One big gripe I had with it is that the ringer doesn’t last long enough.

By the time I’ve pulled it out of my pocket, taken it out of it’s pocket, and assessed whether I want to answer the call, it’s already too late, especially if I’m in the middle of doing something else.

So, I can’t expect it to be perfect, but surely the ring time can be extended or increased? Here’s the solution…

Enter **61*901*11*xx# in to the phone, where xx is, enter the amount of time you want it to ring before it goes to voicemail.

For example: **61*901*11*30# would mean it would ring for 30 seconds before going on to voicemail.

I’ve no idea what the default was, but I’m sure it’s too low.

Next: Use a ringtone that doesn’t have a silent lead.

Hope this helps!

Enjoy!

Related posts:

1. How to unlock a Samsung E720 mobile phone I found this out because Orange sucks. It costs £20...
2. Siemens CX65 Review I bought this on the 20/08/04 for £179.99, which actually...

The alert tone no longer sounded, the alert vibration no longer occurred, and worst of all there was no popup alert that says there’s a new text message.

However, if I went into the “Messages” area, my Inbox would clearly have a red “plus” symbol to indicate there is a new message, which I could go into it and read it as normal.

This is most annoying!

What I tried:

When the problem first occurred, my initial thought was to check the ringer, to ensure that wasn’t the problem. As it turns out, it wasn’t, and it was clearly far beyond that.

I backed up my data to my memory card, and re-flashed the phone to the latest possible update available to me which was v12.0.013, which was in fact the flash version I was already running.

I sent a test message to the phone, with all the default settings after the flash. It worked!

I restored my data from my memory card, but then it did not work…

There was a fix out there, there had to be. The phone was running a bit slow, so I figured it was down to the 2000+ text messages I had stored on there. I deleted them all. No fix.

What fixed it:

As it turns out, to fix this problem, that seems to occur when you have over 2000 text messages in your inbox, you need to first delete all the messages (by using the “mark all” option, then delete), and forcing a hard reset by removing the battery while the phone is switched on (and idle).

You MUST do both of these, else it doesn’t appear to fix the problem.

I hope that this problem is fixed in v20, and that T-Mobile UK will role it out soon!

Thanks to this post for the solution.

Related posts:

1. Siemens CX65 Review I bought this on the 20/08/04 for £179.99, which actually...
2. Motorola V3X Review I HATE this phone, here’s why… It allows you to...
3. Txt Spk iz Gr8 From a very early age I have been taught to...
4. Correct Documents and Settings folder on Windows 2000 Today I get a frantic call from a client who’s...

• It allows you to go into “create a message” even when the memory is full and there’s no possible way to send it. So you spend the time to write a text message, and you can’t send it anyway!
• When the battery is low, it lets off a loud shrill of a noise CONSTANTLY. It’s VERY annoying, VERY loud, and so unnecessary. There seems to be no way to turn it off either. The only times I seem to get this is either when I’m trying to sleep or when I’m with a client, neither times do I have a method to charge the phone.
• The camera is of very poor quality. Enough said.
• The “Flip” mechanism is flimsy and is practically broken.
• After a year the phone is starting to show signs of wear, the silver paint is coming off, showing a black under layer, the cover that covers the camera on the outside cracked, and consequently fell off.
• Trying to add a new word into the dictionary is near impossible. The damn thing is so difficult to use.
• When you get a message or a missed call, the phone will beep/vibrate every few minutes to remind you. This gets very annoying. On other phones there are more subtle methods such as an LED on the outside that remains lit when attention is needed.
• The HUGE blue fading light that has absolutely NO purpose other than to annoy me while I sleep at night, while it charges. WHY couldn’t this be used for alerts and such?
• To inset the memory card, you must take off the battery cover… WHY didn’t they just make a slot?
• This phone is unnecessary bulky and ugly.
• There is no signal to let you know that the call has ended, so you can continue to speak even though the call has ended. How difficult would it be to add a subtle beep at the end of the call?
• When the LEDs on the number pad are lit they make a very loud humming noise which is most distracting.
• This phone appears to get interference with EVERYTHING. If it has a speaker, chances are when you’re making a call you get a constant buzz. Even phones from the 90s didn’t do this as bad.
• You can’t set bluetooth to discovery mode for more than 3 minutes. This is annoying.
• This phone crashes often.

