Blackberry 9000 prototype. Need the OS!

Got a donation of a box of BlackBerry devices recently (Thanks Steve!) And among them was a 9000 prototype. It has significant differences to the official release. Unfortunately when turned on gives Error 507. When trying to reload the official 9000 OS, the device is recognised, the list of things to be installed appears, but when the process actually starts, I get 'The system software is not designed for the connected device'. Any chance anyone has this software? It's a shame to hold this device like this. Someone probably tried to update it at some point to the official OS and caused that 507.

Originally Posted by gsm_dealer08

Got a donation of a box of BlackBerry devices recently (Thanks Steve!) And among them was a 9000 prototype. It has significant differences to the official release. Unfortunately when turned on gives Error 507. When trying to reload the official 9000 OS, the device is recognised, the list of things to be installed appears, but when the process actually starts, I get 'The system software is not designed for the connected device'. Any chance anyone has this software? It's a shame to hold this device like this. Someone probably tried to update it at some point to the official OS and caused that 507.

Sorry for not helping answering to your request. I have no idea how can I help you. But I have a question for you: is the phone esthetically different?

Originally Posted by elfabio80

Sorry for not helping answering to your request. I have no idea how can I help you. But I have a question for you: is the phone esthetically different?

It does have some differences but I will have to analyse it more then I will make a separate thread. The metal grill covering the ear speaker is different and the back cover is just plastic, no leather. I actually have two 9000 prototypes. The other one is closer to the official release.

i think you need an OS only BB has for these devices

Originally Posted by howarmat

i think you need an OS only BB has for these devices

Tough luck getting my hands on that!

After a lot of digging around, there were a couple of other people with the same problem. One of them took note of the original OS that came with the prototype and that was OS 4.6.0.14
Tried digging everywhere for that version but no luck. tried to force a dumped OS onto it but only froze the device. Managed to wipe it clean with MFI Multiloader but that's as far as it gets. Now I have the 'No application linked <Factory OS>' screen message and the AppLoader gives the same error as before when I try to upload the OS.
This was maybe deliberately implemented by BlackBerry to prevent the prototypes being used outside the development environment. Or maybe the hardware is different. I will open it up and compare the PCB to a regular 9000.