Beginner needs help, unlock Iphone 3g 4.2.1

[koe_182]

Hi all,

i need some help unlocking a iphone 3g. Current firmware version is 4.2.1, baseband shows as 05.15, locked to o2 and want to be able to use orange.

i have a windows PC only, no access to MAC.

what would be the easiest way to unlock my phone?

thanks for reading.

[Simon]

You can either use redsnow 0.9.6b6 to update your baseband and unlock with ultrasnow. Or you can go the official route and get O2 to unlock it (this would be the preferred choice).

[koe_182]

the phone was bought as payg into which my partner put her o2 contract sim card in, she now has upgraded her contract to a iphone 4 hence why i have this phone now.

so im not sure o2 will unlock it will they? if so will she have to put her sim card back in this one and use it until they unlock it?

[Simon]

They may unlock it, definitely wont hurt to ask. That would be a much better unlock to do if you can.

[koe_182]

So do i go into a shop or ring up?

thanks for your help!!

[Simon]

Not sure, never done it myself but I have heard of quite a few people able to officially unlock their phones this way.

[koe_182]

they said i'll need to get a o2 payg sim and pay £15.00. im not going to do that.

so im giving this redsn0w a go and all goes well until it gets to loading the firmware and i get waiting for reboot and just seems to freeze...have i done something wrong? i've left it a few mins.

[Simon]

I would do that if I were you. 15 pounds is cheap for a official unlock.

If you go the redsnow method, your gps may break and you may not be able to restore to official firmware anymore. For more info on that see here: Dev-Team Blog

[koe_182]

well ive decided to be daring and try and do it anyway, i got it to run the whole way through with redsn0w, it got to the end saying that the iphone will do the rest, however the screen stayed black (but lit black) and eventually turned off, then when i restarted it there was no cydia, and the base band stayed the same...

any help>?

[Simon]

Make sure to point redsnow to a regular 4.2.1 firmware. Also run redsnow in windows xp sp2 compatibility mode.

[koe_182]

tried a couple of times now, gets to the finish screen, phone stays black but with backlight on, left for 10mins it then turns off, i turn the phone on and its like i havent done naything

[Simon]

I think its a sign

In all seriousness you may need to try another computer. redsnow can be finicky sometimes