Good things…

• I can sync it with Outlook!
• It plays MP3s, and plays them as ringtones too!
• It takes photos.
• It can do videos, just not very well.
• You can do video calling.
• It can charge via USB.
• The screen is quite a good size, and pretty clear.

All in all, I hate this phone, but I did get it for free.

Anyway onto my next phone… the Nokia N95.

Related posts:

1. Siemens CX65 Review I bought this on the 20/08/04 for £179.99, which actually...
2. IHTOOM pmp Despite my problems with purchasing mp4 players in the past...
3. No Message Alerts Problem on Nokia N95 A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the alerts...
4. How to unlock a Samsung E720 mobile phone I found this out because Orange sucks. It costs £20...

It costs £20 to get your phone unlocked by Orange and the only way to do this is to contact them by phone, and the only way to contact Orange’s Customer Services is to call 150 from your handset or call 07973 100150. What if you’re deaf? What if your handset is broken? What if you cannot call mobile numbers from your landline?

This is why Orange sucks. Naturally, I didn’t pay orange a penny.

These are the steps to unlock the Samsung E720 phone:

1. Put in the sim you want to use, turn it on.
2. Enter “00000000″ (8 zeros) as the sim code if it asks, it should now say “wrong sim”.
3. Type *#9998*3323# in to your phone
4. Press the top right button and hit Exit, the phone will reboot
5. After you do this, you should be able to get onto the menu from there go to the settings menu and select security, go to SIM lock and it should be enabled, select disable and enter the code “00000000″ (8 zeros).
6. Switch off the phone
7. Switch on the phone still with the sim you want to use in.
8. Enter your pin code if requested, then enter the sim code as “00000000″ (8 zeros).
9. It should say “wrong sim” again.
10. Type *#9998*3323# in to your phone again.
11. Select option 1 (Task loop), the phone will reboot.
12. Type *#9998*3323# in to your phone again.
13. Select option 7 (“Jump to Null”), the phone will reboot.
14. Type in *0141# (This sets the phone to the network on the sim thats in)
15. Power off, and power on, it should work fine.
    

Done!

Note: You may need to do a “system restart” from the menu too.

Related posts:

1. Getting your mobile unlocked I get asked quite often if I know how to...
2. Extend Blackberry ring time I have a Blackberry Pearl 8900 on O2, I’ve had...
3. Samsung ML-4500 XP driver install I decided I was finally fed up with my Epson...
4. Siemens CX65 Review I bought this on the 20/08/04 for £179.99, which actually...

Don’t get me wrong, the thing that appealed to me most about the PSP was the fact it could connect to the internet via WIFI.

My first question was “I wonder what else this can do”.

After a quick search I began to find lots of details on the PSP, including details on homebrew applications.

I soon discovered that the homebrew software would only run on certain firmware versions of the PSP.

I checked out the firmware version on my PSP and discovered it was running firmware ‘2.50′.

One thing I quickly learned was NOT to upgrade to the latest 3.11 firmware provided by Sony using the Network Update. In fact if you wish to use any homebrew software ever, its recommended that you do not upgrade past 3.03 of the regular firmware provided by Sony.

I also discovered that someone under the name of “Dark_Alex” had written a homebrew firmware known as “open edition”, which is effectively a modified version of the official sony firmware.

I discovered that to install the very latest (which is 3.10 OE A’ at the time of writing) I needed firmware 1.50 installed on my PSP. I discovered that the reason for this is that this firmware is the most flexible, known in the PSP homebrew scene as the golden firmware.

I began investigating various “downgrading” methods. It seems that there is only one way to downgrade from firmware 2.50/2.60 and that is to own an unpatched version of “GTA: Liberty City Stories”, which contains firmware 2.00, which you can downgrade to. Unfortunately I do not have this game.

I discovered that there was another way. I could use a game I have which contains firmware 2.71, and downgrade using an auto installer from that firmware to firmware 1.50, this was the best option.

