Mock the Week

[deathboy]

ROCK.

Owing to my rather heavy phone use/abuse and a combination of circumstances, I previously had 1x Battle-Damaged Treo 650 + 1x Almost-New-But-Disabled Treo 650.



My main, functional Treo 650 looks a MESS. Scratches all over, peeling and flaking plastic. It's been in my pocket for a few years and works just fine, but I figured it deserved an overhaul.

I was going to pull an insurance job on it with Orange, but I've done that rather a lot over the years (ie, when the slightest defect has occurred, used it as an excuse to get a shiny new handset on the insurance) and their warnings about my paying the full cost of the handset (hundreds of quid) if they thought I was pulling a fast one made me shy away from trying my luck again.

As I just got an HTC Universal (which I'm beginning to get to grips with) from T-Mobile, I would soon be porting my old Orange number, so I figured I should:

• Unlock the old (working, but battered) phone


• Swap the cases on the two phones

Orange said £20 for the unlock code.

Treo 650 Unlock.com said $15 (~£8)

Fuck Orange. My phone's out of contract anyway, to my mind, it should have been free.

So, I backed up my working Treo, used the codes and software from 650unlock.com and BOING! I now have an unlocked phone. Not difficult at all. Tested it a few times, result.

Next, I googled for taking apart a Treo 650, found that it was largely as simple as I thought, take out the visible screws, there's one (not very) hidden screw. Oh, and though they're Torx screws, a tiny flat-head jeweller's screwdriver worked absolutely fine. Did that, too. A bit of levering and prising and the case came apart (terrority not covered in the article above). Two more screws on the keyboard and we've got the main board out. Flip it all around, reverse the process. Apply a little more force than expected to snap the case back together, replace all the screws, bingo!

So, now I have a shiny, new-looking, working, unlocked Treo 650, and it only took me 20 minutes and £8, and I didn't have to pull a dodgy insurance job with Orange.

FUCK YOU, WEEK.

:)

Comments

[jecook]

How has the treo been for you? I have a Tmobile Sidekick/Hiptop that's starting to fail on me, and I'm thinking of getting a treo.

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

absolutely adore it. it certainly has its quirks, but with a few bits of 3rd party software (for me, pTunes mp3 player and a good IRC client), it can become a beast of a device.

keyboard is GREAT. camera, passable. pda vs phone functionality is a good balance.

the HTC, despite being supposedly more powerful is not (to me) half as good, though it's improving as i find software to fill the gaps.

[krztov.livejournal.com]

just to give you a heads up, with t-mobile, every 90 days you get a free unlock code (not 100% if its the same policy for tmobile uk, but most other policies are the same)

[deathboy.livejournal.com]

hm. interesting. will look into that, ta.

[krztov.livejournal.com]

if its exact to the us rules, then its every 90 days and has to be a t-mobile phone, ive got an htc excalibur unlocked at the moment, had a samsung t809 nefore and currently a samsung t629 (all of which are garbage compared to euro phones..)

it was fun working for t-mobile, but getting an easy (cushy) IT job, making DOUBLE what i made as a customer service rep at tmo, is much better...
plus, how else can i afford that 32" LCD HDTV i just got :)

p.s. you available for remix work? would love to get a mix on the cd

[https://users.livejournal.com/-leet-/]

I'm up for trying to fuck Orange over at every corner at the minute, after they changed my contract to 18months without telling me, and now want to extort three hundred and something quid to cancel as I'm only on month 12.... twats.

So never ever feel guilty again about pulling an insurance job on them ;)