[T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy Note II] garbageslot:
Success!

Sixth Method

NOTE: Please also refer to "Six Method. Addendum" post #21 located later in this thread. Both posts are critical to understanding the complete solution.

Well, I decided to go to one of these guys who advertise on Craigslist to repair corrupt IMEI. He claimed that he was using one of these boxes that reads and writes without technically flashing the device.

I sat with him for a couple hours, and, in the end, he could not do it! My IMEI went from some corrupted output to reading simply "0/9." At that point, I had limited phone service and mobile data EDGE only. The device had trouble finding the DM mode as well. (He felt so bad that he couldn't take my money, but this moment was also a validation for me that my device had a very specific problem, not a trivial contest in the least, but an awesome validation that this last week's efforts were not in vain: If the 'expert' can't figure this out, then where would this leave me?)

An important note worth mentioning is that the Craigslist guy downgraded my android OS from 4.1.2 prior to making modifications. Unfortunately,

I did not note to which version and build he downgraded. (My guess: most likely a build variation of 4.1.1 OS)

Anyhow, so I returned home and decided to get to work and access the phone through the service mode with the intention of rebuilding the NV memory block.

*#197328640#

[1] UMTS

[6] Common

[6] NV REBUILD

[1] Load defaut NV

This approach changed my IMEI from "0/9" to "0/0." Now, when I tried connecting to the device, the software read the correct DM Mode. (Interestingly, I still received limited phone service.)

I used a program called "NV-items reader_writer v1.0." Of the many programs that I tried, this program is super simple since the software output is text based i.e. you don't need a hex editor. The download link is here.

http://modemfiles.blogspot.com/2013/09/download-free-nv-items-reader-writer.html

I extracted the memory block from decimal address 550 to 550 and modified the block to read my non-corrupted IMEI. (I didn't need

to change root permissions or anything complicated like that, steps I performed in some of my previous method-approaches.)

My device finally was written and read the correct IMEI!

Thank you to everyone who contributed. My success is your own!

UPDATE:

So, as I mentioned above that I was receiving EDGE only and the carrier service was spotty. In the end, I realized that my NV Build was corrupted, and since I was now able to write to the device, I corrected this problem by referencing Darkshado[w]'s post.

On December 28, 2012, I saw that he posted a full NV backup for the T889, IMEI removed, at the following thread:

http://50.23.216.69/showthread.php?t=2068041&page=2

UPDATE: XDA admins have invalided the hyperlink to Darkshado[w]'s original post. If you require the text file, private message me with your email

and I will send you the same template file that he had originally made available. (edited 7/18/2015)

Using "NV-items reader_writer v1.0," I wrote to my device using the file provided by Darkshado[w]. Again just to be clear, I restored the entire NV build and only changed the IMEI block, which is located at decimal address 550. Now, my device is finally getting reliable connectivity at 4G speeds (only 4G, opposed to LTE, since I'm using a MVNO instead of a direct Tmobile plan). Anyways awesome still!