The game I used was called “The Ark of Napishtim”, which contained “PSP Update ver 2.71″, that allowed me to upgrade from firmware 2.50 to firmware version to 2.71.

Once I had 2.71 successfully installed I simply located a copy of “Downgrader2.71FULL.exe“, run this and follow the on-screen instructions. (PS, the part that talks about the red screen, if you don’t get the red screen, restart your PSP and keep trying, it works eventually).

Once I had successfully downgraded to firmware 1.50, I was able to use “3.10 OE-A Winstaller.exe” to upgrade to the latest open edition homebrew firmware.

The great thing about the open edition firmware is it allows you to run any PSP homebrew software under the latest firmware by putting it in your regular GAME folder, or as the 1.50 firmware by placing it in a folder named GAME150. This also means you are always able to downgrade from the latest homebrew firmware to firmware 1.50.

The next thing to do was to upgrade to 3.10 OE A’ (rev A2) homebrew firmware, which has some minor bug fixes. Its simply a case of downloading this, extracting, placing the directory in the GAME folder on your PSP/flash card, and running it on your PSP.

Also see PSP-Vault.com for more information on PSP firmware and homebrew. They have some fantastic graphs and more useful information.

Thanks to this I was able to try out the following homebrew software:

• PSP Radio – I have so far been unable to connect this to my WIFI
  
• PSPVNC – This thing is great, I can view my PC from anywhere in my house!
• Pimp Streamer – This thing is amazing! You can stream your media from your PC onto your PSP

One thing I must point out is that I DO NOT support or promote piracy, if you like the games buy them.

Piracy is the reason Sony has locked down their recent firmware so you are unable to run homebrew software. It’s a real shame that Sony’s paranoia about piracy means that PSP owners are unable to write or use homebrew software applications on devices that run the latest firmware.

No related posts.

This time I found a good one from a reputable website that sold items from China across the world, instead of eBay.

This device is also known as the Black Hawk MP4 Digital Player or mini Play Station Portable or IHTOOM personal media player.

The mp4 player is boasted to have the following features:

• NES games console
• 3.0 Mega Pixel lens
• digital camera/webcam
• video camera recording
• mp3/audio player
• mp4/video player
• 3″ TFT screen
• AV in and AV out
• build-in speakers
• 1GB internal memory
• SD card socket
• calendar/time/e-books/alarm clock
• microphone for voice recording
• hold button
• built-in rechargable battery

This device is fantastic. The only thing it doesn’t do is make phone calls, but for the price I cannot complain.

From the outset I liked this device, and looked forward to its arrival. One thing I am aware of is that it’s never going to be an amazing build, but this didn’t bother me.

It arrives and I immediately begin to examine the contents of the package.

The box contain: 1x pmp device; 1x white ear phones with a 3.5mm jack; 1x Male USB A to Male USB mini 5 USB cable; RCA to 3.5MM AV cable; 100-240V AC Main Charger (50/60Hz USA plugs 2 pin); GB travel power adapter; Driver/Software CD; English User Manual.

I begin by trying out the camera facility and took some photos. The photos turn out okay, but are somewhat grainy, but tolerable for a 3.0 Mega Pixel. I noticed there was what looked liked a flash, but it didn’t actually have the option for a flash, so I believe there is no flash, but then again it was never said there would be a flash, it was just assumed.

This photo came with the device, I guess they tested it before sending it out.
Another thing worth noting is that the date was wrong, when I received the device it said “2005.05.15″.

I also tried out the video recording, which was tollerable, only 320×240, but not bad. Apparently you can use the device as a webcam too, but I have yet to try this.

I also tried out one or two of the NES games, which seem to be slow. I think this probably is a problem with the device decoding the NES games. I could probably cope with that as I didn’t buy this to play games, even though it looks like a playstation portable (PSP).

I decided to plug it into my computer and load some media onto it. I discovered that the connector into the device was the same as my Motorola mobile phone which was fantastic as it means I could swap between the two without having more cables. One thing I did discover is that when you have your device plugged into USB it does not appear to allow you to switch to normal mode unless you unplug the device from the USB.

