Help galaxy s4 motherboard swap.?

[johnnyazombie]

I was wondering if the galaxy s4 model sch-r970s motherboard be switched out for the gt i9505? Will it fit correctly in the housing.?

 

[lotus49]

I'm afraid that I cannot answer your question but I am curious as to why on earth anyone would want to do this. Please enlighten me.

 

[johnnyazombie]

I have the us cellular s4 that cant be unlocked.. I couldnt find flashes and things like that so I was wondering if you swiitched it out would it just completely change the carrier.. I dont know much on that but if you know anyway to unlock us cellular or any other solutions.. or if what in saying isnt correct at all..

 

[lotus49]

I have the us cellular s4 that cant be unlocked.. I couldnt find flashes and things like that so I was wondering if you swiitched it out would it just completely change the carrier.. I dont know much on that but if you know anyway to unlock us cellular or any other solutions.. or if what in saying isnt correct at all..

I am surprised to hear that there is an S4 that cannot be unlocked but network locks are a software issue not hardware.

Added to which, replacing the motherboard would be very expensive. There has surely got to be a better solution than that.

 

[lotus49]

According to this U.S. Cellular Galaxy S4 Bootloader Confirmed Unlocked the US Cellular S4 has an unlocked bootloader. That being the case you should be able to install a 3rd party ROM and do what you like with your phone.

What makes you think it isn't possible to network unlock your phone? I'm not saying you are definitely wrong but I'm sceptical about this.

 

[johnnyazombie]

Well I was going to unlock it.. then when getting imei number it wasnt long enough and i did research, saw that the sch-r970 couldnt be unlocked.. but this bootloader where can I learn more.?

 

[lotus49]

Well I was going to unlock it.. then when getting imei number it wasnt long enough and i did research, saw that the sch-r970 couldnt be unlocked.. but this bootloader where can I learn more.?

Try asking in the root sub-forum here.

You can find some of the information you need here http://galaxys4root.com/clockworkmodtwrp-recoveries/. This relates to replacing the bootloader with TWRP. Once you have done that, installing a 3rd party ROM is relatively straightforward.

There is also a guide here for the sch-r970 http://androidforums.com/us-cellular/742521-i-found-root-method-recovery-s4.html but for some reason this isn't in the S4 forum.

Installing 3rd party ROMs on phones isn't a trivial thing to do, but it's free and easier than replacing the motherboard by some margin.

Good luck.