yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] flintston314:
Is there any update on the "SIM card removed" - "restart with a valid SIM card" Problem? I had my Photon for an unrelated repair sent to Cornholio. I got it back and since then am having this problem. I have to say that I switched the SIM (provider) as well (my Wife uses the photon now). I will have to check with my old SIM if the problem persists (I did not have that issue with my provider) so maybe it is SIM/Provider related.....but I somehow feel its hardware related. It seems that mechanically switching the SIM helps...at least I got a new SIM for my wife and putting that one into the phone made it stable for almos 24h, whereas her old sim made the phone go crazy in a matter of minutes (SIM card removed, restart with valid SIM).

I find this issue highly annoying....what is wierd aswell, is that today the card would not find any network, but she could send and receive SMS....

I am still using CM10 and did not change Software for a few months.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] LaPlagne:
[MENTION=243251]CornholioGSM[/MENTION] are you live? i wrote PM few days ago and i'm thinking whether she reached or why you aren't answering about mod SIM :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...check email :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] evilution.dk:
How is the progress on my phone? You haven't answered my PMs.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
check pm again
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Klacka:
Hi Cornholio,

your PM inbox seems to be full. I haves sent you an email to your paypal address, hope it reaches you.

Thanks,

Klacka
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] x11-nice:
Hey cornholio

wrote you too a pm, and wanted to see, hows my phone doing, I am really desperate :cyclops:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] rank2:
+1 plz :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] tobby88:
Have a little patience, guys! Cornholio does it in his spare time. He is working on the phones even after midnight. And we don't want him to loose his actual job...

More and more people are sending their Photon Q to Cornholio - so it may take a little bit longer. And the more mails he has to answer, the less time he has.

The modding of my phones took about 6 weeks until I finally got them back. Keep on waiting guys :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] ombli:
CornholioGSM IS THE MAN!!!!!

I write here to give CornholioGSM a HUGE THANKS!!!!!

I bought the Photon Q, and I tried make the mod my self, and I failed, even worst, I burned the camera button :silly:

So I sent the phone to him, and he made the mod and FIX the camera button, but I had the SIM lost issues, it was impossible use the Photon Q as a phone, I tried lots of "software modifications", change ROM, settings, etc... But nothing. :eek:

I spoke with CornholioGSM (guys you have to be patient with tne PM, probably he is full of work), and he told me that if I want send him the Photon back to him to change the wires (or who knows what more), I did, and few weeks later, I received the Photon Q and now the phone IS WORKING PERFECT!!!!!!!!! :laugh::laugh:

Don't lose time if you are not familiarize with small welds (really small), and sent your Photon to him, he is THE MAN, he made the mod, and share here with everybody, for that we can give him a few € or $, and pay his holidays ;) and you will have your phone with a nice SIM reader to use everywhere which the operator you want.

One more time: děkuju mnohokrát CornholioGSM
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Zaxmax761:
Hey,

I've been experiencing exactly the same issues as described in the quotes from "DiMacho". I got my Photon used via ebay and try to run it in a Vodafone network. I think this might be a hardware problem, as I tried flashing CM, but the phone still lost the signal when switching to GPRS. I tried it with several SIM Cards (and different network-carriers), but none of it worked.

Any ideas? I'd really appreciate any help. This phone looks great and the few minutes I got to use it I liked it a lot!

Greetings,
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Skrilax_CZ:
Works well with AT&T, just need to use ICS fsg.mbn and some extra QPST edits to prevent it from changing to CDMA on its own :)

EDIT: Also tried fsg.mbn from Atrix HD jellybean, works fine btw. (no problems with the lock)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
I did my mod and I was a bit unlucky.

The SIM is perfectly recognized, the phone works as expected, i can call browse the internet, thether the connection and so on.

I also translated most of the stock ROM (ICS), as you can see.