Also, the battery seems to wear down after a long period of time being plugged into the USB suggesting that it does not charge via the USB, having said this you can use the DC input at the same time.

I tried transferring some mp3s onto the device, in the form of files and folders, however when I turned on the device and looked for the files, they didn’t exist. I discovered that I must put the mp3s directly into the mp3s folder before I can view them on the device for playback. This was frustrating.

That aside the audio playback has some good features, including repeat, random, equalise and A-B. The bad features are that there is no search feature, files are listed in the 8.3 filename format (which is ugly), and as I said before, there’s no option for folders.

One of the most annoying issues with the video and audio play back functions is that there’s no resume. You can’t resume to the last track or video you were playing, let alone resume to the point you were listening to before you turned the device off.

After some time I realised that the beep noise when you scrolled between items on the menu was getting very annoying. At first I could not figure out how to turn this off, but soon discovered that you can turn this off via the Setup, under a section called “Sleep Off”, its simply a case of setting BEEP to OFF.

Despite this, I decided to convert a video clip to ASF format. I was very impressed by the quality of the video. There was no ghosting, and the picture was very clear. I was very impressed. So impressed I had to say it twice.

A subtle feature I liked was the stand on the back of the device which you can pull out and use it to make it stand up but slightly leaned back, meaning you can stand the player on your desk and watch your favourite TV program or whatever you decide to put on your device.

I decided to then try the bundled ear phones, which are standard fit (3.5mm not 2.5mm). My initial problem was that if I was using the stand, I could not use the ear phones, as the socket is on the bottom of the device, this is simply down to bad design, but tolerable.

The next problem with the ear phones was that when I had them plugged in, the built-in speakers were still being used. At first I thought that I would be unable to use this device in public. However, I soon discovered that there was an option to turn the speakers off under Setup -> Sleep Off.

In terms of physical design, the only “bad ideas” are the rubber “flap” for the SD card, which I can imagine will fall off at some point. I am also under the impression that the stand I mentioned above would probably be very easy to break off.

One of my pet hates is power buttons that you have to hold down to turn the device on. I wish it was simply a switch, similar to the hold button, this would make it far easier to turn on and off.

I also wish this device had better volume control. I find with all of these devices that the volume control is digital, you have to turn on the device to control the volume, yet my walkman tape player from years ago was able to have a physical volume control, why can’t we have these on our new devices?

I’m surprised this device doesn’t have is an FM radio, most of the other MP4 players have a built in FM radio, but not this one, I’m not sure why as it’s a simple feature to include.

Conclusion

This device is worse than I expected. I was hoping that some of the issues experienced with other imported devices would have been resolved, but it seems that is not the case.

If I was to improve this device, I would do the following:

• Change the power button to a switch (on/off state)
• Better volume control, such as a scroller
• Better SD card cover
• Charge from USB
• Better display of mp3 filenames
• Ability to search MP3s
• MP3s should be able to playback from folders
• Playback resume
• Better game decoding
• More game decoding (GBA games?)
• AV in/out should be more accessible, not on the bottom
• Speakers should turn off automatically upon plugging the ear phones in

It sure is no Sony PSP, return to sender.

Related posts:

1. Siemens CX65 Review I bought this on the 20/08/04 for £179.99, which actually...
2. Motorola V3X Review I HATE this phone, here’s why… It allows you to...
3. 4GB Mp4 Player ebay Scam Just before Christmas, I decided I was going to get...

I decided to get this phone as I had a Siemens ME45 before and that was great for it’s time.

In my opinion, this phone had a very stylish design. It was one of few non-flip phones on the market as they appeared to be becoming the norm. I have always been under the impression that like small convertibles, they are girlie.

The features I particularly liked when I purchased this phone were the custom polyphonic ring tones, vibrate, IRDA, build-in camera for photos and video, navigation joystick, integrated antenna, loudspeaker, “dynamic lights” for alerts, full colour display, video playback, silent mode and the ability to sync with Microsoft Outlook.

At the time of it’s release cameras were begining to become established in phones and were now the standard, as such this phone even came with an optional flash which plugged into the bottom. Quality of photos and video is reasonable.

