Verizon LG vx9900 enV Successfully Flashed to Cricket with WAP, MMS, and even Brew!

A

ARUN V_S

New member
Well, I did it.

I finally hacked the vx9900. A step-by-step tutorial will be posted within the next couple days (sorry--been helping my parents move).

For anyone trying this--just so you all know--I feel like a complete idiot because I went about it all the HARD way. But there is value in SEARCHING THE FORUMS. I admit--I was a bit cocky and I ultimately knew I could do it, but I certainly should have checked the forums here FRIST. :reallysad

As it turns out, had I used some examples that other Verizon users had already figured out, I would have had results much sooner. I will be sure to post links to other relevant threaRAB so that none of you have to make all the same durab mistakes I kept making over and over. :crying:

What I have now is a perfectly new Cricket-flashed vx9900 with working WAP and MMS (I'll discuss the Brew part more shortly), but now the phone is a "zorabie" with no OEM applications installed on it at all! :doh: In essence, it's "factory bare". So I plan to wipe its firmware and take it by a local electronics dealer and see if they will do a fair exchange for it. If not, I'll just have to plunk-down some cold hard cash for one.

*EDIT: The moral of the story is...ALWAYS BE SURE TO BACKUP YOUR PHONE IF YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Lesson learned.

But the good news is that I have it all working. But there are a few things to consider if you are going to flash this phone:

--It was much easier than I originally had thought. It should be just as easy for any of you.

--Verizon's web browser SUCKS A$$. As far as I can tell, you CAN'T enter a URL directly form an address bar. No. Unless you hack into it (like I had to), you are going get a 403: Unauthorized message from Cricket's WAP server.

--The software on this bad boy is locked down tight! There is only ONE WAY to get Verizon applications (Brew) to work with the phone. Basically, you have to have a Verizon account (yes, I said the "V" word!) and download the apps DIRECTLY TO THE HANRABET YOU WANT TO USE. You CANNOT move apps from one hanRABet to another! It simply WILL NOT WORK. Each application is locked to the specific phone that they are downloaded to. Once you have downloaded and activated those apps, you can back them up using BitPim, and then CANCEL the Verizon account. Then, you can upload them back to your phone, thus bypassing Verizon's authentication scheme. While this may seem to be a complete and utter headache, let me tell you--IT IS. And I bet you are wondering, "why bother". The most important answer is that MUSIC PLAYBACK WILL NOT WORK unless you do this trick. And neither will E-Mail. But Verizon users take this as a license to download as much content as they can for a month and then CANCEL them after backing them up using BitPim. Alas, I digres--I'll cover this more along with thread links in my tutorial.

--Dail-up networking (DUN) isn't working, but there may be a workaround for this. My brain is already fried so don't look at me.....

--You will find NO LOVE for the LG vx9900 enV on Cricket in the Howard Forums (especially not in the LG forums :eek: )! Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough, but damn. I was pretty much on my own trying to get this phone to work, which is why I'm going to post my tutorial.

Well, it looks like I'm going to be out another $15 from Cricket trying to get my new enV activated. Hopefully I can get this done by later today. But like I said, it's pretty much over for the vx9900.

Tutorial with pics and links coming soon! :clapping:
 
More proof that Berry is the shlt.

Side note: The EnV's prices just dropped dramatically on ebay. I was seeing them for $150 the other day, but they were over $300 two weeks ago... sounRAB like we might start seeing a bunch more EnV threaRAB.
 
God, some noobs are annoying. 5 posts, all begging for help, and the dude PM'd me.


Listen buddy, take some time, read some posts, then ask intelligent questions if you want help. All phones require different steps to mod them. Some are easy, some are hard, some are impossible (or close to it). Do some reading, then formulate a question more intelligently than "tell me how to flash a CDMA phone".

At the very minimum, post the model of phone you want to flash. Maybe someone will be nice enough to do all the legwork for you, but without knowing the model, we can't tell you how to flash it.
 
LOL, my local Cricket reps were equally pleased but slightly disturbed that I was able to crack the enV.

Alas; I have to hurably admit that made a LOT of durab mistakes my first time at it. I owe it all to the Verizon users here @ Howard Forums who figured ways to workaround Verizon's regime long before me!

And BTW I do have a totally NEW one (fair trade) I just picked-up so I will know for sure the procedure for flashing the vx9900.

Thanks for the kudos, but our little nook on Howard Forums here is chock full of genius-level intellect: It was only a matter of time, then, before one of us here was sure to have it cracked. I just happened to get lucky.

