Help! iPhone 3GS Bricked.

2BT

Hi,

I was hoping someone might be able to help me.

My Dad had an iPhone 3GS 16GB. Think he got it back in late 2009 or early 2010. Anyway, after he upgraded to an iPhone 4S he wanted to loan it to someone who broke their phone. He requested an unlock from Vodafone and even though they said it was done it never came up as being done when restored via iTunes.

So my Mam brought it to a phone shop looking for it to be unlocked. The guy charged €40 and it never seemed to be unlocked. So it wouldnt work and was acting funny so I did a restore on it.

Recently someone else broke their phone and I tried again to get it working. I put a Vodafone sim in and it will not activate. Just says 'Searching...' or 'No Service' up in the top corner and will not recognize that there is a sim card present either on the phone or via iTunes, so I cannot activate the phone.

Requested another unlock from Vodafone and got an email to say its done, but even after a restore its not displaying a message to say the phone is unlocked and still wont activate using either a Vodafone or 3 sim card.

The phone as I said is a 3GS and is running off 5.1.1 at the moment with a baseband of 06.15.00. Would I be right to think that the guy in the phone shop upgraded the phone to the iPad baseband and broke the radio in the phone rendering it useless?

Why would he have done this? Could he not have just jailbroke the phone and unlocked using ultrasnow?

The only way I could get the phone to come on is by jailbreaking it again using Redsnow, but even then the iMessage function will not come on using Wifi. At this stage it cant even be used as an iPod touch.

Any ideas anyone? Is it gone beyond repair?

I have an iPhone 4 myself and its jailbroken and I know my way around a bit, but I get lost when it comes to SHSH Blobs and how to downgrade and using Tiny Umbrella etc. Also read something somewhere re host file on Windows machine. Im using Windows 7.

All help greatly appreciated and step by step if possible.

Cheers...

Giblet

Some basebands could not be unlocked, so it was upgraded to 6.15.00 which still had the vulnerability and because it was a higher number, it wasn't overwritten by newer updates.
This base band causes issues though, from no gps to no battery life.
Downgrade it and see if it fixes it.
Start here http://www.ijailbreak.com/how-to/downgrade-06-15-00-05-13-04-iphone-3gs-3g-redsn0w-0-9-14b1-windows/

2BT

Giblet wrote: »

Some basebands could not be unlocked, so it was upgraded to 6.15.00 which still had the vulnerability and because it was a higher number, it wasn't overwritten by newer updates.
This base band causes issues though, from no gps to no battery life.
Downgrade it and see if it fixes it.
Start here http://www.ijailbreak.com/how-to/downgrade-06-15-00-05-13-04-iphone-3gs-3g-redsn0w-0-9-14b1-windows/

Cheers for your reply. I tried that last night a few times and I just kept getting the error message - "The Device connected does not support untethered options".

Wasn't sure where to go from there. Lost cause?

WillyFXP

Can your Dad not just contact vodafone again and tell them its still locked? All you need to do to get the phone back to working, with a vodafone SIM at least, is do a full clean restore.

WillyFXP

WillyFXP wrote: »

Can your Dad not just contact vodafone again and tell them its still locked? All you need to do to get the phone back to working, with a vodafone SIM at least, is do a full clean restore.

As long as the iPad baseband is on there a clean restore isn't possible.

WillyFXP

Karsini wrote: »

As long as the iPad baseband is on there a clean restore isn't possible.

lol of course it is.

You sure of that? Anything I've read has suggested you must put the phone into pwned DFU mode as a normal restore via iTunes won't work on 06.15.00.

massy086

everything is fixable never seen a bricked iphone i,v always beeen able to bring them back to life.if you ar in dublin op send me a pm

2BT

Initially I couldn't do a restore via iTunes. I couldnt activate the phone & the only message iTunes was giving me was that it couldn't detect a Sim.

After jailbreaking via Redsnow I was getting the option to do a full restore via iTunes, but it wasn't telling me that the phone was unlocked as it should upon completion. And even with a Vodafone sim all I was getting was 'Searching...' OR 'No Service' so I was assuming the radio is knackered.

Tried downgrading baseband only to get error mentioned above (Post #3) and after some messing around I can't even do a restore now. Throwing up various errors i.e Error 21 etc. in iTunes.

I am in Dublin though.

WillyFXP

Did you put it into recovery mode before trying to restore? Are you using the latest version of itunes? Have you double checked its the correct IPSW you are trying to restore from? What iOS version are you using to recover it?

2BT

WillyFXP wrote: »

Did you put it into recovery mode before trying to restore? Are you using the latest version of itunes? Have you double checked its the correct IPSW you are trying to restore from? What iOS version are you using to recover it?

Yeah, its saying iTunes detects a phone in recovery mode that will need to be restored. It starts the process but then gives various errors.

