Using dual sim on Z530i after unlocking?

[Kanga]

Hi there!

I'm just after some advice, so perhaps someone might know of a solution that can help me.
I just got my new cruiser for Christmas, and haven't done any unlocking till now. I'm keen to learn how to do this properly, as I hate being dictated to by the phone companies, and I want to be able to use dual sims also (these work well in my older phones). Being eager to try cruiser out, I tested my unlocking skills (or lack of!) on my daughters new Z530i (Australian).

I used all the latest files from the cruiser site and fully charged batteries, and everything seemed to install perfectly. It's apparently a db2010 with CID 49 (red?), although the messages were a bit different from the ones I've seen on this forum. After unlocking RSA and trying to direct unlock, it said I needed to flash the firmware, so I obviously did something wrong. Anyway, I flashed the main and raw files, but got a message of 'suspicious file' (Z530i_CXC1250454_Generic_R6BA030_Red49.cz53sw ). When I turned the phone on, all I got was a blinking white screen.
After some more flashing, all I got was .....a blank screen and dead phone (oops! ). So, I read these forums from start to finish, and cross referenced with the manual, but really couldn't find much on the Z530i. Since I didn't want to tell my daughter that I'd just stuffed her new phone, I tried different methods (using ver 10.10) for a few hours, and finally got it working again! I found that I definitely had to flash the raw file before the main file....and it just didn't work the other way round. This was also a helpful tip I'd read somewhere on this forum. Anyway, I unlocked the phone, de-branded it, got rid of annoying camera noise.....and it now works fine with any Australian sim (woohoo!! ).

My problem is that the dual sim holder I put in it is very unstable. It works at first and swaps between sims (shuts down & then boots up again), but after a few minutes it says 'inactive sim' or similar message. I don't think this is something I've done by incorrect flashing....but then again, I'm not sure. Perhaps SE ensure that multi sim holders can't be used in their new phones?? I'm wondering if anyone has experience unlocking or repairing this model, or had this problem? Thanks!!

PS: Very interesting forum with heaps of tips and helpful folk! I can't wait to practice unlocking and repairing a few more SE's....and maybe I'll even make a couple of bucks out of it!

Cheers

[Kanga]

Hi.
Looks like I will have to reply to my own post! I realise that you guys know all this, and that I'm a newbie.... but I'd like to contribute anyway!! Maybe someone might find it useful (?)

I did some research, and a lot of trial & error... and found that the older type dual sim holder is not compatible with the Z530i. It could be a conflict with the firmware, but I'm not sure. So there was really no fault with my unlocking the phone with cruiser. What does work is a multi-sim such as the 6 in 1 (dog-card) or 12 in 1 (sim-max). I have now unlocked a few Z530i's, W300i's , and Z550i's and the multi sims work great in all of them. I have 4 different sims on 3 different networks (prepaid & plan) in one Z530!! When swapping between numbers, the phone seems to 'reboot' , but only takes a few seconds to do this. You need a sim reader/writer, and mine only cost about $18 on ebay. I used STK sim cards which cost about $10 on ebay.

Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here.
I did do some reading of forums on this site and others, and found that you can only clone/decrypt sims that are V1. Most of the ones I've tried worked great (except Vodafone). The phone needs to be unlocked (of course!). This seems to be a good solution, as the older type dual sim holder is very tight fit.....and doesn't work anyway. This could be a valuable additional service to unlocking, and many of my friends have asked me to do both. You just need to crack the older v1 sims and hope it doesn't take too long. Since I first unlocked a SE with cruiser, I've not had any problems with other phones (yet) .....so I'm very pleased!! What a great tool.

Anyway, just thought I'd share, because by unlocking a phone and then combining several different sims, you can save a lot of money on call costs.

Cheers