Just bought a secondhand Iphone 3GS

Donie75

Hi,
As the title says, I have just bought a secondhand Iphone 3GS. As far as I know it's unlocked but the guy selling it just said that it can't be used on O2. I'm on Vodafone so that's not an issue. Is there a way of finding out if it's fully unlocked or Jailbroken?
Also, is it possible to reset the iphone and set it up like a new one? I'm sure there must be threads on here with a guide to setting up a used iphone but I can't seem to find them. Any help greatly appreciated.
D

Stuxnet

Donie75 wrote: »

. As far as I know it's unlocked but the guy selling it just said that it can't be used on O2.

:eek:
then its not unlocked ! try using a different sim,
to make it "new" again, restore the phone in itunes, and when asked restore as "new phone"
if its jailbroken you'll see a cydia app on the springboard somewhere
im guessing you didnt buy this from a shop ?

Donie75

No I bought it off ebay.
What are the implications of it being Jailbroken?

phill106

Jailbreaking allows you to install applications not from the app store.

Stuxnet

jailbreak is good...very good !
search for repositories you can add to the cydia for all sort of goodies !!

Donie75

Argh! I think i'm in trouble. I plugged it into itunes and it says it's in recovery mode and has to be restored. When I tried restoring it tells me....

the iphone could not be restored. the device isn't eligible for the requested build.

Is this a major problem???

kjl

donie, please stop before you mess up everything.

if the phone is activated, goto settings->general->about and tell us what software version its on

DO NOT restore with itunes, or you will lose your unlock, and possibly jailbreak.

Do not listen to bobby, you do not have an iphone contract so restoring it may leave u with a bricked phone

Stuxnet

install and run recboot to get it out of recovery mode,

give us more details, did the phone come from ireland ?
its works with vodafone, but not o2, safe to assume, its not unlocked and is a legit vf phone ?

if its a vodafone iphone, he should be able restore and least get 4.01 on it, and activate with his VF sim ?
easy there kj you might burst a vessel, relax

Donie75

Sorry was off line since last night. I checked the software version before I started and it said 3.1.3. The phone now just shows the apple logo when I turn it on and it then shows an itunes logo and a plug telling me to plug it into itunes.
I noticed that the phone had a Cydia icon on the main screen before it locked up. So I guess this means it's jailbroken.
Can anyone guide me through the steps of getting it going again?

Is Recboot safe?

Stuxnet

Donie75 wrote: »

Is Recboot safe?

yes,
just download and install it, run it recboot.exe, and click exit recovery, boom phone will instantly reboot

you might have problems if your running 64bit windows, try do it from a 32 bit machine if you can, you need to be some bit tech savey to get it to work on a x64

randomer

Donie75 wrote: »

As far as I know it's unlocked but the guy selling it just said that it can't be used on O2. I'm on Vodafone so that's not an issue.

When I read this, the first thing I thought was that it was a phone which was reported lost or stolen to O2 for insurance purposes .... That would be a reason why it can't be used on O2.

Donie75

Right I'm on a 32 bit XP Home Edition PC. I've downloaded Recboot but I'm having difficulty using it. When I extract the files from the zip file I justget loads of odd files and no instruction...

guil

Donie75 wrote: »

Right I'm on a 32 bit XP Home Edition PC. I've downloaded Recboot but I'm having difficulty using it. When I extract the files from the zip file I justget loads of odd files and no instruction...

Look for autorun or install or setup

Donie75

Hi,
I'm currently downloading and installing .Net Framework. Apparently I need this.

The readme file says the following...

