« View Complete Message Source in Outlook | Main | My package from Bolivia has arrived! »
April 30, 2008
Hacking the RAZR (again)
I have to set up my home server to hack my RAZR due to the complete O/S reinstall I did a while back. I was never happy with the last hack that I had, as it required a few fairly tedious steps to get it to work correctly, so I thought I'd check to see if there was a newer/better/more reliable hack out there. This is what I'm trying now:
1) Reinstall Motorolla's latest drivers for the RAZR for 32 bit Windows XP/2000/Vista. I've posted the Motorola drivers here.
2. Disconnect your Motorola V3 RAZR phone from the USB cable.
3. Double-click on the Handset_USB_Driver_32_v3.5.0.msi file to start the installation of the USB driver software.
4. Click 'Next' on the screen for "Welcome to the Motorola Driver Installation 3.5.0 Setup Wizard".
5. Select the 'I Agree' under the License Agreement and click 'Next'.
6. The Motorola Driver Installation is being installed dialog installs the driver.
7. The installation completes and says "Motorola Driver Installation 3.5.0 has been successfully installed." Click on 'Close' to exist the installation.
8. Plug in your Motorola V3 RAZR phone and it should work with other USB services.
Next, Install P2KCommander version 3.3.3. [Note: There are more current versions available, but I can't get them to work]. There are some instructions here.
Project continued in the extended entry...
I found this at Mark Venture's Verizon Phone Info Page(I know - it's a catchy name, isn't it?):
For P2KCommander to work.. you need to have PST or MSU running in the back ground... (since PST is copyright... you might what(sic) to get MSU... see -> Using Motorola's Software Update program (aka MSU) instead of PST)...
Next... Remember that P2KCommander is really written for GSM phones so its not 100% compatible with CDMA phones (like Verizon uses)... certain versions of P2K Commander appear to be more stable/work better for CDMA Motorola phone users (v3.26 and v3.22 seem to work best but still have problems from time to time as well as give "error messages"). Get the older versions directly from the author at -> http://s5vi.vxxxstuff.com/commander/
P2KCommander can NOT access the MicroSD/Transflash card.
Finally... P2KCommander does NOT show EMPTY folders... So it should not be used to remove SKINs from your Phone.
So, this actually jives with my personal experience. The only way I was ever able to get PKCommander to work was on my laptop, when I had also installed the Motorola Product Support Tool(PST).
This page explains how to download and install Motorola Product Support Tool.
The only way I could ever get into my RAZR was to launch PST first. I'd always go to "File - New - Phone Book File" and create a backup of my phone contacts. I actually think this is a good idea to do on a periodic basis, in case you lose your phone or it crashes, etc.
Then, I was able to use P2KCommander to copy videos, pictures, and audio files off of my cell phone. I always thought it was kind of hoakey, but apparently, the deal is that P2KCommander needs to have PST running in the background. This is the first I've ever seen it spelled out so clearly. Well, in any event, I'm going to try to get this to work with some of my home computers now.
So, next, install Motorola PST 7.2.3.
Then, launch PST and select "File - New - Phone Book File" then click on "Phone - Read" and it will read all of the contacts from your phone. Then select "File - Save As" and give it a filename with a .phb extension. Congratulations. You've just made a backup of the contacts in your phone.
Next, without closing out of PST, I launched P2kCommander 4.9E.
I got the following messages:
No p2k device found, NOT connected!
alt+mode=8□□ --> COM4
alt+mode=8□□ --> COM4
alt+mode=8□□ --> COM4
So, I shut down P2KCommander 4.9E and ran the old school P2KCommander 3.3.3 and it works fine.
Once you get the P2KCommander 3.3.3 working, change the pull down menu on the right to be "P2K Mobile Phone" (might also say "a\ P2k Mobile Phone"). But, this is your phone. Hit the little re-read button to the right of it and you should see the files in the phone.
The files you're looking for are located in the following folders:
P2k:/a/motorola/shared/audio/
P2k:/a/motorola/shared/picture/
P2k:/a/motorola/shared/video/
You can now copy files back and forth between your PC and the phone with this GUI Windows Explorer-like interface.
Update: In the end, I rolled back my Motorola driver to DriverVer=2/2/2005, 3.4.0.2(USBMOT2000.INF).
Posted by Rob Kiser on April 30, 2008 at 11:21 AM
Comments
Hello good sir! As I was reading through this section I couldn't help but wonder what you can do to a phone by hacking it. Can you upload/download pictures or games, or even music and ringtones?
I had a newer dell computer with Bluetooth services and I could send full songs or clips to my phone, but I couldn't get all the kinks out of it so every once in a while I get a corrupted file. Now I can't seem to get them off the phone and they don't work so they're just taking up space...
Do you know if theres a way to 'hack' in my phone to get rid of them? and possibly a better way to send music to it?
Thanks for your time ^^
Posted by: Mike on May 6, 2008 at 9:25 AM
Yeah, the deal is that Verizon (my cell phone server provider) goes out of their way to lock down the phone so that you can't do what everyone wants to do, which is copy files onto and off of the phone through the USB port. Their logic presumably being that they want you to use their network to forward the files to yourself as an email, or buy ringtones from them, etc. However, it certainly is possible to hack the RAZR so that files can be copied directly onto and off of the phone using the USB port. The problem is that it's somewhat dicey. For instance, in my latest attempt, the version of P2K commander explodes on me. However, I do have it working on my laptop. You just have to get the right drivers and the right version of P2K Commander,etc. It's pretty hoakey, but it's better than Verizon's solution. I can copy movies, pictures, and sound files to and from my RAZR on my laptop. And that's worlds better than Verizon's solution.
Posted by: Rob Kiser on May 7, 2008 at 11:41 AM
I have followed instructions to the T. I cannot find the folders:
P2k:/a/motorola/shared/audio/
P2k:/a/motorola/shared/picture/
P2k:/a/motorola/shared/video/
What is my problem? Is something wrong? I download my phonebook entries but nothing to above. I need my pictures I took.
Thank you for any help, Teddy P
Posted by: Teddy P on October 5, 2008 at 10:06 AM