[Solved]Help me delete data - XPERIA X10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey everybody,
I just got the x10 today and I've never hacked a Sony so I know nothing about it right now, so forgive my ignorance.
The phone was used and didn't come with a sim card. I've put 2 different sim cards in it that I know are good, but when I boot up it gives me a sim card error and only let's me make an emergency call.
I'm thinking that because his data is on it, it needs his sim card? I have always had cdma phones so sim cards are new to me also.
My question is... Is their a way to get into some kind of boot menu by a button combination at startup or something, where I can delete the phone data?
Any help is appreciated.
Edit... Phone is stock, not rooted, yet

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Dude,it seems ur phone is sim locked and u can't use any sim card beside sim card ov network operator that locked ur phone.
Sent from my "z10i"

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neoxx3m said:
Dude,it seems ur phone is sim locked and u can't use any sim card beside sim card ov network operator that locked ur phone.
Sent from my "z10i"
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Click to collapse
How would that happen? The phone is legit, no outstanding bill on that account and its not stolen. Are you saying I need his sim card to unlock it so I can use another?
Just to give you more info, when the lockscreen comes up, it says "sim card is faulty" but if I hold power and select airplane mode, then turn off airplane mode, it let's me past the lockscreen and then I get a toast box that says "sim is not provisioned mm2"
The phone was on at&t when it was used. I don't have an at&t acct. For now I just want to learn about it and root/mod it. Maybe ill call at&t.

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Might be another issue :
Some anti-theft antivirus programs are able to lock your phone for your sim-card only (to prevent using another sims when phone is stolen).
If its set as device-manager, it also cant be disabled (requires some password).
So, try to boot up your phone without SIM card ant check this first. If device-manager is not set, then your phone is surely simlocked.

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Thanks for the reply, I've tried booting up without a sim card and it gives me an error that no sim is installed and will only let me make an emergency call.
I called at&t last night and the rep asked me to hold the menu + return buttons while pressing power and I should get an option to hard reset the phone. That didn't work so she patched me to Sony. They had me download Sony pc companion and sent me instructions to "repair" it.
He said it was 1 of 2 problems. It's a "software glitch" or a broken sim port.
If the repair won't fix it, ill have to send it in and for $185 they'll fix it (yeah right). When I get home ill try the pc companion. This phone is in mint condition and was fully working before the guy that gave it to me went to an iPhone.

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wikdNoob said:
Thanks for the reply, I've tried booting up without a sim card and it gives me an error that no sim is installed and will only let me make an emergency call.
I called at&t last night and the rep asked me to hold the menu + return buttons while pressing power and I should get an option to hard reset the phone. That didn't work so she patched me to Sony. They had me download Sony pc companion and sent me instructions to "repair" it.
He said it was 1 of 2 problems. It's a "software glitch" or a broken sim port.
If the repair won't fix it, ill have to send it in and for $185 they'll fix it (yeah right). When I get home ill try the pc companion. This phone is in mint condition and was fully working before the guy that gave it to me went to an iPhone.
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Click to collapse
Might be both - hardware malfunction or simple simlock. Personally expect simlock. My phone is not simlocked and when turned on it can run without sim card simply as PDA.
Try to flash your phone with generic WWE ROM and try again. Or before, check if phone doesnt have usb debugging on.
Afraid that no, but try to look with flashtool or adb (if yes, we can make full wipe within xrecovery)

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HeliumX10 said:
Might be both - hardware malfunction or simple simlock. Personally expect simlock. My phone is not simlocked and when turned on it can run without sim card simply as PDA.
Try to flash your phone with generic WWE ROM and try again. Or before, check if phone doesnt have usb debugging on.
Afraid that no, but try to look with flashtool or adb (if yes, we can make full wipe within xrecovery)
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Click to collapse
If its sim locked then I'd think that I could use the previous owners sim to get into the system, right? Then how do I sim unlock?
I can't check for USB debugging because I can't get past the emergency call only screen.
I've got the pc companion downloaded on my working phone, when I get home I a couple of hours I'm gonna xfer it to the comp and run it, hopefully that'll fix it. If not, ill wait till Monday and get the previous owners sim and try that. If that doesn't work.... I'm gonna get the night vision goggles back that I traded for this phone, lol.
Running this phone without a sim is exactly what I want, just as a pda. How'd you do it, or better yet, what it called, sim unlocking? I can look for a guide, but I don't even know what its called. I feel really dumb about this phone, sorry bout that, if you came to the evo3d forum I could give you all the help you needed.