Make sure that you put the iTunesMobileDevice.dll in the RecBoot folder!
USE THIS VERSION OF ITUNESMOBILEDEVICE.DLL http://www.sendspace.com/file/6xu1oy

Does this mean I download the .dll file and just copy it into the folder created when I unzipped the files

Stuxnet

yes, follow the instructions, you'll have a recboot.exe in with a few other files, from the unzipped folder

Donie75

It doesn't seem to be working.
I have recboot.exe extracted.
I have .net farmework installed.
I have copied the itunesmobiledevice.dll file into the recboot folder where the exe file is stored.
When I run the .exe it starts up. When I press either button it opens a C:/ and this page is blank.
Am I missing something???

elvisn

BOBBY wrote: »

yes,
just download and install it, run it recboot.exe, and click exit recovery, boom phone will instantly reboot

you might have problems if your running 64bit windows, try do it from a 32 bit machine if you can, you need to be some bit tech savey to get it to work on a x64

eh no you dont have to be tech savy, just right click and run as administrator,. or if that fails, right click go to properties, and choose to run it in xp mode instead,. then bam, you are sorted,.

Donie75

Sorry for sounding like a numpty but I've only ever used my laptop logged in as me. I've never used in admin mode. When I try to chose to run it in XP mode it doesn't offer me that option. Probably because I'm already running XP.

Stuxnet

elvisn wrote: »

eh no you dont have to be tech savy, just right click and run as administrator,. or if that fails, right click go to properties, and choose to run it in xp mode instead,. then bam, you are sorted,.

not if you dont have libusb installed, thats where it gets tricky friend
its a very well documented x64 problem, can kill your drivers on your machine, so be-careful

Donie75

I have installed Libusb. But still nothing.
Does it matter what version and where it is located?

Donie75

Right I'm still stuck. I updated my itunes to the latest version and I tried restoring it again. It is now asking me to update to 4.0.1.
Should I do this??? Or will this mess it up even further?

Stuxnet

you cant downgrade or restore to an old firmware with itunes 9,2 you need 9.1 or less, & hope the phone has its blobs sayed on the cydia server...you can get from an archive site like filehippo


you can update to 4.01 with itunes 9.2, but you will have to wait for a new jailbreak, which shouldnt be too long,
only update if your sure the phone wasnt software unlocked, i dont think it was tbh

your kind of lost if you dont mind me saying, i'd update if i were you, get the phone working again and enjoy it,
you can always re-jailbreak when the time comes

guil

is it possible like another poster pointed out, that the phone might be stolen and now that it was connected to itunes is now fooked

Donie75

Right, I went ahead and updated to 4.0.1 and when I put my vodafone sim in it said it was locked. So i did some more looking around online and it tells me that it can now be jailbroken on Sn0wbreeze. Then it can be unlocked using Ultrasn0w 0.93. So i started the process last night but I'm having trouble finding the .ipsw firmware file that I downloaded. I can only find a similarly sized .dll file in the zip folder.
Has anyone been thru this process?

phill106

It should be in C:Users\"username"\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates

Or you can download them from umpteen million sites

kjl

Donie75 wrote: »

Right, I went ahead and updated to 4.0.1 and when I put my vodafone sim in it said it was locked. So i did some more looking around online and it tells me that it can now be jailbroken on Sn0wbreeze. Then it can be unlocked using Ultrasn0w 0.93. So i started the process last night but I'm having trouble finding the .ipsw firmware file that I downloaded. I can only find a similarly sized .dll file in the zip folder.
Has anyone been thru this process?

you're boned I told you not to do anything more. Who told you to update to 4.0.1? You only hope if that you have the shsh blobs backed up on saurik's server. Currently you phone is unactivated with no means of activating it.

@BOBBY, shame on you sir, you have just given this poor chap the worst advice ever.

guil

kjl wrote: »

you're boned I told you not to do anything more. Who told you to update to 4.0.1? You only hope if that you have the shsh blobs backed up on saurik's server. Currently you phone is unactivated with no means of activating it.

@BOBBY, shame on you sir, you have just given this poor chap the worst advice ever.

ur some man getting ur knickers in a twist over somethin stupid, how did bobby give bad advice, he told him he'd have to wait for a new jb

kjl

guil wrote: »

ur some man getting ur knickers in a twist over somethin stupid, how did bobby give bad advice, he told him he'd have to wait for a new jb

he didn't need to. plus, even when the new spirit comes out, how is he going to activate it.

