Maybe i should find out which network the previous owner used the phone on, then insert a sim card of that network and see if it works.

if not ill see if I can get it unlocked or take it to nokia see if they can do it

Your phone is broken. The previous owner has probably hacked it to pieces or spilled water on it.

If the situation is so hopeless, a total reflash shouldn't hurt

If he can at least recover it to the initial state, thigns working, but no IMEI nor cell phone functionality, at least he got a *****ing pocket computing device

Ive got it working on an older software. so far wifi bluetooth games internet etc all work. just no cell phone functions at all.

an expensive ipod touch?

hi bennyfreeman. dont worry... what you have got there is a problem that a few faced when a unofficial PR1.2 was released. people just upgraded their mobiles to the unofficial PR1.2 and then realised that its not really complete and then they downgraded to the previous official firmware PR1.1. im not a technical guy but i do read about different problems and that why i think you have got that problem. you are right about n900 not being locked. i dont think it is sold as locked.
ok what i think you need to do is some how look for PR1.1 modem driver and install it. and then install PR1.1. this way you will get the correct driver for the correct firmware. then you just need to upgrade it back to PR1.2.

btw have you tried totally formatting it? if you are a new user then reffer to wikipedia on how to flash n900 and there you will find how to use emmc. apply that flash.

if im talking rubbish then plz someone point it out :P but i just wanted to help XD

saud khan thanks very much for your input.

Unfortunately im no way near technical minded to know where to look for, or how to install the pr1.1 modem driver etc. anyone have any experience with this?

and when i flashed it I did a vanilla emmc something or other flash as well if thats what you mean,

Is it possible the previous owner installed this incomplete pr1.2, broke the phone so just sold it off as working? and im the sucker who fell for it.

cheers

lol no i wont really word it like that though. yes possibly thats what comes up to my mind that he/she must have installed the leaked PR1.2 and then he couldnt have fixed the problem, thats why he sold it. was it really cheap?

yes vanilla emma is the one i was talking about. so i guess you have fully flashed the phone. have you tried putting in any other sim other than vodaphone?

oh btw. check if youre phone is in offline mode. press the power button once. then select normal mode.

This sounds like a PR 2.1 or whatever phenomenon. If so, I think the solution is to upgrade again.

And by the way, that talk about the leaked PR 2.1 is just scare talk. I installed the PR 2.1 leaked version and then upgraded to the non-leaked version and never had any problems whatsoever, and virtually all of the people who installed the leaked PR 2.1 were also quite happy.

But if you tried uninstall the leaked version, there was a problem which I think was easily fixed by upgrading to the latest firmware version. I didn't uninstall mine, so I don't have direct experience with that.

checked i wasn't in offline mode but it wasn't that.
and when i tryed to upgrade again over the air this evening the phone just got stuck on the boot up flashy dot screen, for over an hour.

Should I try and upgrade again, and leave the phone on charge over night to boot itself up again?