Putting your own ringtones for your Razr V3m from Verizon
March 13th, 2008As a result of my Razr unlocking tutorial, I have gotten tons of questions. The most common by far is “how do I get custom ringtones on it?” A visitor to my blog, sendherastar, was kind enough to make a tutorial.
Here’s what he says:
You need to make yourself some ringtones before you actually get to the point of uploading songs to your phone because anything over 30seconds you can’t set as a ring tone. I use Wave Pad but any other program similar to it (cool edit pro, etc) will do just fine. Here’s the link for Wave Pad:
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/masters.html just click “download wave pad,” it should be free. If not, find it on another site where it is.
You can use any song that you want up to 30 seconds long and you can also choose the part of the song you want. Here are the steps on how to do that if you’re uncertain:
After you obviously install the program and have it up and running, you want to open a song of your choice. You can scope out the part of the song you want by listening to it. Once you’ve got it figured out, you can highlight the part you’re going to use. Down in the right hand corner, it will tell you the Sel Length by the seconds. Make sure that does not go over 30.
Once you’ve got the part of the song highlighted, right click on it and click, “copy.” Up in the left hand corner of the Wave Pad, you want to click, “New File.” Once that opens, take your mouse over top of newly opened wave file, right click anywhere inside the box and click, “paste.” This is how I save it — I close it out and it asks me if I want to save as “untitled.” I click yes and a box will pop up where you can name it whatever you want and you can also save it to whatever kind of file you want it to be (wav, mp3, etc.) I save mine as mp3, for some reason when I used a .wav file it wouldn’t work. I only tried once so I could have just did something wrong while uploading it to my phone.
Alright after you’re finished making the ringtone(s) you want, the first thing you need to do is make sure you have a usb cable that hooks into your phone and your computer. If you do, then follow this link to a download:
http://rsddownload.motorola.com/download/Motorola_Software_Update.exe
After downloading that, you then need to download p2kcommander which can be found here:
http://handheld.softpedia.com/get/Developer-Tools/File-Manager/P2kCommander-38120.shtml
p2kcommander files HAVE to be extracted! I put the extracted files on my desktop for easy access!
Both programs you want to install and run. Make sure when you’re ready to connect your phone you have them BOTH running.
Once the MSU (Motorola Software Update) starts running it’s going to ask “repair motorola software update,’ or “remove motorola software update,” just leave it on repair and hit, “finish.” Make sure when it finishes and comes to the “close,” option that the “Launch Motorola Software,” is clicked. Once it recognizes your phone LEAVE IT UP AND RUNNING then p2k commander should recongnize your phone as well.
Using p2k commander:
Either the right or left hand corner (which ever you prefer) click the drop down box and select P2K Mobile Phone — If it connects, you will be able to open your phone up and see everything inside of it.
Now to the fun part — the first thing you see once your phone connects with P2K is going to be the “a” folder. Open that up. In that folder you’re going to have to delete a file (don’t worry it regenerates itself once you reboot your phone, meaning that everytime you go through the process of putting ringtones on your phone, it will have to be deleted every time). The file you’re going to delete is named “MyToneDB.db.” Make sure to only highlight that file by clicking it once and then click delete on the p2kcommander, a simple hitting of the delete key on your keyboard doesn’t do it for some reason. Once you’ve done that you’re ready to hit the ringtone section of your phone!
To get to the ringtones you want to go to “motorola, shared,” then to “ringtone.” Once there you should be able to see ringtones that you may have already purchased as well as the stock ringtones that came with the phone. By my prefrence I deleted the more bigger stock ringtones (after listening to them to make sure I didn’t want them or they weren’t used for anything specific such as voicemail, recieved text message etc) but you don’t have to.
On the side that you didn’t use to get into your phone — you want to find where you saved the ringtones you made to. Once you’ve got both the ringtone section of your phone open on one side and the place where you saved your newly made ringtones on your computer on the other side, you’re ready to start putting them on your phone.
You can upload more than one ringtone to your phone at a time but I suggest, just for now do it one at a time. Highlight the ringtone you made for your phone simply by clicking once on it and then hit the, “copy,” option located at the bottom of the p2k commander. Once the p2k mobile side refreshes itself and your ringtone is showing in your phones ringtone section — keep your phone hooked into the computer. Go to your ringtones using your phone to see if the one you put on is there and make sure it plays.