I just feel people should not give jailbreak advice when they don't know about it.

Jimmy Bottlehead

OP, if I were you I'd be looking to return this as it's more hassle than it's worth... I would assume if it's a stolen or missing phone PayPal will cover you.

Makes me glad I paid a little extra to have mine unlocked officially.... :-/

guil

its not the people giving bad advice, its the users searchin on google and then usin the wrong tools or programs, my friend tried to jb his ipod and then he couldnt ever turn it on, i had to restore it for him

Stuxnet

kjl wrote: »

@BOBBY, shame on you sir, you have just given this poor chap the worst advice ever.

BOBBY wrote: »

but you will have to wait for a new jailbreak, which shouldnt be too long,
only update if your sure the phone wasnt software unlocked,
you can always re-jailbreak when the time comes

kjl

BOBBY wrote: »

your kind of lost if you dont mind me saying, i'd update if i were you, get the phone working again and enjoy it,
you can always re-jailbreak when the time comes

apart from the atrocious grammar here is the point in which you advised him to upgrade to 4.0.1

guil

kjl wrote: »

apart from the atrocious grammar here is the point in which you advised him to upgrade to 4.0.1

whats the point in quoting half the post, he clearly said dont upgrade if its software unlocked

kjl

Guil, throughout this whole thread he has given terrible advice, at one point he was giving advice for a 3g not a 3gs. Then his final statement was that if it was up to him he would upgrade. That was the worst thing he could have done.

He said it was unlocked at 3.1.3, this mean he had the old bootrom and previously pwn'd device. All he had to do was download a custom 4.0.1 ipsw file and restore and it would have automatically activated for him.

But no, bobby decided to give him what he would do in his opinion and messed him up. He now has the new bootrom and he has no means of activating his phone. Basically he is bricked until the dev team release a hactivation tool for 4.0.

Guil, you are guilty of this too, I seen post here by you in which you have given comply wrong advice.

Rule of thumb people, if you are unsure about anything jailbreak related DO NOT UPDATE YOUR FIRMWARE THROUGH ITUNES.

vinnycoyne

Tone it down, please.

Donie75

Hi all. I'm just getting back online now as I was away last night. It appears that I have been a bit over-enthuasiastic and gone ahead and updated.
So I now have a 3GS on 4.0.1 with the new bootrom. I thought my bootrom would remain the same and i'd be okay. I guess I'll just have to wait or send back the phone but i might not get a refund now that it's updated.
If I do wait to JB & unlock will I be able to activate with my regular sim? Am I likely to have problems with the phone and will I be able to use iTunes & Apps?

Thanks for all the info.

D

Jumpy

bootrom would have only remained the same if you had used a custom firmware that you either created or downloaded from an alternate source.
The default itunes update will update the bootrom as well. Do you know what provider it is locked to? You can possibly follow their rules in regards to getting a factory unlock.

If its o2 you need to either have had the phone on billpay for a certain length of time or have put a certain amount of credit into a pay as you go. I am not certain of the exact amount.
If its not Irish, then I dunno. You have a bricked phone that you will need to wait on.

whiterebel

Jumpy wrote: »

bootrom would have only remained the same if you had used a custom firmware that you either created or downloaded from an alternate source.
The default itunes update will update the bootrom as well. Do you know what provider it is locked to? You can possibly follow their rules in regards to getting a factory unlock.

If its o2 you need to either have had the phone on billpay for a certain length of time or have put a certain amount of credit into a pay as you go. I am not certain of the exact amount.
If its not Irish, then I dunno. You have a bricked phone that you will need to wait on.