The phone works fine with all the 4 major Italian providers, and with all the virtual operators I tried, except Noverca ( which has advanced SIMs known to be problematic on some phones)

BUT

The signal reception is incredibly poor, sometimes it barely keeps the signal locked in a very good coverage area, especially in 2G.

Feels like a phone with a broken/misconnected antenna.

But it's not the case, I doublececked the spring contacts on the logic board, and even tried to connect a wire of the correct lenght to the main antenna clip contact, and the result is unchanged.

To made the matter more puzzling, when i turn on the hotspot to share the connection to a PC, the signal goes full bar, and the connection is incredibly good.

This test is made with Wind, which is the cheapest (and usually slowest) Italian operator, I've never seen a connection faster than 5.5.MBps or a latency below 100mS with this provider.

Hardly I did something wrong, likely I got a faulty logic board...

Anyway would be very nice to hear if someone has faced a similar beahavior or has any idea about it.

Thanks in advance.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Ronin2012:
I don’t have this kind of problem here in Munich.

Everything works fine and the signal strength is great.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
I have no doub't about this.

The mentioned PQ is actually the second one I modified, and the other one worked perfectly.

Actually on the second one I replaced the logic board because the first one was destroyed by a poor attempt to modify it.

So I traded mine with the one broken (for a price, clearly) and I bought a spare logic board to have a working Photon again in my hands.

Unfortunately that move doesn't worked as expected, and it's a pity as on this 2nd phone everything else works as expected, including WIFi,BT, GPS, the Sim mod itself (i never experienced the SIM disconnected or any other SIM card related error)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Ronin2012:
Maybe you ask CornholioGSM and he can repair your phone.

He is the man for this and made the mod for me without any problems.

I made the mod as described in my post and everything works fine for me.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
...any damaged antena???
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
No,

As I said, I even tried to connect a wire right to the antenna spring contact, and I had the same result I have with the one built in in the cover.

And BTW is hard to broke the main antenna, wile is definitely easy to break the two sticker shaped ones, that are unrelated to the cellular signal.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] NikolauZi:
with problems regarding losing signal, I can highly sugest to install a custom rom like cm.

I've had the following problems with the stock rom:

- aborting calls

- the phone told me to have signal but in fact i was not reachable

- going to emergency mode without any reason

after having flashed cm, i'm only experiencing the problem with aborting calls. has anybody else this problem? the call just gets lost(!). I'm not having any coverage problems as i'm standing in one place when this happens. also, the bar still looks fine... any ideas?

thanks!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
[MENTION=4503551]NikolauZi[/MENTION]

Looks like your problem is the "antimatter" of mine.

My phone works perfectly fine if has enough bars, and when a call is established it will never drop it (even if I move it place where the phone in standby is not able to keep the network lock)

Also the problem is ROM agnostic, is always the same, no matter the rom used.

in my case I'm almost sure is a pre existent problem on the logic board I got, and related to the cellular radio section only.

Your one could be related to the specific operator or the specific sim used.

Also the sim holder could be the culprit. Those modern supertiny holders are basically crap given the spring contacts can't be strong enough because the space constraints.

So be sure the sim surface is perfectly clean, use a pencil rubber or an electronic cleaner and a soft cloth to clean the golden surface.

And look if it helps.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] x11-nice:
Its done !

My Photon arrived today. GSMmodded ! Thank you CornholioGSM !!! Great job, super service ! :victory:
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] evilution.dk:
Another satisfied customer! The phone works great and I'm very impressed with the finish of the very discrete SIM card slot:

A big thanks to CornholioGSM :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] niko99:
:D i remember when i got my Phonton q back from Cornholio, i look around whole phone and.. OH MY GOD HE FORGOT INSTALL SIM SLOT :eek: ehe but there finally was little whole.

he must buy a some stickers like that :D
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] CornholioGSM:
....hmmmmm....good idea :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Knoskoloz:
Hello~

I have a modded Photon Q since some days Calls and sms work fine on Vodafone network in germany. But for some reason I can't get the mobile Network to work. Mobile data is activated and apn settings are fine. Do I have to change some settings in *#*#4636#*#* to make it work with Vodafone?