I wasn't initially using the latest iTunes, but then downloaded it. In fact Im 99% sure that the restore i did manage initially from the JB was using an older iTunes.

I tried the restore by just clicking 'restore' and letting iTunes work away itself and i also tried using 'shift' when pressing restore and manually choosing the 5.1.1 IPSW i had downloaded earlier.

Not sure what your last question means (unless my last sentence above answers it).

guil

the restore will fail all the time because the ipad baseband is installed, download sn0wbreeze and then ''cook'' the ipsw and then shift restore in itunes again and pick the ipsw that sn0wbreeze created, you can do the same with redsn0w. just click extras and then custom ipsw

you can also use redsn0w to downgrade the ipad baseband http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ but make sure you read all the warnings

2BT

guil wrote: »

the restore will fail all the time because the ipad baseband is installed, download sn0wbreeze and then ''cook'' the ipsw and then shift restore in itunes again and pick the ipsw that sn0wbreeze created, you can do the same with redsn0w. just click extras and then custom ipsw

Beyond jailbreaking an iPhone & using Cydia to install certain packages I wouldnt be overly knowledgable. Is there any step-by-step guides anywhere as to what I need to do? Never heard the expression "cook" and IPSW before, or used sn0wbreeze, just redsnow and absinthe for jailbreaking purposes.

Appreciate the responses.

guil

Ok, if the phone isn't turning on at all download the latest redsn0w and run it, click extras and then custom IPSW. It will ask you to locate the ipsw you want to modify so find 5.1.1. Let it do its thing and then click extras and then even more, click on restore at the bottom and it will guide you through the process and then follow the next step

If the phone is turning on click on jailbreak and wait for redsn0w to identify the iphone, click on downgrade from ipad bb and i think it will tell you to turn off the phone to proceed

kjl

WillyFXP wrote: »

lol of course it is.

it is, but not of course, the baseband only recently became re-storable.


At OP. can you please go to setting->general->about and tell us what the baseband version is

2BT

kjl wrote: »

it is, but not of course, the baseband only recently became re-storable.


At OP. can you please go to setting->general->about and tell us what the baseband version is

When I do a restore via iTunes I dont get a message saying the phone is unlocked. I am also unable to activate the phone either using Wifi or Itunes. It just wont go past the activation stage. While in the activation stage I can just see 'Searching...' or 'No Service' up in the corner. The phone and iTunes tell me they cant detect a sim card.

If I jailbreak using redsnow I can then activate the phone, but again no coverage when I do and I cant even use iMessage using Wifi.

When I try to downgrade the baseband using redsnow (after choosing 5.1.1 as the ISPW) it gives me the error that the phone does not support tethered options, whatever that means.

The phone is an iPhone 3GS:-

Version: 5.1.1 (9B206)
Model: MC131B
ICCID: No Sim
Modem Firmware: 06.15.00

I downloaded Sn0wbreeze and it detected that the phone is New Bootroom.

I got as far as the part where it asks what I want to do, i.e iFaith Mode, Simple Mode, Expert Mode & Baseband Preservation Mode. So what do I do there? I tried iFaith mode and it was letting me browse for an SHSH file, but I dont have one and dont know which one to get.

Anymore suggestions?

Appreciate the help.

Apologies if I come across as an iPhone retard.

guil

Use redsn0w to downgrade the baseband to 05.13.04 just click jailbreak and it after it tells you how to DFU you can select downgrade baseband. After its finished no a normal restore in iTunes again and the message will come up that it's unlocked

Did iTunes give any errors after the restore. A normal restore cant work because of the iPad baseband

2BT

guil wrote: »

Use redsn0w to downgrade the baseband to 05.13.04 just click jailbreak and it after it tells you how to DFU you can select downgrade baseband. After its finished no a normal restore in iTunes again and the message will come up that it's unlocked

Did iTunes give any errors after the restore. A normal restore cant work because of the iPad baseband

Last week iTunes was throwing various errors at me doing normal restore but it worked last night, however it DIDNT tell me the phone was unlocked after the restore and i still cant activate the phone as its saying there is no sim.

I cant downgrade the baseband using redsnow as anytime I choose the downgrade baseband option i get the error that "this device does not support tethered options".

2BT

massy086 wrote: »

everything is fixable never seen a bricked iphone i,v always beeen able to bring them back to life.if you ar in dublin op send me a pm

Big shout out to Massy086 who fixed the iPhone 3GS today.

Was done in no time and very reasonably priced. Fair play to him.

Would defo recommend folks.

whiterebel

2BT wrote: »

Big shout out to Massy086 who fixed the iPhone 3GS today.

Was done in no time and very reasonably priced. Fair play to him.

Would defo recommend folks.

Stick his name on here so.......repair thread

2BT

whiterebel wrote: »

Stick his name on here so.......repair thread

Done!