With O2 - once you are in contract, or have spent €150 on PAYG

Jumpy

^ what whiterebel said

Jumpy

iPhone updating at first is a huge load of WTF. There are so many terms to learn, plus learning about custom firmware, bootroms etc. Its probably better if you are not a super fast learner or a problem solver to stick with android. Although the rewards are nice once you finally figure it out. But you have to get it right the first time or it will cost you.

Keano!

when can we JB the 4.0.1 OS???

kjl

OK, well you know its not a vodafone iPhone, now what you will need to do is find out which provider it belonged to and get a PAYG sim for it to activate it.

Once activated you will be able to use the new spirit jailbreak and ultrasn0w unlock to unlock and jailbreak the phone.

You might still be able to do something in the mean time, if the previous owner was anyway learned about he phone he would have backed up his shsh blobs on saurik server, this would alow us to restore it back to 3.1.2 and get you an unlock from there. You would still need to wait to update it to 4.0.1

If you are in the Dublin area PM for contact details and I can help you out.

kjl

Keano! wrote: »

when can we JB the 4.0.1 OS???

TBA

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/
http://twitter.com/iphone_dev
http://twitter.com/musclenerd

kjl

actually I just did a bit more research for you there, you can not restore to a previous baseband even with shsh blobs on file. So you will just have to wait, in the mean time try and get a sim card to activate the phone with 4.0.1, at least you can use it as an ipod for a while, and this will be the only way to fix it at this point when the jailbreak is out.

Check out the above links and post again when they say its out and I will give you the correct instructions.

GL

Keano!

kjl wrote: »

TBA

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/
http://twitter.com/iphone_dev
http://twitter.com/musclenerd

Thanks

So just keep my eye on those three links to know when its out?

freeze4real

Donie75 wrote: »

Hi all. I'm just getting back online now as I was away last night. It appears that I have been a bit over-enthuasiastic and gone ahead and updated.
So I now have a 3GS on 4.0.1 with the new bootrom. I thought my bootrom would remain the same and i'd be okay. I guess I'll just have to wait or send back the phone but i might not get a refund now that it's updated.
If I do wait to JB & unlock will I be able to activate with my regular sim? Am I likely to have problems with the phone and will I be able to use iTunes & Apps?

Thanks for all the info.

D

why do you wanna send it back.
its more hassle.
just spend 20e go to town and it would get unlocked.
thats what happened to mine.

2nd option go on ebay buy the sim that the phone uses. then unlock it.

if youre using redsn0w use the lates version 0.9.5-5 i thinks thats the latest version.
it should work.

3rd option sell it on ebay.
i assure you would get 10 percent extra of how much you bought it.

good luck

kjl

freeze4real wrote: »

why do you wanna send it back.
its more hassle.
just spend 20e go to town and it would get unlocked.
thats what happened to mine.

2nd option go on ebay buy the sim that the phone uses. then unlock it.

if youre using redsn0w use the lates version 0.9.5-5 i thinks thats the latest version.
it should work.

3rd option sell it on ebay.
i assure you would get 10 percent extra of how much you bought it.

good luck

1st option: he can't, there is no unlock available.
2nd option: you cant unlock it with a sim card, you can only activate it, and redsn0w has not been released for 4.0
3rd option: well if that is the case I might as well quit my job and become an ebay seller, with assurace like that

I know you are only trying to help mate, but you are just giving wrong info

freeze4real

kjl wrote: »

1st option: he can't, there is no unlock available.
2nd option: you cant unlock it with a sim card, you can only activate it, and redsn0w has not been released for 4.0
3rd option: well if that is the case I might as well quit my job and become an ebay seller, with assurace like that

I know you are only trying to help mate, but you are just giving wrong info

dude with the real sim card yopu can activate it and then unlock it.

my iphone 3g was unlocked.
it was on the ios4 software.
redsn0w works on ios4.01.
i've unlocked my brotherss iphonbe.

And why would you job.

its unreasonable.
if you want to be a powerseller okay but if youre a personal seller its no source of income.

guil

theres a major difference there, you have a 3g the op has a 3gs