I understand that you can flash a better modem/baseband on the Galaxy S captivate for Vodafone. I can't seem to find out if I can just flash the baseband or do I have to flash a new ROM? Can anyone point me to the baseband for vodafone and instructions on flashing it. I've done some searching but haven't come up with much.
BUJP5 seems to be the best modem for VFNZ (popular opinion), however if yours is a captivte I'm guessing it was originally from the states? If so it will be the 850mhz variant rather than 900mhz (which vfnz uses).
Flashing modem firmware for a different radio chipset will probably not go down too well. Your first step would be to find out what frequency bands your phone's radio works with.
Thanks for that. Yes it is from the states. It's the Samsung Galaxy S Captivate i897 It's a quad band GSM with all four bands as well as 3 hsdpa. You can refer to:
Mine is awesome on XT but this is for my mate who is on Vodafone. I have read that the baseband/modem you mentioned is what is best for Vodafone but wasn't sure about flashing.
Any help you can offer on the topic would be awesome. It is currently set to pick the band automatically. Would it be better if we locked it to 900mhz? Cheers
That model doesn't work with 900mhz HSDPA (not to be confused with 900mhz gsm, which it does work with), which is what vodafone's 3G coverage is mainly based on. There's nothing you can do about this as it is physically part of the radio chipset.
That handset will only work with 3G on vodafone in areas where they have 2100mhz coverage. Flashing a different baseband firmware will not change this.
You can check the vodafone coverage map to see where they have 2100mhz coverage, however this hardware is designed to work with a network using 850mhz, which in NZ is telecom.
I just realised that may have sounded kind of blunt, I didn't mean it to. It was a good question, but unfortunately the solution doesn't apply in your situation
If you ever get a galaxy s that supports 900mhz I'd be happy to walk you through how to flash modem firmware.
Nope that's all good thanks for your help. However I do have to ask a follow up question. I imported an old Hermes variant and was told it would work on XT because of the same issue but then I found a hack and got into band selection and was able to activate the 850mhz band on it. Now on the captivate if you go into the band selection there is an option to activate the 900mhz wcdma band. I don't have the phone in front of me to test but in your opinion will this work? Gonna test it later will let you know.
I don't think so. As far as I am aware that is a generic service menu that offers the same options regardless of the regional chipset in the phone. I have tried that before with similar phones and it hasn't worked, but I could be wrong in this case.
It's worth a try I guess but just make sure you know how to change it back before you start.
Are you subscribed to our RSS feed? You can download the latest headlines and summaries from our stories directly
to your computer or smartphone by using a feed reader.
