Can i restore my unlocked 3G (OS 3.1.2) without itunes updating the iOS & bricking it?!

[overseastom]

Hi everyone, I hope you and your phones are well. My venerable unlocked iphone 3G is having some issues that I don't know how to remedy but which I'm hoping someone here might. Earlier today I tried to launch the phone app and it just keep crashing back to the home screen. I'd previously only seen it do it once before and then it worked fine upon launching the app again. This time however, it never worked after 5+ attempts, so I thought I'd try the trusty turn-it-off-and-back-on-again approach and see if it worked properly afterward. Unfortunately, it now just gets completely stuck in the boot up process and has only shown the silver Apple logo all damn day.

At this point, I think the only possible way to remedy this will be to restore it in iTunes but there's a snag here too; my 3G with OS 3.1.2 was unlocked (using Blackra1n) and iTunes (10.1.1.4 on my Vista x64 pc) warns me that if I restore it'll put the latest iOS onto my phone, which I'm pretty sure will kill my unlock &/or brick my phone. So I'm very scared to try it. I also think the staff at the Apple store might either refuse to help me due to my unlocked device, or just "help" by doing the exact thing I described above, hence i must look to the kindness & wisdom of the internets to revive my normally-friendly phone. Can anyone here suggest a way to get my phone working again? A million thanks in advance,
Tom

[i.Annie]

Just download a stock 3.1.2 ipsw and hold shift and click restore, select the 3.1.2 firmware and you're good to go. Rejb as normal after the restore.

[iYeow]

Put iPhone into recovery mode N restore to 3.1.3, jailbreak with redsn0w 0.9.4 N unlock with ultrasnow
OR
create a custom fw of 4.2.1 from Snowbreeze 2.2.1 ,use redsn0w 0.9.6 rc6 , just check only dfu box.
Once your iPhone is in pwned dfu, run iTunes shift + res
tore to Snowbreeze 4.2.1.Ipsw already created on your desktop
Unlock with Ultrasn0w again

Annie you beat me haha

[i.Annie]

Your answer was more detailed though. Lol, I got lazy.

[overseastom]

Thanks so much for the speedy responses you two, you both rock. I have a further question though; where is the option to "select the 3.1.2 firmware"? Will it come up when i hold shift while I click the restore button? I'm just a bit paranoid about clicking stuff in iTunes cos I really can't afford to buy a new phone or brick this one! Anyway, I'll give it a shot and report back. Thanks again both of you

[i.Annie]

Yes when you hold shift and click restore a window will pop up that let's you browse to your downloaded firmware.

[overseastom]

Okey-doke, i have my firmware and i've given my phone enough charge to hopefully get the ball rolling (it's screen stayed on all day till the battery died...). Any idea why it failed like it did? I haven't been to Cydia in forever but I had installed the Reddit Alien Blue app about 9 hours prior to the problem. I'd taken a phone call about 30 minutes before it went pear shaped, but the first sign of fruity behaviour was it signalling that i had 2 emails and showing the download progress but then showing nothing new in the email app. It would then repeat this alert >> download >> nothing behaviour forever. Then the phone app wouldn't start so I rebooted and here we are now... Again, thanks for your help - I would take no offense if you just maintained radio silence - i realise I ask many questions! Cheers Annie

[i.Annie]

Yeah sorry I have no idea. There's too much going on to really diagnose it. All I can say is if it were me I'd do a restore. When a problem exists, more than one in particular, that's what I'd do.

[overseastom]

Ok, i've restored it but now it's telling me "the SIM card does not appear to be supported". Do i need to hunt for my original carrier's SIM? It was originally an AT&T phone in the United States but I had to move to England for family stuff and now i'm on O2. It won't let me do anything on the iphone except make an emergency call. I still have Blackra1n.exe on my pc - should i run this now and just go through the jailbreak & unlock procedure? Will this work with a foreignn SIM card in (like it is now)? Should I shut down iTunes first? Cheers Annie and sorry again for all the handholding,
Tom

Ok, i've restored it but now it's telling me "the SIM card does not appear to be supported". Do i need to hunt for my original carrier's SIM? It was originally an AT&T phone in the United States but I had to move to England for family stuff and now i'm on O2. It won't let me do anything on the iphone except make an emergency call. I still have Blackra1n.exe on my pc - should i run this now and just go through the jailbreak & unlock procedure? Will this work with a foreignn SIM card in (like it is now)? Should I shut down iTunes first? Cheers Annie and sorry again for all the handholding,
Tom

[i.Annie]

It's best to use the SIM if you've got it just bc you can avoid the hacktivation problems (which can be fixed though).

I'd recommend to use redsn0w 0.9.4 rather than blackra1n though just bc redsn0w is more stable and reliable. Especially with the new Cydia update you'll get in Cydia after jailbreaking.

But you could use blackra1n if you want, it's a decent jb. Just not my first choice.

[Stray]

Id use redsn0w too

[i.Annie]

And no worries about the hand-holding you're actually a lot more knowledgable about this stuff than some others.

It's what I do though I'm glad to help

[overseastom]

I've always tried to be aware of keeping my phone to a particular OS and baseband so as not to brick it and I've jailbroken and unlocked it in the past, so it's not entirely terrifying for me. Just sorta terrifying I tried Blackra1n (running in XP compatibility mode) before i saw your replies and even that is giving me issues (I've still got my new, unauthorised SIM in though and iTunes is still running). I get a warning window that says "This application has failed to start becasue ASL.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." I've never seen this before... Anyway, I'm go try and fish out my old SIM and see if anything more exciting happens. And in the meantime, I'll get downloading redsn0w 0.9.4 too. Again, grazie mille!

[i.Annie]

Lol I'm proud of you for being up to date and aware!

I know how to fix your blackra1n problem. I'm just not going to tell you haha.

Not to be mean but I'd really suggest using redsn0w instead that's why

[overseastom]

A quick search for redsn0w 0.9.4 brought me to a page that said no unlock for 3G so is this really what I want? I think the page was referring to the 3.1.3 OS, which I don't have, but still...

Hehehe to your post btw

[Stray]

Lol me too

[i.Annie]

Must be an old article.

Even if you use 3.1.3 you'd still be able to unlock. What you don't want is to upgrade on accident to 4.2.1. You'll be fine.

Just run redsn0w 0.9.4 on your phone so long as you're on 3.1.2 or even 3.1.3 is fine.

[overseastom]

Sweet. I'm a believer Annie!! My phone will walk, nay, run again! Still can't find that bloody old SIM though. The search continues...

Huzzah! Found the bugger.

[i.Annie]

Lol I was gonna say if you couldn't find it it's ok. Just hacktivate and I can help you fix the hacktivate problems.

But since you found the SIM that's great. Just be sure to activate with it first before jailbreaking

[overseastom]

Right, it's activated and i'm doing a restore now (from last September though, dang) before i'll go on to unlock it. It's been estimating how long it'll take for quite some time now, but if memory serves me correctly it's an epic process spanning at least 2 or 3 moons. Just to be extra annoying, the iTunes window barges into view every 30 seconds or so. Reminds me of Bender dancing and saying "i want attention, everybody look at me" although it's an entirely unfunny version :P