Help Samsung Galaxy S II Failing Me

[Kotadiatu]

Okay, had a Samsung Galaxy S II for about 7 months now and I love it; but my main issue is the firmware. I am stuck on 2.3.3 and it is refusing to update. I try to update from within the phones settings and it just fails after restarting (I get a fail message); and within Kies I get the annoying "This device is not supported for software upgrades via Kies". There is no way for me to update my firmware. This happened ever since I sent my phone off to Optus to repair a hardware fault.
I rang both Samsung and Optus today to get some help and I ended up factory resetting my phone and trying to get a fix from there. To no avail, I have an empty phone again. How annoying.
Optus also recommend that I send my phone off for repair, but that's the last thing I want to do; I need this phone every day for my contacts and user information. It's an absolute necessity and I have no backup phone. Last time I sent it off they took 4 weeks.

What would be the best approach at getting this fixed. I want this phone updated to ICS so I can get that experience; I also want my phone to be compatible for future updates because this is just ridiculous.

Here's what I can post in regards to my phone:

Provider: Optus
Android Version: 2.3.3
Baseband Version: I9100XXKE7
Kernel Version: 2.6.35.7-I9100XWGK1-CLlabeltest_I9100XWKG1
Build Number: GINGERBREAD.XWKG1


All help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[pj87]

Try changing the CSC to your region. My friend had a similar issue, but after changing CSC to his region, he was able to connect to KIES ..
Note: changing CSC code will perform a factory reset to your phone.

Google on how to change CSC .. i think it's *#272*<Your IMEI># .. not sure though

 

[Gearu]

For a few extra features, it's not worth losing others which is the guaranteed tradeoff with an 'update' to ICS, just look at the widespread nightmare in this forum from ICS updaters.

If the phone works, I recommend you leave it alone. I don't know why everyone wants to join the list of galaxy S2 ICS update victims , they need their own support sub forum really. Sorry it had to be said.

 

[Gearu]

Firefox caused double post.