My friend asked me to try fix her iPhone 3G and heres whats happening:

- Usually nothing happens when power button is pressed, unless its plugged in
- when plugged in, the apple logo appears as if it going to boot but then fades away after about 10 seconds...causing the device to turn off with some faint trace of the logo on the screen.
- I managed to get it to restore mode by holding the home button and then plugging in the cable(it did not fade from this). However when trying to restore(to any fw), it consistently gives error 23 and does not progress past "preparing iphone to restore"
- I managed to get it to what appears to be dfu mode(windows detects it as dfu device, black screen, detected in itunes), however, if I plug it out and in again it goes back to its own fading apple logo self. Correct me if I'm wrong but I didn't think it was possible to come out of DFU without restoring. Also in this mode I get error 23 at the exact same point.
- I tried running both redsn0w and blackra1n when the device was in restore mode....the geohot logo(/jailbreak data message + image) appeared but both faded similar to the apple logo within seconds

I have basically accepted at this point that there is some hardware at fault(it definitely was not dropped or anything...this issue seems to be spontaneous) but I would appreciate any suggestions to confirm or deny this suspicion.

Now to the real issue. It is under warranty but before the problem presented itself it was both jailbroken and unlocked.

If anybody has any suggestions as to how I could manage a restore or wipe it in any way it would be much appreciated.

James

I have the same problem as you I hope someone have a solution. I have a lot of contacts and text messages in there that is not in my sim

Originally Posted by jtreanor

Also in this mode I get error 23 at the exact same point.
- I tried running both redsn0w and blackra1n when the device was in restore mode....the geohot logo(/jailbreak data message + image) appeared but both faded similar to the apple logo within seconds

I have basically accepted at this point that there is some hardware at fault(it definitely was not dropped or anything...this issue seems to be spontaneous) but I would appreciate any suggestions to confirm or deny this suspicion.

Now to the real issue. It is under warranty but before the problem presented itself it was both jailbroken and unlocked.

If anybody has any suggestions as to how I could manage a restore or wipe it in any way it would be much appreciated.

Without you posting restore logs - http://www.hackint0sh.org/f137/130802.htm it's hard to diagnose properly.

However error 23 after restore has always pointed to a hardware problem with the radio/GSM part of the phone. Apple will replace the iPhone for you under warranty (for a 3G you would probably need to have taken out AppleCare)

There is an existing thread http://www.hackint0sh.org/f203/104422.htm that explains how to get a restore to succeed on a device that has error 23. Does not fix the hardware issue but does remove any trace of jailbreak etc.

Originally Posted by 09hoe

I have the same problem as you I hope someone have a solution. I have a lot of contacts and text messages in there that is not in my sim

I highly doubt you have the exact same problem. The original poster seems to have a combination of multiple problems. Lets hope you don't have the hardware one.

There are a number of ways to get your data back.

1. If you sync to your computer often, your data is probably in the backup that iTunes makes
2. If your problem is as I suspect due to Rock.app and it's poor package management - then there are redsn0w based fixes.
3. Ramdisk/SSH Mostly iPhone hacking: Working iPhone recovery ramdisk with SSH ;-)
4. Trick an upgrade to the same version (instead of a restore)
   Mostly iPhone hacking: Data recovery: not just for iBoot-pwned devices