Warning: Hard reset after 8.1 may screw your service (Sprint/ATIV S Neo)

[iknowsingh]

Just a heads up, fellow forumers...

I've got an ATIV S Neo on Sprint and this morning I excitedly installed the 8.1 Developer Preview (as I'm sure tons of you did as well!). After I got out of work, I figured I'd do a hard reset just to start fresh. So I did the hard reset and figured it would go without a hitch...

...it did. Mostly.

After the phone rebooted and went into the setup, I noticed that the phone took a REALLY long time to try and activate with the network. I have good service in my house so I knew that was no issue. Anyway, it said that it finished and the setup resumed. I then went to send a picture mail and it immediately failed. Uh-oh, I was able to send one fine before the reset.

So I turned off WiFi and tried to browse the web. No connection. I went into the Store, no connection. I tried to use WPCentral's app. No network connection.

FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU...

So I went into settings and noticed the 'cellular+SIM' option no longer had 'Sprint' under it... uh-oh.. I clicked and sure enough under 'Active network', NO CARRIER is listed. It's blank. So needless to say I decide to go into the phone's SCRTN settings and noticed that although in the setup, the phone said it was activated... it clearly wasn't.

Normally, on an activated phone your MDN (phone number) and MSID should be shown on a Sprint device. Neither my MDN or MSID were correct... my phone was not activated at ALL.

Luckily I have my MSID and MSL (activation code, unique to each phone) and I went into the settings and manually programmed my device. I rebooted and went into settings to update my profile/PRL... when I noticed something.

Windows Phone 8.1 does NOT have a settings option to 'update network profile'! (as previous versions of WP8 did!)

So at this point I'm getting nervous since I NEED to update my profile for the network to properly set my phone. So I turn on WiFi just to get some kind of web connection. Luckily, the ATIV has a 'device self service' app which when I opened, seemed to perform a profile update and activate my phone on the network. At this point, I thought everything was perfect now... but even after another reboot... still no data with WiFi turned off.

So I let the phone sit for a while and after trying again, I can now surf the web again without WiFi. I don't know what changed while my phone was just sitting but things seem to be back... one thing of note however is that the phone no longer says 'SPRINT' up top when Action Center is opened (it did before the factory reset) and the Store NO LONGER HAS A SPRINT APPS SECTION. I'm assuming my phone was debranded since there's no Sprint mentions in those places anymore... which sucks, since I didn't want to screw anything up.

I know this may be it's an isolated issue, but I wanted to let you all know... and to let my fellow Sprint WP8 users know that it may kill your service since this update doesn't seem to have proper CDMA support as far as making 'profile update' available. Trying to use 'device self service' again after the first time won't work since it will error saying that device is already activated. Even though things work now, it still doesn't list Sprint under 'cellular+SIM'... so I'm stumped in that regard.

TL;DR - Fellow Sprint users - Be careful when hard resetting your phone after installing the 8.1 preview.. it may screw your service!

 

[MichaelLopez]

This is getting me annoyed that my phone can't connect to Sprint but what is the SCRTN settings and where did you find it?

 

[iknowsingh]

This is getting me annoyed that my phone can't connect to Sprint but what is the SCRTN settings and where did you find it?

I highly advise being careful with doing this since it really doesn't solve much on the 8.1 software (which seems to have severely broken the way service works on CDMA devices), and since 8.1 doesn't have the 'network profile update' feature that all CDMA phones SHOULD have!

[WARN]**WARNING** doing this WILL cause your phone to lose connection with the network. On previous versions of WP8 (GDR3 and below), doing this would cause your phone to reboot and attempt to reactivate with the network. On 8.1, it seems the network activation command no longer exists so the phone will not reboot and attempt to reactivate, but it will still wipe your network settings. You would need to manually program your phone (if you know your MSID and more importantly, your MSL) or by selecting 'Device Self-Service' in settings and hopefully it activates that way (still missing MMS, as I currently am).[/WARN]

To view your device's current MDN (your phone number) and MSID, type ##786#, click 'view' and it will be in the top two listings shown. If you see both numbers are the same like '0000004367' or something like that, your phone is NOT right. MDN should be your phone number and MSID should be... your MSID (unique to your phone).

Go into dialer, and press ##72786# and it will kick you to the SCRTN screen. If you press 'ok' twice, your network settings will be wiped. You then will have to manually turn the phone off and back on then either manually program or hopefully self-service works for you.

Don't freak on me if this messes up anything for you... I warned you!

 

[iknowsingh]

Lastly, some folks on XDA Developers have been talking about this issue, follow their thread there as well (I've posted a few things in there) -
WARNING! Do not update to 8.1 if your phone is CDMA - xda-developers

 

[iknowsingh]

I made a post about this on Microsoft's MSDN forum for Windows Phone OS Preview -

8.1 Dev Preview kills CDMA service after a hard reset!

Feel free to leave replies and let's get Microsoft to fix the CDMA issues!

