Expert: DebiN - 3/11/2010

Question
Have a motorola V190 that I use when in Europe. Daughter got a hold of phone, and now I'm worried she may have locked it. With SIM in it, when powered up, displays "SIM Blocked", appears that it will let me enter anything into "PIN1 Unblock Code:", then goes to "Enter New SIM PIN:", but nothing I enter really matters, so SIM has been locked. If no SIM in phone, displays "Insert SIM". Don't care about the SIM, but would hate to arrive in Europe, put a new SIM in only to have the phone itself locked. If I pull the SIM, do I have to worry about the phone itself being locked? Is the lock info stored on the SIM? Cant seem to find a way to verify this. Thanks

Answer
It shouldn't show SIM blocked unless you she locked the SIM card and without a SIM, it is supposed to say Insert SIM. She likely put a lock on the SIM card. Hopefully, when you get to Europe and purchase a new SIM, it should work in the phone. The only way to test this for sure is to put an active SIM card into the phone, but the only way to do that is to have service with a GSM carrier in the US. If you have a friend who has AT&T or T-Mobile, you may want to try one of their SIMs in your phone to see if you still get the SIM blocked message. If you don't, you will be fine in Europe. If you do, then the phone itself has likely been locked. Can you try this test, i.e., do you have access to another active SIM card to try it? Hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN