aside 5 Dec

The Black Art of Firmware Updates

You got it first… the latest Nokia E71-2 or the NAM E71 smartphone when it first hit the market. You love your phone, you live and die by it’s features. So when you hear that some people out there got a firmware update from Nokia but you didn’t, you feel like you got the shaft.

Fret no more, ‘lil camper. Here’s a guide on how to get the firmware update you always wanted.

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY!

Background: I own both an E71-1 (European E71) and the E71-2 (North American E71). In October, I was notified that there was an update to the E71′s firmware. Some fixes, some enhancements, all good stuff (see the Nokia E71 blog, HERE for more details), so I embarked on updating my phones.

Model: E71-1, Type: RM-346, Product Code: 0560654 – success
Model: E71-2, Type: RM-357, Product Code: 0569371 – no dice

To date, there still isn’t an update available for the E71-2 above via Nokia Software Update (NSU).

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon a thread on Symbian Guru, HERE, that covered a successful flash update of the Nokia E71-2. The Guru was kind enough to disclose his product code, 0559585.

I recall using a piece of software called NSS or the Nemesis Service Suite, HERE, to change the product code of an older Nokia phone of mine. In this case, all I did was download the software, plug in my phone via USB and go through the steps below.

Step 1 – open up NSS, plug in your phone

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

Step 2 – hit the magnifying glass in the top right

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

Step 3- switch to the Phone Info tab

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

Step 4 – Check the Product Code box and hit Read to read the data from the phone

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

In this case, my product code is 0569371

Step 5 – type in the product code you want to change in the phone

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

I typed in 0559585 which is reported to be an E71-2 product code that has an upgrade available on NSU.

Step 6 – hit Write to write the new data to the phone and you’re done!

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

After that, it’s smooth sailing  on NSU.

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

The Nokia E71-2 Updated - FINALLY! by you.

You’re golden! A Nokia E71-2 has been upgraded from firmware 100.07.76 to 110.07.127! I’ve been testing the updated phone for a day without any issues – the 3G service hasn’t been impacted at all and it’s totally stable. Good luck with your updates!

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  • Jose Castillo

    hi guys, i own a e71-1 product code: 0561927, english qwerty, but i want a product code to use spanish language, but if i use euro1 the keyboard will change because its the spanish layout, any suggestion for using english keyboard layout with spanish language? maybe flashing my e71-1 to an american product code (e71-2)? thx!

  • http://www.raj.jp raj

    @jose – I don’t think anyone’s tested that yet – good luck if you decide to try although this is substantially less risk than disassembling your E71 which I tried the other day – what a pain to put back together!!

  • Jose Castillo

    yeah i was searching if anyone had tried this, cause my eyes are tired of looking for a e71-1 product code with english keyboard layout but spanish language!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=513647524 Gulam

    Dear Raj and Paul,

    After hours of endless Googling, I stumbled upon this blog.

    My situation: Same as Paul
    I’m in Shanghai China, and bought my phone through a local vendor. The sticker under the battery lists a product code of 0569371, RM 357, e71-2 and ‘made in Finland’ (battery is made in China though). The phone was flashed with UK English and both Chinese character sets when I bought it. It also featured the keyboard in the right of your pic above, the one for the -1 variant with the chinese character strokes and the ‘zhong’ charachter on the key in the bottom right corner.
    I read about a firmware update on the Nokia site and decided to see if my phone was eligible. I used *#0000# to get the version number and the information I got was ‘100.07.76 08-06-2008 RM 346′ which I wrote down for reference. (sorry, I didn’t make a note of the E71-X)
    After flashing the update, (200.21.118) I lost all the Chinese off my phone.

    I want to change the EMEA/ product code by NSS and get the same old firmware with Chinese support.

    All i need now is the product code. I am lost between E71-1 and E71-2. Found asian code for E71-1 on E71 blog (ASIAN (SINGAPORE) product code for E71-1: 0560654, which contains: English, Indonesia, Melayu, and Chinese).

    I have been obsessing about it since 3 months now. Any help is much appreciated.
    Should I go ahead and do it?
    What do you recommend?

    gulam261186@gmail.com

  • Jose Castillo

    my cell got that product code man!,i got an e71-1 with english keyboard, i was looking for a product code with spanish language, but that doesnt change my keyboard layout :(

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  • hisham

    I would like to know, that if i want my e71-1 to become a canadian phone, will the UMTS bands change on the rebranding, or firmware updates after rebranding? please let me know. thank you!

  • http://www.raj.jp raj

    @hisham – you can re-read the comments above, the discussion has already been tabled

  • HISHAM

    hi, read all of it and thank you for that. i have one question now, cause i want to use the NSS to find out what hardware version i have. when you say use a usb cable, you mean the pc suite cable, open and run pc suite and then run nss?

  • hisham

    Found what I was looking for – HW 0912 (now is it not possible to change the HW value as we can do for the product codes (?) as Paul is talking about above?) – since the NSS functionality of ‘read’ and ‘write’ check boxes are the same for both code and hardware? This woud be a great benefit to me taking my taiwan phone back to canada. but, i am not willing to experiment, unless someone else has tried it and would like to comment on my question. thank you guy(s).

    Also, how can we tell which product codes are NSU applicable to get the latest 300.*.* update?

  • http://www.raj.jp raj

    NSU updates your firmware, it doesn’t touch your hardware and I’m sure that code is read only. Good luck with your endeavors but I suspect if you want 3.5G in North America, you’re going to have to buy a NAM phone.

  • hisham

    and 3G in NAM, will that work on this TWN phone? anyone want to buy a taiwanese phone?!

  • hisham

    now i have done it. i have never wrecked a phone before and i am not sure if this is ‘bricked’ as you say. everything was working well as above instructions, but, before i have a chance to change my phone language back into english, it is asking me for a code that i have no idea about. i have already entered my pin. it will not let me do anything else. so, is the phone kaput now?

  • hisham

    my e71 is now asking me for a code. i have tried the default lock code with no luck. i have tried setting it up to nss looking for the phone’s details but it doesn’t work. can’t read anything. is this bricked?

  • http://www.raj.jp raj

    @hisham – try 12345, the original lock code for the phone… of course as stated before, despite the fact that the above listed process works for me, you may have bricked your phone – also toying with values like the hardware id is definitely NOT recommended – good luck in your recovery.

  • hisham

    Hi, I have sorted out the PW problem, and now have FW 300.21.012 installed on the phone. Quite happy about that. New APAC-P code of 0560652, from old 0568314. But now, I am trying to read the phone details on nss and the tool tells me there is an error. I cannot read the phone’s information. Can anyone comment on this please?

  • hisham

    please let me know the steps i should have taken to allow me to access the information on my phone, the readable info that shows up when i press read on nss. also, what does the flash button do exactly? thank you, hisham

  • Renato Alves

    como instalo a versão em português do “icones’ do meu nokia

    200.21.118
    27-11-2008 27-11-2008
    RM-357 RM-357
    (C) Nokia E71-2 (236.03) (C) Nokia E71-2 (236,03)

  • hisham

    Now I am on 400.21.013, and so, when does the next FW update come out or does it stop at 400.*?

  • http://raj.jp Raj

    @hisham – considering the E72 is now out, the E71 is antiquated – you won’t see a fw update unless it addresses a major problem with the phone.

  • mat

    raj,

    I know this is late but this article helped me so much. i was having issues with my nokia e 71 restarting randomly and so far the update has stopped the problem

    thank you so much

    matt

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