If it does, congratulations! You have just uploaded your very own FREE ringtone!!! =) If you made more than just one, go ahead and upload them now. Make sure you check to see if they work! When you’re finished uploading all the songs you want/can, go ahead and unhook your phone and enjoy!
You can also do your photos the same way but I’m not 100% sure on that. I had to figure that out for myself and I’m still unsure of how to explain it, although it’s very similar and I don’t believe you have to delete the MyToneDB.db to do it– so hopefully after all that I just explained to you and you upload a couple of ringtones yourself — you will be able to figure out how to work the rest of it on your own!
Edit, March 14, 2008:
Sendherastar updates:
i forgot to mention that after you put your ringtones on, reboot your phone manually by just turning it off and back on. occasionally the ringtones will reset themselves (not sure why) and the quick fix is just to reboot your phone and reset whatever ringtone you want as your default. sorry to trash up your website with so many posts!! but if you use it in a blog, please note that on there!
Thanks!
Edit, March 28, 2008:
Izzyd has this to say:
Can I make a suggestion on the guide for transferring ring tones. It should be updated to state something to the effect of that process is for use with the VZW .01.19.07 firmware. Reason I say this is on the older firmwares the tones do not go into that folder the write up is specific to that firmware only, however it still works the same way jus ta different folder is all. On the older firmwares they go into the /motorola/shared/audio folder. Oh and as for pics using p2kcomannder on any firmware they can be placed in the /motorola/shared/pictures folder and no file needs to be delete to get them to show up either. On a side note on ringtones as mentioned in the guide the *.wav file does not work because ring tones need to either be mp3, qcp, or mid files.
Disabling EVDO on a Motorola Razr V3m from Verizon
January 19th, 2008If you don’t know what EVDO or CDMA are, my basic understanding is that they are wireless protocols used to transfer data between cell towers and cell phones. EVDO is the higher-speed, but higher power-consuming option. There are two reasons someone would want to disable EVDO: to save a little battery life, and as one of the steps to getting effectively free Internet on a laptop through their phone.
You know to which infrastructure your phone is connected by a symbol at the top of the screen. "EV" means EVDO, while "1X" means CDMA. (I think the 1 also implies the version of CDMA, but that’s over my head.) By default the phone connects to EVDO if it is available, otherwise it will connect to CDMA. The goal of this tutorial is to make the phone prefer CDMA over EVDO. Doing so shouldn’t have any effect on the performance of calls, though downloads through Get it Now would probably be slower.
So let’s get to it!
First, you need to put your phone in debug mode. This is done by typing "##DEBUG" ("##33284") into the phone as if you were making a call. You have to be quick about it. You know that it worked if the final digit, 4, isn’t displayed. Upon typing "##DEBUG", the phone should look like this: 
Now you can get in to the FTS menu. I don’t know what "FTS" stands for, but it allows you to change some settings in the phone that aren’t usually accessible.
To get into the FTS menu, now that you are in debug mode, press "CLR" and then the left soft button. Pressing that combination at any time will get you in and out of the FTS menu. Note that you do not hold "CRL" while pressing the left soft button.
Now press the right soft button ("NEXT") until you arrive at the screen that lists "HDR Pref" on it. 
Now press the down button until "HDR Pref" is selected. Notice that "PREV" and "NEXT" have changed to "EXIT" and "CHANGE". 
Press the right soft button ("CHANGE") until "HDR Pref" is set to "cdma". 
Press the left soft button ("EXIT"). The phone will be unresponsive for about 15 seconds. Eventually the screen will show the FTS screen briefly, display another screen, and then then settle on a final screen. I can only assume this is the phone restarting. 
Now you just have to get out of the FTS menu and disable debug mode.
To get out of the FTS menu, press "CLR" and then the left soft button. Now that you’re back at the home screen, notice that the "EV" symbol at the top of the screen changed to "1X".
The way you get out of debug mode is the same way you got in. Just type ##DEBUG from the home screen. Make sure that debug mode is disabled by pressing "CLR" and then the left soft button. If you don’t see the FTS screen, you’ve done it right.
You’re done.
Internet Anywhere Through My Cell Phone
December 28th, 2007
This image really does represent ultimate sadness for someone (like me) who is addicted to the internet. This icon in the system tray means means that the computer isn’t connected to any network. That means (dare I say it) no internet! I am proud to say, that this icon has no effect on any more. Is this because I’ve kicked the internet habbit? Hell no! I have grown contemptuous of the “no networks” icon, because I can connect my laptop to the internet through my cell phone. It my sound complicated, but the process is actually very straight forward. Here’s what I do:
First, I click on the network icon in the system tray.
