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Getting the MSL & Loading Sprint PRL

Here's how I found the MSL on my alcatel/tct/pcd venture. You will need alogcat [and set the filter to 'NV'], or use "adb logcat | fgrep NV", to see pertinent results only.

With log running, dial ##PORT# [##7678#]; tap ok [you don't need to enter a guess of the MSL, but you can if you want to]. Be aware, 2 wrong MSL try's in a row and the phone reboots...

Now, in log I saw;
# V/QC_NV_ITEMS( 8564): Received: 333234363435
so my MSL is 324645, see that? 3X3X3X3X3X3X, the X's are my MSL.

Now, in dialer type ##PORT# again and enter your MSL. tap On. I believe that this just enabled your diagnostic port.

This changed my device. in linux,
with ##PORT# On and settings-applications-development-usbdebugging ON, lsusb now shows;
# Bus 001 Device 007: ID 1bbb:00f5 T & A Mobile Phones
with ##PORT# Off and settings-applications-development-usbdebugging ON it is;
# Bus 001 Device 008: ID 1bbb:00f7 T & A Mobile Phones
with ##PORT# Off and settings-applications-development-usbdebugging OFF it is;
# Bus 001 Device 009: ID 1bbb:d00d T & A Mobile Phones
with ##PORT# On and settings-applications-development-usbdebugging OFF it is;
# Bus 001 Device 010: ID 1bbb:00f6 T & A Mobile Phones
[Notice, it advanced my usb device each time I switched ##PORT# or debugging? The usb port was being reset.]
As you can see there are 4 distinct product codes [the vendor code is 1bbb] for this phone, and prolly all phones. Which ones will work with QPST? [prolly 00f5 and/or f6]. My windows partition is on the fritz right now so someone else can discover.

Other codes that work on the venture;adr2045;PCD/tct/AlcaTel are;
##debug# need MSL, show's your PRL and SID and more.
##RTN# this has an option to RESET, may just reset timers [it shows timers] or may reset something more important, you try, not me...
##DATA# you can change your home SID from 4139 in the advanced section [was that the original goal of this thread?]. In this menu anyone can view the setting but MSL is needed to edit.
*#*#TALK#*#* Google talk info.
*#06# just gives MEID.
*#*#INFO#*#* LOTS of info, you can also select your radio band [cdma, gsm, etc.].
##VIRGIN# for activation.
There must be other codes that work on this phone[I would like to know more], mebbe that's for another thread...
As for changing your PRL [thru QPST, I reckon], its may get changed back to 61007 [or whatever the latest is] automagically by the phone company, but I would like to know if you could do it and how, it might motivate me to get my windows partition running again.

I added some pics for the MSL getting tutorial, hope they don't confuse...
 

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welcome to androidforums.com, ww227! great find! thanks for signing up to share your contribution with us! everyone please post all success results, and please dont forget to thank our new member if this helps you out!
 
man...i am so lost, i dont even know what the goal of this thread was....lmao. but i feel like i got 20 points to my iq just reading the entire thread.

so, whats the point of changing the SID? also, how do you find your "local" SID?
it was mentioned better data speeds, any thing else? ?better service?

im curious, bc i may, or may not do this after i see how it works for others
 
varenHjames said:
man...i am so lost, i dont even know what the goal of this thread was....lmao. but i feel like i got 20 points to my iq just reading the entire thread.

so, whats the point of changing the SID? also, how do you find your "local" SID?
it was mentioned better data speeds, any thing else? ?better service?

im curious, bc i may, or may not do this after i see how it works for others
Click to expand...
Well the point of changing the PRL alot of reasons but can sometimes be complicated to do ^^;

reasons why to change them:
*better data speeds
*Use all towers (depends on what prl you have) instead the ones limited to you, to that better signal (I think)

I would say that bad reason for it
but since virgin mobile has a unlimited plan data usage
then no need to worry but ill include then in case:
bad reasons:
*uses your data up faster (only for those that are limited to how many gb of data their aloud to have in their carrier)
*it is illegal to do this method in some carriers such as verzion

but nothing to worry about, it is legal to do it with virgin mobile
 
varenHjames said:
man...i am so lost, i dont even know what the goal of this thread was....lmao. but i feel like i got 20 points to my iq just reading the entire thread.

so, whats the point of changing the SID? also, how do you find your "local" SID?
it was mentioned better data speeds, any thing else? ?better service?

im curious, bc i may, or may not do this after i see how it works for others
Click to expand...


For one thing, if you turn all your location options off, you may notice that some apps default you to the middle of oklahoma [or somewhere] which I believe is where 4139 is. Sprint has been using 4139 for all phones for years now, it really doesn't matter to much, tho it did back in the day when there was a thing called roaming fees...
Speed, service? ehhh. It could help in cell tower selection which is based on your SID and your PRL table, prolly not on virgin where there is No roaming at all.

