iPhone 3g FW 3.1.3 can't upgrade to 4.2.1

[trinitylively]

I moved out of the country and brought my AT&T phone with me. Turned off the service and jailbroke/unlocked it using Pwnagetool. Everything worked great until i dropped my phone and had to send it back to the states to get repaid.. Because I couldn't turn it off the battery drained and when i got it back i had the "connect to itunes" screen of death!

I connected it to iTunes and kept getting the "error 1015" I was in no way trying to downgrade my FW. I did some online searching and found that I could restore the phone back to FW 3.1.3 and used RecBoot to kick it out of recovery mode after 3.1.3 was installed.

Now I'm trying to upgrade back to something higher then 3.1.3 and nothing is working. I've spend hours on the phone with Apple who keep telling me to "try another computer" (did same stupid error 1015), create a new account (once again 1015) or send it back to the states and have Apple fix it (that's not an option, with shipping it'd be cheaper to buy a new phone)

So here I am stuck with an unlocked un-jailbroken iPhone 3g with FW 3.1.3 and the modem firmware at 06.15.00. I've been reading and apparently that is the ipad FW that i jail broke to... I'm assuming this is where i keep getting the dreaded code 1015 from?

if anyone can walk me through how to fix this POS i'd be extremely grateful! I'm not too tech savvy, but I can try to keep up if you use specifics in what i'm doing. I'm also using Max OS X 10.6.6

thanks!

[iYeow]

Use Pwnage tools 4.2 or Snowbreeze 2.2.1 from iH8sn0w.com | Jailbreak your iPod touches and iPhones to create a custom firmware of 4.2.1 and restore to it.

[trinitylively]

I tried to use Pwnage tool 4.1.3 and got the lovely guy speaking Russian? anyways, so I found pwnage tool 3.1.5 and got it to jailbreak but it's still in 3.1.3 and bb 6.15 (crap!) I did try to unlock using Blackra1n through Cydia, but that just locked it up again. So once again this morning i Jail broke it using 3.1.3.

I'm ok with using 3.1.3, i just miss the folders. I'll try to use the 4.2 version of Pwnage and see if that gets me anywhere.

thanks!

[iYeow]

If you are using windows to restore custom firmware created by Pwnage tools 4.2 of iOS 4.2.1, you need to run redsn0w 0.9.6RC8, browse to stock 4.2.1 and check only DFU mode . Then once your iphone is in DFU mode, open up itunes, shift + restore to cfw of 4,2,1 made by PT 4.2, this should work.

Frankly speaking, 3g iphones run best at 3.1.3 not IOS as there is no enough of RAM and Speed to run IOS 4.xx

[trinitylively]

I'm using a mac... I agree that they run best on 3.1.3. I never had any issues with the phone until 4 came out. I dealt with Apple for a long time, they just told me "a fix was in the works". If it weren't for the folders I'd be very happy with 3.1.3. I think Ive got a bit of OCD about having 4 pages of apps!

I got it to update to 4.2.1! Yey!!! Now I'm just wondering if anyone has any suggestions for unlocking it? Blackra1n crashed and burned the first time on 3.1.3....

It's all done, running on 4.2.1, bb 6.15... unlocked to the carrier here overseas thanks for your help!!