Setting up ChangJiang A968 trouble

[woodprairie]

Hi,
I am trying to get a third party cell phone from ebay from Hong Kong to work on our unicel account. My son broke his phone, bought this one, thought it would work, but gets "no service"
Here's what we have done: (the instruction book is all in chinese). I am getting attempted help from the seller in china but he has given up on us I think. Here is our progress:

My son put his old sim card in the phone (his sim card works in my phone) and gets "no service"

I asked to return the phone and the seller is very helpful. He replies:

Maybe there is wrong of the phone setting. Input: *#3646633# , just like calling, then you can setup the frequency. It really is a Quad-band phone, it can be used worldwide. I hope to solve this problem before you send it back.
________________________________I replied:
I dialed the code and changed the Band select from AUTO to 850/1900. We still get no service. Where do we go to select Quadband?

__________________He replied:
Thanks for your help. It support quad band, but only support dual band at same time. so you can select which band you want. And there is 2 SIM slot, can you try to put the SIM to another slot. Thanks again.
____________________I replied:
Thank you. I moved the sim card from the top to the bottom slot and tried a call but it said "Emergency call only"

I do not understand what you mean by "you can select which band you want". Do I need to select Quad band somewhere, and if so, how do I select it? Thank you
___________________
I think he is ready to give up on us and accept a return, but does any one have any ideas? It does have English on the phone itself.

[Jay2TheRescue]

When the phone displayed "emergency call only" that means that the phone found a network, but it was a network that you were unable to roam on so it is only allowing 911 calls. have you tried the phone in different locations?

-Jay

[woodprairie]

we havent tried different locations. We farm and this is where we need it to pick up service. We tried US Cellular 12 months ago but they couldnt pick up all over the farm so we returned the phones and went back to unicel. Is there another reason to try other locations?

[Jay2TheRescue]

Just to see if it will work. It is possible that the phone is not seeing the network where you're trying to test it. Its obvious that it sees some network as it is displaying Emergency Only.

-Jay

[manufn619]

hi im new here
i also have a similar problem ,with the same phone, i have a t-mobile sim and i put it in the both slots however, i always get no service.

[Jay2TheRescue]

If multiple people are having the same problems with the same model phone then its probably not compatible with the US phone network for some reason. I usually don't recommend purchasing phones overseas, especially models not available here for that very reason. Its hard to troubleshoot a phone that nobody in this country is familiar with.

-Jay

[dmarkson]

The English user manuals are here (not that it helps all that much)
Index of //manual

There may be two issues here.

Some versions of the phone are quad-band, but I have heard that some of the Chinese phones (not sure about this one) only have one quad-band slot, the other is not. The manual does not state this about the bands, but it does show that some features only work with SIM A. That would explain the Unicel problem (Emergency Only) if no SIM was in the quad-band slot. Try the other SIM slot. The user manual says you can change the A/B SIM in software, so it is worth checking that out too.

Some versions of the phone are strictly 900/1800 and will not work here in the states. That could explain why a Tmo SIM would not work.

[woodprairie]

going to have to send it back. What do you recommend for a rugged phone with good teen options made in the usa? he is on his own budget, so it cant be a ton of money.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Motorolas are usually pretty tough. My sister's kids break Nokias and Samusngs quite quickly, but the Motorolas seem to last. I gave my niece one of my old Motorola V551's a while ago to my 13 year old niece and she hasn't broken it yet. The TMO verison of the V551 is the Motorola V330 if you're interested.

[woodprairie]

Now my postmistress tells me phones may not be shipped to China. Think he knew that?

[Jay2TheRescue]

Even when the country of origin is China? That sounds crazy.

-Jay

[woodprairie]

I am going to try to return it, unless someone wants it. we paid 150. going going , gone...
Restrictions for mailing to china say (IMM restrictions) no " radio receivers, transmitters or receivers of all kinds, walkie talkies and parts thereof;... radio sets, tvs,
Unless someone here wants it, I am going to declare it as a "telephone" country of origin china, and hope for the best.
you would think if they meant cell phones, in this day & age they would have said cell phones.

[icegrl320]

Hello I have a tmobile sim card and it says "No service" on it also. Has anyone found a way to wrok it? Really like the phone just want to get the phone to work. Any help would be nice. Thanks

[manufn619]

Originally Posted by icegrl320

Hello I have a tmobile sim card and it says "No service" on it also. Has anyone found a way to wrok it? Really like the phone just want to get the phone to work. Any help would be nice. Thanks

what color phone do you have ?
if you have the black version i think it may not work
since the goldish is quad band

[Jay2TheRescue]

You may want to look at the new Samsung Rugby - Its a new rugged flip phone phone sold by AT&T.

-Jay

[RadioRaiders]

Originally Posted by woodprairie

I am going to try to return it, unless someone wants it. we paid 150. going going , gone...
Restrictions for mailing to china say (IMM restrictions) no " radio receivers, transmitters or receivers of all kinds, walkie talkies and parts thereof;... radio sets, tvs,
Unless someone here wants it, I am going to declare it as a "telephone" country of origin china, and hope for the best..

No, don't declare it on the customs form as a telephone, that's inaccurate. Declare it properly as a "Lop of steaming dog sh*t"

[vinitaros]

After entering this code *#3646633# , then I have pressed another sub-menu (but couldn't remember what that was). It said "It is automatically power off the phone"... Form that message warning I can't switch the phone back on. Appreciate your prompt response. Thanks in advance.