surefire iphone 3G swap @ genius bar

[disisgustavo]

i have a 2G 16 gig iphone i wanna sell on ebay but it has a line of dead pixels at the top that just keeps on growing. I got the phone off craigslist a little less than 2 years ago and the guy i bought it from said he got it a few months before. Would apple do a swap on it now or have they fully stopped supporting iphone 2gs?

[reeko]

what do you mean by exterior?
thanks
and to the above poster, yes i think you can.

By exterior i mean the toggle switch you use on the left side of the phone to put it into silent mode. On the inside, a tiny black bit of plastic inserts into the toggle. If you turn it to silent, hold a terminal flat head on the black bit of plastic and then turn it from silent to loud it should dislodge the black plastic bit. The toggle will then not work.

This cant be fixed *easily* (meaning they will not carry this out in store) without removing the mainboard, thus voiding the warranty.

I dont have a spare phone to dissect at the moment but when i get another one ill try and put up some pictures.

[Poseidon79]

I've gotten 2 swapped out just complaining about the battery only lasting half a day under normal use and the phone freezing and becoming unresponsive all the time even after multiple restores. You have to tell them something they CAN'T test for. They won't call you a liar and send you away... they just have to take your word for it.

[imaliar793]

^^no , don't downgrade iTunes , stay on the latest iTunes, the point is to upgrade to 3.1 and the try and restore 3.0, the phone will not downgrade from 3.1 so u get an error and stay in recovery mode unless u go back to 3.1 , and since u are bringing it to the apple store and they don't have 3.1 yet out of beta, they will try and restore to 3.0 and can't unless they donwgrade their iTunes which won't happen. So they just restore until they get an error and then give u a new phone

won't they be able to tell that it is 3.1? Or does putting it in dfu mode hide that? And also, do I need a developer account to update to 3.1 (I already have 3.1 but not a dev account)

[lunercrab]

i'm curious, i bought my phone used back in oct, and IMO the battery life sucks, i barely use my phone, few calls, some very light web surfing and i can't even get it to last 12hours on a full charge, i mean to me that seems bad although i am jb and unlocked...now it was bought new i guess when the 3g came out last july, can i return it under warrenty even if i'm not the original owner? i don't have att, i'm using tmobile...but if i restore it and take it in, even if i had to pay the 80 battery replacement fee, would they give me a hard time since i don't have att and not the original owner?

[southfour]

I took my 3G to the genius bar and told them that sometimes when i charge it it goes to fully charged instantly and only starts charging when the battery is almost dead. The guy said ok im going to replace your phone. He didnt even turn it on. I dont know if this would work for everyone.

Another suggestion is using a screwdriver or something make small cracks in the back cover on the edge of the dock connector. Even if it is just a minor crack they will replace it.

And go into the store on a really busy day, this makes things work better.

[blkcadi]

I've gotten 2 swapped out just complaining about the battery only lasting half a day under normal use and the phone freezing and becoming unresponsive all the time even after multiple restores. You have to tell them something they CAN'T test for. They won't call you a liar and send you away... they just have to take your word for it.

^ This makes sense to me, I think we have a winner!

[imaliar793]

^^no , don't downgrade iTunes , stay on the latest iTunes, the point is to upgrade to 3.1 and the try and restore 3.0, the phone will not downgrade from 3.1 so u get an error and stay in recovery mode unless u go back to 3.1 , and since u are bringing it to the apple store and they don't have 3.1 yet out of beta, they will try and restore to 3.0 and can't unless they donwgrade their iTunes which won't happen. So they just restore until they get an error and then give u a new phone

ok i just tried this and it was nopt successful
i was still able to downgrade from the 3.1 beta to 3.0
are u sure you didnt forget to tell me something?

[Crana]

I've gotten 2 swapped out just complaining about the battery only lasting half a day under normal use and the phone freezing and becoming unresponsive all the time even after multiple restores. You have to tell them something they CAN'T test for. They won't call you a liar and send you away... they just have to take your word for it.

+1 for that! Much simpler way of going about this

Anyone know what Apple's rules are for dead pixels? I think I noticed one earlier on my phone.

[imaliar793]

Ok well I have an iPod touch, not an iPhone
what is some legitimate problem (prefferably software) that I can cause so I can get a replacement
I have some dust under my screen, but my local apple store genius bar won't replace anything unless it effects the iPod drastically (for ex, software problems) what can I do to get my2g iTouch replaced?

[StealthBravo]

I say you put it in the microwave for 2 minutes and then take the melted piece of crap to the Apple store and tell them it burst into flames while charging

[blkcadi]

^ lmao, yeah that'll work

[dannewguy]

i am a registered t-mobile user but i have restored the phone back to factory settings...

will they even look at the phone if you dont have a AT&T simcard in it?

anyone heard of anything with this?

[Melech518]

A couple things I do: I am on T-mobile, so I place an At&t sim in the phone before going to apple. I let the Genius know I am in a hurry to catch a plane and I really need to get my phone working again(never hint at a replacement). I also tell them after I do get a replacement that I have to hurry to the airport and I will activate it myself at the airport.

Now, this might not work for everyone to get a replacement but it has always worked for me. I like to take off the digitizer/lcd and unplug cable #2 and put the phone back together again. It makes my digitizer unresponsive to touch. I have gotten 4-5 replacements this way. Now the trick I have found is finding a very busy apple store in your area. These stores do not have the time to take the phone apart and check everything. The stores I go to for example are the Apple store on Lincoln Rd.(South Beach) in Miami, and the 5th Ave Apple store in New York.

The good thing is you are not doing any permanent damage to your phone. If they do take the phone apart and discover the problem, they will just plug the cable back in and your phone still works, then you try again at a different Apple store....

[StealthBravo]

^ I prefer to destroy it That way you are forced to buy one if your plot doesn't go down right

[Melech518]

LOL you would!

[The Maestro]

A restore can fix that, I'm about to explain a definite way of doing this. I done this so many times and it's not a destructive way....

1. Update iPhone with beta software 3.1

2. When I get the purple screen for activation, turn off phone and put in DFU.

3. Restore to iPhone is 3.0 and u will get error 1015.

4. Go to genius bar and say that u restored ur phone to 3.0 and got stuck.


They will then try to restore it themselves but get the same error. Welcome your new phone. Thanks button in advance

theoriticaly we can restore back to 3.0 by downgrading iTunes but the guys in the genius bar aret allowed to downgrade anything so, cheers lol

EDIT: this worked!!!! hoping they cant do anything tomorrow! heres a screenshot of my itunes:

http://img132.imageshack.us/i/picture2ldt.png/

good luck ppl, ill report back 2morrow