pinkbellbird:
It's got nothing to do with 'how often' the phone is restarted.

I simply want the ugly Spark splash logo gone from my phone. I paid good $ for it. I should have it how it want it.

And I want the logo gone.

Im getting it sorted professionally this week.

Wow. OCD much?

@sbiddle: Just be aware the "fix" will be to flash your handset with Generic firmware.

The result will be a phone that is very likely no longer 100% compatible with the Spark network. You will very likely suffer decreased battery life and won't have access to LTE carrier aggregation in many areas.

nakedmolerat:

@sbiddle: Just be aware the "fix" will be to flash your handset with Generic firmware.

The result will be a phone that is very likely no longer 100% compatible with the Spark network. You will very likely suffer decreased battery life and won't have access to LTE carrier aggregation in many areas.

He bought the phone from HN (Spark stock) because only Spark carries that color.

He is using it on Vodafone network.

If anything, it makes sense to have Vodafone firmware on it, am i right?

Doesn't the VF firmware display a VF logo at startup though? I assumed the OP wouldn't want that either.

sbiddle:

Doesn't the VF firmware display a VF logo at startup though? I assumed the OP wouldn't want that either.

FWIW - Flashing the Australian open XSA firmware to the device, including a CSC factory reset does not debrand the device, nor does it even change the CSC which is odd. (this is using the CSC component which forces a factory reset, not the Home-CSC component which doesn't).

I flash the open firmware so that I get updates in a timely fashion, rather than the usual state of being 3+ months behind the rest of the world (or 9+ months for Huawei devices...) - the method I used for the Note 7 hasn't worked with the Note 8, so something has changed. If down the line it looks like Spark are actually keeping up with the Joneses for a change, then I'll likely revert to the "genuine" firmware.

The logo doesn't particularly worry me, although it's odd that it sounds like Spark is the only provider that does it.

It does seem that Samsung has done something to stop the flashing to another CSC.  I wonder if this has to do with the new carrier software app (it seems that the firmware does not change as much between telco's now and a new carrier app loads what the carrier wants on it).  A bit like iOS and their telco update files.

If this is correct then I say it's a bloody great move by samsung to keep the firmware the same between telco's and use the carrier software app to update/load carrier bloat.

Spark phones might get lucky in a update later that remove the flash screen once samsung starts to tell them they can't have it anymore.

Ok having a read up, it seems the folder for the csc is now write protected and it depends on the product code and the OMC files.  You also need to change  /efs/imie/mps_code.dat 

Someone has been able to change theirs but it took flashing zip files, changing the write protection and adding code to the mps_code.dat

However the user was getting forced closed screens, cell issues and saying it had no sim in it etc.

Looks like it will de-knox your device as well.

Is it really worth bricking the device for a splash screen?

As soon as root is required then that involves unlocking bootloaders and tripping Knox which is too big a price to pay as it results in all sorts of other problems, including no OTA updates (need to manually flash via Odin).

Pity, but yes, it's only cosmetic and if they are in fact using a more layered approach to the system and are able to update the underlying OS independently of the TelCos customisations (ala the new Oreo partitioned-OS method) then that's great.

pinkbellbird:

...I paid good $ for it. I should have it how it want it.

If you bought a Carrier locked phone, you bought it at a discount to the normal price :-)
Thats not very helpfull now , I know .

Just as I cant (easily) remove awefull preloaded Samsung apps from my ph.

tripp:

It does seem that Samsung has done something to stop the flashing to another CSC.  I wonder if this has to do with the new carrier software app (it seems that the firmware does not change as much between telco's now and a new carrier app loads what the carrier wants on it).  A bit like iOS and their telco update files.

 

If this is correct then I say it's a bloody great move by samsung to keep the firmware the same between telco's and use the carrier software app to update/load carrier bloat.

Spark phones might get lucky in a update later that remove the flash screen once samsung starts to tell them they can't have it anymore.