GThing needs to be given the correct port to connect on. This port is different from the port that the LG Phone Manager connects on. Most often this port is two less than the LG Phone Manager port. For example, if you connect to your phone on COM5 using LG Phone manager then GThing will probably use COM3. If this does not work then try a different port as long as it has a '#' next to it.

It may seem you have the correct port because GThing tries to connect but when you connect you get an error message "Failed to get IMEI number or this copy of GThing is not licenced for use with this phone.". This error message may also be displayed if the com port is wrong.

GThing does not work with all phone-computer combinations. GThing tends to have trouble with laptops and does not work with the LG u8150. In this case there is little you can do to fix the connection problem.

This error occurs on any of three conditions:

• The IMEI number entered into the download page is not the same number of your phone or you are using someone elses copy of GThing which will not work with your phone. Fix this by downloading a copy of GThing for your specific IMEI.
• The IMEI number could not be read back from the phone. This is likely to do with the computer you are using GThing from. Some phones also do not report the IMEI correctly. This MAY be fixed by first connecting to your phone with the LG Phone Manager and then trying GThing again. The LG Phone Manager seems to leave the phone in a more friendly state for communication.
• If you are using the u880 try these steps:
  • Check that the dial-up modem function is set to USB. This can be done by going into MENU-Tools-Connectivity-Dialup network.
  • Turn your phone off and on again.
  • Unplug and plug your phone back into the USB connector.
• You are using the wrong com port. See the previous question

To stop auto connection you can either strat GThing before you plug your phone in to you computer or activate IR, or you can put a file named no_autoconnect in your GThing folder and GThing will never try to auto connect.

This occurs seemingly at random but can be fixed by connecting to you phone with the LG Phone Manager before connecting with GThing

In the past GThing was abused so a copy protection mechanism was invented to ensure downloaded copies could not easily be distributed. The copy protection is implented by locking GThing to a specific handset and since each handset has a unique identifier, its IMEI, this seems a reasonable approach

Supporting new phones is largely due to donations. Consider a donation

You should only replace files in the custom section with files of the same type. The phone is expecting these files to be certain types and there is no know way to change this.

There are a number of free Java MIDlet sites on the internet. Try http://www.midlet.org as a start. This site also has access to some non-free games but they require a fee. Do not ask me for games. A Large majority of the games available for phones are not free.

Save games will only work if when you install the java game you install it over the top of one that was dowloaded over the air. So to get save games working you have to download a game using your phones browser (NOTE: downloading games from your service provider may incur a charge). Then when you install the real game you want to play with GThing, simply drag it on top of the game you downloaded with your phones browser. You can overwrite a browser downloaded game as many times as you wish

An alternate method to get save games working is to follow this key sequence from your phones home screen. MENU, then 5, then 3, then enter 3698#*#. In the menu that has become visible you need to toggle so cur is enabled, delete all, and create, and make a few folders. Each folder will hold the save information for one game so if you intend on installing 30 games then you should make 30 folders.

GThing will create RMS entries on the u8360, u8380, u880 and above so the tricks here are not needed on those phones.

No.

A black screen is a crash. This can occur if you try to fill your phone beyond its capacity or when there is a communication error. After a black screen you will notice you have multiple copies of each SMS in your inbox. To resolve this problem simply turn your phone off and on again.

The nokia emulation layer in GThing tries to implement the graphical transformations on nokia series phones. This is not a complete implementation thus some graphics will not look correct. There is also a problem being that different LG u8XXX series phones handle graphics transforms differently. The emulation layer is most correct on newer phones as they conform to the Java MIDP 2.0 specification to a greater extent.

The Nokia emulation layer implements playing of WAV and TONE sounds. Playing WAV sounds fails on some older LG u8XXX phones and thus no sound is heard at all. On some newer phones this is partially fixed but only the first sound played will be heard. Sound support in java games is a general problem for LG u8XXX phones thus the emulation layer will experience the same problems.

The LG u8xxx series phones has a screen size of 176 x 220. Java games that use less than this will play in a smaller window. This is usually a result of the game you installed being for a phone with a smaller screen size. If you want your games to be fullscreen then you should find games that are intended for phones with similar screen sizes. An incomplete list is shown below. Also note that games designed for other phones may not work but in most cases they do.

• Sony Ericsson Z1010
• Sony Ericsson k600
• Sony Ericsson k700
• Sony Ericsson k750
• Sony Ericsson z800
• Sony Ericsson w600
• Nokia 3650
• Nokia 6600
• Nokia 6680
• Nokia 6681
• Nokia 6682
• Motorola V980

Use GThingTest found on the GThing main web page to find out what Model your phone is calling itself. Email this information to ryanunfnet and it will be added to the supported list.

You can't

The communication library used to connect to the phone in GThing is avilable under a LGPL license and available from http://libgthing.sourceforge.net/. Several people have expressed interest in ports but this is an exercise left for the reader.

GThing uses the same communication method as the LG Phone Manager. This makes GThing fairy safe. You can however do things you phone does not expect, for example replace a "Custom" midi file with an mp3 or other. If you try to fit more on to your phone than is possible you may see a black screen during the transfer. Refer to the "Black Screen" question.