Next I click on “Connect to a network”, and I see this window:
Next I click on “Razr Net Access”. and click connect. So I see the next screen.
I wait a few seconds, and that’s it! I have access to internet that, while slow, is still twice as fast as dial-up, and it only costs minutes on my cell phone. The best part is that when calls are free, so is the internet access, meaning “surf’s up” on nights and weekends. Also, while I can not initiate calls, I can still recieve calls normally wile connected.
There. In four clicks I’m connected to the net. How is this possible? Well, it took some initial hacking of my Motorola Razr V3m that I got from Verizon. Some of the steps in setting it up initially can get a little complicated, but since the end result is so elegant (and free) I don’t mind. In a later post I’ll explain how to set this up.
Unlocking a Motorola Razr V3m from Verizon
December 26th, 2007
That Razr that you got from Verizon can do more than you think! With an unlocked Razr you can actually make your own ringtones for free. You can even connect your phone to your laptop and get internet access that only costs minutes, meaning on nights and weekends that is also free. You can also grab photos and videos taken from the phone and transfer them directly to your computer. More over, you can even make a custom wallpapers that you made on the computer or found on the internet. Don’t like that annoying V-Cast animations that play when you turn your phone on or off? Get rid of them! Or better yet, put something there that you made yourself.
There are so many possibilities, but whatever you do, there is definitely one place to start: actually unlocking the phone. Doing that is usually tedious and confusing, but last August I made an “unlocked” settings file to remove the tediousness and a video tutorial to take away the confusion.
Note that this process only works on Motorola Razr V3m phones from Verizon. Also note that unlocking the phone probably voids the warranty. I haven’t heard of this process breaking any phones, but if it does, I’m not liable.
Enjoy!
edit, January 19, 2008:
It seems the server hosting P2K seem edit, hacktherazr.com, is down. P2K Seem Edit is now packaged with the readme file and seem file in the download below.
Verizon Razr V3m Unlocking Kit (Revision 3)
edit, January 29, 2008:
Here’s the list of changes that this process makes, taken directly from the readme.txt file included in the download:
Here’s what changed about your phone:
USB Transfers are enabled.
Dial-Up Networking is enabled.
The orange background on the outside screen is changed to the wallpaper.
The “vibrate then ring” feature is now available.
The “continuous backlight” option is now available.
The “classic”, “continental”, “attention” and “moonlit haze” ringtones are now available.
If you’re curious, you can look up the actual seem edits that were made by cross-referencing this list with this page.
Edit, February 18, 2008:
For those who forgot to make a backup of the default seem, or those who otherwise don’t have access to one, here’s mine: Verizon Razr V3m Default Settings
Note that in principal it is best to use the backup that you made yourself. My backup should work on your phone, though. (Please tell me if you find otherwise.)
Edit, March 10, 2008:
I am declaring comment bankrupsy. It’s too hard to keep up on all the comments, and there are people who are much more knowlegable about this topic than I am. If you have a question, then I recommend that you direct it to the hacking community at http://hacktherazr.com/forum or http://motorola.howardforums.com.
Comments with links to other good sources of information are still appreciated.
Thanks, and happy hacking! 
Edit, March 14, 2008:
An awesome reader explained how to put ringtones on the Razr without buying any software. I put his explaination in this other post. Thanks, Sendherastar!
Edit: March 28, 2008:
Izzyd has this to say:
Heya all, it’s been a while do to some personal matter,but after reading threw some of these posts I’d like to shed some light. For all you folks who have just gotten a VZW v3m things have changed from when it was originally released. With VZW’s new .01.19.07 firmware a lot of stuff from before will not work at all, and other things need to be done in a different manner which is why certain things do not seem to work right. Whatever VZW did in the new firmware has locked us out of things like using MPT to transfer ring tones it just will not happen, another thing is the seem edit for USB transfer on the new firmware is not needed they already have it done for you. I could go one and on but I see there is some confusion and I’ll do what I can to stop by more frequently to point folks in the right direction. One thing plz be specific tho and let us know what carrier you are with and what firmware is on your phone that does make a difference these days, 4 months ago it wouldn’t have mattered, but thx to VZW they threw us for a loop which is why we see so much more confusion now.
Edit: June 27, 2008:
Verizon has closed the back door of using a Razr as a dial-up modem for free internet access. When you try, every webpage you load just gives you a message saying something like “The device is not authorized”.