Upgrading or flashing your dead or active nokia mobile phone via USB

WARNING: Phone flashing is a double-edged sword; it may be useful and dangerous at the same time. It may brick/damage your phone for good (if not done carefully), so please DO NOT flash your device if you don’t know what the hell flashing a phone means.

In this post I will explain the use of Phoenix (Nokia service software) to flash a Nokia (Symbian) mobile (taking Nokia N8 as an example). Flashing means re-installing phones firmware (Operating system) files. There are many situations when it becomes necessary to flash a mobile deletion/corruption of system files, phone is dead/bricked or any other method to format the phone is not working etc. Besides, flashing can also be used to update to latest (or any available) firmware or to flash a custom/cooked firmware. Have you ever wondered that whenever your phone is dead or it giving a white screen and switches OFF.At that time you want to get your mobile phone to a service center and spend money on it for repairing.Instead of that RevealedTricks4U will help you.So if you have any of the above issue, here goes the process, carefully follow the instructions given below as such:

First up, note down your phones Software/firmware version (find by pressing *#0000# at standby screen, not applicable if the phone is dead), product code (on the sticker under battery in the form of 0XXXXXX) and type (look at the sticker under the battery, it is in the form of RM-xxx). Product code and type of N8 are not under battery, you can find them at the stickers on the box.

1. Download and install latest version of Phoenix Service Software (2011) in your Windows PC from www.4shared.com or elsewhere (search Google)

2. Download latest version of Navifirm from here. Navifirm is a free software, used to download official firmware files from Nokia servers

3. Run Navifirm and wait until it loads the Products list (Phone model names/types). A fast internet connection is recommended

4. Find your phone model in the list and select it (For example, select RM-596 for Nokia N8)

5. Wait for a while until Navifirm loads Releases/firmware version list in the adjacent pane. Select the desired release – the software version must be the latest one or the one that is already installed in your phone, remember do not select the release/SW version that is older than the one your device already have. If you do not know which firmware version is installed in your phone (like in case the phone is not in working condition) then it is recommended to select the latest version (usually the last one in the list) to be on the safer side.

6. Wait until Navifirm loads “Variants” in the next adjacent pane (Variants are Product codes of the phone – you can find yours at the sticker usually below battery or at the package box). Search and select yours from the list and wait until Navifirm shows firmware files in the last pane.

7. Check all the boxes (in the last pane), choose the save to/download location and click “Download” button. After download is complete, go to the download folder and copy all the files.

8. Now go to “C:/Program Files/Nokia/Phoenix/Products” and create a new folder in the last folder (“Products”) of the above path and name it RM-xxx (which is your phone type code that you noted earlier, replace “xxx” with your phones actual code numbers, for example it will be RM-596 for N8). Now paste the downloaded files (copied in the Step 7 above) to the newly created folder “C:/Program Files/Nokia/Phoenix/Products/RM-xxx″. Phoenix will look for the files in the above folder when flashing the phone.

9. Launch “Phoenix” in PC and connect your mobile via Data/USB cable in PC Suite/Nokia Suite mode. In Phoenix, Go to “File/Scan Product”, Phoenix will detect the phone. Now select “Flashing/Firmware Update”

10. At the firmware update window, Phoenix will automatically look up and find the official firmware files earlier downloaded via Navifirm. However if it doesn’t find the files then -

a. Check that the directory “C:/Program Files/Nokia/Phoenix/Products/RM-xxx” exists, (create if it does not and place the firmware files into it – Step 8 above)

b. Check that the above path is present in all the three boxes in “Tools/Options/Product Location” (in Phoenix), set it if it does not and repeat steps 9 onwards.

If everything upto step 10 goes successful, click “Refurbish” button, ignore all the warning boxes that appear during the process. Wait for the process to complete – DO NOT touch or disconnect the phone or USB cable during the process. Phoenix will inform you of successful completion of the process, when it does, disconnect and reboot the phone. Thank God that everything went well….hopefully….best of luck

Note - If Phoenix gives error while running in Windows Vista or 7 then try running it in compatibility mode (Right click on Phoenix icon – Properties – Compatibility – Check “Run this program in compatibility mode for Windows XP” (Service Pack 3 or 2) – Click “Apply” and then OK).

If any persists feel free to comment here