Obviously it also came with standard features such as SMS, MMS and Internet/WAP, oh and of course the ability to make and receive calls.

As you can tell, this phone is pretty feature-tastic, the only thing it is missing from it’s elegant design is bluetooth. To begin with this didn’t matter as no one had bluetooth either, but as more and more phones came with bluetooth as standard, this phone got left behind.

Regardless, this is a fantastic phone. One of the best things is the navigation. Finding anything was easy, and once you were in it, it was easy to use. Text messages supported T9, which was really simple to work with, compared to other phones.

I also loved the management options such as copy and paste, and the phone number highlighting so you can dial a number you are sent with ease.

One of my favorite features was the dynamic lights. These are used when you receive a missed call or a text message to continually alert you that you have to attend to it, without continuously releasing a distressing noise like other phones, otherwise known as silent alerts. You are able to turn off the dynamic lights feature.

This phone also comes with some useful applications such as calculator (which is difficult to use), calendar, notes, task, dictating, stop watch, count down, unit converter, alarm clock, media player and all sorts of other software functions I would probably never get around to using, but at least I know they are there.

Another great feature of this phone was its ability to run java. This meant you could easily get hold of, and install new applications and new games to extend the possibilities of this phone.

Although this phone has quite a bit of storage space, for some strange reason, it could only seem to manage 100 text messages on the phone, and the standard 10 on the sim card. I never worked that out.

One thing I did find useful, was the ability to sync with outlook. Although to begin with the software that came with the phone wasn’t very good, Siemens released new software which was far better. Also the data connection was serial not USB, this meant your power was drained very quickly.

The benefit of this though was that I was able to use SCMxx, which is command line based communication software which I used for sending text messages from my computer without having to type with my thumb on my phone or use bulky software.

However, I think this is going to be the last Siemens I buy, and is almost definately the last of its kind, as on 07/06/05 Siemens AG (Siemens Mobile) announced it was being bought by BenQ (formerly Acer), but it all spells trouble for me, and as far as I can see it is a struggling company, and is having difficulty competing in today’s market. It is only a matter of time before its is bankrupt.

Conclusion: This was a great phone and simply lacked bluetooth, it’s time to move on.

More: Siemens CX65

Related posts:

1. Motorola V3X Review I HATE this phone, here’s why… It allows you to...
2. IHTOOM pmp Despite my problems with purchasing mp4 players in the past...
3. No Message Alerts Problem on Nokia N95 A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the alerts...
4. Txt Spk iz Gr8 From a very early age I have been taught to...

However, over the years a new language has developed based on English, which I’m sure everyone is familiar with these days, it’s commonly known as SMS language.

It appears that it originally came from bulletin boards and chatrooms particularly the ones that are popular on the AOL network and is, therefore, sometimes called AOL speak.

The main reason why this language came about over the years is that kids began sending text messages to each other via their mobile phones, however the problem lies when they wish to send a message longer than 160 characters, this would span over two or more messages, meaning more costs. As you can probably imagine, kids soon got the idea that you could type a message quicker by using this language and keep costs down by keeping your message within the 160 character limit.

Although this is probably information you already know, recently, questions of whether using this type of language should be acceptable or not have come up.

To begin with I agreed with the majority of people who said English is English, we should use it correctly. However I began to think about where English actually came from, and how evolution has turned English into the language it is today.

I do agree that when people write articles, reports and such it would be probably be best if true English was used, however who are we to say that this new language is not acceptable in today’s modern world, after all it is us who created the need for it, and it is us who encouraged it.

I think over the next few years we will be forced to accept and embrace this new language as part of every day life, as an extension of the English language, that is of course, unless it has already happened.

Related posts:

1. No Message Alerts Problem on Nokia N95 A couple of weeks ago I noticed that the alerts...

I was given a Motorola V525 as the original owner had an upgrade. They are on the vodafone network, and I am on O2.

When I put an O2 simcard in the phone it asked me to “Enter Subsidy Password” (other phones may say “Enter Special Code”), I tried a few random numbers (probably about 15 by the time I had finished), and the phone locked up. Displaying the following: “Contact Service Provider”, and it will not go away.

