help with corrupt efs (0049... imei) - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

my sister flashed a rom on her i9300 and didn't backup the efs folder. and left me with the mess.
i flashed a stock 4.0.4 rom on it but the imei is still 0049....
i tried to fix it on windows xp and w7.
there are a lot of solutions out there but none of them worked for me.
so far i tried:
1) Ariza patch
2) i created a text document using sgs3 nv item generator to use with the different recommended software.
for this to work i had to connect my s3 as a usb com port but that didn't really work because the *#7284# dial command did nothing. i used the SManager to run a script that is supposed to do the same thing. the phone did show up in the device manager, but as a samsung mobile usb modem. using USBDeview i saw that it was listed as port COM9 (COM18 on XP), and most of the guides out there show the connection as COM1.
maybe as a result the following programs that were recommended to change the nv items did not work. maybe it was for different reasons:
-Maui META 3g V6 - could not connect to phone. it only offered to connect to COM8 which was also listed as samsung mobile usb modem but was shown in USBDeview as inactive whereas the COM9 was active.
-NV items reader/writer - i picked the samsung mobile usb modem port (COM18) and connected to it, but once i tried to read or write the program would reply "failed... phone does not answer"
-CdmaDevTerm v.2 - couldn't understand how to work it and found no guides. i fiddles around trying to write an IMEI # but it kept getting stuck.
-cdma workshop 2.7 - managed to connect to the port but when i clicked the read button it replied "failed... phone does not answer" and i didn't get the phone's info. it still gave me this information:
first nv item:0
last nv item: 3994
-qpst - i couldn't even pick the port i wanted. only COM1, which was no help.
anyone has an idea what i did wrong?
thanks,
shahar.

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Look at the imei thread in general > sticky roll-up. Please don't post duplicate threads. 10 times a day this is posted.
Ariza patch isn't even ANYTHING to do with this. Suggest you stop and read before you brick your device with multiple solutions.
Qpst - not for this phone
Cdma - not this phone
Imei can be fixed in mobile phone shop for £20. Please read the existing thread.
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thanks. i did try to read as much as i could before asking.
i read the imei thread, though i didn't understand a lot.
are you sure qpst doesn't work? this guy gave me the wrong impression then - {www} youtube(dot)com/watch?v=_d2Nsb23ycw[/url]
so no help here, huh?...
rootSU said:
Look at the imei thread in general > sticky roll-up. Please don't post duplicate threads. 10 times a day this is posted.
Ariza patch isn't even ANYTHING to do with this. Suggest you stop and read before you brick your device with multiple solutions.
Qpst - not for this phone
Cdma - not this phone
Imei can be fixed in mobile phone shop for £20. Please read the existing thread.
-----------------------
Sent via tapatalk.
I do NOT reply to support queries over PM. Please keep support queries to the Q&A section, so that others may benefit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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Qpst is not for the i9300. It doesn't have anything qualcomm related inside. There are many other versions of the s3 that do. Just not ours.
Flash latest rom mg4 or later to ensure you can read efs v2. If that fails send for repair. These are not new answers. Reading is understanding. Following videos on youtube is blindly jumping off a cliff. Read the sticky threads (as I suggest) and if you don't understand anything in a particular thread ASK in that thread.
All the answers are in that thread. There are no other answers. Read. Learn. Understand. Stay away from YouTube. This is my advice to you
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thanks for the advice
rootSU said:
Qpst is not for the i9300. It doesn't have anything qualcomm related inside. There are many other versions of the s3 that do. Just not ours.
Flash latest rom mg4 or later to ensure you can read efs v2. If that fails send for repair. These are not new answers. Reading is understanding. Following videos on youtube is blindly jumping off a cliff. Read the sticky threads (as I suggest) and if you don't understand anything in a particular thread ASK in that thread.
All the answers are in that thread. There are no other answers. Read. Learn. Understand. Stay away from YouTube. This is my advice to you
-----------------------
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I do NOT reply to support queries over PM. Please keep support queries to the Q&A section, so that others may benefit
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

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No problem. Just to be clear, never follow advice for other models of the s3. Only specifically the i9300. All the other models are completely different and advice from those phones may brick yours
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I do NOT reply to support queries over PM. Please keep support queries to the Q&A section, so that others may benefit