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read this before you flash firmware

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jaliy

Android Expert
recently there's been too many topics regarding someone bricking their phone during a flash, or wondering if warranty is void if they flash, here is your answer:

if you use any other software other than kies to flash any firmware, official or unofficial, samsung will know and your warranty is void. now there's literally a million ways they can tell if you tempered with your phone. how long has samsung been around? i will tell you why homemade methods such as usb jig will not fool samsung.

i'm not going to list all possible ways they can detect a tempered phone, as i don't know exactly which method they use, but here is a simple way. every phone comes with a serial number. if they want, they can load a serial number into every firmware they release. so if u use odin to flash a firmware that's not released by samsung officially, that serial number is wiped and a new number is generated by whatever firmware you flashed.

now if you think you can flash back to the original firmware, there's no way you could get that original serial number back. having said that, you can use whatever way to reset your flash counter, but samsung could care less about that. they look at the serial number of your phone, then look at the serial number of the current firmware and voila, mismatch!!!

now don't ask me how samsung know the serial does not match with the phone, they have their ways just as every software has their own cd key generating flowchart. to you all serial number look similar, but they KNOW that the key it shows on your firmware right now is NOT the one they factory flashed, or kies flashed.

hope this clear things up for some people who's willing to lisen
 
hawker said:
How do you KNOW this occurs?
Our are you just thinking up of ways unofficial flashing COULD be detected?
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do u really think unofficial flashing COULD NOT be detected?
i'm starting to think u and twinn are the same person
 
So please give us your sources instead of saying things all cloak and dagger.
I'm not saying such things don't go on I just want evidence that's all
 
hawker said:
So please give us your sources instead of saying things all cloak and dagger.
I'm not saying such things don't go on I just want evidence that's all
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let me get this straight
u want proof that serial number is used to prevent fraud?
 
You say you have done your research so how so you KNOW? can you tell me where did you get this information from please?
 
jaliy said:
i'm not going to list all possible ways they can detect a tempered phone, as i don't know exactly which method they use, but here is a simple way. every phone comes with a serial number. if they want, they can load a serial number into every firmware they release. so if u use odin to flash a firmware that's not released by samsung officially, that serial number is wiped and a new number is generated by whatever firmware you flashed.

now if you think you can flash back to the original firmware, there's no way you could get that original serial number back. having said that, you can use whatever way to reset your flash counter, but samsung could care less about that. they look at the serial number of your phone, then look at the serial number of the current firmware and voila, mismatch!!!

now don't ask me how samsung know the serial does not match with the phone, they have their ways just as every software has their own cd key generating flowchart. to you all serial number look similar, but they KNOW that the key it shows on your firmware right now is NOT the one they factory flashed, or kies flashed.

hope this clear things up for some people who's willing to lisen
Click to expand...

If that was the case you wouldn't have to flash your original firmware to get your original serial number. You would just have to flash any official firmware which would then add an official serial number. Or are you saying that anyone who upgrades their phone with official firmware had also voided their warranty?
 
hawker said:
You say you have done your research so how so you KNOW? can you tell me where did you get this information from please?
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i really don't understand wut proof u need
do u want proof that serial number method is used by samsung?
 
read my post again
i said this COULD be their way of doing it, i don't know. there are many ways out there
 
i duno how i can possibly make this any more clear
serial number method is 1 KNOWN method used by millions of software developers
now whether samsung uses this to detect flashing I DON'T KNOW, BUT IT COULD BE
BUT THIS METHOD EXISTS
 
Well you said you did your research and samsung use serial numbers, then you said they could use this method but you don't know. If you don't know you obviously didn't find that out during your research. So where did you come up with that if you didn't make it up.:confused:
 
Shotgun84 said:
Well you said you did your research and samsung use serial numbers, then you said they could use this method but you don't know. If you don't know you obviously didn't find that out during your research. So where did you come up with that if you didn't make it up.:confused:
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quote me where i said SAMSUNG USE SERIAL NUMBERS
 
So millions of android users who like to tinker with their device to get the most out of it better stop doing so on the ground of what you say MIGHT be happening.

thanks for the heads up mate but I'll take my chances.
 
hawker said:
So millions of android users who like to tinker with their device to get the most out of it better stop doing so on the ground of what you say MIGHT be happening.

thanks for the heads up mate but I'll take my chances.
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i did not say everyone who temper with their phone will brick theirs, and all those who brick their phones will have their warranty void, i merely stated the risk u r going thru if u do. u r welcome to take that risk. i'm not as rich as u to take that risk
 
Isn't this basically a rehash of the method of catching a leak that Tom Clancy used in one of his books? Every version of a document was slightly different so they could identify the leak by knowing who had what version.

But in this case kies gets the number off your phone and reports it to the server when it requests a firmware update. The server then records this against your imei along with the new number. Then they know what firmware is on every phone and if it's the one they think it should be.

Sounds like a lot of hassle for the small number of phones that will have a warranty claim for bricked firmware.
 
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