[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Hi

I must keep taking deep breaths and try to remain calm. I know Blackberrys are much respected pieces of useful equipment but right now I just can't get it. Perhaps I spent too long with an iPhone.

I wasted two hours of my life last night and probably more than today trying to get to grips with a Blackberry 8700.

Either I am totally beyond help or the system is a piece of junk!

I'll refrain from using expletives as I'll get barred but I have never in my whole life experienced such a complicated piece of [junk].

I have an unlocked 8700. It appears to be running 4.5 software and was pre-owned presumably by a company and everything seems locked down despite being unlocked and scrubbed (TWICE!!!!).

What am I not understanding here? I have read a couple of topics on this and other forums about removing Content Protection and Password Enabled.

I really don't understand the first thing about these 'phones'.

All I know is that whichever sim card I insert, nothing will allow any calls to be made "Sorry! Only emergency calls can be made!" or some message to that effect.

I know, because of my increasing impatience with the damned thing, that I am going to end up turning it into a brick!

I actually contacted Vodafone today who were nearly a total loss because someone suggested that perhaps it was blocked due to being reported lost or stolen. Whilst they couldn't actually provide me with any idea about how to go about rectifying the problem, they did advise that the phone is not on a blacklist. So that's a start.

I bought the phone from a well-respected Auction house in London.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated before I totally crack up!

Regards,

RdV

[jsconyers]

Welcome to the forums.

Relax. Sounds like you have an IT Policy on the device. Take a look at this and it should clear you right up.

Remove IT Policy - BlackBerryFAQ

[NJBlackBerry]

Nice rant..

Here are two threads that may help - How do I determine if my BlackBerry is "unlocked"? - BlackBerryFAQ

and Buying a BlackBerry off eBay - BlackBerryFAQ

Feel free to substitute "well known auction house" for eBay".

Take a deep breath and CALM DOWN.

[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Thanks for the prompt responses.

I have cracked the first bit. I just read somewhere not to assume Blackberry and PC keyboard are the same!!!! That helped instantaneously.

Go into Desktop Manager.

jsconyers - I've already found and read that link but what obviously bamboozled me was the password - I was entering it wrong into JL programme!

That is not running but appears stuck on Connecting to device... and has been for last 2 - 3 minutes.

I daren't unplug it. Is it now effectively doing a 2 hour wipe without telling me it is?

NJBlackberry. No. We didn't buy it off Ebay although we are Ebay sellers! What an admission! We actually entrusted this phone to our normal unlocking guy to sort and did sell it on Ebay and buyer said he couldn't use it so we took a return on it because we are entirely honourable even though he was a zero feedback chap and negged us immediately because he clearly lacked any judgement or communication skills.

Either way, we still sold him a phone which WE hadn't tested ourselves. Fingers burnt! Lesson learnt!

Even so, I will still check your threads out too.

[jsconyers]

Don't unplug it!

It shouldn't take 2 hours unless you do have content protection turned on. It still shouldn't take that long, but will take about an hour or so.

[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Actually just closed JL down as it looked as though it wasn't doing anything.

Re-ran it and received:-

Connecting to device...debug: COM error during Open: (0x80004004)
Error: unable to open port

Command completed!

Which presumably it cannot have been if it couldn't open port?

[jsconyers]

What's on the screen of the device? When you have your SIM in the device do you get an SOS or EDGE?

[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Device is showing as locked on the screen!

Have seen SOS before and a message flash up very quickly about content protection but too fast to read.

It is now showing gprs and I have my iPhone sim in it.

[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Just going around in circles at present.

If I invoke wipe handheld from handset again, is this the one that takes 2+ hours? I can't bear to do that again.

I have reviewed programmes running in Task Manager (Windows 7) to see if Desktop Manager is holding it hostage. Closed BBDevMgr.exe down but that only pops up again when JL Cmder is ran.

When I initially installed Desktop Manager I set it up for Enterprise Activation or whatever choices you have? Should I uninstall and reinstall?

I also downloaded BlackBerry USB and Modem Drivers_ENG (DM5.0.1b49).msi but never installed it before Desktop Manager. Is this something I should perhaps try?

Your continued assistance is greatly appreciated.

Meanwhile, I'm going for a run to de-stress!

[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Hi jsconyers.

Absolutely NO idea what has happened BUT i am now able to make calls.

At some point, it stated connected on JL_Cmder programme but then appeared to be doing nothing so I terminated the programme and then tried to reconnect and it wouldn't.

Very strange! Not sure I'll ever buy a BB again after this. Really frustrating but, of course, now strangely, satisfying!!!

[rambo47]

You should set it up for BlackBerry Internet Service (use with personal email account) and not BlackBerry Enterprise Activation. BIS is for personal users, not corporate users on a BES system.

Running JL_Commander often requires re-trying the wipe multiple times. When it's finally done you should get an "Error 507" on the BlackBerry, signifying no software is on it. Then you can load an OS onto it and use it.

[rambo47]

Originally Posted by Rhothgar_Den_Viking

Hi jsconyers.

Absolutely NO idea what has happened BUT i am now able to make calls.

At some point, it stated connected on JL_Cmder programme but then appeared to be doing nothing so I terminated the programme and then tried to reconnect and it wouldn't.

Very strange! Not sure I'll ever buy a BB again after this. Really frustrating but, of course, now strangely, satisfying!!!

You'll find (or have already found) that there is the right way to do things, the wrong way to do things, and the BlackBerry way to do things.
I assure you there is a method to the madness, and it will make sense (mostly) when you finally get your mind around it, but it can be very frustrating when you're used to another system.

[JSanders]

Look, the 8700 is a rock solid device. But you bought a used device having no idea what it had on it, or what BES it had been on. It's like buying a used card from Carl on the side of the street, no warranty or anything.

If you buy used in the future, read the eBay link you were offered above.

[Rhothgar_Den_Viking]

Hi rambo47

You're sure right! Mind-boggling to say the least.

I ran 5 on JL-Cmder but only once did it say Connected and due to the frustrations previously mentioned I didn't let it linger too long on that.

Things I daren't even try a wipe again just in case the original settings mysteriously re-appear and I get locked in a BIS-BES continuum again.

I guess I thought a Blackberry was a phone but it is clearly MUCH MUCH more than that. A brilliant piece of kit - it seems to have like Defence Industry standard security!!! Am I right?

[rambo47]

Originally Posted by Rhothgar_Den_Viking

Hi rambo47

You're sure right! Mind-boggling to say the least.

I ran 5 on JL-Cmder but only once did it say Connected and due to the frustrations previously mentioned I didn't let it linger too long on that.

Things I daren't even try a wipe again just in case the original settings mysteriously re-appear and I get locked in a BIS-BES continuum again.

I guess I thought a Blackberry was a phone but it is clearly MUCH MUCH more than that. A brilliant piece of kit - it seems to have like Defence Industry standard security!!! Am I right?

You are 100% correct in that BlackBerry security is DoD-grade! They're very much purpose-driven devices, and while they happen to do lots of stuff, they were designed primarily for secure email and to be used in a corporate environment. That's their pedigree at least. As more consumer features have been added the platform's capabilities have expanded, but often the original design parameters interfere with an intuitive implementation of these "consumerisms". Part of the legendary BlackBerry security is the ability of administrators to lock down the devices they manage. Especially for those who buy a used device, this can lead to major frustrations.