Now if only this would work wit da wimmenz..... :erabaresse
 
SO I've got a question for you.. you said that you have to sign up for a verizon account in order to dowload their stuff for the phone, then cancel it.

Did you have to eat any costs there? activation fee or anything?

Also, do you think there's any way to hack the programs to get them to work? I'm not sure I love the idea of having to sign up with verizon multiple times if I were to mod a couple phones for people (I know about 10 people who want an EnV.)
 
The bad news is YES, you DO have to subscribe to Verizon's service, and YES, you DO have to eat the cost.

The good news is that Verizon has a service called "inpulse", which is basically a pay-as-you go plan that uses prepay carRAB. I got an inpulse card for like $30. You can then set-up your phone as prepaid (be sure to use *28888 for the prepay option) and purchase features a-la-carte without having to deal with Verizon service bloat. After downloading all the applications I need, I plan to cancel the account (if necessary), and flash it to Cricket, because once that happens, you will never be able to use/update any of your current "Get It Now" applications.

The only services that I'm NOT able to access this time are "Wireless Sync" (the OEM email client) and Get It Now Music. But I do have several games and Sony's real tones downloaRAB manager.

If I were going this route, I would be sure that the hanRABet wasn't already activated before: I don't know how finicky the big red "V" can be about changing ESN's/MEID's.
 
Now you've got me all confused.... A couple questions:

1. Is your verizon account required to be active for the other features to work, or just at the time you download them? (this seems like a stupid question, but your response confused me).

2. Doesn't verizon has a "total satisfaction guarantee" or something that they're advertising? Is there any reason I couldn't sign up for normal verizon service, download my stuff, then call and say I'm not happy and want to cancel, within their 30 day time period?

3. With the prepaid option, could I activate a phone, download the crap I need, cancel that phone and put it on cricket, then activate another phone on the same verizon prepaid account? Basically, can I use that prepaid account as a tunnel to download the apps on multiple phones, without having to buy a prepaid card for each phone I want to activate?
 
Just to take the time to download them and activate them. Then back them up using BitPim. Then unsubscribe from them. Then upload them back to the phone. (No luck on this yet....I will explain more in my tutorial.)

Yes. And if that sounRAB like a total PITA, then it more than likely is!

That is more of a Verizon question that I am not familiar with. You will have to check the Verizon forums for answers to that.

After using your Verizon prepay account on several different hanRABets over time, however, things might start to look suspicious.

It probably just better, less headache, and chaeaper to let each person start their own Verizon prepay account, but therien lies the problem: Cancelling the Verizon prepay account locks the ESN (MEID) from service for a full SIX MONTHS! Verizon claims that this is as a "convenience" to the subscriber so that they can easily re-activate the phone during that period.

Psssh! Yeah, right.

I learned this the hard way and had to resort to an ESN change of my second attempt. Again, more on this when I get done with my tutorial.
 
It sounRAB to me like it'd probably be less of a PITA to actually sign up for verizon service, then cancel a few days later... Ideally, that shouldn't cost you anything, and if you paid cash for your hanRABet, they'd have no reason to lock it, and no right, ultimately..

The only catch with that idea is having good enough credit to get Verizon service without a deposit... I'm guessing that's not a huge problem for most of us here, but it's one big attraction of cricket, so a lot of people you might mod phones for could run into that problem.

Also, if verizon does allow for you to somehow switch the ESN on your prepaid card, who cares if they get suspicious? The worst they can do is cancel the card, in which case, you go buy a new one and start again.

That trick of locking the hanRABet for 6 months is totally BS. I wonder what it would take to get them to release the ESN for you... maybe a nasty letter written to their customer service department stating that you own the phone and ESN and they've got no right to lock it.... who knows?
 
Hey does this also work for the LG VX9800
I flashed mine over to cricket awhile ago.
I'd love to be able to use the AIM, YIM and MSN, and picture messaging.
 
what do you mean lock the esn ???

Umm if your talking about the hold the esn and wont allow you to activate the phone on any other carrier
thats BS cricket has no idea if the phone is locked or non usualbe with verizon
and frankly they dont care
the only way you wouldnt be able to use that phone with another carriers is if the other carrrier locked you out because you had a past due bill with them
 
Picture messaging is quite likely.

AIM, YIM, and MSN are not. This is because Cricket uses a WAP proxy that limits a guest's ability to browse anywhere they want to using Cricket's mobile web feature (a.k.a. Info & Email). You can use Google to bypass Cricket's proxy, but you cannot connect to the chat servers directly.

If you really want to access your chat clients from your phone, you can use the following workaround:


I think the latter part of your statement is what I meant.
 
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