Razr “Rebranding”
Introduction
So, I’ve had a Razr for about two months now, and in that time I’ve managed to pull off several really interesting customizations, thanks to guides on places like HowardForums. But one thing that continually irked me was the enormous, gaping AT&T logo that lit up the outside LCD when I had the phone open. Sure, it’s not a big deal because I’m not going to be staring at the outside of it all that much…but what if I could change it?
I knew it could be done, because I’d seen phones with all matter of service logo before and a quick search proved me right. However, nobody seemed to have the definitive guide on how to pull this off yourself and ensure that it worked. So, I figured it would be most beneficial to make my own writeup about the process.
And yes…I realize this phone is old…but it’s new to me and considering the amount of trouble I had getting this to work, there’s bound to be someone else who could use the information. So hush up.
What You’ll Need
There really isn’t much you’ll need, but here’s the list:
- Motorola Razr (I used a V3r, but from some of the reading I’ve done, it should work for most, if not all V3* Razrs)
- An image formatted for the outside display panel (GIF format, with a name of cl.gif, and a resolution of 96×80; here’s the one I used:
) Company logos, personal pictures…anything you want, as long as it’s a 96×80 GIF. - A Windows PC with P2K Tools
- A (working) USB cable that fits both your computer and phone
- Be comfortable with seem editing, and not be afraid that this may or may not break your phone if something’s different
What To Do
Concerned that this is going to take a while? Don’t even fret…it’s not that long at all.
- Make sure your phone is powered on and completely started, at the home screen. It’s also recommended that your battery be fully charged, as with any software modification, since you’re going to be playing with the internal workings right now.
- With P2K Tools running, connect the phone, and ensure that P2K picks it up and connects to it (as denoted by the green circle and “Connected” status text in the lower left corner). Your phone should (attempt to) charge, or cycle through and say “Charge Complete.”
- In P2K’s File Manager, click Refresh to get the file list off the phone. This will take a while, so be patient.
- This part seems to differ across some of the broken guides I was able to piece together, but essentially you’re looking for a /*/mobile/system folder. In my V3r’s case, it was /a/mobile/system. Depending on the phone and its current configuration, you may or may not already have a cl.gif file in the directory.
- When you find the path you’re looking for, download the carrier logo (if it exists) to your computer, if you want a copy to back up. Then, upload your replacement cl.gif to the phone. If you had a cl.gif already, delete the file from the phone before uploading your replacement. Write down the exact path, including changes in case. You will need this in a later step.
- To make sure all is well, click the Restart button in the P2K toolbar. Your phone will power-cycle.
- Depending on your phone’s configuration, you may be done. Open and close the flip a few times, and observe whether your replacement image appears. Try it again after you power-cycle the phone (manually). Don’t worry if you notice a Motorola logo appears to have replaced your image, or the display appears to be blanked out, as we will correct this in the next few steps. But if your phone seems to have applied the image successfully, it’s probably okay to assume you’re done.Note: If your replacement logo ever disappears to be replaced by the Motorola M or a blank screen, you can simply continue from this point (assuming cl.gif still exists on your phone).
- Again, making sure that your phone is connected to P2K Tools, open the Seem Editor. The first seem we are looking for is 004a.0001, so enter that into the boxes and click “Load From Phone”. Look for offset 27, which needs to be changed to ’00′, as demonstrated in this screenshot. After you change it, click “Save To Phone”.
- Now, we need to tell the phone where the image is. This is saved to both seems 0061.0001 and 0062.0001 (why this is, I don’t know, but I can only assume it’s to keep some sort of backup or confirmation or something), so we need to modify both of them. Remember where you saved that cl.gif image? Good…because this is where we enter the path.
- This gets annoying really quickly, but what you need to do is enter a hex null character, followed by a single character in the path, followed by another null, followed by another character. If you don’t get what I’m trying to say, this screenshot should help you understand it nicely, but it helps enormously if you just zero out the entire table, and then go back and enter your characters in the right (ASCII) pane. Remember to click “Save To Phone” to apply the new edits before switching seems! (If you make a data entry mistake and think it would be quicker to reload the old data, do so.)
- After you’ve ensured that you’ve changed seem 004a.0001 to ’00′ and 0061.0001 and 0062.0001 to the path of your file interspersed with nulls, and that they’ve been saved to the phone, you need to click our friend the Restart button up at the top of P2K again.
- Assuming all went well, your phone should power-cycle and come back just like normal. Play with flipping it open and closed, and make sure your new logo appears, and try manually powering the phone on and off a few times to ensure that it remains “sticky”. If for some reason the Motorola logo or blank screen returns, retry everything from the beginning.
- Enjoy your newly-rebranded phone. (Mine’s TechCentric-branded…if you didn’t notice the logo.)
This is the process that I used, and it works for me using my V3r. As far as my reading goes, it’s supposed to work on any V3* Razr, which is why I stated so above. However, there is the possibility that doing this to your phone may brick it or render it unusable, even if you’re using the same exact model and version of phone I am.
I’m not providing any warranty for if you do this; it’s merely for exploratory (and cosmetic) purposes. So, bear in mind that you proceed at your own risk.
Side Discussion – Why does it have to be named “cl.gif”?
While I was poking around and figuring out what some of the files were (before I got into searching for guides), I found the cl.gif file. Originally, I had thought it to stand for “Cingular Logo”; since my phone was issued by AT&T, it would make sense because AT&T purchased Cingular, and perhaps was only repurposing the remaining supply of AT&T phones (but the only thing that didn’t add up was the AT&T orb (still) present on my battery cover). Therefore, the only two remaining things I can think of that it could stand for include “Carrier Logo” and “Company Logo.” In either case…it’s whatever you want it to be now. But it has to be cl.gif because that’s what the phone expects it to be named.
Resources
A lot of my information was gleaned from this thread. Thanks to everyone at HowardForums for sharing their expertise with the world!
