[Sprint Samsung Galaxy S III] POWerSUrgeSW3:
Possible Fix

DELETED POST - out of order

---------- Post added at 11:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 PM ----------

So I got to thinking maybe a factory reset could work to remove the "No SIM" message from the notification bar. I have used the following steps and have even reloaded a factory ROM then customer and still rolling without a "No SIM" message.

Because usually the factory ROM image is not up-to-date. And with as easy as this phone is to unroot and root, I figured I would mess around. This is a bit lengthy, but wanted anyone to be able to clearly walk the steps I have had with my phone, in the event someone might be able to easily figure out when and where and how to fix without so many steps. So here's what I did since I got my phone (5 days ago):

// I apologies if this seems a little distorted, this took me a few hours after a full day of work and family time... little tired while typing this up, but it's fresh in my mind\\

- Received phone, got Ghost Armor on screen, activated at Sprint store, first boot of the phone and left running until I went home.

- Shut phone off, inserted 16GB SD Card previously in HTC Evo4G that was now wiped clean

(already did all my research for rooting/ROMs last week)

- Followed Easy Root instructions

- Downloaded bakedbean-6 ROM

- Wanted CWM Touch Recovery, found THIS instructional thread and followed instructions.

- Customized ROM completely

- Made Backup of ROM to /SDCard (not my external 16GB SD Card I put in)

- Ran Android Encryption feature of the phone overnight on a full charge and plugged into power

- Woke up next morning (luckily before late for work) and had error message "Encryption Unsuccessful"

- Hit REBOOT button on screen, entered look back to previous error message (3 times)

- Went into recovery and tried doing a wipe of /data and /sdcard, which were unable to be mounted

- After much Googling found that the previous unmounted partitions get locked due to the encryption process, only way to fix would be to unroot and do a factory reset with the factory recovery

- Found THIS forum thread

- Unrooted successfully, but lost my previous backedup ROM (but THANK YOU to having my Evo4G Titanium Backup files still)

- Rebooted to same "Encryption Unsuccessful" message

- Rebooted into factory recovery and performed "wipe data/factory reset"

(Here's a YouTube video on doing a "factory reset", start at 1:40 to see what I did)

- Rebooted into stock ROM, had annoying "No SIM" message in notification bar.

- Walked through Easy Root instructions again.

- Loaded bakedbean-6 ROM

- Still had same annoying "No SIM" message

- Got phone into working order again, hiding "No SIM" traces as best as possible.

- Also, in any ROM factory or custom, ICCID shows up as "unknown"

[ Skipped through two days ]

-Decided today would be the day to unroot and see if I can fix this "No SIM" issue

- Backed up my ROM to /extSDCard

- Followed Easy Unroot instructions

- rebooted into factory recovery, did 'wipe data/factory reset'

- booted into unrooted/factory Sprint ROM

(To note here, I did not log into my GMail account or load any software on the phone)

- Was prompted, shortly after phone loaded finished initial setup, to install an update (no idea what was being updated)

- Ran update and let phone reboot itself to install and reboot back into ROM

- Decided to do updates, first went into Settings-->System Update-->Update Samsung Software, first update was 39MB

- Rebooted, "No SIM" message still there, went back into same update place, second update was 81MB

- Rebooted, message gone, did not receive a "No SIM" message or icon in notification bar

- Rebooted, still message did not come up. Checked Settings--> About Phone-->Status-->ICCID, a long number was populated here (FINALLY)

- Rebooted into factory recovery, wiped data/factory reset, rebooted into phone back into a "fresh" first boot of factory software.

- Walked through initial setup (still not setting up GMail account), noticing that there was not a "No SIM" icon in the notification bar, nor a message in the drop down notification bar either.

- Followed Easy Root instructions, though this time using the clockworkmod.TAR.md5 file from CWM Touch Recovery thread

- Did 'wipe data/factory reset' (3 times) and 'wipe cache partition' (3 times) in my CWM Touch recovery

- Loaded LiquidSmooth ROM, loaded GAPPS, loaded RC9 build.prop fix for RC9

(I was going with a different flavor because of some options the ROM had over the other, all personal and I do not think reflect anything with bakedbean-6 and this 'No SIM' issue)

- Booted into ROM, went through initial setup (this time logging into GMail account)...

- In the notification bar, I did not receive an icon or message refering to "No SIM".

- Checked Settings-->About Phone-->Status-->ICCID was populated with the same number as before in the factory ROM.

+ "No SIM" issue solved... seemed that updates actually helped solved this issue :cool: