How dumb of an idea is this...?

[Fangor]

I bricked my iPhone last week, and it would not boot up and wouldn't even restore in iTunes due to Error 23 - Fatal radio error. I managed to fix it, but I had to drain the battery completely first, then immediately plug it in and restore from DFU mode. Now my iPhone has bricked itself the same way again, but this time my battery is at 90% and I need to get it to 0. Is putting it in the fridge for a bit to kill the battery a bad idea, or should I just keep rebooting it until it dies?

[i.Annie]

I dont see how putting it in the fridge would help... Why dont you just stick it into Recovery Mode instead of DFU and see what happens.

[Fangor]

Trust me, I've tried at least 10 different ways to restore. This is the only thing that works. As for the fridge, batteries die much faster in cold temperatures, and I want this thing to die as fast as possible.

[Trooper Sam]

LiPos actually hold their charge better in cold.

[Fangor]

I've done that, Ive tried EVERYTHING. Actually once my battery dies, I use TinyUmbrella to restore.

[Cmalinowski]

What are the "bricked" symptoms? I left mine on the apple logo, where it was stuck, until the battery drained.

Didn't help my situation, but it did drain the battery

[Fangor]

What are the "bricked" symptoms? I left mine on the apple logo, where it was stuck, until the battery drained.

Didn't help my situation, but it did drain the battery

It boots to a Connect to iTunes screen that says my phone cant make or recieve calls and I need to restore. It also says the IMEI and ICCID are unknown. iTunes recognizes the phone but says it cant read the contents. No matter how I try to restore it, it fails due to Error 23 at the "Preparing iPhone for Restore..." stage, which means fatal radio error according to the error log.

I fixed it last week by completely draining the battery, then plugging it in and immediately putting it in DFU mode from the dead battery screen. Somehow this made the phone "forget" it was broken and the restore completed, which fixed it. My guess is its a problem with the baseband firmware. It can be easily fixed with a restore, but iTunes doesnt want to let me. WHY, APPLE, WHY DO YOU MAKE THINGS SO DIFFICULT?!?!?

[Fangor]

Heres some pictures of what happened to my phone. It looks bad, but if I fixed it last time...

Sorry for the double-post.

[i.Annie]

Take it to Apple :P

If its still under warranty, I mean. Chances are they wont be able to restore either and have to replace it. If not, then I dunno stick it in the fridge. Somebody said they replaced their battery and it fixed the problem with error 23 but dunno if it was just coincidence or not.

[Fangor]

Interesting, both removing the battery and what Im doing have the same effect of completely cutting off power for a bit... I already fixed it before, so Ill try again when the battery dies. If that doesnt work, I will send it in. I dont want to have to go too long without my phone though.

And im done with the fridge idea. Guess Ill just keep on resetting the damn thing till it dies.

[i.Annie]

Well he said he got a new battery not necessarily just removing it. He also mentioned something about a port issue and whatnot... Sounds more and more like hardware issues. Of course we already knew that

Good luck, maybe its time for a new phone tho :P

[floppy_joe]

Microwave?