[Galaxy Grand Prime Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] JHMarx:
Hello:

I have a question for those with more experience with Samsung phones, Odin and firmware flashing.

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Admin: thank you, sorry for the inconvenience.

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For a number of reasons, I have never owned or needed use a smartphone.

My BlackBerry 9320 works just fine and has never let me down.

But I am now in need of a smartphone due to banks, companies and [whoever/whatever] having 'en masse' decided that 2FA *has* to be done via an 'app' downloaded from Google Play and not via email or SMS.

No other options available.

Bottom line? Take it or leave it.

A friend came to my rescue and gifted me with an unlocked Samsung SM-G530M which was in excellent shape with a pristine screen.

Being unlocked, I was able to do a full factory reset and test it with the chip from my BlackBerry.

Worked without a hitch, no issues.

But it had the original Android 4.4.4 firmware on which today's Google Play did not work so it had to be upgraded.

I checked to see which was the latest available firmware for an unlocked SM-G530M and came up with this data from SAMMOBILE:

SAMMOBILE

Model SM-G530M

Product Code ARO

Security Patch 2016-12-01

OS Version Android 5.0.2

PDA G530MUBS1BRL1

CSC G530MUUB1BRL1

Build Dat 2018-12-11

Changelist 1007026

I then checked here:

Samsung servers

And here:

SamsungMobile

Not wanting to pay ~ €15.00 or experiment with custom firmware, I downloaded/installed Bifrost for Linux and used it to download the last available firmware for the G530M from the Samsung servers.

View attachment 6040780

Won't go into details, but I had issues with both Bifrost and Odin 3.07 and the XPSP3 VirtualBox VM I have set up in my Devuan Linux WS.

But my Asus 1000HE with an XPSP3 partition worked perfectly and I was able to flash the firmware downloaded from the Samsung servers.

******* Not entirely unexpected, Murphy was around and a problem cropped up *******

While the G530M with Android 4.4.4 worked perfectly well with my other phone's SIM, it does not with Android 5.0.2.

The file downloaded from the Samsung servers is this one:

G530MUBS1BRL1/G530MUUB1BRL1/G530MUBU1BTJ2/G530MUBS1BRL1 ARO

The file decripted by Bifrost is this one:

SM-G530M_1_20201211104904_jyq7lph16x_fac_G530MUBS1BRL1_G530MUUB1BRL1_G530MUBU1BTJ2_G530MUBS1BRL1_ARO.zip

The *.zip file contents is this:

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AP_G530MUBS1BRL1_CL1007026_QB21041151_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5

BL_G530MUBS1BRL1_CL1007026_QB21041151_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5

CP_G530MUBU1BTJ2_REV00_CL_2131601.tar.md5

CSC_UUB_G530MUUB1BRL1_CL1091205_QB21041179_REV00_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5

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The four files were installed on the G530M without issues and a green PASS result was shown at the end of the process by the Odin software.

I had take the precaution of documenting what was on the phone with original Android 4.4.4 firmware.

This is what I have:

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Samsung SM-G530M - Android 4.4.4

*#06#

IMEI XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX / 01 ACO <- product code for an unlocked G530M in AR

*#1234#*369#

AP: G530MUBU1ANL1 |

CP: G530MUBU1ANL1 | <- AP/CP/CSC have the *same* number

CSC: G530MUBU1ANL1 |

RF Cal: 2015.04.22

HW Rev: MP 0.402

Build number: KTU84P.G530MUBU1ANL1

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Samsung SM-G530M - Android 5.0.2

*#06#

IMEI XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX / 01 <- ACO product code is missing

*#1234#

AP: G530MUBS1BRL1 | <- AP has the same number as CSC

CP: G530MUBU1BTJ2 | <- CSC does not have the same number as AP/CSC

CSC: G530MUBS1BRL1 | <- CSC has the same number as AP

From Settings / About device:

Build number

LRX22G G530MUBS1BRL1

Baseband version

G530MUBU1BTJ2

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Having taken the precaution of using Samsung stock firmware downloaded from the Samsung servers and with no issues detected by Odin 3.07 in the process of flashing the unit, I am at a loss as to what to do now.

What went wrong, if anything?

Could the Samsung file be the wrong one?

Save for this very unfortunate hitch, the phone seems to work properly.

I was able to install a bank's 'app' from the Google Play store without much fuss via Wi-Fi and it actually worked. The bank's IT dept's incompetence is another matter ...

I would greatly appreciate some insight or suggestions as to what can be done to fix this SIM detection problem.

Thanks in advance.

Best,

JHM