How to Update an E71-2 to v300 Firmware Until Nokia Fixes NSU

OK, so Nokia has been hard at work recently, letting out what some in my circle have come to call "firmware diarrhea." The Nokia E71 got a nice update....in Europe and Asia. Unfortunately, for users of the E71-2 NAM superspecialawesome smartphone, the road to the new v300.21.012 firmware has been blocked. Well, more like the road is missing a big chunk or two.

But that's OK, there's still hope. Candyman on HowardForums has posted a method for a relatively safe, relatively painless upgrade to the new v300 firmware. Involves a few unorthodox detours, but no-pain-no-gain, right? Here's how you do it.

UPDATE (JUL. 23, 2009): Apparently Nokia completely pulled the v300 firmware off their servers on Jul. 17. For this guide to work, it needs to detect that v300 is the latest firmware available. As of today, it's still back at v200 for the NAM and v210 for the Euro/Asia E71. ):

First, grab the latest version of Nemesis Service Suite (a.k.a. NSS). I did the upgrade with v1.0.38.15 of that software. You'll need this to change the product code of your phone if it isn't one for which the firmware update is already available. My original code was 0570274, the one for a white NAM E71 from the States. Plug in your phone to the computer and set it to PC Suite mode, then change the product code to 0559585 with NSS as below (lol). Change it back after the upgrade if you wish. The only difference that I've found is that after hard resetting, I get a different theme picked as the default one (oh noes? hahahahaha).

Second, make sure you have the most updated version of Nokia Software Updater (NSU). Install it if it isn't already, then run it once and it'll check for the latest update. The latest build isn't the always the one posted in the link above.

As Nokia rolls out updates slowly across its product codes, people would usually just change the product code to one that has the firmware update and then run NSU. Unfortunately, it's not quite that straightforward this time. Moving on!

Third, grab a copy of Navifirm v0.1. Use it to download all the files for the NAM firmware (product code 0559585) except the .c00 file. That file is missing or busted, and is also the reason people cannot properly upgrade the E71 in NSU. You should be downloading nine files.

UPDATE (JUL. 15, 2009): Looks like there are only two variants listed in Navifirm under RM-357 (E71-2), LTA Grey Steel (0553094) and CTR Brazil Grey Steel (0559587). My hunch is that the LTA (Latin America) version would be fine as that's what the Nokia N85-3 users are doing to get the latest v30 firmware, but I'm not sure if the keyboard layouts are the same. ):

UPDATE (JUL. 16, 2009): Guess not. I've uploaded the proper version of the ENGLISH v300 files here. You'll need 7-Zip to decompress it. Do NOT use the LTA files, as they'll change your keyboard layout.

Next, go to the RM-346 section and grab the .c00 file from a Euro product code. It's common across all versions of the phone and here I just took it from a random, English product code. This is the tenth and final file you need.

Go to where NSU keeps the firmware files and delete everything inside it (if under Windows XP):

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application 

Data\Nokia\Nokia Service Layer\A\nsl_service_module_00001

\vpls\www.dsut.online.nokia.com.oti.caresuite\Products\rm-

357

Windows Vista and 7 users would have it under here (OK, that's a lie, as this is definitely not it. I'll have to update this later, as I'm running XP at the moment):

C:\Users\All Users\Application Data\Nokia\Nokia Service 

Layer\A\nsl_service_module_00001

\vpls\www.dsut.online.nokia.com.oti.caresuite\Products\rm-

357

Move these 10 files to the now empty directory. NSU will now detect the firmware and won't try to download it. Instead, it'll just start the update with the files you put into the above folder.

And that's exactly what you need to do now. Fire up NSU and let it run. It should update the phone just fine, but at the very end it might give a "lost connection with phone, remove battery, cable..." message when it shows 53 seconds remaining or so. Don't panic. Wait a few seconds then click "Cancel" in NSU. When it asks you to retry, cancel out again and let NSU quit.

The phone will still be showing a blank white screen. One time I got the follow error while it was in this state, but I carried on and everything seemed fine.

Wait a minute or so and it should reboot by itself. If not, just yank the battery, count to ten steamboats and turn on the phone again. Dial *#0000# once it's all booted up to confirm your firmware version, and it should happily say v300.21.012.

(: