I switched on my wifi, the loading thingy appeared not more than 1 second and disappeared, no network found... I waited for the loading thingy to appear again to find more networks, it did appear, not more than 1 second again, then no network found...... I've got a 1st gen iPhone and iPod Touch, the 2 work find, they could detect wifi...
my iPhone 1st gen detects fine, but those networks are at very low signal... but could still connect them, and worked fine... no luck for my 3G phone...
I have tried connecting to a stable strong signal with my 1st gen iPhone but never able to do that with my 3G...
I have tried restoring it couple of times, jailbroke it too..... no luck...
What I'm trying to determine is do you have the 1st Gen and the 3G side by side, and the 1st Gen finds a signal and the 3G doesn't. If so, its a hardware problem, and you need to get the 3G replaced. If you're talking about 1st Gen past tense being able to do this while the 3G can't do it now, there might be other problems.