cinnamon, I'm not sure about your problem. I've never heard of anything making you lose ringtones... And I haven't upgraded firmware to know if that has something to do about it. anyone else have a similar problem?

Thanks Jonathan for this great tip:

"Just wanted to let you know that the unlock works great, although I did
need to tweak your instructions a little bit in regards to loading the
Smartphone driver, you need to literally select the driver from your zip
file, and to not allow the system to use it's own version, once I did this
it worked flawlessly."

Hey guys, my latest stumper...

"First off, i would like to thank you for your well put together
instructions on the MPX200 unlock. It worked perfectly, but once the
MPX200 was unlocked i found that much of the functionalities aren't workin
properly. For example, i no longer have speaker phone, can't access
expanded memory card, and more long can i use Active sync on the phone.
The reason i'm reading this email to you is, i was wondering if there was
anyway to re-lock the phone?? I'm considerin relockin the phone, because i
wanted to try out other ways of unlocking it so that the functionalities
might work again."

In theory, the phone can be re-locked by starting at Step 4 but changing all references to "newsim.raw" to "oldsim.raw" - that way the original file gets reflashed to the phone.

I've never heard of this unlock affecting other areas of the phone. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

I was e-mailed this question:
"I did everything to the very last step but it says 'bad news failed updating'. I followed everything exactly as your guide said. What could be the problem?"

I would start troubleshooting with the newsim.raw file...
What is the file size? Is it zero kb? If the file is empty it could be that either the template file (haha.raw) is also empty or oldsim.raw is empty.

Another issue I'm not sure about... user sent me this e-mail.

..."I got stuck in the very first step. You said turn off the phone and press the left arrow button and then connect it to the computer. Once you hear the ding noise let go of the left arrow key. This did not pull up the found new hardware for me. I tried it a few times but without any luck. Could it be that since I have the motoroloa mobile phone tools installed on my machine, that it is not asking for a driver? In that case what should I be doing?"

Anyone have any ideas?

Hey, sorry haven't been on here much to comment, but thanks fluffcat1 for the awesome DOS/directory tips and everyone else contributing tips.

In the instructions I put a definite path of C:\ to make it more universal and not have to worry about "am i in the right path?" - you could just create the oldsim.raw (and consequently newsim.raw) right on the c:\ directory. (that's why in step 2.b.3 I have them specify C:\oldsim.raw, because just oldsim.raw would put it in current directory, and it makes it easier to get lost on the DOS part, depending on the perspective)
Notice the first step is to cd (change directory) into the folder the tool is located in... then after that, point to c:\ for oldsim.raw and newsim.raw. Either method works though, you just need to be careful and either use all full paths or all relative paths.

Again, thanks for the pointers.

I think Joe figured out why Mike's method worked... because it's not actually creating the file unless you use the browse button ("..." button). This may be the key to your problems if you're having trouble creating the oldsim.raw file.

"Definitely worked fantastic! I used it to unlock a MOT MPX200 from ATT
Wireless to T-Mobile--took a little while to get it to work and one thing
was messed up. When you save the oldsim.raw you have to choose where it's
going from the box with the "..." so that way it actually makes the
progress of creating the file, I just chose to put it as c:\oldsim.raw and
it didn't work until I used the "..." button.

But it was awesome. Leaving credit where credit is due.

thanks.

-Joe"

Great new update... all it took was a creative thinker. Thanks Mike E for the discovery!

"Hi,

After scouring the web at some length I found your instructions for...

I got hung up at one point, because it was failing to create the
oldsim.raw file on my C drive. So I figured if the file already existed
it might not mind overwriting it (as opposed to creating a new file). So
I created a new blank text file, changed its name and extension and then
backtracked to the appropriate place in the instructions. Bingo! That
worked, and ultimately I got the phone unlocked.

Again, many thanks! ...

Mike E."

Ok, here's my latest stumper... any ideas?

"Well, no luck. I've tried it with 2 different MPX-200's, with and without
sim card and on two different computers. When I get to step 4 in the backup
program I get a real quick indecipherable message once I click the ????
button and no oldsim.raw file shows up in my C:\ directory. Either there is
a bug in the program or there is no communication between the phone and PC.
I did check the device manager and the modem is loaded and noted as working
properly. Any ideas?"

I appreciate everyone's input... I suggested checking modem installation and verifying oldsim.raw existence... As I said, I'm at a loss... anyone have similar problems they were able to work out?

-Rasoul

Crazier things have happened... but if you're having trouble...

I got an e-mail from someone trying with no luck on unlocking his mpx200 with my site. After endless aggrivation, and 3 days of e-mails, he e-mails me and said he got it... so I asked him how he got it to work, here's what he said:

"Hi. I did it on my other computer. I do not know why it didnt work on my other
computer with exactly the same process."

Strange...

But, I guess if you're STILL having problems, try another computer.

yes, it's real and yes it works, and no, I have not had anyone tell me they've fried their phone from doing it incorrectly... it's actually hard to do, because the only way to get down to the final steps before flashing is if the steps above it are correct, it's rather picky (hence the detailed instructions).

In response to xxcrashxx - i appreciate any extra details I may have forgot to mention in the instructions, I don't always have time to upload changes to the site and any extra help for people trying to use it is appreciated

-Rasoul

Hey everyone, sorry I kind of dropped off the face of the earth after posting that forever ago... gotten a lot of e-mails with questions and problems and done my best to reply but so far I've gotten mostly success stories. I'm trying to compile a list of FAQ and troubleshooting, and this looks like as good of a spot as any until I have time to update my website.

First off, does it need a SIM card inserted? NO, this was not tried by myself, but confirmed by someone who e-mailed me saying he was successful with unlocking without the SIM inserted.

"The four question marks in step 2 are greyed out, I can't push them"
This seems to be a driver problem. If the driver is not successfully installed in step 1, then the MPX200_Backup.exe program cannot find the phone in order to save the RAW file. You can see if the driver is properly installed by going into your Device Manager under Modems and seeing if it's there. A step further would be to go into properties of the device and see if it says it's working properly.

"I'm getting an error in step 3, cannot find oldsim.raw"
There are a few things to try. First, try changing it to RAW (caps letters) -- for some strange reason that makes a difference sometimes.
Also, verify that the file exists... browse to that file location and see if it's there. If it's not there, then backtrack, there's probably a problem with step 2 (and when there's a problem with step 2, it's usually a problem with step 1)

There are more, those are the most common, I'll sort through my e-mails when I get more time and post them and how we ended up resolving them

Also, if you've gotten this to work and had to take extra steps I didn't document, please post those here to help out others!

-Rasoul