android phones do have a reset to factory default in the recovery mode, you can try that. Since I didn't stick around when androids came up I would be somewhat clueless as to how they have it resetted.

 

[kolosus]

Help my Prevail has been hijacked. By MSID!

MSID
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A mobile station ID (MSID) is a number that is associated with the home service provider and the wireless phone number. This is reprogrammed when the user changes home service providers. It can also be called the mobile identification number (MIN) and is not to be confused with the mobile device number (MDN) in the CDMA world, which is the device's telephone number.

 

[Apache Thunder]

Help my Prevail has been hijacked. By MSID!

MSID
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A mobile station ID (MSID) is a number that is associated with the home service provider and the wireless phone number. This is reprogrammed when the user changes home service providers. It can also be called the mobile identification number (MIN) and is not to be confused with the mobile device number (MDN) in the CDMA world, which is the device's telephone number.

You will need QPST or CDMA Workshop to change the MSID if you think it's been altered or anything. I do hope you remembered what it was before it was changed.

Correction on some of your stuff. I used to work for boost mobile in customer care. MSID is hardly ever the phone number and I've never seen a pattern as to when it is. MSID is always different everytime but it does however will always start with the first 3 digits as your current area code.

As I said in my post, it is normal for the MSID to not be the same as the phone number. I said it would be abnormal for the area code of that MSID to not match.

 

[Sludge0402]

Holy cow ... here is your answer; (I have had the exact same issue with Boost Mobile; talk, sms, vm, all work but no mms or data) you have to program the prevail with all of the applicable info. off of your donor phone, meid, msid, etc. (BTW: the MSID does not have to even come close to including any of digits that are in your phone number, mine does not and it works perfectly on numerous phones) What you need to program into the prevail is the HA & AAA shared keys off of your donor phone. If you still have your donor phone, there are many articles on retreiving the HA & AAA shared keys using QPST & QXDM. Now for the $100 question; if the donor phone is not available, does anybody know the algorithm used to calculate the HA & AAA shared keys? or does anyone know what the phone manufacturer uses for the initial HA & AAA keys?