3G or 3GS???

[jolek]

Hej everyone,

First I apologize if this post does not belong here but my issue appeared as I was upgrading my firmware so I thought it could be a good place. Long text, sorry, just go to the end if you don’t feel like reading.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last WE I bought a second hand jailbreaked iPhone. Before buying it I tested it with my SIM card and everything looked fine, I checked that the IMEI of the phone was matching the one at the back of the phone’s box (which was showing 3GS 16Gb). Everything seemed ok.

Then back home when I was happily in the process of setting up my phone, configuring emails and uploading music, iTunes displayed this message that I don’t have the latest version of iOS and I could upgrade. Without thinking I pressed “Upgrade” and then things started getting wrong. The upgrade failed and I could not restore the iPhone, was getting error 1015 continuously (I have actually another post on this forum, but this is for a different problem). I tried all kind of stuff but nothing was working. When using whatever custom firmware for 3GS in DFU mode (using redsn0w) I would still get that the firmware is not compatible. Anyway, I tried one last thing; installed iTunes 9.2 (was using 10.1 before) and tried yet another restored. Still got error 1015 but then after exiting recovery mode with RecBoot it actually restarted properly!!!

But after some time using it I realized that this phone actually had the 3G iOS installed on it instead of the 3GS. Moreover it was only displaying 6,7Gb memory capacity in “Settings->General->About” and in iTunes. So it felt I was left with a 3G 8Gb when I thought I had bought a 3GS 16Gb. The strangest being that the back of the phone actually shows 16Gb. And now when I look at the phone’s IMEI number in “Settings->General->About” it is not the same anymore as the one on the phone’s box .
----------------------------------------------------------------------

My questions:
- Is it possible to make a 3G 8Gb entirely look like a 3GS 16Gb, even replacing the shell of the phone and changing the IMEI number.
- Or could I have done something wrong and installed a 3G iOS on a 3GS phone?

I am seeing the person who sold me the phone tonight to get my money back but would appreciate any insight in the meantime.

[Orby]

Hej everyone,

First I apologize if this post does not belong here but my issue appeared as I was upgrading my firmware so I thought it could be a good place. Long text, sorry, just go to the end if you don’t feel like reading.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Last WE I bought a second hand jailbreaked iPhone. Before buying it I tested it with my SIM card and everything looked fine, I checked that the IMEI of the phone was matching the one at the back of the phone’s box (which was showing 3GS 16Gb). Everything seemed ok.

Then back home when I was happily in the process of setting up my phone, configuring emails and uploading music, iTunes displayed this message that I don’t have the latest version of iOS and I could upgrade. Without thinking I pressed “Upgrade” and then things started getting wrong. The upgrade failed and I could not restore the iPhone, was getting error 1015 continuously (I have actually another post on this forum, but this is for a different problem). I tried all kind of stuff but nothing was working. When using whatever custom firmware for 3GS in DFU mode (using redsn0w) I would still get that the firmware is not compatible. Anyway, I tried one last thing; installed iTunes 9.2 (was using 10.1 before) and tried yet another restored. Still got error 1015 but then after exiting recovery mode with RecBoot it actually restarted properly!!!

But after some time using it I realized that this phone actually had the 3G iOS installed on it instead of the 3GS. Moreover it was only displaying 6,7Gb memory capacity in “Settings->General->About” and in iTunes. So it felt I was left with a 3G 8Gb when I thought I had bought a 3GS 16Gb. The strangest being that the back of the phone actually shows 16Gb. And now when I look at the phone’s IMEI number in “Settings->General->About” it is not the same anymore as the one on the phone’s box .
----------------------------------------------------------------------

My questions:
- Is it possible to make a 3G 8Gb entirely look like a 3GS 16Gb, even replacing the shell of the phone and changing the IMEI number.
- Or could I have done something wrong and installed a 3G iOS on a 3GS phone?

I am seeing the person who sold me the phone tonight to get my money back but would appreciate any insight in the meantime.

...wait.

You're telling me that the phone, out of the box, had a matching IMEI number with what was on the box, and then changed by itself once restored?

I have NEVER heard of that happening, and the technical safeguards in place to prevent an IMEI changing are very stringent (unless your IMEI changed to 004999010640000, in which case, your hardware is toast).

While it is technically possible to change an IMEI, it is absolutely illegal to do so almost everywhere, and even illegal to possess the equipment to do so in some places (hint: IT'S ILLEGAL! ).

I also have never heard of an iPhone magically dropping ~8 GB of storage, again, unless there is significant hardware failure.

Would you please post the last three characters of the serial number on the box, and the last three of the serial number on the phone under Settings->General->About (if it is different)?

[jolek]

3 last digits of the serial number on the box: 3NP
3 last digits of the serial number on the phone: Y7H

These were the same when I got the phone (same as the one on the box)

And my IMEI is not 004999010640000.

Fyi the phone is working great as a 3G 8Gb. It is just not what I paid for.

One explanation I can imagine for all this is that the iPhone I bought was originally a 3G 8Gb which was then jailbreaked and made look like a 3GS 16Gb from both the inside and the outside. Then when I restored it in iTunes it just reinstalled the original firmware showing again the 3G 8Gb.
I am confused to say the least.

[jolek]

Continuation: of course the guy didn't show up at the meeting we setup and now we we speak he refuses to give me back my cash... He says he though it was a 3GS and that he was also mistaken when he bought the phone.

I am screwed.

But am still curious about the questions in my initial email.