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wikdNoob said:
Running this phone without a sim is exactly what I want, just as a pda. How'd you do it, or better yet, what it called, sim unlocking? I can look for a guide, but I don't even know what its called.
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OK then If you want to use your phone as pda, without gsm or data connection, then the simpliest thing you can do is to flash stock generic ROM (you dont have to care about baseband and so on).
However you need to do a sim-unlock first because otherwise it will be still locked on the operator. Heart about many unlocking methods on websites, eg. this one (really expensive):
http://www.mobile-unlocker.com/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10/rs2wp9/
Never tried (always buying phone without sim-lock).
What operator is your phone locked?
YOu probably have to google about your exact operator locked version, hopefully you will find unlocking code or online service for it.

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BAM! I got it, thanks for all your help. I used the pc companion and chose repair, I lost all data but that's ok, I was gonna erase data anyway. When I boot up it still gives me a notif that the sim is not provisioned but I can still get into the system.
Time to start hacking away at this thing, I've got a lot to learn I'm sure. I downloaded flashtool and it says it'll root so I'm gonna try that. I'm open to any more help you can give out, you probably think that some of the easy stuff is common knowledge but even the smallest stuff will help me get started. I'm gonna start reading in the sticky section, thanks again for the replies.
Also, after the repair, I have a different lockscreen, it looks like an iPhone lock kinda. Before, I had the lock that went up and right on a curve kinda, how do I get back to that one?

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wikdNoob said:
Also, after the repair, I have a different lockscreen, it looks like an iPhone lock kinda. Before, I had the lock that went up and right on a curve kinda, how do I get back to that one?
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Now i understand why you wasnt able to get into system without sim You were on old android 1.6 which was default OS when X10i was released. But there were two big software updates - 2.1 and last year our beloved 2.3.3.
Thats why you have different lockscreen. In 1.6 it was shaped like half-circle, in 2.3 its just a simple horizontal slide... But there is not any solution how to get this lockcreen back as I know. BTW.: Also liked the old one lockcreen
Everytime you will need a help, post and we will surely help you !!

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HeliumX10 said:
Thats why you have different lockscreen. In 1.6 it was shaped like half-circle, in 2.3 its just a simple horizontal slide... But there is not any solution how to get this lockcreen back as I know. BTW.: Also liked the old one lockcreen
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Ok, I'm starting to get it now... My system info says
Firmware version 2.1-update1
Baseband 2.1.65
Kernel 2.6.29
So far I've rooted, installed xrecovery and unlocked the bl. All the roms I've looked at say I need a higher baseband to use that rom. Can I use the pc companion to update to 2.3.3, and is it gonna cause an issue since I have a custom recovery and unlocked bl? The reason I ask is because on an LG I had, it would brick if you did an official update with a custom recovery.

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wikdNoob said:
My system info says
Firmware version 2.1-update1
Baseband 2.1.65
Kernel 2.6.29
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Click to collapse
Ohh, branded phones are really loosers It seems that your version wasnt updated to 2.3.3, on which are based all roms for X10i and X10a.
wikdNoob said:
So far I've rooted, installed xrecovery and unlocked the bl. All the roms I've looked at say I need a higher baseband to use that rom. Can I use the pc companion to update to 2.3.3, and is it gonna cause an issue since I have a custom recovery and unlocked bl? The reason I ask is because on an LG I had, it would brick if you did an official update with a custom recovery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend you to use Flashtool intead There are problems to get the ftf file with generic ROM, which also includes .71 baseband which is surely needed for any custom ROM. But I think this is simplier solution. If you want active link to FTF bundle I will post it (also with guide, already wrote it for another users).
You can also use PC Companion, and it surely dont affect your phone in any way. If you rooted it and installed xrecovery its surely not problem (I performed this once on my device). Dont know about unlocked bootloader (dont have it and dont want to have it ), but think thats also not problem.
You can brick X10i only if you flash kernel and something unexpected happens (cable unplug etc...).
Wow, 200th post - will celebrate my anniversary

