Hi there,

I have a blackberry curve 8310 that I used to use as part of a vodafone contract. Since then, my employer unlocked it and gave it to me to use with my own sim card. At the moment, it is on firmware 4.2.2.146, but unfortunately the BB messaging and e-mail applications were manually deleted off as I wasn't using a BIS/BES plan anymore. Now I will have BIS back, and am looking to restore these parts of the software.

So I was told to use the application loader and directed to vodafone.co.uk/blackberry/downloads, and it shows two sets of firmware available for the 8310 - 4.2.2.146 and 4.5.0.81. Now I have a few questions:

a) Can I use either of these firmware installs at all if my phone is no longer on a vodafone contract? Can it re-lock my phone or cause other problems? FYI, when booting up, the splash screen still has a vodafone logo.

b) If yes, can I install the newer firmware on my phone without problems, or am I bound to use the older version?

c) If I can install either version of the software, will data such as my SMS messages and contacts be safe? I have the contacts backed up, but haven't found an effective way to archive SMS messages off yet. Also, are these complete software installs, or can individual components be installed, such as just BB messaging or BB email?

On that last note, I might as well ask - is there any way to tell the SMS messages to use the memory card or be stored somewhere else, or be downloadable? My message cache has been filled for a while, and I'm sure many are being automatically trashed as new ones come in. Ideas?

Many many thanks for your time,
Gaurav

Hi!

a) yes - you can use the firmware released by any carrier. It is all written by RIM, and tested and released by the carriers. The splash screen does not change.

b) upgrade away - you are not bound to an old version.

c) The first step of an upgrade is a backup; the last is a restore. The SMS messages are all in the Messages data store, which is backed up through Desktop Manager / Backup. You have a choice as to what you want to install (or remove).

Good luck!

Also, since this came from your employer and was removed from the BES, you may have an IT policy on the device. If so, you may want to consider removing it. It would be easier to do after upgrading to 4.5, then you can use the ResetToFactory option in JL_Cmder

Remove IT Policy - BlackBerryFAQ

And welcome to the forums

Thanks for the reply!

Re a), so I'm not even bound to use firmware released by a carrier in my country? Is there any good reason for using some other carrier's firmware or some generic/universal/magical firmware as opposed to downloading the vodafone firmware, considering that I'm not on a vodafone plan anymore?

Oh, and one key bit that would be helpful to sort out - I manually deleted BBM and BB email and other various things (don't ask, seemed inspired at the time) because I thought I'd never bother paying extra for a BB plan (I didn't expect O2 to give it to me for free). Would doing an upgrade alone be enough to restore these applications (following the final data restore)? Or would I need to follow some extra steps?

There is no such thing as Vodafone firmware. It is all written by RIM and tested and released by the carriers on their own schedule

You can stick with the latest version from your carrier, or upgrade to any other version. The choice is yours.

There is no generic/universal/magical firmware. Carriers release it on their own schedule, whenever they want t.