Nokia N97 / V20 Firmware / South Africa

Last night I just had enough of all the shitty excuses why my Nokia N97 is still on V12 Firmware. The one from Nokia that says it is because it is a network funded device, and the one from the network that says they still have to authorise the upgrade, and meanwhile I'm ready to bin this damn thing.

In short, it is a LOVELY phone, and it does everything what I wanted when I chose it. I still will gladly stand next to a Iphone user and see if they can find something I cannot do on my N97. But the shipped software was crap!

And the worst of it all is Nokia, admits it, and they have fixed it! ( Nokia VP: N97 taught company some tough lessons - http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/23/nokia-vp-n97-taught-company-some-tough-lessons/

Now last night I decided, enough is enough, and I looked into NSS and the device codes.
Now let me start with what everybody says about this:

DO NOT DO THIS. CHANGING THESE SETTINGS COULD BRICK YOUR PHONE AND NOBODY WILL REPAIR OR REPLACE IT BECAUSE THIS ACTION PLACES IT OUT OF WARANTY. IF YOU PROCEED, YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN, TOTALLY!

So, I decided it was either the risk, or dumping this phone in the bin either way.

Downloaded NSS from http://www.b-phreaks.co.uk and followed the instructions on http://thesymbianblog.com/2009/07/02/how-to-change-the-product-code-on-a-n97-nokia-5800/

I used the code 0570817 and can confirm that it worked for me, from South Africa with a South African network phone.

I used the Nokia update software, not over the air, on my NetBook Windows XP and the whole process was done in about 30 minutes.

Yes I know now if it breaks, I will be binning it, but what a deference! The damn thing now works like it should!

For those out there that are ready to throw this one away, try the upgrade, it does fix a lot of issues.

Good luck!