Most of the stuff you can do with a MSL is all geeky, people just don't care anymore, except about themes, hehehe. then again there is some nifty stuff in there.
One thing, if you are at home, and you open ##DEBUG#, you will see the SID of the cell tower you are using, that would be your proper SID.
 
sunsuke said:
Well the point of changing the PRL alot of reasons but can sometimes be complicated to do ^^;

reasons why to change them:
*better data speeds
*Use all towers (depends on what prl you have) instead the ones limited to you, to that better signal (I think)

I would say that bad reason for it
but since virgin mobile has a unlimited plan data usage
then no need to worry but ill include then in case:
bad reasons:
*uses your data up faster (only for those that are limited to how many gb of data their aloud to have in their carrier)
*it is illegal to do this method in some carriers such as verzion

but nothing to worry about, it is legal to do it with virgin mobile
Click to expand...

No, not illegal. Civilly, it might break your contract, but criminally no liability can attach, because you are not harming anyone, only [possibly] helping yourself. Example; if your car came with hankook tire, but you switched to fancy bridgestones, are you harming Ford? Well, if you are still making payments to Ford for the car, theoretically they could say put the Hankook tires back on or we are taking the car back [Verizon might say put the PRL we gave you back in, etc..]. Definitely not illegal.
There is a thing called ACCOLC [access overload class], options are 1-15, if you knew that changing yours [randomly assigned to your phone] to 15 would mean that you would still be talking during a disaster with the cops and firefighters [who are the only ones that are suppose to use ACCOLC15] while those around you just get error messages when trying to dial. Is that illegal? Mebbe, but there has yet to be a court case so, you might could justify yourself...
All those little numbers mean something, mostly only appreciated by real geeks, like me.
 
ww227 said:
No, not illegal. Civilly, it might break your contract, but criminally no liability can attach, because you are not harming anyone, only [possibly] helping yourself. Example; if your car came with hankook tire, but you switched to fancy bridgestones, are you harming Ford? Well, if you are still making payments to Ford for the car, theoretically they could say put the Hankook tires back on or we are taking the car back [Verizon might say put the PRL we gave you back in, etc..]. Definitely not illegal.
There is a thing called ACCOLC [access overload class], options are 1-15, if you knew that changing yours [randomly assigned to your phone] to 15 would mean that you would still be talking during a disaster with the cops and firefighters [who are the only ones that are suppose to use ACCOLC15] while those around you just get error messages when trying to dial. Is that illegal? Mebbe, but there has yet to be a court case so, you might could justify yourself...
All those little numbers mean something, mostly only appreciated by real geeks, like me.
Click to expand...

oh thanks ^^;
 
i want all of it! lol, so is this method working currently? I really cant afford to brick another one of these. VM already sent me a replacement
 
VM will send u a replacement aslong as it within the first year of purchase. the best part about this is: once the new phone arrives ur VM Warranty restarts so aslong as you get a new phone once a year ull never b w/o a warranty
 
does someone want to guide me thru this step by step? i have never used logcat, also. this thread is a tad jumbled on how to do some of these things exactly.

also does it have to be the stock dialer? or will the go dialer work? bc it doesnt seem to be doing anything when i dial in ##7678#
yup you need the stock dialer....ok, so i got my msl.
now, what suggestions do yall have that i should change?
i use alot of data, but as you all know, i get at most .7mbps on cell, and 1.1mbps on wifi.
 
what is a home page vocoder? and a home orig vocoder and a roam orig vocoder?
i was just wondering. i changed my sid and my nid to the appropriate locations....
ill let you know after i speed test it and do some more in the field testing to see how it goes.
i was jw, the "nid" that was like 6 digits long, the one i have set for home is only 2....any reason? and any idea of what i should send it to?
 
hey all, looks like i stirred a hornets nest!
been up 36 hoours, now have a rom with root from aeneas, wanna fiddle more before sending it out, it's theme is venture with out vm. make calls without vm, also working on wifi fiddles. did you know that it is set to 1.5 watts? I actually thought that was illegal, turned power down to .5 watts and getting better service. Anyway, back to this later.
venture without virgin, gonna have to have a greek name. hehehe
 
varenHjames said:
what is a home page vocoder? and a home orig vocoder and a roam orig vocoder?
i was just wondering.
Click to expand...

VOice enCODER - vocoder.

Digital sampling and compression/decompression of your voice for use on digital cell networks.

Sometimes changing that can change voice quality, up or down, or break things until restored.

Subject of great forum myths.
 
Thank you ww227.I got my MSL thru your tutorial.please clarify me whethel msl and spc code are the same.I am from India and here they are asking spc code for intiall programing to activate the phone.Please help
sharaa09
 
ww227 said:
hey all, looks like i stirred a hornets nest!
been up 36 hoours, now have a rom with root from aeneas, wanna fiddle more before sending it out, it's theme is venture with out vm. make calls without vm, also working on wifi fiddles. did you know that it is set to 1.5 watts? I actually thought that was illegal, turned power down to .5 watts and getting better service. Anyway, back to this later.
venture without virgin, gonna have to have a greek name. hehehe
Click to expand...



how did you manage to turn down the power to .5 watts? id like to do this myself. but id rather not start with a new rom. the one i have currently is working just great.
 
I think I'm going to start a new thread shortly, as this thread has mostly been a trial/error-type of notepad.

I really want to thank ww227, as his method DOES work to get the MSL!!! I was quickly able to change the default SID (4139 which is Kansas City) to my local market of 4418, which made my friend's phone ring immediately instead of 7+ rings.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND MAKING YOUR SID 0 IF YOU TRAVEL OUT OF YOUR MARKET OFTEN/WEEKLY, otherwise I recommend making it whatever it should be for your local market!

As far as connecting it to QPST to update the PRL, I give up at the moment; ##PORT# is needed to be on USB (thanks again ww227!), but I cannot get proper drivers loaded in Windows XP or 7. I did try my own suggestion at the top of page 2 to possibly install drivers, but alas, those are not the right ones for "JukeB".
 
sharaa09 said:
Thank you ww227.I got my MSL thru your tutorial.please clarify me whethel msl and spc code are the same.I am from India and here they are asking spc code for intiall programing to activate the phone.Please help
sharaa09
Click to expand...

Short answer, Yes, in this decade they are one and the same, just different terminology. So use the MSL where they ask for SPC

Long answer, in the beginning;
MSL is permanent in phone
MSL gives access to all programmable settings.
SPC was temporary, could only be used once.
SPC gave access only to menu for setting up the phone for a particular carrier, phone number, home system etc.

I have not seen a real temporary SPC for a decade, but many folks still use the term. Since real SPC's were phased out in CDMA before GSM, the term spc is now usually only heard in countrys with only [or mostly] GSM.

History lesson over.
 
varenHjames said:
how did you manage to turn down the power to .5 watts? id like to do this myself. but id rather not start with a new rom. the one i have currently is working just great.
Click to expand...



1st adb remount -- to set /system/ to rewritable
2nd adb push iwconfig /system/xbin/iwconfig
[also push iwlist, iwgetid, iwpriv, iwgetevent and iw{if you can find an 'iw' for android, let me know}{also there is now iwmulticall available for android, it's like busybox, one ap in /system/bin that you create softlinks to (ln -s /system/bin/iwmulticall >iwconfig)}]
3rd adb shell, then;
su, then;
iwconfig eth0 txpower 500mW

if you just run 'iwconfig eth0' then you get something like this;
eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"TI87GE69" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: 5C:D9:98:59:5D:FE
Bit Rate=5.5 Mb/s Tx-Power:27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Managementmode:All packets received
Link Quality=1/5 Signal level=-84 dBm Noise level=-89 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0

and running 'iwconfig eth0 power off' gives this
eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"TI87GE69" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: 5C:D9:98:59:5D:FE
Bit Rate=5.5 Mb/s Tx-Power:27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Managementmode:All packets received
Link Quality=1/5 Signal level=-84 dBm Noise level=-89 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
now wifi wont sleep

and 'iwconfig eth0 bit 2M' gives you
eth0 IEEE 802.11-DS ESSID:"TI87GE69" Nickname:""
Mode:Managed Frequency:2.457 GHz Access Point: 5C:D9:98:59:5D:FE
Bit Rate=2 Mb/s Tx-Power:27 dBm
Retry min limit:7 RTS thr:off Fragment thr:off
Encryption key:off
Power Management:off
Link Quality=1/5 Signal level=-90 dBm Noise level=-92 dBm
Rx invalid nwid:0 Rx invalid crypt:0 Rx invalid frag:0
Tx excessive retries:0 Invalid misc:0 Missed beacon:0
now wifi link is stuck at 2megs/sec, plenty fast for me, but it wont auto adjust faster then slower and will hold the signal longer

and iwconfig eth0 ap 5C:D9:98:59:5D:FE
nothing changed in view, but wifi is now locked to my ap, won't switch even if i lose the signal, it will just keep looking for my ap.
iwconfig eth0 essid TI87GE69 would do the samething.

I'm still fiddling with retry and rts.
O, and nothing sticks after reboot, or even turning wifi off then on again...


I got iwconfig from;

http://dl.xda-developers.com/attach...ee991513692/50e82eb8/7/3/8/7/6/8/iwconfig.tar

i think you have to create an account to dl files from xda, but try it without first.

can't remember where i got the other iw commands, from an apk i think
 
I registered here just because i was able to get the msl code from my Venture thanks to ww227. And i have been following the progress and post daily. Hopefully someone can figure out how to get the AAA Password :)
 
marcos8202 said:
I registered here just because i was able to get the msl code from my Venture thanks to ww227. And i have been following the progress and post daily. Hopefully someone can figure out how to get the AAA Password :)
Click to expand...

Until we can figure out what drivers it needs when connecting to the PC via ##PORT# it's not happening.
 
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