Samsung SGH-E900 - Crashing with any communication attempt

[Woodland586]

Hello.

A month or two ago, I had bought an old SGH-E900. I plan to use this instead of my current phone (to get away from distractions, you know?)
I had flashed an upgraded firmware (from E900XXFG1 to E900XXFG2 (to remove messages and other data from the device, as the previous owner never wiped the phone)
Earlier today (17/07/24) I had purchased a new SIM Card which the phone accepted just fine. It was able to activate and i was able to make a call to 150 (for testing). I had also successfully recieved 2 messages from 150 too. Around an hour later, the device started acting strange. The phone would freeze and reboot itself whenever it sent/recieved messages or calls. Do you have any ideas on how i can fix this? I believe it may have been linked to the firmware reflashing.

If it helps:
-I had made a dump of the E900XXFG1 firmware before flashing E900XXFG2. I reflashed E900XXFG1, but the issue still persists.
-The phone was boxed, and contained an Orange booklet, so it was locked to Orange at some point (Or still is)
However it accepts the EE SIM.

[Leanne_T]

Hi @Woodland586 

Thanks for coming here. 

Have you been using the device before getting the EE SIM? 

Have you tried a factory reset to see if this helps? 

Leanne.

[Woodland586]

The device can't run without the sim being used, however i was able to get the phone powered on with my very old EE sim card. Though I only had emergency calls only. I bought a new SIM yesterday, which worked fine for an hour, connected to EE  just fine too, now the phone crashes woth any call or message, received or sent. Including 150. I want to use this as my main phone to escape social media etc

I have tried:

-Factory reset from the settings (Which just puts the settings back to their defaults

-Reflashing the original E900XXFG1 firmware

-doing a wipe reflash

-entering the the full reset phone code

[Chris_B]

@Woodland586   Try switching off the device for an hour.  Then switch it back on and test it.  My theory is the device is getting hot and causing issues.   This could simply be a battery issue and needs to be replaced, worst case is the actual device itself has had it.  

[Woodland586]

I will do that soon. Should I also try the SIM in my Samsung E1190?

[Chris_B]

@Woodland586  I doubt the sim is causing this issue but no harm in trying.  

[Schockwave]

@Woodland586 , no reason why you cannot try the SIM card in another phone.

[Woodland586]

In the GT-E1190 it works fine, it can call and recieve and send texts without crashing. Thankfully i've not bought a malfunctioning SIM. So it's the phone itself that's the issue. I'll try to flash the firmwares E900XXFF2 and E900XXFF3 to see if those work. If not it could be a hardware issue.

[Woodland586]

Update:
Turns out that the E900 works completely fine. I found out that when i'm outside of my neighborhood, it works fine.
There's something in my neighborhood that's causing it. Unsure if it's an interfering signal being transmitted, or a fault with the local mast. When I go out of the neighborhood, it works great.

[James_B]

Thanks for the update, @Woodland586 

You can check for local network problems here - Service Status Checker | Check Network Problems in Your Area | EE.

James