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Posted by: GrYph0n

If you are tired of seeing that mMode screen at startup and tired of seeing AT&T Wireless when you make your calls, then I have some simple instructions on how you can have your phone look as if it were branded to Cingular.

NOTICE: I am not responsible for any damage done to your device when attempting to alter your phones registry!!!

Take your time and be carefull !!! If you get into trouble during the entry process, press the "Cancel" key and start over.
If you have Sprite I recommend you first back up your phone, and if you don't have Sprite I recommend that you get it then back up .

Goto your PHM RegEdit on your phone or download it http://www.phm.lu/Products/Smartphone/RegEdit/

Or use http://www.breaksoft.com/Blog/Utilities/2005/1/Mobile_Registry_Editor.aspx to do it all from your computer onto your phone.

Note that the directions are for use with PHM registry editor, the process is much easier with Mobile Registry Editor.

The cingular gifs.zip file is attached at the bottom of the post. download it and save the two gif files to IPSM(Storage 2003) directory on your Smartphone phone. Once you finish the process I recommend that you use file manager to hide these files (menu>properties then check the hide box)

To Change the AT&T mLIFE boot up screen, do the following;
(Note, if you have flashed your phone {MPx200} with a generic ROM, this process will add a boot screen, I have yet to figure out how to get rid of the Mobile Operator Screen.)

Once the registry editor is launched go to ;

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Software
- Microsoft
- Splash Screen (Generic ROM phones will need to create this Key)
Press the "Values" softkey
Scroll down to "MSBitmap"(Generic ROM phones will need to create this string) and press the blue ACTIONS key
Replace "\Windows\mLifebootup.gif" with "\IPSM(Storage for 2003)\cingular_startup.gif" (Generic ROM phones, just enter this value in the string)
Press "Done" softkey
Keep pressing the Back key until you are out of the Registry Editor
Press Home key.
Power cycle the phone.

To get rid of the dial screen logo, do the following:

Once the registry editor is launched go to ;

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Software
- Microsoft
- Shell
- Rai
- MSCdial
Press the "Values" softkey
Scroll down to "Banner Image" and press the blue ACTIONS key
Replace "\Windows\branding_brick.gif" with "\IPSM(Storage for 2003)\branding_cingular.gif"
Press "Done" softkey
Keep pressing the Back key until you are out of the Registry Editor
Press Home key.
Power cycle the phone.

The above process will delete the logo when you are entering numbers to dial, on the keypad, but when you press "Talk", another AT&T(Generic ROM: Smartphone 2002 or 2003) logo will appear on that screen.

To change that one, do the following

Once the registry editor is launched go to ;

- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
- Software
- Microsoft
- Shell
- Rai
- MSCprog <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Press the "Values" softkey
Scroll down to "Banner Image" and press the blue ACTIONS key
Replace "\Windows\branding_brick.gif" with "\IPSM(Storage for 2003)\branding_cingular.gif"
Press "Done" softkey
Keep pressing the Back key until you are out of the Registry Editor
Press Home key.
Power cycle the phone.

If you have flashed your phone then the origional strings will be different, just replace whatever is there with what I have in the instructions above.

Have fun and good luck with your newly Cingular branded Smartphone
[attachment=69:attachment]

Posted by: GrYph0n

Also like to note that Abatis is working on a .cab file to do this whole process for you, so if you don't fancy messing with your registry manually then I would hold off for that .

Posted by: Hightech

Nice Abatis. That would be great spec if the phone can prompt you to which graphics you want and bam it is install.


Need to keep up with this one. I want to change it but do not want to mess up the phone.

Posted by: Knuckles

I found out how to change the Operator Logo Screen on Generic ROM phones

(Go Me!)

OK instead of creating a key named "MSBitmap" call it "CarrierBitmap"

Hope this helps you all!

Knuckles

Posted by: abatis

I finally did the Cingular branding CAB. It should work fine on a Smartphone 2003 phone. It changes the Splash, Shutdown, and dial gif to Cingular. I have tried it on a Voq and SMT5600. Use at your own risk .

Anyway download the zipped CAB, move the CAB to a folder, I use TEMP and execute the CAB. Click "YES" when it warns about an unknown source.

You can remove the Branding by going to Settings> Remove Programs

Let me know if you have success.

