A650 SIO Mode - POSSIBLY USB DATA CABLE SOLUTION!!!

I've discovered a hidden setting with my Samsung A650 phone. My service provider is TELUS MOBILITY.

Menu >> Setup [7] >> Security [4] >> [Enter passcode] >> 0

This brings you to:

For referance purposes and argrument's sake, I believe SIO could potentially stand for "Serial Input/Output".

I have changed this option to QXDM (yes, it restarts your phone), and then BitPim was then able to read my filesystem!

I'm still trying to troubleshoot getting the ringtones and backgrounds onto the phone (I still cannot achieve that successfully). Maybe this will help others out with their data cable problems and hopefully this will lead us into the right path.

If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know.


Limedrink.

Check the following link:

http://home.comcast.net/~jna03/a660/

Great site.

I was able to upload the files, and remove the amsregistry file successfully.

The only problem, is after restarting my phone and re-creating the amsregistry file, the files I had uploaded have disappeared.

Looking at my filesystem a little closer, I see the following files in the root "/" directory:

RingToneList
WallpaperList

These files are both empty, and I assume that the phone removes the files because there is no referance to them in those Lists.

Should I remove the *List files? Will the phone rebuild these files when I restart it?

Any suggestions?


Limedrink.

http://www.eirp.org/sch-a310/codes.html

Port Map: Serial port configuration? HF->Hardware Flow Control? DS->Data Space? DM->Data Mark? Default: U1S&HF

I tried removing the *List files, and they got re-created.

My uploaded ringtones/wallpaper still disappeared.


Anyone have any suggestions?


Limedrink.

Did you follow the suggestion in the link such as making a backup copy of the files? Also did you create the .gcd files and upload it to the phone together with the ringer / wallpaper?

I haven't used Bitpim before so I may not be able to solve your problem.

Of course I did I even read the comments section for other suggestions, no luck.

I was reading a thread last night from somewhere else on the internet.

It says that with Telus, the filesystem infrastructure is slightly different:

Images/wallpaper go into \u\WP
Ringtones go into \u\RT

Supposedly there is supposed to be a .body file and accompanying file in the folders. I think this is also another difference from the .gcd that was suggested.

These directories do indeed exist on my phone. This all makes sense.


Now off to figure out the file infrastructure for those directories.


Limedrink.

Well, thanks to your help Limedrink, I've managed to figure it out......FINALLY!!

You are right about the file structure on Telus phones being proprietary, the layout you describe is accurate. On that other site, it talks about deleting the amsregistry file, on my a650 this is not necessary. I have a CD that came with my cable that has a bunch of ringtones (midi) and a whole bunch of wallpapers (gifs & jpgs + a few bmps). I took a file from it named 08.gif (an image of a glass egg with an abstract background), its properties are 128x128, 24 bit color. Using ACDSee to view it, I saved it as abstract.png. Seeing that I already had an image file downloaded on my phone, I copied the smaller associated file to my computer from the /u/WP folder. I simply renamed this file as "abstract", and then I renamed "abstract.png" to "abstract.body" and copied them back to the phone into the same directory. I restarted the phone, and voila! the picture was there! I did the exact same thing with a ringtone (Thunderstruck) off of the CD. Basically, as long as the file in question is correctly formatted, the extension should be .body and the other file should have the exact same name with no extension. Here is the exact contents of the companion file for an image (no quotes) "body@image/png#identity*
$" The last 4 characters in hex are 2A 01 7F 24. This also applies to the ringtones as well, here are the contents (no quotes) "body@audio/midi#identity*
$" the same 4 hex bytes on the end. I would assume this also applies to games, when I figure that out, I'll post it. My next project is to convert mp3 to qcp and see if it will work on this phone.........

-=[al]=-

That's right Alman, I had also figured it out too.

Sorry I did not have the reply posted, I didn't manage to find the time to write up the results.

For the others who have never downloaded any backgrounds, I have attached the required files.

Cat.body -> actual .png file
Cat -> link file

To use this, change the extension from your existing .png file to .body and rename the Cat file to the name of your original .png file (without the .png extension).

For the ringtones, it works the same way. Rename the .mid file to .body and rename the attached 'Ringtone' file to the name of the original .mid file (without the .mid extension).


Attachments can be found at: http://www.limedrink.com/a650/


If anyone has downloaded a game on their cell phone, can you please attach the game from your /U/GA (or /u/JA -not sure-)? That will allow me to find the format of how the games are stored on the phone.

That should basically cover everything.


Many thanks to brownting for figuring all of this out with me!


Limedrink.

Am I the only one who can't find this SIO Mode on the a650? certainly entering "0" on the passcode doesn't work and entering my last 4 digits works but it certainly doesn't provide any "SIO" Mode option

Press '0' after reaching the Security Menu AFTER entering in your passcode.

Let me know how it goes.


Limedrink.

well it worked and I love it! it's too bad most of the games available online are exclusively for Nokias

I might be daft, but on my A650 (Verizon), I goto 9 for Setup, thenSecurity, enter in my last 4 digits, and get the next menu, but 0 does nothing...is there another method to access this? I'd love to use BitPIM.

Jediman,

The Verizon phones use a different firmware and setup. Unfortunately, this guide may be of no use to you at all.

I don't believe you need to make any changes to the Verizon phone to use it with BitPIM.

I would have to look at your phone myself to determine the right methods. The only recommendations I have at this point would be to read the above manual in Post #2 and look around the forums a bit more to see what others have discovered with their Verizon phones.

Sorry I couldn't be of more help.


Limedrink.

I can say out of the box, so to speak, bitpim wont communicate with the Verizon firmware thats provided on the A650, at least not with mine.
I'll do some searching thanks for the quick feedback!