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HeliumX10 said:
Ohh, branded phones are really loosers It seems that your version wasnt updated to 2.3.3, on which are based all roms for X10i and X10a.
I recommend you to use Flashtool intead There are problems to get the ftf file with generic ROM, which also includes .71 baseband which is surely needed for any custom ROM. But I think this is simplier solution. If you want active link to FTF bundle I will post it (also with guide, already wrote it for another users).
You can also use PC Companion, and it surely dont affect your phone in any way. If you rooted it and installed xrecovery its surely not problem (I performed this once on my device). Dont know about unlocked bootloader (dont have it and dont want to have it ), but think thats also not problem.
You can brick X10i only if you flash kernel and something unexpected happens (cable unplug etc...).
Wow, 200th post - will celebrate my anniversary
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Click to collapse
Got it, I installed DiXpreia 7 'avenger' using xrec for Rom and flashtool for the ftf file. wow, what a difference in graphics, this is cool.
I appreciate all the time you've spent on me. Congrats on the 200th, I'm helping you stack up some thanks' too
One last thing, what's the benifit of an unlocked bl? And would it benifit me to unbrand since I have a custom Rom?

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wikdNoob said:
I appreciate all the time you've spent on me. Congrats on the 200th, I'm helping you stack up some thanks' too
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Haha, thanks bro !
wikdNoob said:
One last thing, what's the benifit of an unlocked bl? And would it benifit me to unbrand since I have a custom Rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For unlocked bootloader there is only one main benefit. You can flash any custom kernel directly. On locked bootloader you can also use custom kernel, but it uses "bypass" method - once stock kernel is loaded, special init script gives the control to custom kernel and then custom kernel is loaded. This is 100% safe for noobs and also devs (I was doing some kernelt tweaks, thats why I am on locked - if I do unloadable kernel and flash it on unlocked device... It will be bricked ). But it takes about 2x time to load the system on reboot, because you need to load two kernels instead just one. If you unlock your bootloader, you can overwrite stock kernel with custom one. And when device it powered on, custom kernel is loaded directly and loads faster then by "bypass" method. Another "benefit" is that all of CyanogenMod ROMs requires unlocked bootloader
Unlocked bootloader doesnt affect your "brand", it wont remove it. As wrote before, you need some service which offers unlocking codes or I saw saome tutorials on youtube (give a search ).
But think this is a little nonsense if you want to use your phone as PDA. "Branding" affects only gsm network and 3G data, so you cant use these features without SIM.

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Thanks for the info on the locked/unlocked bl.
Now for another question. Let's say I install a Rom and kernel combo that aren't compatible, you said it'll brick. Will that be a hard/permanent brick or could I just use the pc companion and repair it.

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wikdNoob said:
Thanks for the info on the locked/unlocked bl.
Now for another question. Let's say I install a Rom and kernel combo that aren't compatible, you said it'll brick. Will that be a hard/permanent brick or could I just use the pc companion and repair it.
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Click to collapse
On locked bl you can everytime use Flashtool or PC Companion to reapir your phone.
On unlocked mostly too. BUT, as told you. Only if you flash loader or kernel badly (bad cable, unexpected power shutdown etc.) you cant repair your phone with any software. Or, to be perfectionist You can unbrick it, using the "JTAG" connector with some "JIG" box. These hardware are hard to buy, its highly specialized devices and costs about 200€ or even more... With these tools you can unbrick any device everytime, even with damaged system ROM, or unloadable kernel. It will simply overwrite the whole NAND adress by adress, byte by byte with standart system image.
You can also use some high-level services which are equipped with this hw and could do it for you. But its also expensive.BTW. thats why I am thinking about to buy JIG box perosnally