[MDA, XDA, 1010 General] kirkwood:
Well, several more hours have passed with me surfing the internet at broadband cable speeds and here is the update:

1. It seems there are three parts to any flash, the OS, the ROM, and the Radio Stack.

2. I still haven't found much help with radio version 6.12 except that people in other places such as Seattle are having a good time with great reception. It seems the standard stack that ATT and T-mobile have released for PPC2002 might be 6.18 or so, but then it jumps to 30.03 when using PPC2003.

3. xda-developers.com still swear that their 1.2 ROM version is the best, but I am not able to distinguish if that means the initial display will show the bootscreen they are so happy about but then when looking at settings you are still limited to 3.17.03 ENG (which I have confirmed is an European ROM for the O2 network that will NOT work in the US except with T-mobile and believes the phone is a "B" version) and the 6.12 radio version.

4. So at this point I am faced with the dilemma of trying to figure out if the phone itself is defective, as one person who had our same problem discovered just by changing the phone. THIS SEEMS THE MOST REASONABLE TO ME. The "Bad" phones that get turned back in by the legitimate subscribers of the ATT and T-mobile service are the ones that are probably "used one week" on Ebay and returned, because they sucked in the first place and had bad signals even with perfect software. So they flash it with a "new" ROM (a European T-mobile at that!) and sell it to some unsuspecting customer hoping for the best that it at least gets one bar of signal as a slot machine gamble. Just like you get a "bum" VCR you can get a bum phone or lemon. Since FCC and Ebay really don't give a **** we might be out of luck if this is the truth. In short, I have learned some hard lessons buying sight unseen on Ebay for the sake of saving a few bucks. You don't get to stare your vendor in the eye and know where his store is. Emails are easily avoided.

5. My temporary conclusion is this: You gotta find out if your device is defective or not. The easiest way is to do these steps:

A. Press your power button and stick your stylus in the lower left wide hole to do a soft reset and check for your boot ROM version. If you have version 5.15 (which comes with the XDA 1.2OS off of Ebay) then you have to download a file here:

http://wiki.xda-developers.com/wiki/XDAtools

B. Get that program onto your SX56 through Autosync or using the explorer once written to the SD card (I am exploring both options, since I really don't want to go through the hassle of figuring out yet another brick wall between Autosync versions 3.7 and 4.2 or whatever)

C. Then you can also format the card (maybe first?)

D. get XDA tools on your SX56 from a reader of some sort (mine was included on my HP laptop) (this is basically a repeat of B above)

E. back up your present ROM to the SD card,

F. cut and paste that ROM image to a safe place on your hard drive,

G. copy over the NEW T-Mobile ROM and Radio Stack downloaded from the links on this page: (my original page above)

http://www.mpx200.org/modules.php?o...e=article&sid=649&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

H. Once you have them extracted the correct way with a .RAR extractor and don't get the "password required" **** that I am getting now with a freebie extractor for some reason, copy them to the SD card as specified in whatever documentation you can find on the internet:

WARNING: HERE IS WHERE NO ONE WANTS TO HELP OUT SO I CANNOT EITHER. ASSEMBLE THE FILES ON THE SD CARD AND FLASH AT YOUR OWN RISK! NO LIABILITY IS SUGGESTED OR ASSUMED!

I. Make sure the files match byte wise with what you copied over, something like a human CRC check that the files are complete. Extract the SD card and put it in a FULLY CHARGED AND POWERED SX56, press the power button and hold, and stick the stylus in the left bottom opening for a soft reset.

J. Once at the 5.15 boot rom screen again, press the calendar button to go to the menu. At this point (which I haven't arrived at yet) you should see an option to load the image from SD card. Choose this option and as they say:

K. GO GET A DRINK! PREFERRABLY SOMETHING ALCOHOLIC.

L. The process takes anywhere from 5 minutes to 1 hour depending on the quality of the SD card you are using and other intangible factors. In other words, don't do it late at night when you are tired, as you might as well go to bed and check it in the morning! After 1 Hour you can start to worry.

M. After that, when the complete message is displayed or what have you, take out the SD card and perform a new soft reset with the stylus.........

N. If you have done everything correctly you will see the T-Mobile PPC2003 logo, and you will be able to confirm that you have the 30.03 or 30.02 radio stack (depending on which one you chose).

O. If after you set the SX56 up as best as you can in the Settings and Phone settings and you still do not get a signal, take the device immediately to a Cingular Wireless store that has TECHNICIANS there so that they can diagnose what is going wrong. Again, this will probably take at least an hour or more out of your day just sitting there in the store, so be warned!

P. If they determine that they cannot get a signal either or know how to correct the settings, etc. then ALAS! you have purchased a piece of junk from Ebay. CONGRATS!

Q. Either get on the horn and contact the seller to make good on what they were advertising in the first place explaining your whole experience, or simply offload it back into the public with another auction, losing the money, but please for the good of the community make your auction with full disclosure, and advertise it as T-Mobile only-with the latest PPC2003 ROM and EVERYTHING!!!, & that your Cingular SIM card did not work in South Florida. At least they will know what they are getting.