Hello everyone. I have been researching the unbranding process for months now and I know pretty well what needs to be done, but I am still desperately confused about which FS, MAIN and CUSTPACK files to use for my phone and where to get them.

1: Appropriate MAIN, FS and Custpack files for this phone in my geographical region (Californa, USA)?

I have registered at TopSony and since I know very little to contribute (20 posts from a noob? who wants that filth..?) I tried to 'request free access' using their form which returned some Spanish stuff and a nice preview of what seemed to be a post or something...but it didn't make any sense to me. So, I did download some files from SeKing site at about 8kB/s but then went on to find out that the new encryption (_enc.rar or "W580_R8BA024_RED52_FS_AMERICA_1_LA_enc.rar" to be exact) cannot be used by XS++ or converted using Gconvert/GFinalize and I am just now feeling comfortable enough with XS++ which I have used already to transfer new walkman 2.0 skins, et.al. to my phone that I don't want to use another program...damn.

I did manage to locate and download "Laura_i_CDA102774_20_R1A_Generic_Trade_USA.zip" although I am unsure if this is appropriate. I just don't know what the difference is between any different versions of the FW and custpacks. I do finally understand about the language sets between AMERICA_1, AMERICA_2, etc...but that's about all I know. Anyways, if anyone could help me locate or at least identify the right files to use, I would be grateful - as you can see I am going to be using an English, American, Generic fw. I am currently on CDA 102774/102 and fw version R7AC001.

So if anyone could point me to relevant threads, that would be enough, I am not looking to have a bunch of people rehash all the things that have already been said, I am just having a hard time finding w580i firmware files.



I have a few additional questions (sorry ):



2: Any input/solution on what I have observed to be an issue surrounding MMS messaging/email settings?

I understand that these settings that come from carrier (AT&T in my case) are lost after unbranding and from what I have read, there seems to be some problem in restoring the settings so that MMS messaging works as designed again. Are there any other known issues I should know about?



3: Does anyone know if there is a way to make the standby clock display larger?

I am talking about the clock that shows up when I hit the volume buttons when the phone is at rest, and it shows the time, and status, in black on a grey background. It's kind of small and shows up in random locations....any way to customize this?


Thanks!



PS: A quick edit here, I forgot one additional question.

4: Can anyone point me to some information or a procedure on backing up the original branded FW files to restore in case of warranty issues?

note down your MMS , WAP , EDGE setting on a paper. after debranding fill them back alright.
You are from US, So go and use any damn FS. All FS have English.
Firmwares you must search for it .
Standby can't be larger as you wanted it.. neither do i have to time to see to patch it.

i don't know where to get branded FS. Sorry. I think woton server paid solution will help you rebrand.

Ok akshay, thanks for your answers, and thank you for the pm .


Managed to find good FS (AMERICA_1) and what I think is good MAIN (GENERIC_LA) - is that the right one?


Ok I will go looking for a custpack now...Thank you!

you will find all files in http://www.iprotebe.cz/sony-ericsson (register free to dload)

Thanks Nabil, already got pretty much everything...but iprotebe.cz doesn't really have a very good selection for this phone...luckily I found what I was looking for elsewhere.

Yeah, I ended up making the mistake of not writing down those settings...

use sony ericsson online configurator to get the settings.......

Hi, I tried that but never received the settings. You can check out my post in the Network forum to read what I ended up doing. Or maybe it was in Newbie...I made 2.



edit: BTW, i found out that you have to use the corporate section of the website to ge the message through in many cases. see my other post for details.

hhhmm dats strange, coz i re configured my phone using the SE configurator about 2 weeks back.

Try here : http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/support/phonesetup

If you still need a good custpack, there's a PERFECT one on the se-nse download site here. I used it and nothing went wrong.

Thanks nabila, that's the section I meant in my post. I don't need to set it up anymore but hopefully others will find this if they have trouble using the configurator.

stevo, I have that custpack, and I ended up using LAURA because I read it has US network settings on it already. You can see how far that got me...but maybe I just don't know how to use it. Thanks though!

SE configurator never works for me either, check out your phone operator though, most in the UK will send you your settings via their website, you might even be able to download them as part of the phone setup after flashing too, mine grabbed MMS/internet settings by itself.

Unfortunately ATT locks their settings out and on thier website they have only very basic settings, although I thnk if you select the w300i you can get to more specific setting info.
I did try to download settings after I flashed, but it didn't work...the settings were wrong.