Unlocking the Palm Centro
This post may seem outdated, compared to my Nexus One post… But I’m gonna post it anyway!
I bought a second hand AT&T Palm Centro and had it sent to me recently for very cheap price. I love the Centro’s keyboard, and although the OS is dinosaur age, I have some old apps from my Palm Clie days which I still use.
When I received the device, I realized that it was locked to AT&T still! Being a guy who loves exotic and hard to find devices, I had no chance of going to Low Yat to unlock it. There, I started my journey to find a way to do it online.
After much Googling, I found no free way of doing so, but there are a few alternatives. The cheapest one is via ebay (just type in “Centro Unlock” in ebay to see a list of sellers), where all you have to do is send in your IMEI number and they will send you a code within 24 hours. They are cheap, only USD3. But there is a disclaimer that if your phone has been refurbished, then it may not work. Hmmm… problem: how do i know if my phone is refurbished or not? Well, I don’t! Still, the sellers ratings are all positive, so I gave it a shot.
The result… they sent me a code via email within 24hours but the code does not work. I tried 3 times just to make sure i didn’t type in wrongly and sure enough, it did not work. I read that if I try 5 times unsuccessfully, my phone will lock… FOREVER!
Not giving up, I decided to scour phone forums for a recommended working solution. Finally, I found http://centrounlock.com/ to be the best. The method is a little more work than the ebay one. First, I had to download a little application on my phone. The app will then calculate and create a unique code which I can then apply to the site to generate the unlock code. The app worked on my phone. It spewed out a 16 digit code. The next step is to pay this company USD19. That’s RM70. Hmmm… should I do it? It’s risky. One, I may enter the wrong 16 digit code to the site and it may give me a wrong unlock code (the codes had lots of “0”s and “O”s, “1”s and “I”s which looks awfully similar in Palms default font). Two, these people may be another scam company. I tried sending them email to enquire about their service, but they did not reply me (and no reply until today). However, desperate, I decided to give it a go.
Below is a summary of how to enter the unlock code:
Notice the Digi signal on my phone? Well, I can now gladly confirm with you that the DigitalUnlock service at http://centrounlock.com works like a charm! And another piece of good news: the ebay seller refunded my money after I proved to him that I got the unlock codes elsewhere. Woo hoo!
I bought a second hand AT&T Palm Centro and had it sent to me recently for very cheap price. I love the Centro’s keyboard, and although the OS is dinosaur age, I have some old apps from my Palm Clie days which I still use.
When I received the device, I realized that it was locked to AT&T still! Being a guy who loves exotic and hard to find devices, I had no chance of going to Low Yat to unlock it. There, I started my journey to find a way to do it online.
After much Googling, I found no free way of doing so, but there are a few alternatives. The cheapest one is via ebay (just type in “Centro Unlock” in ebay to see a list of sellers), where all you have to do is send in your IMEI number and they will send you a code within 24 hours. They are cheap, only USD3. But there is a disclaimer that if your phone has been refurbished, then it may not work. Hmmm… problem: how do i know if my phone is refurbished or not? Well, I don’t! Still, the sellers ratings are all positive, so I gave it a shot.
The result… they sent me a code via email within 24hours but the code does not work. I tried 3 times just to make sure i didn’t type in wrongly and sure enough, it did not work. I read that if I try 5 times unsuccessfully, my phone will lock… FOREVER!
Not giving up, I decided to scour phone forums for a recommended working solution. Finally, I found http://centrounlock.com/ to be the best. The method is a little more work than the ebay one. First, I had to download a little application on my phone. The app will then calculate and create a unique code which I can then apply to the site to generate the unlock code. The app worked on my phone. It spewed out a 16 digit code. The next step is to pay this company USD19. That’s RM70. Hmmm… should I do it? It’s risky. One, I may enter the wrong 16 digit code to the site and it may give me a wrong unlock code (the codes had lots of “0”s and “O”s, “1”s and “I”s which looks awfully similar in Palms default font). Two, these people may be another scam company. I tried sending them email to enquire about their service, but they did not reply me (and no reply until today). However, desperate, I decided to give it a go.
Below is a summary of how to enter the unlock code:
- 1. Remove the battery from your device
- 2. Leave the phone off for 10 seconds
- 3. Put a SIM card into the phone
- 4. Place the battery back in
- 5. Go to the dial pad
- 6. If the radio isn't on (phone application reports "Phone Off"), turn it on by holding down the red power button for a few seconds
- 7. Wait for "SIM card not allowed" message
- 8. Wait for the dial pad to indicate "SOS only"
- 9. Dial the unlock code carefully, including all * and # characters (it should look like *#*#00000000# when you are done)
- 10. Press the dial button
- 11. The phone should inform you that the SIM lock was removed
Notice the Digi signal on my phone? Well, I can now gladly confirm with you that the DigitalUnlock service at http://centrounlock.com works like a charm! And another piece of good news: the ebay seller refunded my money after I proved to him that I got the unlock codes elsewhere. Woo hoo!
I bought a code from ebay too to unlock a palm centro my sister give to me, it says it's unlock yet when I put the simcard I wish to use in it, it's telling me sos and this simcard is not allowed, I also have another phone I unlock that the simcard is working great with, do you know what could be the problem? I really need to use this phone.
ReplyDeletehi nel, try installing the Centro Unlock software and run it. the ebay sellers aren't very reliable...
ReplyDeleteHmmm!
ReplyDeleteFine its the great information!!!
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So AT&T, who I've had service with for like 10 years + said they couldn't give me the code b/c my phone was older, and so they dump the codes after some time. Seems they should keep the codes of the active phones huh? So I tried an online service that gets codes by the IMEI #. They weren't able to help and refunded my $. Last hope, the website Centro unlock, which uses a computer program to find the code. Low-and-behold they got the code and it's unlocked. Costs $19 but the cheapest one with the program, and only option if you phone is a couple of years old like mine. Thanks for the info on this site, I didn't know if they were a scam but they sure weren't.
ReplyDeleteI had a Palm Centro with Sprint for 5 years - Love the phone hated Sprint so 4 months ago I switched to AT&T -- I want to buy a Palm Centro for AT&T -- Can I take my Samsung Flight II SIM card and put it into a used Centro (like the ones I see on ebay)? Will this work or what would I need to do to make this work.
ReplyDelete