Device Pin Blocked

So after several years, I dug a Verizon Z30 that I had gotten off the Marketplace here out of the closet to play around with. It's a verizon phone, supposedly unlocked, but I use a variety of GSM sim cards. Initially was able to put a GSM sim card in it and call customer service. 5 bars. When I rebooted the phone, the dreaded "Device Pin Blocked IMEI: ###############" window popped up with the "Unable to contact Blackberry Service..." message.

Customer service for the cell carrier says it's lost or stolen.

There are a couple of websites that supposedly let you check for lost or stolen phones by entering the IMEI, and they said that it was a clean IMEI.

Any recommendations?

I tried getting Blackberry Link to recognize it, or even run an autoloader...but apparently with this message popping up you can't do anything to it.

Originally Posted by Old_Mil

So after several years, I dug a Verizon Z30 that I had gotten off the Marketplace here out of the closet to play around with. It's a verizon phone, supposedly unlocked, but I use a variety of GSM sim cards. Initially was able to put a GSM sim card in it and call customer service. 5 bars. When I rebooted the phone, the dreaded "Device Pin Blocked IMEI: ###############" window popped up with the "Unable to contact Blackberry Service..." message.

Customer service for the cell carrier says it's lost or stolen.

There are a couple of websites that supposedly let you check for lost or stolen phones by entering the IMEI, and they said that it was a clean IMEI.

Any recommendations?

I tried getting Blackberry Link to recognize it, or even run an autoloader...but apparently with this message popping up you can't do anything to it.

I think you're toast.

I was thinking that was pretty much the case. Neither Blackberry Link nor an autoloader seem to recognize the phone plugged in to the computer in this state.

Originally Posted by Old_Mil

I was thinking that was pretty much the case. Neither Blackberry Link nor an autoloader seem to recognize the phone plugged in to the computer in this state.

Try plugging in your device, run the autoloader then reboot device while loader is looking for device see if it will catch somewhere along the boot process.

I tried a different USB cable, and actually got the PC to recognize the phone and successfully ran the bootloader. The phone booted up to the BB10 configuration menu which I went through and got through the tutorials. I'm currently sitting at the home screen with 4 Verizon Wireless Bars, 1x. So I'm guessing no data. Phone seems to be happy.

However, I tried connecting it to the Wifi Network and it immediately gave me the Pin Blocked message. So I went through the process again, just without connecting to WIFI.

At least Verizon seems to be content to let it connect to 1x to their network. That much cell connectivity isn't triggering a Pin Blocked message.

The trigger seems to be when Cell or Wifi data is enabled and it starts talking to Blackberry itself.

Not sure there's a way around that.

Originally Posted by Old_Mil

I tried a different USB cable, and actually got the PC to recognize the phone and successfully ran the bootloader. The phone booted up to the BB10 configuration menu which I went through and got through the tutorials. I'm currently sitting at the home screen with 4 Verizon Wireless Bars, 1x. So I'm guessing no data. Phone seems to be happy.

However, I tried connecting it to the Wifi Network and it immediately gave me the Pin Blocked message. So I went through the process again, just without connecting to WIFI.

At least Verizon seems to be content to let it connect to 1x to their network. That much cell connectivity isn't triggering a Pin Blocked message.

The trigger seems to be when Cell or Wifi data is enabled and it starts talking to Blackberry itself.

Not sure there's a way around that.

hello, old_mill, any updates on this for you? I am having the exact same issue. I will try what you did, using the bootloader again via reboot and NOT connecting to wifi and using a sim card.

Originally Posted by Phillip st

hello, old_mill, any updates on this for you? I am having the exact same issue. I will try what you did, using the bootloader again via reboot and NOT connecting to wifi and using a sim card.

Unfortunately, no luck. You?

Originally Posted by Old_Mil

Unfortunately, no luck. You?

No luck! But now at least I can use the phone and play around with it without the device pin msg. NO data or Wi-Fi though. I've yet to try it with a voice only SIM.

Lol my next post will be in the buy/sell forum I guess