What's the latest official iOS that won't upgrade my BB to an unlockable version? 3GS

[CodyLoco]

Hi everyone!

I'm new to the forums and I landed here because I'm stuck with an iPhone 3GS - and I'm hoping one of you iExperts can give me a hand

I bought a used iPhone 3GS off the street and it was jailbroken and unlocked. I failed to ask the owner what method was used or any details about the phone other than the capacity :S

I wanted to get rid of all her information on the phone so I immediately went to settings when I got home and did a full data reset. Unfortunately, once the phone rebooted it now gets stuck on the Apple logo with the progress wheel spinning for a few seconds than hangs. It will do nothing until the battery runs out - can't even do a hard/soft reset or turn the phone off.

I decided to try and use redsn0w_win_0.9.6rc16 w/ 4.3.3 iOS firmware to unlock it, however try as I might I'm unable to get the phone into DFU since I can't turn the phone off in the first place. I can let the phone die completely, which obviously turns it off, but when I plug it in as soon as it has enough of a charge to be turn onable (and thus go into DFU) it automatically boots and crashes as mentioned before.

The closest I've been able to get to is getting into Recovery Mode by holding down the power button and plugging in the USB until the phone turns on and gives me the Connect to iTunes logo. iTunes detects it and offers to restore it. However of course it's only going to take an official restore since I have no SHSH blobs for the phone, and much less know what OS or baseband the phone was running...

What would be the latest iOS that I can load onto the phone, using an official restore, that won't upgrade my baseband to an unlockable version? Like I said I have no idea what BB is on it right now, and once I've done that, what method would you recommend to do an untethered jailbreak and unlock?

I just want some feedback and help before I do anything that's going to lock my phone for good since there are no carriers I can work with here in Costa Rica that will take the lock.

Hoping for some help and I much appreciate it!!!

Cody

[iYeow]

If you have restored to any stock of 4.1 or higher, then you have a non unlockable baseband or your 3gs has already have updated to ipad bb. So to get it going , downgrade to stock 4.1 and use exit recovery to kick out error 1015.

Since you are apple logo, you need to put iphone into dfu mode or recovery mode before itunes can recognize your iphone.
Itunes will not detect iphone in frozen apple logo.

[CodyLoco]

Thanks for the reply-

Like I mentioned- I have no idea what version of the iOS it's running or what baseband - it could be running 3.1.3 for all I know - I just have no way of telling.

I can get it into recovery mode - just not DFU mode - so just to confirm my only option whatsoever is to restore using the official 4.1 firmware?

Then afterthat I need to install the iPad BB in order to be able to unlock-- is that correct?

Many thanks again for the help!

[Susty]

So when you have it connected, you press & hold the power & home buttons.... The phone will go off, keep it held for about 5 more seconds, then release the power button but keep holding the home button... You'll hear a noise but see nothing on the screen... That's DFU.. I've never had a problem not getting into that mode... Only difference is you don't see the slide to power off tab.

[iYeow]

Just to be on the safe side, in case you still have the unlockable baseband, you should restore to custom firmware of 4.1 to preserve your baseband.

Those who uses ipad baseband already have a non unlockable baseband wanted to unlock but using ipad bb breaks your GPS.

[CodyLoco]

Thanks,

How do I install a custom firmware using iTunes, as the only way I can restore is using recovery mode. I can create a custom firmware, but when I try to restore it using shift-restore iTunes errors because it's not the official 4.1. Or is there a third-party app that can force load firmware when phone is in recovery mode?

As for Susty's reply - the phone will never shut off - i can hold power and home for 10 minutes and it will stay on the Apple until the battery dies. Then obviously it won't turn on until the battery is charged enough - at which point it automatically starts booting into the Apply and the cycle begins. Only thing I can seem to figure out how to do is get it into normal recovery by plugging it in and holding home until the Apple shows up and it boots into recovery. If you have any suggestions on how to get it into DFU I'm all ears :S

:/

[iYeow]

You need to put iphone into pwned dfu mode before you can restore to custom fw thru itunes. If you don't, itunes will give you error.

[CodyLoco]

But I can't figure out how to get into DFU mode at all - and afaik for PWNed DFU I need to be able to get into normal DFU anyway right?

[iYeow]

Use the tools like ireb or snowbreeze or redsnow to put into pwned dfu.