 

[MichaelLopez]

Sorry for asking but where can I find my MSID?

 

[bblount]

I had to call sprint. All works but MMS.

 

[geg1978]

Michael
I talk to sprint support last night. Sprint can help you setup MDN and MSID manually. I can make call and text now but my internet still down. That going fix your voice and text. That know you need the Internet APN info under cellular+sim to get the internet to work. If you get sprint support to give you the info for internet apn please posted.

 

[Nimdock]

I am sorry this has happened to some people.

I certainly do not miss CDMA phones at all.

 

[iknowsingh]

You'd need to get your MSID and MSL from Sprint. If you activated your phone thru sprint.com, you should've gotten a confirmation email with your 'activation code' which is your MSL. I got my MSID through a friend who works at a Sprint repair store. I work at a non-repair Sprint store so I don't have the system to look up that info.

 

[dorelse]

You'd need to get your MSID and MSL from Sprint. If you activated your phone thru sprint.com, you should've gotten a confirmation email with your 'activation code' which is your MSL. I got my MSID through a friend who works at a Sprint repair store. I work at a non-repair Sprint store so I don't have the system to look up that info.

Do you know if push comes to shove, can Sprint reflash our phones back to 8.0 if we find additional, crippling issues? Definitely sounds like MS? (or does Sprint have to add it) forgot some CDMA specific tools.

So the 'activate you device' app won't put all that info back on the phone and make it right on the network?

 

[iknowsingh]

Do you know if push comes to shove, can Sprint reflash our phones back to 8.0 if we find additional, crippling issues? Definitely sounds like MS? (or does Sprint have to add it) forgot some CDMA specific tools.

So the 'activate you device' app won't put all that info back on the phone and make it right on the network?

The activate your device app looks like it does a profile update, but it still doesn't enable MMS. I'm presuming because the proper activation program in the phone no longer exists so the settings can't be applied.

A poster on the XDA forum thread I posted went to a Sprint store and they said they cannot reflash the device. Being a non-repair rep, I don't know of any way the phone can be reflashed myself. I think as far as Sprint is concerned, we'll have to wait for their official 8.1 release coming this summer (as reported here on WPC). Someone else called Samsung and they said they can't do it, to get in touch with Microsoft. Which brings us full circle, since simply being part of the Dev Preview voids all warranty, and MS has clearly said when partaking in the Preview, there is no way to downgrade. Hopefully Microsoft releases an update to this preview which hopefully fixes all of the issues people have been having.

My personal gut feeling is that we would need a new firmware update AND a proper CDMA optimized 8.1 update to make things work again.

 

[geg1978]

How do I get my internet working again?

 

[Thomas Ozawa]

1- go to "phone updates" and check for updates.
2-normally, there would be a update, so install it.
3-your WP should work again after the update installed.

 

[Thomas Ozawa]

How do I get my internet working again?

1- go to "phone updates" and check for updates.
2-normally, there would be a update, so install it.
3-your WP should work again after the update installed.

 

[iknowsingh]

1- go to "phone updates" and check for updates.
2-normally, there would be a update, so install it.
3-your WP should work again after the update installed.

"Your phone is up to date. Last checked 2 seconds ago."

Now what?

 

[Thomas Ozawa]

"Your phone is up to date. Last checked 2 seconds ago."

Now what?

Mmhh.... Okay
Have you tried to reboot your phone ?
It's easy, : Press the power button and the volume down button simultaneously for 15 seconds. ( if you have WP 8.1, it will first take a screenshot, but if you continue pressing, a black screen will appear and it will reboot the phone )

 

[Thomas Ozawa]

And if it's still not working, do a normal reset

 

[iknowsingh]

As evidenced in my original post, many reboots, a few hard resets, I've manually programmed my phone multiple times, I've checked internal settings and more.

Bottom line is, this update was poorly optimized for CDMA devices. Either Microsoft needs to release an update or Sprint hopefully releases new firmware and their version of the update soon.

 

[dorelse]

As evidenced in my original post, many reboots, a few hard resets, I've manually programmed my phone multiple times, I've checked internal settings and more.

Bottom line is, this update was poorly optimized for CDMA devices. Either Microsoft needs to release an update or Sprint hopefully releases new firmware and their version of the update soon.

I suspect it'll be the 2nd option don't you? I'm fortunate in that besides wifi, my 8XT seems to be working fine on Sprint...but yeah, if I need to do a PRL update or something, we're out of luck.

Maybe they've finally got access to enough code now that we'll get a real VVM solution when its all said and done.