Expect for that it works great :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Steve_McQueen:
Mod gone wrong

So, how many modded Photon Q's out there nowadays you all recon??

Tried finishing my mod today...

Ordered some new 0.3mm copper lacked wires as tipped by CornholioGSM.

Totally destroyed my SIM card when trying to get a proper solder directly upon SIM...after already destroyoing an i9300 SIM Slot... I certainly do NOT recommend soldering directly upon SIM: if anything goes wrong, eg too much solder.. you can forget about your SIM.

Now.. with tail between the legs :D begging CornholioGSM to finish the mod.. as my level in the SIM mod business is still amateur :silly:

Hope the master himself can find some time to do it.

So.. if anyone is interested in 49,7 meters of 0.3mm copper painted wire, a full can of aerosol Flux, de-soldering wire and SMD Soldering paste in a seringe just give me a buzz.

Many thanks to Tomas to take the time in advising me and sharing his knowledge and experience here with others

Steve_McQueen

The Netherlands
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] RBMK1500:
Hi ! I have done some big **** !

I have damaged a few of this SMD resistors around the SIM IC (scratched off)...... (shame on me :( )

Is there a chance to make it run anyway ? Or is a loose of this resistors a cut to the SIM Card connection to the Phone ?

Anyone here happend the same crap ?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Steve_McQueen:
Yeah look upon this thread. I read someone did the same by accident.

Think Cornholio can fix -- ask him
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
I use an alternate path to do the mod, no soldering station needed

To remove the metal cap, just solder on it a strong copper wire, using a standard soldering iron.

Then pull the wire strongly and the cap will came easily and cleanly.

To remove the IC SIM, place something (rubber, wood) thick enough under the board to have a solid base under the IC itself

Then take a tiny flat and sharp screw driver, place its tip in the center of the IC and hit the screwdriver with a reasonable force (the hand palm should be enough but you can use a small hammer).

The IC will literally explode and nothing (or almost nothing) will be left on the board.

Just clean any remaining shard of the IC that may be left on the board and you are done.

The hardest part of the mod is done. No soldering station needed, very few risk of damaging the surrounding components.

Then you can use the wires from a 80 pin PATA/IDE cable, they are thin enough and, when bent, they memorize the new shape minimizing the risks of accidental disconnections from the tiny soldering pads.

Use a reasonably small soldering iron tip to solder the wires, then use isopropilic or even denaturate alchool and a small cloth to clean the flux residual.

Thats all.

A bit MacGyver style way to do the mod, but it works and is fast and easy to accomplish the job .
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] RBMK1500:
I bought a hot air solder Station now.....

stupid idea to think it's an option to grind the IC away.....

EDIT: Yes maybe i get it to work:>> thx
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Sorry for quoting myself but I got it working too.

The missing Sim Toolkit on the stock ROM was the responsible of the problem.

Now I made it working.

So keep in mind that if your photon works with most SIMs but not the one you are looking for, the STK can be your problem too.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] L7iharsha:
Im from india if i send the phone to u will u mod the phone how to pay money can u pm me?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sil20:
i've got a problem with sim "spot weld"

On of the "spot weld" disappear...

Is there a solution to solve it ?

Thanks
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Yes there is, just look at the previous messages.

Your missing pad is connected with the 1 st and 2nd components (starting from the right on your photo).

To be more clear, there is a T shaped connection between the missing pad, the left terminal of the first component (starting from the right) and the right terminal of the second component (starting from the right)

So just connect your wire there.

Carefully!!! because is very easy to desolder them during the operation.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sil20:
Ok, thank you.

I found the good picture, the "search" function work better with good word (pad/spot)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] RBMK1500:
Hi !

I get a hotair station now but i'm scared about the hear to near components. Now i tried to crack the IC by screwdriver , just as you say.

