HTC Typhoon & GSM 850/900

[Guest PocketDOS]

Does anybody *know* whether the versions of the HTC Typhoon with differing support of GSM standards differ physically (ie. different radios), or whether this is a configuration issue?

Or put another way, is it possible to convert a GSM850 HTC Typhoon (eg. Audiovox SMT5600) to a GSM900 HTC Typhoon (eg. Orange SPVC500) by changing the ROM or some other "soft" technique, or would it require a hardware modification?

There's not a lot of information about this, but it would appear that putting an SPVC500 ROM into an SMT5600 would change the radio setup from GSM850 -> GSM900...

TIA

Edited May 14, 2005 by PocketDOS

[Guest nedge2k]

Im pretty sure a hardware change would be needed. I've been running an Audiovox rom on my C500 for months now and its never had any radio related problems.

[Guest PocketDOS]

Thanks, but if you're on Orange in the UK, then you probably wouldn't notice, as Orange uses GSM1800... You will probably run into problems when you're roaming in Europe (outside of France & Germany which also have GSM1800), as the AudioVox ROM has GSM850 and not GSM900...

So it appears (after searching some more) that the answer is that it can be changed via "soft" methods. It appears that the radio has it's own ROM which can be updated independently, so saving the radio ROM before doing a full ROM update (which also updates the radio ROM) and then restoring the radio ROM (or not depending on what you're trying to achieve) can switch the radio from GSM850 to GSM900...

But it would still be good to get a confirmation from somebody who's tried to switch the radio over and *knows*...

TIA

[Guest mkent_barbados]

I live in Barbados which has 3 cell providers, one of which use 850 and 1900, and two that uses 900 and 1800 (I think, you never see all three listed on a phone, you always see a choice of two). I have a US ver. 850 Mhz Sp3i, which finds my provider (850Mhz) fine. The joystick went so I sent it to Dubai, and it came back with a UK ver mainboard in it "by mistake". About once a day I could see my provider and connect, but the rest of the time the phone would just show the other two in the list, but I had no access (no roaming between networks here). Anyways, I sent the phone back again and it came back working perfectly. But...as I said, while I did have it sometimes connected but mostly not. Confusing, but thats what happend...

Thanks, but if you're on Orange in the UK, then you probably wouldn't notice, as Orange uses GSM1800... You will probably run into problems when you're roaming in Europe (outside of France & Germany which also have GSM1800), as the AudioVox ROM has GSM850 and not GSM900...

So it appears (after searching some more) that the answer is that it can be changed via "soft" methods. It appears that the radio has it's own ROM which can be updated independently, so saving the radio ROM before doing a full ROM update (which also updates the radio ROM) and then restoring the radio ROM (or not depending on what you're trying to achieve) can switch the radio from GSM850 to GSM900...

But it would still be good to get a confirmation from somebody who's tried to switch the radio over and *knows*...

TIA

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Guest osberaza]

I bought an unlocked Audiovox SMT5600, I brought it to Spain and it would not work. I flashed the ROM to the French update and it would work fine. That means the ROM update changed the setting to the correct radio setting.

Anyway, the reception of this phone is terrible. I loose signal as soon as I get into my car or I drive around or I go to a remote area (where I would previously get perfect reception)

[Guest Arisme]

I bought an unlocked Audiovox SMT5600, I brought it to Spain and it would not work. I flashed the ROM to the French update and it would work fine. That means the ROM update changed the setting to the correct radio setting.

Anyway, the reception of this phone is terrible. I loose signal as soon as I get into my car or I drive around or I go to a remote area (where I would previously get perfect reception)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That's the main problem we noticed with this ROM. You can use TyphoonNBFTools to reflash only the GSM part with the previous update, and it should be better.

[Guest abatis]

The GSM bands on the Typhoon can be changed via software. If you do some searching you can find out how to extract the gsm portion of one ROM and place it in another. It has been tested and seems to work.