Please help: iPhone down

[DerekTX]

Today my iPhone is having a conniption fit.

problem:
I opened cydia and saw that i had a few apps that needed updating, i clicked update all. the phone did it's business and completed whatever it was doing and I ended up at the screen where it's black with the white letters that say all sorts of things I don't understand with the word "complete" in big bold letters at the top. I clicked on the bottom bar and the usual little spinning * popped up. I let my phone sit for a while, a while long, a while longer still. it's frozen, it froze at 1:54 according to the phone, it's now 7:30 and nothing has changed. won't lock, won't turn off, the silent toggle does nothing, the volume buttons do nothing.

question:
how do i fix it?

relevent info:
iphone 3Gs, jail broken about 6 months ago with blackrain.
current software is 3.1

I really appreciate any help, im a college student and i really need my phone back and running. important exam dates, class notes, etc all on my phone and I really need it back and running.

[i.Annie]

You'll need to put it into DFU mode and restore. Before doing so, to ensure you keep your JB and unlock, you'll have to verify a couple things.

1) is it a new or old bootrom 3GS?
2) do you have your SHSHs saved? Check with TinyUmbrella.

Get back and update on this information so that we can assess what your next steps are to properly restoring and JB-ing the phone again.

Edit: note that you will probably lose all your phone data such as calendar dates and notes.

[DerekTX]

thank you for the quick reply.

I have no idea what bootrom it is. I never did anything with it really. I got it from a friend, took it to another friend who jailbroke and unlocked it for me. itunes says it's running 3.1 firmware and that's all i know for sure. it was jailbroken and unlocked early summer, so i'm guessing old?

i don't know what SHSHs or tinyumbrella is either, so i'm going to say no.

[i.Annie]

Well do this for me then, cuz you can't be sure your friend didn't save your SHSHs for you.

Download TinyUmbrella on your computer.

Click "Save SHSHs" just cuz you should do it anyway for your benefit in the future.

Follow this guide to see if the SHSHs for a previous FW is on the phone and it will pull any of saved onto your comp. Then you can click "display SHSH" to see if any were saved from Cydia.

How to backup your SHSH using TinyUmbrella | k3n's blog

Btw you can check your bootrom version by following this guide:

How to Check iPhone 3GS New Bootrom / Old Bootrom (iBoot) Version | Redmond Pie

Report back again with your bootrom version (should be either 359.3 or 359.3.2) and also if you were able to pull any SHSHs from your phone to TinyUmbrella.

Edit: since you said your phone is frozen, if TU won't detect it in the state it is in, try to put it into DFU or Recovery mode and see if it'll read it. If not, we will have to go another route.

[jkmonkey]

Well first have you tried just hard rebooting the phone. Hold the lock and home buttons together until it shuts off. I've never seen a phone so stuck that doing that wouldn't shut the phone down.

[i.Annie]

I would imagine a Cydia update can sometimes conflict and cause a crash that will freeze up the phone and not let it boot past the Apple logo. But I didn't really think to try a more simple solution such as a hard reset. It's worth the try. Thx for the suggestion jkmonkey. Reminds me to get out of the recent complicated methods and explanations and look at the simple things once in a while

[jkmonkey]

It'll at least restart the phone. Whether it boots fully afterwards or gets stuck at the apple logo is a whole other story, but it's at least a starting point.