Help "Bad" ESN issues, newbie here

[cfa3]

New here, not a techie so bear with me please..........I have a sprint optimus lg that is not clean, I assume because the person did not pay their account....is there any way to "clean" this phone so I can use it? I currently have sprint. If not or if I would have to be a rocket scientists to do it, my other question is, can it be flashed to metro pcs EVEN with a dirty ESN? Help is appreciated, lost here! Thank you.

 

[TheEngineer]

It CAN be cleaned but is illegal. You can flash to MetroPCS but data will never work properly again with Sprint.

 

[wolderiii]

can an lg optimus S, with bad ESN on sprint, be used just as an mp3 player with web access via wifi? also, would gps work, and would you have access to android market via wifi?

i'm thinking about buying one as a cheap mp3 player.
thanks,
billy

 

[apinkel]

I bought a droid x on ebay where the seller said the phone had a bad esn, I took it into a verizon store, they checked it out and said it was clean.

If the esn is blacklisted by Sprint they may be able to clear it for you (although I haven't heard of anyone claiming success with this).

Either way, it wouldn't hurt to touch base with sprint to see what they can do for you.

 

[Tre Lawrence]

can an lg optimus S, with bad ESN on sprint, be used just as an mp3 player with web access via wifi? also, would gps work, and would you have access to android market via wifi?

i'm thinking about buying one as a cheap mp3 player.
thanks,
billy

Wifi usage would be possible, AFAIK. Market usage would be possible with a G-account.

 

[johannreinhard]

can an lg optimus S, with bad ESN on sprint, be used just as an mp3 player with web access via wifi? also, would gps work, and would you have access to android market via wifi?

i'm thinking about buying one as a cheap mp3 player.
thanks,
billy

I'm interested in doing the same thing, but I can't get past the Sprint ID screen on bootup. ADB shell works, but I can't root it either..

 

[kolosus]

I have two Sprint high end (4g both) phones. The were sold to me as bad esn phones. I got them both cheap and believe me I'm cheap! Today I checked their esn. They both came up clean. Do they put the dirty esns through the laundry sometimes?