used iPhone 3GS won't activate even with my ATT SIM!

[pnut78]

Hello,

I bought a 32G 3GS from someone on craigslist. They said "cleaned" it by doing a restore but did it without the SIM. So I have it with the "No SIM card installed".... So I connected to iTunes with my AT&T SIM (from my old 3G iPhone), and I get:

The SIM card inserted in this iPhone does not appear to be supported.
Only compatible SIM cards from a supported carrier may be used to activate iPhone. Please insert the SIM card that came with your iPhone or visit a supported carrier's store to receive a replacement SIM card.

What should I do?

[Amadomon]

Same problem here. I think my phone was originally sold in France, and thus is actually locked to Orange (this according to the very nice folks at my local AT&T store here in the States-- I am trying to "go legit"!). What happened was that I went in to the AT&T store and purchased a plan (and SIM) with them, and THEY weren't able to activate their own SIM. Tomorrow I go to Apple to plead my case. Should work (after all, I am TRYING to Do The Right Thing), unless my phone was stolen orginally-- sure hope not.

[neodude237]

Same problem here. I think my phone was originally sold in France, and thus is actually locked to Orange (this according to the very nice folks at my local AT&T store here in the States-- I am trying to "go legit"!). What happened was that I went in to the AT&T store and purchased a plan (and SIM) with them, and THEY weren't able to activate their own SIM. Tomorrow I go to Apple to plead my case. Should work (after all, I am TRYING to Do The Right Thing), unless my phone was stolen orginally-- sure hope not.

That isn't going to work. You are either gonna have to hack the phone or get it unlocked by the carrier in France, if not, you're screwed

[Amadomon]

Um, we'll see. I'll report back in a few hours, but I predict you're wrong.

[neodude237]

Apple actually replacing it? If you have an out of country iPhone, it is only under warranty where it came from. This is from experience. If you want to use it again, try to contact the carrier and have them do a network unlock of your phone. (unless a miracle happens and Apple replaces it)

[Amadomon]

Er, well, you were right, neodude-- no love from Apple (quelle surprise). So now, like thousands of others, I have a 3GS 3.1.3/5.12.07 paperweight. Orange in France is no help either, because I don't know the original phone number. (You'd think that with the IMEI they could help, but whatever.) My question is this: I have a hactivated version of 3.1.3, but when I try to restore to that using iTunes, I get either the 1604 or the 1601 error. After doing some research, it seems that iTunes doesn't like the custom fw, and the Apple website says only to uninstall every application they have ever made and reinstall them, however the phone restores (but doesn't activate, even with a legitimate AT&T sim) just fine to a stock 3.1.3. Is there any other solution for the 160x errors? I know iReb purports to fix this, but not for the 3.1.3 fw. I realize that I won't be able to unlock it at present, but I just want to jb it. I am hopeful that once I get to the springboard AT&T can activate it.

I wondered about setting up a local server and using that instead of Apple's servers. I don't have a 3.1.2 hash stored anywhere, but I did grab my 3.1.3 hashes. (I'm a little confused about where exactly to put the shsh file so that tinytss sees it.)

Thanks in advance.

[pnut78]

Wow, well I found out when I went to Apple that the phone was in fact a foreign phone and that it was locked to that country, hence why my SIM would not work. She did state that because the 3GS is still under warranty, that she would just swap it out!

I got a new 3GS now, unfortunately it's 3.1.3 but hey, I am not looking a gift horse in the mouth!

[Amadomon]

Warranties usually only apply to the original owner and are not transferrable.

[pnut78]

Warranties usually only apply to the original owner and are not transferrable.

I think they took into consideration that I bought it off of Craigslist and that the phone itself was under warranty because it was less than a year old and had no damage.

I know a big part was luck and the niceness of people.

[Amadomon]

True dat. I was nice as can be to the Apple people, but no love for me...however, your story does inspire me to perhaps try again. In the meant time, I am on my old 2g.

[rev903]

You could have flashed it with a os from united states region. I used to download ipsw files from this site and I used to get the same issue on my 3g, I couldnt activate no matter what. Apple usually just swapped it out. after a while I would install the bad os when I wanted a new phone and just hit up the apple store. But yeah installing a os from your region will fix the issue.

[neodude237]

Amadomon, keep pressing the carrier for help, they just might do it. I was able after blowing lots of international minutes in skype and sending some emails to get T-Mobile in Hungary to say they'd unlock my phone... hasn't been done yet, I still have to wait for the wire transfer to show up in their bank account, for whatever reason they can't find it yet, but once they find my unlocking fee, I finally got support to say they'd do it. (though it took many hours of work to get them to do this, I find my situation better than having an American iPhone @ 3.1.3, cause at least now I can get my phone unlocked permanently)
Also pnut, you are incredibly lucky!
@rev, are you sure that the ipsw is region coded? I have an american 3.1.3 on my iPhone and it refused to activate until I popped a Hungarian T-Mobile sim in (bought on craigslist) I'm pretty sure it is all the same, only will activate with a specific carrier's sim.