However, there is a solution I found at: http://www.gsm-unlock.com/unlock/unlock-motorola.html

Q: I keep getting the following prompt on my Motorola after I insert another sim card “Contact Service Provider” ?
A: That means wrong unlock code has been entered already!
(This message appears after many wrong subsidy or special code entry)
Power on phone and wait between 30 min to 8 hours till Enter Subsidy or Special Code
message appear again! (Please note that phone should be powered on during this time).

I left it turned on, and charging over night, and came to it the following day, it asked me for the unlock code.

After reading this forum I discovered that you CANNOT unlock the Razr V3, or V525 or any other Motorola simply by providing someone with your IMEI code.

As far as I can see there are only THREE ways around this:
1. You need a datacable (~$10) and MotoPhoenix ($25) — It seems this guy here has achieved it using a datacable and some choice software…
2. Contact your phone carrier/operator or service provide (O2, Orange, Vodafone, T-Mobile, etc) and ask them for the unlock code, like this guy did.

They will ask you for the following details:

Mobile Telephone Number:
Customer Account Number:
Full Name:
Full Address:
Date of Birth:

Make:
Model:
IMEI:

3. The third way involves using buy methods, such as buying from ebay, gsm-unlock.com or fonefunshop.co.uk, but as these methods are completly untested (by me), and they don’t tell you how it works, I wouldn’t advise them.

I used method 2, and after a few emails back and forth, and a phone call from the previous owner, I was provided with 2 unlock codes and told that one of them would work.

I have since then used the same method again with Vodafone (ccare.webmails@vf.vodafone.co.uk) for a Motorola V3X, this time I simply put a request for the unlock code, and provided them with the details (as above), within 3 hours I had a reply from them, as follows:

NETWORK UNLOCK CODE

Good Afternoon Mr. XXX,

Thank you for your email to Vodafone about the network unlock code (NUC) you requested. I’ll be happy to assist. Your NUC is as follows:

XXXXXXXX

I hope this information is of use. Please contact me if you require any further assistance.

Best wishes,

Neil Breeze
Vodafone Customer Services

This worked no problems, so I sent an email back to them congratulating them on their quick response, which makes a change.

http://www.hm2k.org/news/1139531105.html

Related posts:

1. How to unlock a Samsung E720 mobile phone I found this out because Orange sucks. It costs £20...
2. Motorola V3X Review I HATE this phone, here’s why… It allows you to...
3. Extend Blackberry ring time I have a Blackberry Pearl 8900 on O2, I’ve had...
4. Siemens CX65 Review I bought this on the 20/08/04 for £179.99, which actually...

The MP4 Players I was looking at were comparable to the Apple iPod nano in appearance, I knew they wouldn’t function in the same way, but these offered way more features and were far cheaper than a nano.

So I spent some time bidding on quite a few of these mp4 players, making sure I wasn’t paying over the odds to get one, as there were simply loads on ebay, it was silly to try and outbid other people. They were going for between £28 and £40, I was going for £34 max.
Eventually I ended up with 3, two (1xBlack, 1xPink) came from one seller (e-britain), one (1xBlack) came from another (ugoole).

So I ended up with 2 too many, I decided to keep a black one for myself, wrap the pink one for my girlfriend, and then wrap the spare black one for my dad (I figured he’d work it out eventually). I also wrapped mine up, so my girlfriend wouldn’t suspect what I had got her for Christmas, as I knew I couldn’t keep my hands off it.

Note: At this point I have not left feedback for my items, as I know I had not fully tested them.

Christmas comes and goes, all is well. My girlfriend asks me to put some music on her mp4 player, which we do by spending a long time looking through my 80gb external hard drive. We collect 4gb of music she wants to listen to and place it onto the device.

She goes home. The next thing I know and she’s on the phone to me complaining about how she can’t play some of her music and it seems corrupt in some way. She brings it around the following day and I check it out, and try new music on the device.

After some playing around I realise that anything over about 1gb of media and the data is corrupt. I send her away and begin my research.

I took upon me the impossible challenge of trying to work out who the manufacturer of the devices are. I checked all the firmware on the device, nothing, so I check the software that comes with it.

