Troubleshooting: Cell Phone Won't Dial Out And Keeps Displaying An Error Message

If you  (or other Chinese Mobile Phone models occasionally) cannot dial out, it may mean that it has been accidentally locked in the WiFi Only mode.

[Don't attempt these steps if your phone is healthy or exhibiting some other problem. If you have current product issues with a OnSources phone please click here to explain about how to get help generally. You are welcome to try the steps on this page. Please note that flashing firmware or opening up the insides of the phone will void your warranty.]

You should be able to reset your phone by taking the following steps:

Turn on your phone, and go to the dial screen by pressing the GREEN phone icon.

In the dialing screen type the figures *#3646633#

The phone should go into engineer mode. Scroll to RF (radio frequency) test tool, this is the 10th option and will be in the second screen.

Select the RF(radio frequency) test tool option and then select the GSM option.

When a message appears hit ok to verify.

Go to the power scan option then select the band option. Click on the right arrow till you see DCS 1800 . Press OK.

The phone should enter into scan mode, wait a few minutes until it appears to have stopped, if it hasn't stopped within a 10 minute time frame proceed to the next step.

Plug the phone into a computer via a USB connection.

You will see the following options.

    * Mass storage

    * Webcam

    * COM port

    * PictBridge

Ignore all choices (!) and press on the RED (cancel call) phone key.

The phone should power OFF at this point.

Switch the phone back on and go into the settings menu

Select network setup

Select prefered mode, select GSM preferred and press OK

This step is crucial. If the change does go through you'll see mode switching to GSM, then to OK.

If it goes through smoothly go to Settings again, and click on 'Restore Factory settings…

If it the phone doesn't accept the setting you'll see mode switching then it will display UNFINISHED.

If you see that message, please go back to the first step and do everything over again. The definition of madness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results. But it's worth a try.

You'll be asked for a password. The password is 1122. If that doesn't work try 1212, 0000, 8888, or 1234.

A message will appear. Click Yes.

When the phone starts up again, you'll see a Chinese message. It's asking you to click on the screen for screen calibration. Click on the touchscreen.

Once that's done you'll be shown to the main menu.

Oh No! It's In Chinese!

Fear not...

To change the language back to English, just go to SETTINGS (the gears/cogs icon).

Then choose menu item 4, then 3 and you'll be able to choose English.

Still more steps...

Go back to SETTINGS, then NETWORK SETTINGS, then click on SIM1 network setup (or SIM2 network setup depending on which slot you previously put into WLAN Only).

There you'll be shown two choices: Network Selection and Preferred mode.

Make sure that Network Selection is set to AUTOMATIC and not MANUAL. If it says MANUAL, go in and change it to AUTOMATIC.

As for Preferred mode it should say GSM Preferred. If not please start the beginning again.

To avoid the phone locking in future do not put the phone into WLAN only or GSM only mode since in some cases the firmware version will then not allow you to come back out.

If you have any other issues check out the general Product Problems page for help or contact us