*Update Feb 25, 2005. The CAB has been updated to fix the MSC:Dial gif. Thanks for pointing it out due*. Anything else let me know.

Posted by: alwaysowen

Last night, I unlocked my SMT5600 and today went to cingular and got added to my wife's account as she had quite a few rollover minutes. The sales rep was great, didn't charge for the sim card and I only paid the $18 one time setup cost. I just found your cab file and it works great, but I have noticed that my carrier on my home screen is a series of numbers and not Cingular. Is this normal and is there a fix for this?

Posted by: abatis

always,

Sorry for the time past here. Actually the CAb should have no effect on your Home screen plugin for the carrier. That is in your homescreen theme XML. The number most likely means you are roaming or need to update the preference in Settings>Phone>Network>menu preferred networks.

as far as the carrier plugin:
In the homescreen XML code you will find this type of plugin:


<plugin clsid="{E09043DF-510E-4841-B652-388316977A7A}" name="carrier" height="34">
<clock>
<time font-size="18" y="10" w="170" halign="right" fgcolor="#ffffff" />

That plugin gets its information from the network you are on.

Posted by: Melissa8

Worked like a charm on my MpX200 with 2003 on it. Thanks.

Posted by: Guitar1969

I have been trying to use these steps to rebrand a Cingular MPX220 phone to T-mobile, and am able to do all of the steps, but what I am getting is elimination of the Cingular powerup and power down screens(which is good), but the phone will not run my T-mobile startup stuff. Strange thing is, when I look in my Windows directory on the MPX220, the T-mobile gifs I put in there are gone(And I have checked hidden files) once I power cycle.

Something is overriding them and deleting them, therefore my registry entry under "Splash Screen" is not being processed.

Any thoughts

Posted by: GrYph0n

Simple fix... Don't put them in the root Windows folder as it rewrites itself on startup, so the files are no longer there once you turn it off. Place them elsewhere on the phone then use the phones explorer to hide the files and you will be all set...

Posted by: islesmetskid

i don't have any of the at&t branded problems you seem to explain here on my mpx200 with wm2003, however on the homescreen it always says my service is At&t instead of cingular...will any of this fix that? why is that? how do i make it say cingular?

Posted by: GrYph0n

No this won't fix that because that is who's "tower" you are using. I think there is a way to force it to cingular, but you may be in an area where Cingulars towers are the 850 band (which the MPx200 can't use) so you are stuck using the old AT&T 1900 towers...

Posted by: NunoUFO

Hi GrYph0n,

I have been trying tom make a cab with the settings of my Portuguese carrier, but It just wont work.

Also I noticed you cab file does not open in WinCE Cab Manager, and When I try to create a cab file from a xml with the settings it wont get into the smartphone.

So my question is how do you make your cab configuration files?

Can you please help me?

Regards

Nuno
Portugal

Posted by: abatis

Nuno,
GrYph may be out and about so I will try to help. I actually built the above CABs provided in this thread. Building a CAB is slightly tedious and requires the appropriate MS SDK for your platform. The SDK is a free download but requires a number of downloads. Start here if you do not already have it http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A6C4F799-EC5C-427C-807C-4C0F96765A81&displaylang=en

Building a CAB is more than just editing the code inside another CAB. There is a security layer built in among other things to do. I am a novice and worked my way through it so anyone can do it. But you will need to do a little research.

http://www.sundialsoft.freeserve.co.uk/cabinfo.htm

I think you should try and if you get stuck let me know and maybe we can help.

Posted by: bshaw18

A bit of a novice here, but this is exactly what I need for my MPX220. When you say the Temp folder, you mean on the phone via the PC correct? And just click on the file to make it go? Thanks for the help.

Posted by: abatis

Yes just move the CAB to the phone, really wherever you can get to it with the phone file manager and click it. It will execute and erase the CAB file leaving the changes. If you want to remove it go to Remove Programs in settings. It will work fine on any MS Smartphone maybe not the WM5 phones as I have not seen the registry structure in WM5.

Posted by: tgshoe

I have tried the cingular branding zip file but it does not place any gif's on my phone. The files it puts on my phone are not pictures and do nothing for the startup and shutdown splash screens. What am I doing wrong?