I run the MP3 Player Upgrade Tool (“C:\Program Files\MP3 Player Utilities 4.00\RDiskUpdate\RdiskUpdate.exe”), and low and behold the device name and manufacturer is there.

Device Name: S1 MP3 Player

Productor: Wilson Co. Ltd.

Version: 9.0.43

With these details I soon found a page in the Wikipedia entitled S1 MP3 Player. The Mp3 player displayed here was nothing like the mp4 player I had, I figured they just forgot to update the details in the software I have.

Also I managed to locate the Wilson Co. Ltd. Website, which appears to be down or no longer exists as it did, however through the powers of the internet I am able to use the web archive and view a previous version of the Wilson Co. Ltd. website. To no major benefit, the website contains limited details, and clearly the products are no longer supported.

I go back to the wikipedia page, and find the S1mp3.org forum. A quick search on there and I soon find a thread where people are experiencing the same issues as me.
So just by chance I decide to do a bit of research based on the ebay sellers, to see if I can find where these items came from and what the deal is here.

All the images they use on the ebay auctions are hosted on store724.com which when I visit brings up details about tronfydirect.com.

A quick google search for tronfydirect.com brings up details of ebuyhk.com, i’ve also seen the username ebayhk on ebay quite a few times in the past. A quick search for ebayhk.com very quickly brings up a few references including maskpay.com which is VERY dodgy. However, I will leave that for this time as this goes beyond my concern.

I also searched for tronfy.com, which brings up details of downloads for mp3/mp4 players and an FAQ.

After looking at my paypal transactions again I discover the company is “Tronfy Technology Co. LTD.”, the domain’s whois details the following names: “Tsing Yi, David Chen and Ruihong Chen” at the address “RM2614, Wang Yung House, Cheung Wang, Tsing Yi, NT, HONG KONG”.
I also did a search for store724.com, and instantly top of the list a bunch of websites are returned with people referring to one of the sellers I purchased my mp4 player from “ugoole”.

I take a look at the Procopy Perth website which appears to detail this very well, however it is .au based.

From there I also find a UK based website entitled “mp3 / mp4 players on ebay beware!” reporting the same details.

From here I discover some useful details, including a guide on how to check the size of your mp4 player and details of how to restore your mp4 players size to the correct capacity, which is as follows:

1. If you haven’t already done so, install the “MP3 Player Utilities 4.00″ from your CD now, also sometimes known as “AMV Convert Tool 3.68″.
2. Backup any data/media on your mp4 player onto your computer.
3. Plug your device into your computer via USB.
4. Run the MP3 Player Disk Tool (“C:\Program Files\MP3 Player Utilities 4.00\RDiskUtility\RdiskUtility.exe”)
5. Once it has successfully loaded select the format type as low, and click on the “Partition and Encryption” tab at the top.
6. Drag the slider entitled “Setting encrypted disk capacity” to the far right (until the disk size has reached its full capacity), and press Start.
7. Once complete, return the slider back to the far left, at 0, and press Start. (this will re-format the device to its TRUE capacity).

That is it, exit the program, and your device is set to function correctly. I also found a longer guide here.
Although it seems like i’ve accepted that I’ve been ripped off and solved the problem with the device, I did not stop there.

I contacted the sellers on ebay and threatened to leave negative feedback if they didn’t agree on a deal with me. They eventually refunded me £8 per device, and I have yet to leave them feedback.

Well that’s just about everything, I hope that you find this information is useful.

Also read the The Official Fake 4GB+ MP4 Player Scam On eBay FAQ on ebay, and whatever you do if you DO have one of these items, DO NOT send it back, but DO demand a refund like I did, chances are at least you will get a partial refund.

Note: I have noticed since that e-britain and ugoole have changed their feedback to “private” probably because people were posting links in their feedback. You can still email ugoole and e-britain.

Related posts:

1. Tracking eBay auctions These days I find myself buying all sorts of things...
2. Rip and decode mp3s via myspace music player I’m always looking for new ways to get my hands...
3. IHTOOM pmp Despite my problems with purchasing mp4 players in the past...
4. Legally listen to music online for free One of the things I enjoy doing while I work...