3G troubles..please help!!

[Harman1207]

Hi, Hoping someone, anyone can help me.

Had to restore my 3G iPhone because it froze with the apple logo on a black screen.

Now half of the time it does not recognize my sim card and sometimes the black screen with the logo appears.

I have tried to read other threads about this but it is not making any sense to me...

Can anyone shed any light on this???

Much appreciated.

[eyeRobot]

Is there a reason this is posting in the unlocking/activation forum? Do you require an unlock?

Which firmware have you restored to? It sounds like you need to restore it again.

What have you jailbroken it with?

[Harman1207]

I though I would now need to unlock it.. since its no longer accepting my sim...hence posting under this forum...should it be elsewhere??

Have no idea what firmware I have restored it to. Is there a way to find out?

Don't think it ever been jailbroken... the iphone was given to me by a friend..

I should prob make it clear that all this terminology is very new to me..:/

[eyeRobot]

Is the phone locked to a carrier and is the sim you are using from that carrier.

[Harman1207]

Don't think so...my sim worked fine on the phone before the whole restore..

[eyeRobot]

iPhone 3G/3Gs Model Numbers Country and Carrier - GSM-Forum

Go on that link and find out which carrier your phone is for and tell us which carrier you have a sim card for

[Harman1207]

Phone was purchased in US but I'm in Australia with Optus carrier.

My friend (who gave me the phone) used the phone in Greece with Vodafone...if that's relevant..

P.s. I'm a female with absolutely no knowledge about this stuff... just in case that's relevant too...

[eyeRobot]

Go to settings>about and give us the details from there.

While you're doing that I'll give you some information.

Your phone is locked such that it can only be used on an AT&T plan. Since you want to use it on another carrier you need to unlock it. In order to unlock an iPhone it must first be jailbroken.

Jailbreaking your phone will be no problem as there is a tool called redsnow to do it. However, I'm guessing you've upgraded to 4.1 firmware. When you did this, 2 things happened.

1. You wiped off your jailbreak and unlock
2. You upgraded your baseband (aka modem firmware) to 5.14.02

The problem you have is that the baseband you just upgraded to is not unlockable and you can only downgrade it in a limited number of handsets.

Give us the details as per the start of this post and we can take it from there.

Being female is not relevant.......

Give me the version, model and modem firmware. Forget the rest.

Ok, assuming you're on 4.1 with baseband 5.14.02 then you need to find guides and perform these steps:

1. Jailbreak the phone using redsnow on 4.1 firmware
2. In Cydia, try to run fuzzyband to downgrade your baseband
3. If fuzzyband was successful then install ultrasnow in Cydia to unlock.

[Harman1207]

I can't go into settings... won't allow me to do anything on the phone except make emergency calls.

How do I find out the version, model and modem firmware?

As for the steps.. do I google these programs because I have no clue on how to find them!

[heyyyitsjordan]

download f0recast. and use the program. it will give you all the pertinent information needed

[Harman1207]

I did that ^ and this is the info I received..

Baseband: 05.14.02

Bootloader: 5.8

Model: MB499

Jailbreakable?: YES(always)

Unlockable?: NO

Tethered?: NO

And then these instructions were given (see attached)

I don't really understand what it's asking me to do. Can anyone simplify it for me?

[eyeRobot]

Ok, it is going to be possibleto get this unlocked again, but it would be a lot easier if you had an AT&T sim card or a phone book sim with which to activate the phone. Can you get one?

[seriousjohn]

since ur on 4.1 already download redsn0w_0.9.6b1 for what ever type of computer ur using and the ios4.1 firmware restore file. then use redsn0w to jailbreak the phone. after it finishes u will have access to the home screen and cydia where u can download fuzzyband to downgrade ur baseband to unlock with ultrasn0w

[eyeRobot]

Useful link with instructions and links for downloads:

Download Redsn0w 0.9.6 for Windows to Jailbreak iOS 4.1 on iPhone 3G and iPod touch 2G | Redmond Pie

[Harman1207]

Umm... ebay?

Will this do?

New For AT&T T-Mobile iPhone 3g 3gs Activation Sim Card - eBay, Other Mobile Accessories, Mobile Accessories, Phones. (end time 15-Oct-10 20:43:26 AEDST)

Edit: will try the above first.

[eyeRobot]

Yes, that would probably work, but try the redsnow link above first. The newest versions can hacktivate the 3G too.

[heyyyitsjordan]

that sim will work perfectly.

basically (everyone has already said this, ill try to simplify it even more)

there are guides to show you how to jailbreak your specific phone. once you find the right guide and successfully jailbreak, your phone will have this new app called cydia. within that app you can download another app called fuzzyband. what that does is it allows you to downgrade your baseband so you can unlock the phone.

[Harman1207]

Ok, so far I have successfully downgraded (at least I think I have)...

Do I download ultrasn0w on my pc or phone?? (prob a stupid question but thats ok)

And could someone post a link for me..

Really appreciate all the help so far..thanks a million

[eyeRobot]

What did you do exactly? Which tool did you use? Which firmware? Do you have a Cydia icon?

[Harman1207]

Followed the instructions given.

Went to cydia and downgraded using Fuzzy band.

Firmware now - 05.13.04

Is this good? What's next?