Is my iPhone dead??

Hi. I think I might have killed my phone. Or I could say Apple did, but I won’t because it was my own fault. My phone was bricked due to 5 custom ringtones I put on my phone via iBrickr. That’s it. It wasn’t unlocked or anything. Just 5 ringtones. Anyhow – the details:

My phone was working, then out of the blue I got a “Incorrect SIM” error. I had not updated or anything. In fact, I had just gotten off a call.

So I went to the AT&T store. They gave me a new SIM and suggested I restore and reactivate. So I did.

Now, my phone still says “Incorrect SIM” and has an iTunes logo with a picture of the computer cable underneath it. I can't get past that screen.

I called Apple, they said as a result of the ringtones my phone was dead and they wouldn’t help me.

I’ve searched and found potential fixes, but they usually regard unlocking the phone. I don’t want to unlock it. I’m using AT&T. I just want it to work again. Only this time I’ll load it with 3rd party apps. Why not? Apple won’t fix it anyhow.

Any advise? Am I simply out of luck? If there’s a procedure out there for my predicament I would appreciate the link. BTW, I was using 1.0.2 prior to the crash. Have no idea what it is now. Probably 1.1.2??? Don’t know for sure as I can’t get past the iTunes logo.

My iTunes version is 7.4.3.1 and the message iTunes is giving me is “There is a problem with your iPhone” … blah, blah, blah

If there are other details that are needed please ask.

Thanks in advance!

questions:
its currently in recovery mode...if you dock, will itunes restore it for you? if so can ya restore it to 111 or 112? since you ahve att just place 112 on it

your first mistake was telling apple you added custom ringtones via ibrick. you should have kept your mouth shut and simply plain dumb.

have you been able to restore it? when you do this it wipes out the custom ringtones which means you can take it into an apple store so they can swap it out for you.

did you follow the steps properly for ibrick, meaning did the custom ringtones actually work after you uploaded them?

i've not used ibrick myself as i prefer to add ringtones via the Mecca method which requires a jailbroken iphone.

worst case scenario, restore it, jailbreak it, add your ringtones and ya good to go.

main question is, if its in recovery mode like u say it is, what happens when u dock it with itunes open?

also
have u tried, uninstalling itunes completely... turning off the iphone and putting it in recovery mode then try to dock it with itunes again?
did ya try installing intunes 7.5?

when ya did the restore after u took ti to da att store, u say u restored it, to what firmware version?

Thanks for the quick reply. As for admitting to Apple about the ringtones - I didn't. I denied the heck out of it, but they said the IMEI numbers did not match, which proves to them it had 3rd party stuff on it. I knew the only stuff on it were ringtones. But I did not admit that. Didn't matter - they weren't in the holiday mood.

Right now, if I plug in the iPhone with iTunes open, iTunes simply tells me There is a problem with my iPhone. If I hold down the power button and menu button on my iPhone, iTunes tells me the phone is in recovery mode and must be restored. But at the conclusion of the restore iTunes simply gives me the exact same error, and my phone has the same screen. I also tried to do a Shift-restore to install 1.1.1 firmware. It went through the whole procedure, but again ended with the same error. I even tried that through iBrickr and I just get an error (1 or 5).

And yes - the ringtones were working fine. They've been on there for several months. Didn't seem to be an issue.

Also - I've tried this with the newest version of iTunes - same result. That's when I uninstalled and installed an older version hoping that would work.

Seems as if iTunes simply won't let me restore.

Based on that - any other suggestions?? Should I be doing this with the new SIM AT&T gave me or my original SIM.

Again, I certainly appreciate it.

does not sound good. Odd your imei changed. Mine is jailbroken and unlocked and my imei has not changed. If I toto settings, about and compare it to the one the back of my iPhone, they are identical.
try again but with other sim.
Not sure what else to do. If it won't complete the restore process than I'm not what can done.

also try lookin on the apple forums. There is some good info, perhaps there is special procedure for failed restore

i did some more looking around and found this
http://www.hacktheiphone.com/112/iph...k_windows.html
see if using Ibrick will help you fix it and i believe it can be fixed still.

Thank you, ninja_pimp. I appreciate you looking into it a bit closer for me. The site looks excellent. I'll definitely give this a try.

I wonder - at the end the step to unlock is included. Considering I don't want to unlock, should I skip that - or proceed as written. Would my AT&T SIM still actually work if the phone was unlocked? Shouldn't matter, should it?


Thank again. I'll post results here after I try it.

if ya dont need to unlock, then dont unlock it, leave that part out of it. sorry i thought you needed the kit n kaboodle.
i'm confident ibrick may get you sorted out. give it a try.

just focus on correctly the corrupted image on it and then jailbreaking it.

Since iTune failed to restore your phone I think there should be a hardware problem happed without any reason which may happen to any phone any time and has nothing to do with ringtones. I my self transfered some ringtones and have no problem. Ringtones can't change IMEI. I sugest try to convince apple it is hardware problem and they have to fix it. As long as warrenty stickers are there it is apple's responsibility to fix it. In case if they fixed it without removing warrenty stickers that will show they are fixed problem by software fixing and there was no hardware problem which you have to pay for this service but I don't think they can.