[Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] Indopilot:
Dear All,

today I ran into a massive problem with my brand new i9300, which i bought 2 days ago and literally bricked the phone in very unusual way - no network available so I can not make/receive calls, texts or data.

I bought the phone in Bangkok(Thailand), as is(without warranty as it is not from original thai distribution therefore I saved bit over 100 bucks). When I got home and start exploring the phone a little I noticed weird thing - when booting up the logo is GT-I9300T and when I checked on firmware, it was showing GT-I9300T as well but the paper boxe(written in french) showed GT-I9300 as well as the sticker under the battery(GT-I9300). The phone was unlocked and rooted, can not remember the firmware it was equipped with but it was TELSTRA branded(boot on/off animation plus lots of crap appz TELSTRA related). Plus there were few bugs like phone was not able to lock itself(pin, face unlock etc. etc. - nothing was working, no unlocking needed because it never locked anyway) no matter what I did. That really annoyed me so I decided to flash DarkyROM III v3(have been playing with DarkyROMs for last 2 years on my SGS) as I learned that i9300 and i9300T firmwares are interchangable anyway so it should not matter. So I flashed according the guide, no problems encountered at all, it went very smooth. But after the phone booted up, despite everything else was working nicely, there was no signal/network available. Only the "crossed-circle" in the top-right corner where usually the signal bars are.

So I went to the service mode, tried to force different bands in both - GSM and WCDMA but no luck. Still no networkd available. So I decided to give a go to few another modems - both versions i9300 and i9300T - flashed in CWM and Odin too - no luck, still the same. So I reflashed few SAMSUNG stock firmwares plus tried the various modems again, still the same result - crossed circle instead of signal bars, no network. So I went to SAMSUNG SERVICE CENTER, they were very helpful, played with my phone for almost an hour, flashed latest official thai firmware but the result is still the same. No network. They even reflashed the initial bootup animation so now it is showing correctly GT-I9300. They checked the imei+s/n and confirmed the phone is I9300 coming from France originaly(french distribution) and apologized, because it is french phone they do not have the required firmware/software on hand so that they can help me and fix my phone. So what can I do? I guess if SAMSUNG Service Center can not help me, does it mean I should throw away my phone into the nearest thrashbin? I spent almost 600USD on it - its a lots of money for me. Well lesson for me is - never buy anything from unofficial distribution!

But please let me ask you guys - any idea what can I do to make it work again? Anyone else have similar experience as me?

The phone shows same IMEI as on the paper sticker below the battery, but the serial number shows ony zeros(0000000) instead the letters/numbers which are mentioned on the sticker.

Any more info, please let me know. I will appreciate any suggestion/help/assistance to make my SGS3 work again, please please please help me!

Thanks a lot, kind regards

Tomas