Posted by: abatis

Did you unzip the above file and than move the CAB to the phone? Once the CAB is on the phone, double click it and it will launch and install the files correctly.

Posted by: tgshoe

Yes I did unzip the file and transfer the cab file to my phone and then executed the cab file. The files for the splash screen were in their appropriate directory and it did away with the smartphone 2002 shutdown scree but now it displays nothing on shutdown and no cingular splash on bootup. The files it put on my phone have .001 or .002 file extension. What kind of file is this? I thought they had to be a picture file such as a .gif file. Any info is appreciated and thank-you for your time.

Posted by: abatis

the .001 and .002 are really the gif files packaged for the cab. That is strange that they did not extract completely to just the gif.

I just tested the above branding CAB on my Voq and it installed fine.

Did you get a menu that Asked permission to install this program from an unknown source? You need to answer yes. It than should start installing.

Posted by: tgshoe

Thank-you for your prompt reply. I am not sure why the gif's did not extract properly the first time maybe a corrupt download, anyway I downloaded the file again copied it to my mpx200 with generic 2002 img and executed it. This time it extracted the .gif files correctly but still showed nothing on bootup or shutdown or the dial screens. Went to PHM reg editor and examined registry entries and they were in fact there and correct except they showed the gif files as being in the storage folder and being that 2002 does not not have storage folder but IPSM folder I just manually changed each entry and all work fine now. Nice branding. Thank-you.

Posted by: thezoltar

tgshoe had it right. I changed the "storage" folder to "IPSM" and my MpX200 is now rebranded. Nice job all, thanks.

Posted by: abatis

Good work this helps users with 2002.

Posted by: lucasmjl

Abatis,

Thanks for the CAB files, it fixed my data connection. What directory is the splash screen (gif) files in on an SMT5600? I'm not seeing them on startup or shutdown. Thanks.

Mike

Posted by: abatis

http://#
The CingularB CAB installs them in \Storage\Application Data\Home\cing_splash.gif

If you have a Reg editor you can manually change them to whatever you want just makes sure the pix size is correct.

The Code in the CAB for that part looks like this:

<characteristic type="HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Splash Screen"> http://&quot;&quot; <!-- Carrier Boot Screen --> f(clean); <parm name="MSBitmap" value="\Storage\Application Data\Home\cing_splash.gif" datatype="string" translation="install" /> http://&quot;&quot; <!-- Microsoft Smartphone 2003 shutdown screen --> f(clean); <parm name="MSShutdownBitmap" value="\Storage\Application Data\Home\cing_splash.gif" datatype="string" translation="install" /> http://&quot;&quot; <!-- Microsoft Smartphone 2003 boot screen --> f(clean); <parm name="CarrierBitmap" value="\Storage\Application Data\Home\cing_splash.gif" datatype="string" translation="install" /> </characteristic> http://&quot;&quot; <!-- Speeds up Menus etc. --> f(clean);

Posted by: lucasmjl

Thanks. I just did a search on my SMT5600 (unlocked) and I don't see the cing_splash.gif. I'll try and find a copy to download.

I changed over to Cingular from AT&T, and like many other who have done the same I am experiencing horrible signal strength. Even when I set Network selection to Manual and set it to AT&T (I get full signal strength!), it still changes over to a Cingular tower "310410" and I'm lucky to see even one tiny bar. I contacted Cingular technical support and they tell me I need to purchase a new smartphone. Any ideas? Thanks again.

Mike

Posted by: abatis

Our CingularB CAB work fine on the SMT5600 as I have loaded two of my own SMt5600's with it. However if for some reason you can't use it here is the Splash PIX if you want to use it. Just right click and save as a picture.

 cing_splash.gif ( 7.7K ) : 383

Posted by: nmotu

[font=Arial][size=7]

Just tried these on my Motorola MPx (the dual axis flip one) and it's telling me that these aren't valid Windows CE installation files. The device is unlocked and running Pocket PC 2003

Posted by: abatis

The above CABS are for a Smartphone not a PPC like the MPX. This PPC CAB will setup GPRS on Cingular.  Cingular_USA_PPC_V1.3.zip ( 22.85K ) : 648
. UnZIP it once to expose the CAB and than execute the CAB on your PPC.