Restore without iTunes (error 23)

[stutters]

Hi,

I've bricked my 3gs. It was jailbroke to 3.1 with Pwnage (osx), was tethered using pdanet, and I'm pretty sure I fried the radio. The phone got really, really hot, I had a call come in, and mid conversation the call dropped. It's now stuck with no service, wants me to connect to iTunes, but when I do that, I get an error message (iTunes can not activate your iPhone because the SIM card is not inserted...). If I go into DFU mode and try to restore the phone, I get an unknown error 23. This happens after iTunes tells me it detects a phone in recovery mode, after the ipsw is extracted ("extracting software"), but before anything else comes up.

It's obviously less than a year old, but because I made the brilliant decision to add a custom boot logo and DFU/recovery logo, the smart people at the Genius Bar know the phone is jailbroke and won't cover it under warranty.

So here's the question - are there any clever ways for me to restore the device, or is iTunes the only option, period?

Thanks for any help.

[cpjr]

Error 23 normally means its toast.

[stutters]

So no chance of restoring to 3.1.2 and getting it replaced under warranty?

[cpjr]

Nothing you can do will cancel that error.

[stutters]

I don't want to hear what you're telling me

I'm not trying to fix the phone or cancel the error. I just want to replace the boot and recovery logos so it doesn't have the appearance of being a jailbroke device (and then take it to Apple, have them warranty for hardware failure, and be on my merry way).

That's not going to happen, eh?

[cpjr]

I understand, but unless you can get it to do a full restore (using a custom ipsw file) you wont be able to change the boot logos.

Which, for future reference...is why its a good idea never to use custom boot logos

[stutters]

LOL :P

I won't change the boot logos next time.

Xcode, other Mac or Win apps, no other options to push a ipsw via USB than iTunes? Last time I'll ask, I promise.

[blkcadi]

A for effort.......................

[itzbilly]

It might just be me.. but redsn0w didn't replace my boot logos, left it as the typical Apple boot up logo. Same for restore and DFU modes. Maybe try jailbreaking it with that, and see if the logo is still there?

I used redsn0w for windows, if that makes any difference

[gillyweed]

Would trying a different sim card maybe do anything?