[Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking] pierrotee:
It's Done!! Here's How

Well, here's the deal. The forums only work if people help each other. If I were to find out how to do it and not tell you, it would defeat the purpose of having forums and being able to help each other in the first place.

So anyway, I ended up finding a forum with a bunch of awesome Chinese people who helped me to flash it. I already had the file from another forum, and the fact that this guy posted the exact same files, then gave me a step-by-step, made me confident that this flash would actually work.

I have now successfully used the process below to flash the PDA part of my i718. I HAVE NOT FLASHED THE PHONE (RADIO) PART YET BECAUSE MY ORIGINAL PHONE ROM IS STILL WORKING AFTER THE FLASH OF THE PDA ROM.

Here is the process below with no spelling mistakes corrected...

Samsung i718 PPC Phone flash ROM procedure + WM6 English ROM

(A) CABLES

Two Cables are needed for i718 to flash rom.

Cable 1 = USB Cable accompany with your PPC Phone for ActiveSync for the flash of ROM.

Cable 2 = Special USB Phone Flash Cable for the flash of Phone Function ... it seems to be the Radio ROM. It is competible with Samsung normal phone model D828.

USB Phone Flash Cable Info from Taobao site:

Phone Flash Cable 1

http://auction1.taobao.com/auction/0/item_detail-0db2-bd590543d74abee85f6e49e9376b2cca.jhtml

Phone Flash Cable 2:

http://auction1.taobao.com/auction/0/item_detail-0db1-c02f02c2861d77ee6cdc7109e5648732.jhtml

(B) FLASH ROM (PDA FUNCTION)

1. Charge PPC Phone to full power.

2. PC with ActiveSync V4.5 installed.

3. Inside the ActiveSync connection settings, <UNCHECK> Allow USB connections and <CHECK> Allow connections to one of the following: COM? (The port number is your USB will be connected). (trial and error until you get a successful Activesync connection)

4. POWER OFF your PPC Phone and connect it with the USB cable to the PC. (Use cable 1)

5. Run the downloaded WM6 ROM <i718ZMGF4_PDA_Eng.exe>; and choose Detect in POP-UP screen when the program started.

6. Check your PPC Phone is firm connected with PC and POWER ON your phone now.

7. The original ROM program will auto flash the new ROM into the PPC Phone.

8. Just pay attention to the screen of the PPC Phone and follow and instructions pop-up to finish the whole upgrade.

9. After completion, you can check your ROM version inside the PPC Phone, and it will be the new <Version i718ZMGF4>.

(C) FLASH RADIO ROM (PHONE FUNCTION)

1. Install the phone flash driver which is inside the CD that is accompanied with the Cable 2 .

2. POWER OFF your PPC Phone and connect it with the USB cable to the PC. (Use cable 2)

3. Run the bootloader flash program <Qingdao_downloader_v04.exe> inside the folder of <i718ZMGF4_PhoneRom>.

4. In the program screen of <Files to Download>:

1st Boot Loader: Click BIN... choose boot.bin file.

2nd Main Binary: Click BIN... choose i718ZMGF4.cla file.

3rd BP Engine: Click BIN... choose bpexec.bin file.

5. Check your PC's COM number connect with this cable and set the COM Port speed according this cable.

6. Then inside this program choose the Serial Port: COM? (same as your PC's COM Port number).

7. Click the <START> button and it will start to check your Phone ID (if it cannot find the ID, your can disconnect the cable and insert it again to try OR power on the phone to help this Phone ID checking).

8. When Phone ID checking is sucessed, Click the <ALL DOWNLOAD> button to start to flash.

9. After flash is completed, reset the PPC Phone by input *2767*3855# to process.

CAUTION in RADIO ROM FLASHING:

When flashing the Radio ROM/Phone Function or after flash, it will show <Phone Error, Run Later> or similar words. It is normal because the PPC Phone is under phone function flashing procedure and cannot be used. After all upgrade is finished, you just power off the PPC Phone and turn it on again to make it back to normal to fully finish the upgrade procedure.

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So there is it everyone. I hope this helps you to flash your Chinese version Samsung SGH-i718 and enjoy it as much as I am currently.

piers888@gmail.com