After adapting the Apple Saft method to my iPhone, using a Turbo SIM with my Vodafone Germany SIM, I had various problems with suddenly dying connections, no service and no SIM messages. I tried everything, I put a piece of paper in the SIM tray, it was even worse sometimes. After a day or so, I figured out that it can't be a bad contact (TurboSIM/SIM) issue but something else. Sometimes the iPhone showed Vodafone.de, sometimes no service, then again Vodafone.de, then again no service or no SIM. Turning the iPhone on and off several times (without moving it at all) solved the issues for a couple of minutes, then it started again.

Accidentally, I updated one of my iPhones (I have two) with the new FW 1.0.2.
What can I say, I happened yesterday around noon and since then, my TurboSIM with Vodafone Germany SIM works PERFECTLY. No connections drops, no error messages, no "no service" or "no SIM" messages. I turned the iPhone on and off, I shaked it, I'm wearing it with a belt holster (Speck) with me all the time, NO problems, the iPhone works perfectly.

So here is my suggestion: if you have "no service", "no SIM" or dying connections problems with your TurboSIM enabled iPhone, do what I did. It may solve all your problems you had til now.

CAUTION: after doing a full recovery to FW 1.0.2 using iTunes, the activation worked like in a second with the TurboSIM installed. Very surprising since I have a n AT&T GoPhone contract and every time I recovered with iTunes, it took a couple of minutes until the activation was finished. Now iTunes even recognizes my phone number and the Vodafone SIM Services also appear now in the iPhone menue, they work great too.
Of course the jailbreak, the SSH install, etc. is all gone, I have a "virgin" iPhone just using the Turbo SIM with a german Vodafone SIM. PERFECT, no issues.
Even EDGE is working with Vodafone, I get the "E" and the download speeds aren't bad at all. I just entered web.vodafone.de in the EDGE menue of the iPhone. SMS is working too, no problems. YouTube, Mail, Internet, everything works great.

Then, I missed my favourite ringtone but I didn't want to mess around with my iPhone to make sure it stays the way it is now. So I used the latest Funtastic 2.5 just to jailbreak, upload my ringtone and put it back to jail. Worked like a charm, a one minute operation and my iPhone still works without any issues.

Just wanted to let you know that I did the same with my other iPhone and same thing: no more issues, so the "no service", "no SIM" messages are very likely related to the messing up with the firmware of the iPhone.

I'm a happy camper now and until an official software unlock is available, I won't do any more experiments with my iPhone. It works great like it is now and I want to leave it this way.

I hope this posts helps some of my fellow TurboSIM users, just keep in mind that you loose all the stuff you installed on the iPhone (incl. music, videos, movies, etc.) when you do a full recovery to FW 1.0.2.

I would like to hear some feedback if my "method" worked for you. Thanks.

Btw: of course this only works if you already had a carrier signal on your iPhone, meaning that the "no service" or "no SIM" messages came AFTER a succesful carrier connection.

I really should think these things through BEFORE jumping in! *sigh*

Had a working iPhone with Turbo SIM but was getting 'No Service' sometimes so thought I would give this a try.

Didn't spot the bit that said you already had a AT&T account until it was too late!!

Now have an iphone that I'm struggling to activate. Can't get the usual things to work - jailbreak for instance!

And now a restore on iTunes causes an unknown 1603 Error!

Any suggestions?

Graeme

use an other activation methode - dvd jon don't work here
you need to use iasign

Yep... I know that I need to use iAsign... but at the moment I can't get the iphone off the 'Connect to iTunes' with yellow warning triangle screen!

Trying to restore on iTunes gives me the 1603 error...

Hmmm... seem to be going round in circles here!

Does not work with new T-Mobile Simcards.

All fixed... 1603 error caused by not updating iTunes!

Jailbreaked using iBrickr... and uploaded various hacked files (Louder SMS Message Tone from my Nokia 8800 and UK Keyboard layout) and the Activated using iAsign....

All working with latest firmware, etc. etc.

I love a challenge on a Thursday afternoon!

MORAL OF THIS STORY... this is a good idea IF you have an AT&T account (and a bit of common sense) and read the entire post first!

Sorry about that, I mentioned that you need to activate the iPhone again after you recover it but maybe I should have been more specific.
Do you still get any no service or no SIM messages or does the TurboSIM work now without problems?

As I said before: I used a Vodafone Germany SIM, the german T-Mobile SIMs are well known for causing trouble, so I wouldn't even bother trying them. Some are confirmed working, check with this forum but a lot of the newer SIM cards, especially those issued with 3G devices, cause trouble.

My Vodafone SIM still works perfectly with the TurboSIM after the FW update and recovery, so I assume it is true that the trouble was caused by the modded firmware. I would love to play around with SSH again and some third party software and other mods but for now, I'm using my iPhone as my daily phone during the vacation I'm going to begin this weekend, so no more messing around with it until the software unlock is available.

The second iPhone I had went for a whopping 1000 Euro to a crazy business man who saw me with this thing today and bought it with cash money. I paid 600 Euro for it plus the TurboSIM and shipping, so I made a profit of around 300 Euro, not bad. Not that I needed or actually wanted to sell it but this guy is an important business partner and I didn't want to offend him. He may have paid even more than 1000 Euro but this was his first offer and he knew how much the iPhone is in the US, so I didn't want to rip him off. Afterwards, he gave me 3% more rebate than usual on his merchandise, so I guess it was a good day today.

No apologies necessary! My fault for not spotting the 'activate with AT&T' bit, and to be fair it worked flawlessly. Did the restore and then iTunes asked to validate activation. It had read my phone number from my sim/Turbo Sim confirmatio and asked me to confirm my Zip Code and last 4 digits of my SSN! It was one of those... "Hmmmm.... Ok then!" moments!

But as I said, subsequent problems were down to having updated the phone's F/W but not iTunes.

It's all good now though. New phone F/W and Turbo Sim working fine. Although I still get the service dropping out now and again, I strongly suspect (as I did originally) that this is purely down to the service signal not being that strong when I'm at home. The reception doesn't seem quite as good as my Nokia 8800, but that's just life.

Thought I would try your theory anyway, just in case the f/w update and restore improved the reception... and it's certainly no worse!

Graeme

OK follow situation by me:

I have activated my phone with AT&T card over iASign (Webinterface for Windows). I have saved all necessary informations like IMEI etc and the little .exe file. So my question is, if i restore my phone to a virgin state to firmware 1.02 (Can you only update the firmware to 1.02 and its a virgin state?) can i reactivate it without plugin the AT&T card again? I like ssh and other things, but im really like you to bring thoose tools away from my phone now. Thanks for your answer and your discover!