IMEI 0000

Problem with Unknown Baseband, NULL or Invalid IMEI & SIM / Network not detected

The Invalid IMEI is a common problem that mostly occurs in Mediatek based Android smartphones, including Xiaomi Redmi, Micromax, Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, HTC, Sony, etc. The issue generally happens when you install a custom ROM, update your Android device, or manually modify the IMEI.

A null IMEI or unknown Baseband could make your phone unable to detect SIM Card(s), network signals (Emergency Mode), make calls or dial shortcodes (to check your account balance, etc). This is because your Baseband, IMEI, WiFi & Bluetooth addresses are important for radio communication.

Quite a number of MTK users have been having this issue on their MTK devices after flashing one ROM or another. This issue is mostly caused by wiping / corruption of the Secro and NVRAM (or NVDATA) partition(s). The Baseband and radio (for network signal) are controlled by the NVRAM (located in data/nvram/md/NVRAM/NVD_IMEI) and a file called MP0B_001.

Once this file is missing or the NVRAM partition is corrupted, your phone's IMEI and radio functionality cease to exist.

This can happen when you:

1. Do a factory reset on the phone
2. Format the phone using SP Flash tool or a mobile phone flashing box (Chinese box e.g Miracle Box, Volcano Box, Infinity Chinese Miracle II box etc)
3. Flash a custom ROM or not fully incompatible stock ROM / firmware
4. Tamper with your IMEI using an incompatible IMEI changer
5. Format your partitions (without restoring) via a custom recovery e.g TWRP
   

Before you start repairing, ensure that your Mediatek phone has a valid Baseband (not NULL Baseband). If your Baseband is unknown then download the firmware for your model and flash your phone. Flashing the firmware (or at least Secro ) ought to restore Baseband. With Baseband regained, you can then proceed with fixing IMEI

In original Samsung phones, an unknown Baseband is as a result of a corrupted EFS partition. The EFS holds the phone's IMEI and other radio information.

To check the phone's Baseband, navigate to Settings > About > Baseband. Check the IMEI by dialing *#06#

You'll usually know you've been hit by the NULL IMEI / Unknown Baseband when you observe:

• Bluetooth address is unavailable
• WIFI connection will work inconsistently
• Constantly rebooting
• Fake IMEI or Null IMEI # (normally - 004999010640000)
• Null Serial number -(0000000)
• Unable to register to network

When you encounter an unknown Baseband and NULL IMEI, the first thing you need to fix is the unknown Baseband by flashing the Stock ROM / firmware for the exact phone model using Odin. Once that is done, you can then write an IMEI to the phone