Flashing Vodafone branded Nokia 6300 with generic firmware using Nokia Phoenix Test and Service Software

Obviously flashing your phone to a generic firmware will void your warranty but I do not believe this act is illegal.

I was recently given a Nokia 6300. I've been very impressed with the phone - the interface is quick and the overall design is very appealing.

Unfortunately it was locked to Vodafone (I'm with o2) but this turned out not to be a problem because a kind lady at Vodafone emailed me the unlock code for free! So my only gripe then was the Vodafone branding, e.g. the startup screen, Live applications and general Vodafone settings. I found ways to hide many of these branded features but they had an annoying habit of reappearing occasional. Thankfully the 6300 case had no Vodafone logo, so all I needed to do was flash the phone with the generic 6300 firmware and all would be fine.

There are two ways of doing this:

1. Use NSS (Nemesis Service Suite) to change the phone's product key to a generic number (e.g. 0537620 for the 6300) and then run Nokia Software Update. This should trick the update program into downloading the generic firmware rather than the branded version - it worked for my N95.
2. Use Nokia Phoenix Test and Service Software to manually choose the firmware version you wish to flash. This is how I flashed my 6300 because the above technique using NSS didn't work for me on this particular phone setup.

Using NSS is the simplest method, simply because Phoenix requires you to download the firmware separately and can take a while to install. I used NSS to help de-brand my Nokia N95 very quickly. NSS can also be used to perform a factory reset on your phone should you wish to.

Nokia Phoenix Test and Service Software

Firstly, and I'd like to make this really clear, Phoenix is EASY TO USE! Why forum users say things like "inexperienced users stay away because it will do you more harm than good" is beyond me. There is nothing complicated about using Phoenix.

You'll need to trawl the web for both the Phoenix software and your required firmware. Avoid the forums that require you to email members for passwords, instead just find a decent site that hosts both the software and all the firmware files without the need for logins or passwords (such sites do exist!)

What you need:

• Your phone's USB cable
• Windows XP/Vista (I used a Mac running XP through VMWare Fusion)
• A recent version of Phoenix (I used 2009.20.010.39068)
• The latest version of the firmware for your phone (7.21 for the 6300 RM217)
• Patience!

Quick guide:

1. It is important that you close all Nokia programs before continuing (e.g. Nokia PC Suite, Nokia Software Updater, etc)
2. Install Phoenix (this will take a while)
3. Install the Nokia firmware package (this will take even longer)
4. Once installed put your phone on charge & connect it to your PC via USB
5. Start Phoenix
6. Check the connection settings are set to USB or create a new USB connection (File > Manage Connections)
7. Check the Product Location lists c:\program files\nokia\phoenix\ (Tools > Options > Product Location)
8. Choose Scan Product (under File menu) and the status bar should now show your phone's info
9. Choose Flashing > Firmware Update
10. Click the browser button and select your firmware (if you get a DP error, check step 7)
11. Click Refurbish
12. Wait about 10 mins for flashing to complete
13. Enjoy your newly flashed phone

How easy was that!

Word, Excel, Outlook, Print Spooler are slow or fail to start - Cleaning up Windows print drivers

The Problem…

Over time your Windows PC will no doubt accumulate a large amount of redundant printer drivers, especially if you work in an organisation with many different makes and models of printers on your network.

Having many print drivers loaded on your PC should, in theory, be fine but in practice this often results in conflicts, driver corruption and a general slow down of your PC.

If you find your Microsoft Office applications are slow to start (or even fail to start) try temporarily stopping the Print Spooler service (via services.msc) and see if this speeds things up. Another indication of printer problems is if Printers and Faxes control panel is also very slow to start.

Microsoft Office applications search for connected printers when they launch and so they can fail to start correctly if there is a problem with the printer drivers.

The solution...

UPDATE:  Since writing this post (in 2009!), Microsoft now have a 'FixIt' to address this issue.  Click here to download FixIt 50979

There are a number of solutions to this problem but you basically have two options: either to perform a series of small changes to your system until you pinpoint the route cause or simply do a complete clean out of all printer settings and start again from scratch. The latter is often the quickest solution.

Small changes:

1. Open the Printers and Faxes window from the Start menu. Click the File menu, Server Properties and then the Drivers tab. From here, remove all redundant printer drivers listed. Launch services.msc and restart the Print Spooler.
   
2. Open My Computer. Click Tools menu and Folder Options. Untick the Automatically search for network folders and printers option.
   
3. Close all Office applications and run regedit.exe to launch the Windows Registry editor. Locate the following branch:
   
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\
   
   You should see subfolders based on the version numbers for the Office products you have installed each with their own subfolder called Word (e.g. \10.0\Word\ and \11.0\Word\). Under each Word folder you should find a folder called Data. Rename these folders to Data_Old.

Cleanout all Printer Settings

Download the Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools from Microsoft:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=9d467a69-57ff-4ae7-96ee-b18c4790cffd&DisplayLang=en

Once downloaded and installed, run CleanSpl from the Resource Kit folder in Program Files and follow the simple instructions. Once done you’ll find that all your printer settings have been cleaned out.

Missing TCP/IP network port option!

One problem I found with CleanSpl was that it removed the ability to add a TCP/IP port for network printing. To fix this, open the registry editor again and try adding the following under:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Print\Monitor\

• Add a key called: Standard TCP/IP Port
• Under this new key, add a string named: Driver with value: tcpmon.dll
• Also under Standard TCP/IP Port add the key: Ports
• Under Ports add three Dwords:
• LprAckTimeout with value: 180
• StatusUpdateEnabled with value: 1
• StatusUpdateInterval with value: 10

Now restart the Print Spooler and all should be well.