It works perfect BUT , i tried to do it gentle , anyway i do some 1/2 mm corner's in the PCB. The PCB is not cracked in any way but. I can imagine if there was a printet conducter line under it. It could be maybe brocken.

What do you all think about this ?

Still worth a try to rescue ?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sub205:
omg, what a mess! why didn't you just desolder the ic via hot air?
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Just reassemble teporarily the phone, and see if everything works properly (aside the missing sim), if you are lucky...

Anyway is better to decide to use the hot air or the mechanical method, before start to work, if you try the hot air and then you use the screwdriver way, the second choice could be harder to accomlish because the thermal cycle can made the solder togher.

Is also suggested to train yourself with an old/broken logic board to learn how to calibrate the hot air or the force applied to the srewdriver/scalpel.

The screwdriver (or little scalpel) must be sharp so yo can use a relatively low force to crack the IC, with few risk to damage the board as happened to you.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] KylarBStern:
Anybody interested in buying a photon q ?

I have a brand new (2 months old) device, tried modding it but failed. Everything is fine with it I just didn't manage to solder a sim/card reader and I'm not skilled enough to do so. Lost all interest in this phone and am looking for a buyer. I've got it up on ebay and will ship anywhere in Europe. If anyone's interested they can send me a message. I'm sorry for posting this here :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sub205:
As a electronic developer i can never recommend to use any type of "mechanical" method for such operations! Hot-Air is the only reliable way to get a bga-style part from a pcb. Any other way you risk missing pads and pcb failures.

You only need good tweezers (i can recommend the tweezers from a dentist! nice quality for low price) and a small adapter for your hot air gun.

Anyone who is not able to work with this basic tools should not try to work on a device with such small parts and pads. Really.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Frankly, the hot air solution is surely the proper and best way, for reasonably skilled people.

Understand the right dose of heat, the right timing and so on, is all but straightforward, even for people used with old school electronics who never faced surface mounted components and/or the crappy leadless solder soldering alloys used nowadays.

The matter in our case is complicated by the size of the components involved and by the too close surrounding components.

On the other hand the mechanical way can be managed safely by anyone a decent dose of manuality.

Then you have to add the costs involved to the scenario.

IMHO buying an hot air station just to accomplish a single task, is pointless. Both path are risky for untrained people but, at least, the second one is virtually free, and if something goes wrong you can always buy a new logic board or a cracked screen Photon Q for a cost which is often cheaper than the cheapest HOT air station.

That said this is my opinion that can be tainted by my personal experience, everyone should evaluate carefully pros and cons of both solutions, taking in account his own level of skill, and any future use of a bought hot air station.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sub205:
I neither used a hot air station, just a standard hot-air-gun from bosch and a adapter for a smaller diameter.

This guns can be bought for 20-40€ here.

Putting forces on SMD-pads is really a bad bad idea...
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Which is, more or less, the price of an used replacement board.

With the difference that you have to buy the latter only if something goes wrong on the first attempt.

No is not. I fixed literally hundreds of PC motherboards with bad flashed BIOSes, this way.

Once the chips were always socketed, but lately they started to have the flash chip soldered, and I can assure that is easier to have a pad broken using heat than using a lever inserted under the chip.

In the photon case, is impossible to place something under the chip and the chip itself can be sacrificed, so destroying it is the only viable mechanical way, it's even more unlikely to break a pad, because the absence of vertical forces. When the chip explodes the forces applied to the underneath pads are mostly lateral.

Only an exaggerate force can break something, because the screwdriver can pierce one or more layers of the PCB.

Here the manuality is an important variable of the equation.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] sub205:
Where do you get used boards? Here in Germany i don't see where to get those that cheap.

A hot air gun can be used for many things... shrinking tubes, de-icing stuff etc ... good for every household.

On the other side: your screwdriver may slip away, taking other parts with it.

Of course you have sideway forces: while the package cracks, the parts are driven to the outside to make place for the screwdriver in the middle.

