Downgrading Nokia E51 Firmware

Finally I got it done!

A few months ago, I was stupid enough to upgrade my E51 to the latest firmware 400.xx.xxx, I never liked my phone anymore afterwards. I experienced a much shorter battery life, reception issues and lots of other problems. Since then I was looking for a way to downgrade my E51 again to its original firmware 220.34.37. I searched online for solutions, have visited local stores and repair centers and so on ... nothing worked.

Meanwhile I downloaded as well PHOENIX SERVICE SOFTWARE and the 220 firmware. Flashing with the PHOENIX sw is usually not a problem but it refused to flash a lower firmware than currently on the phone.

Throughout my research I also heard about the JAF software with dongle emulator.
Anything related to this software told me to stay away; many users destroyed their phones with it. So, now I had only 1 option left: trying to find a new E51 somewhere and selling my old one on eBay.

Well, I found the E51 still sold on NewEGG.com. The price was a bit high compared to other phones these days, however, I loved my E51 and wanted it back the way I had it before the upgrade, so, I ordered it.

I received the new E51 a few days later and was - ... disappointed!
This phone had already FW version 300.xx.xxx installed and any guyde to patch this firmware version did not do any good! Nothing worked.

I now had 2 choices: either return it to NewEGG for a restocking fee and try to find another E51 or - and this was just a desperate act - to simply try the JAF software and give it a shot! I had nothing to lose; in case I would screw up the phone, I simply would have returned it as 'defective'. Well, this does not seem to be fair and right but if you would know what I had gone through with my old E51, you would understand ... but that is another story!  

So,
I still had my netbook sitting there with only Windows XP Home + drivers and the PHOENIX software on it (incl. Nokia cable drivers). I searched online for the JAF software and found it a few minutes later. After the download I installed it and the dongle emulator. The only one thing I did not install were the NOKIA cable drivers which are included in the JAF installer. I had them already in a different version installed with the PHOENIX software and I did not want to change that installation because I thought I might be able to recover the phone with PHOENIX in case I screw it up with JAF.

Well,
not much more to say! I connected the new E51 with the 300.xx.xxx firmware to the netbook, started JAF and flashed the phone in MANUAL MODE + SW DOWNGRADE MODE with the 200.xx.xxx firmware. Before the flash started, I received a message telling me that this will prohably kill my phone. At this point I did not care anymore - I had nothing to lose but everything to win, so, I started the flashing process. Amazingly, it worked already on my first try!

I couldn't believe it and once the flashing finished, I disconnected the phone, made a full reset on it, started it up and checked the firmware version. It really said: 200.xx.xx - I was excited!

Now, I did not really trust the JAF software and I reflashed the phone once more with PHOENIX and the 220.xx.xxx firmware - it worked perfectly!

Motivated by my success, I tried the exact same thing on my old E51 and the 400.xx.xxx firmware on there: I downgraded the phone with JAF to fw version 200.xx.xxx and then upgraded with PHOENIX to version 220.xx.xxx. Again it worked without any problems!

At the moment I am not sure if this would work with any BB5 phone but it worked twice on a E51 without any problems! I now own 2 E51 but at least they have the firmware version I wanted!  

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If you try it yourself: please, don't held me responsible in case you screw up your phone! This is not a complete guide, I was stupid enough not to take step-by-step notes, however, if you're experienced enough, you shouldn't face any problems!

I hope that helps someone in a similar situation!






Downgrading with J.A.F (The page is in German, do translate it in English)