My phone was sitting idle all day yesterday. In the morning it had network. In the evening when I tried to make a call it didn't. Restarted the phone and it said "SIM card registration failed". Tried changing from 3G to GSM, didn't work. I put the SIM in another phone and it works fine so it's a problem with the phone.

Calling my network provider, Orange (UK) seemed to confirm this as they said the card is registered. Oh and I am on the global firmware (but that was aaaages ago, and it has worked since the flash).

Does anyone have any idea what could be causing this? It seems kind of random, as far as I can remember I didn't touch it all day...

I wish I was smart enough to figure this out myself, and not have to bother you guys. Hopefully you enjoy the challenge of figuring it out If you need any further info please ask.

Thanks in advance!

Where did you buy your phone from?

Ebay. I don't see what difference that makes though? It has been working just fine for a month.

I think you've already figured it out: random flakiness. Random flakiness at two or three different points, with a bit of caching, explains it nicely. The SIM failure with the SIM in the N900 can be explained by random network weirdness -- it has hit me at various times with my N95 and E71. Since it usually cleared up within half an hour, there seemed to be some caching going on.

As far as the SIM not working in you N900 after you've moved it back, that could be the caching effect I mention or just contacts that aren't terribly reliable.

It makes ALL the difference- I think the person you bought it from has reported it stolen and got their insurance to give them a new one.

As soon as you received it you should have registered it on immobilise.co.uk.

Get on the case to PAYPAL ASAP!

OMG I hope not! Before I take the super drastic step of doing that, is there any way I can confirm this has really happened? I still have time to get my money back from Paypal so I don't need to panic.

He was a good seller as far as I could tell - hundreds of positive feedback, plus the phone was unopened so I don't see how he could have registered the IEM number.

IMEI number is on the box anyway, you can check here:

http://www.checkmend.com/

Checks Performed Explanation

• Ever blocked US: CheckMEND has no record of this item being blocked by any US network.
• Ever blocked UK: This item has been blocked during its lifetime by one or more UK network(s).
• Ever blocked Rest Of World: CheckMEND has no record of this item being blocked by any Rest Of World network.
• IMEI Currently blocked: This item is currently blocked on one or more networks. It may still work on some networks.
• Stolen: Not reported stolen to CheckMEND.
• Lost: Not reported lost to CheckMEND.
• Insurance claims: No insurance claim reported to CheckMEND.
• Possible counterfeit: No counterfeit usage reported to CheckMEND.
• Possible clone: No clone usage reported to CheckMEND.
• Owners: No ownership details recorded on Immobilise.com for this item.

Seems that it hasn't been reported stolen, though it is worth investigating the "reported blocked on certain networks" thing, any ideas how? I would imagine that if it was suddenly blocked on Orange, the world know about it.

Thanks a lot for that though friend

NP mate, ebay is great for buying stuff, but remember to ALWAYS register on immobilise.co.uk

I THINK this means that the person who sold it did not pay their bills or something and the network blocked it!

It may work on other networks, try another network simcard in it.

Well that is a really clever line of reasoning, and I am pretty that if he got it from anyone, he got it from Vodaphone (they were the only Network selling the phone on contract at the time). I wonder if I could call them up and ask them if they did that?

Either way I just tried it on an O2 SIM card and the registration also failed, but I can see why that didn't tell me much.

EDIT: Spoken to Vodafone, YES it has been blacklisted....but they are looking into unblacklisting it for me. Keep your eye on this, I will bump the thread when I have more info (they will call back within 48 hours).

Thank you so much for bringing all this (what should be obvious to me) stuff to my attention, I wish there was a better way of saying thanks than the "Thanks" button I owe you big time!


P.S.
Thanks a lot to you too for replying! I wish you had been right, would have been much simpler... be well friend.