Anyway, of course hot air is risky to, if you don't have a steady hand you may wipe away parts next to the chip package itself.

I don't want to argue about the pros and cons of this steps, i think everything is said and everybody can read and build his own opinion on how to break his phone. ;)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Ebay.com and some patience ;)

Indeed I'm not criticizing your choice.

I'm just explaining pros and cons of mine.

For this I believe the solution is pretty easy... just cover the neighbor components with the red or black silicone paste used to seal some car engine parts (here in Italy is known with its commercial name "Motorseal") and unlike the common silicone can be removed easily just peeling it.

it resist over 300 °C (depending the formula and the color) and can protect thermally the "buried" components, giving also some mechanical protection during the [de]soldering process.

It costs few euros in any auto accessory shop, and the expense could be well worth the result.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Schattenspieler:
But wouldn't that also affect the heat dissipation capability of such indeed "burried" components in the long run? I think so.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
What "long run" are you talking about ?

Just leave that protection il place while doing the mod then just remove it.

And btw the heat dissipation of such tiny components is likely near zero, so even leaving the silicone in place would be fine.

Is plenty of logic boards completely covered with silicone to protect them from vibrations, moisture, oxidation and so on.

Typical examples are the PCBs ECU (the control unit of modern car's engine) or industrial/military applications.

The (permanent) protective layer helps to avoid faults, but at the price of an harder maintenance, which is not our case.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Steve_McQueen:
@ evilution.dk

Sweet -- Mine should be arriving on CornholioGSM doorstep any day now :)

Anxious to start using the Q as my ol' Nokia E7 is slowly dying..
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Braccoz:
hi there, i have a question not directly related to the sim-mod but i think this is the best place to ask anyway

edit: nvm, figured it out myself
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] reedukator:
Hi guys,

anyone who think that its still repairable? Desoldering the uC was not the hardest part, soldering new wires did the most damage. Suppose 0,3mm wires were too large and just pull out the copper pads when I was trying to form its shape.

As you can see, some capacitors and resistors had been blown out by hotair, but as it was written, they were omitted or wired.

Help please :).
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] The Solutor:
Question already asked dozens of times.

Just look at the right connections here:

In short, the situation looks still recoverable, but with the right dose of skill in soldering. Is to easy to get the thing worse w/o it.

That's why I suggested to protect the components with the red silicone, just a couple of message above.
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Braccoz:
i've just bought a photon q from ebay, i'll be joining the ranks :P

in the meantime, can anybody point me to where i can buy the right micro sim slot to do the mod?

edit: nvm, found that the suggested slot is the i9300 one, found it instantly on ebay
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] eis0r:
hi guys, can anyone instruct me where to solder the wires on a htc one v sim slot?

thanks in advance!
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] kabadisha:
Guide Created

Hey Guys,

With many thanks going to CornholioGSM, I have finally documented and written a guide based on performing this mod myself. You can find the guide here:

http://charleswilkinson.co.uk/2013/12/02/add-sim-card-to-photon-q-4g-lte/

Enjoy :)
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] Braccoz:
good work, but there is a number of incorrect information there...

the name of the phone is "photon Q" not "photon 4g", that is a different phone. also, the photon q is on Sprint not Verizon, and the droid 5 has not been released, and probably never will as the leaks seemed about an old prototype
[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] reedukator:
The Solutor, thank you for reply. I studied this "dozens of earlier questions' and was familiar with the scheme, but wasn't sure if its is still recoverable for anyone.

Still trying to repair the mess. So still having questions.

I found the 633 pad substitute- marked as a C point. But having problem with 621 pad. According to high resistance -1712 ohms, is it required to connect wire to point B or I just have to connect it with A point?

Best regards

Edit1:

After viewing some schemes of sim-based devices I can say that its a pull-up resistor. It connects data line SIMIO (pad 621) with supply line SIMVCC (pad 581). Its is highly recommended but not always required.

Maybe, in future, someone will find this helpful.