Hi All,

A newbie here in need of some help. I've been reading this forum for some while for simular problems but can't seem to find any that is related to my problem.

Anyways, I have a iphone 3gs 16gb, on original 4.2.1 FW not been jailbroken and on original Baseband 5.xx.xx - I do not have the shsh saved.

Now onto the problem:
Iphone doesn't turn on, screen is black. When plugged into the computer it detects the iphone in DFU mode. - I have tried rebooting the iphone by pressing the home button and the power button for 10secs but doesn't want to reboot.

So i then try restoring to 4.1 FW in itunes in hope of it being restored and booting up again.

I hold down shift + press restore in tunes to select a FW, i then choose my 4.1 restore FW, during the process the screen turns white and then itunes returns a Error 21. - which i believe is referring to incorrect mode, even though the iphone is being detected as DFU when plugged in

Can someone suggest any taughts?


Many Thanks

Regards
Jal.

You should not be trying to restore an iOS revision you don't have an SHSH for -- the absolute BEST circumstance is that your device reboots, unchanged. The worst circumstance is that you kick yourself into recovery mode and cannot get out unless you restore the current iOS revision.

The short answer is that nothing you do without an SHSH will successfully restore 4.1 to the device, and by attempting to restore the firmware, you may have blown away your only chance of getting the partial SHSH blobs that reside on the device.

Before doing anything else, I recommend (if the phone can be powered back on and booted), that you do so, and run iFaith in attempt to grab the partial iBEC/iBSS / SHSH from the device -- these files will allow you to restore successfully back to iOS 4.2.1 using TinyUmbrella. If you can't get the partial SHSH blobs, your only choice right now is to restore to 4.3.5 and have the tethered jailbreak.

Not to make bad worse, but this is very specifically why almost all of the mods here recommend you read first and restore second. It would have been a lot easier to fix this if you were still running 4.2.1 without trying to restore, or without being stuck in DFU mode, etc. Especially since the advent of the SHSH, it's very, very important to look before you leap when it involves restoring. You may have just made it so that you can only restore to 4.3.5 and only use with a tethered jb...

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

You should not be trying to restore an iOS revision you don't have an SHSH for -- the absolute BEST circumstance is that your device reboots, unchanged. The worst circumstance is that you kick yourself into recovery mode and cannot get out unless you restore the current iOS revision.

The short answer is that nothing you do without an SHSH will successfully restore 4.1 to the device, and by attempting to restore the firmware, you may have blown away your only chance of getting the partial SHSH blobs that reside on the device.

Before doing anything else, I recommend (if the phone can be powered back on and booted), that you do so, and run iFaith in attempt to grab the partial iBEC/iBSS / SHSH from the device -- these files will allow you to restore successfully back to iOS 4.2.1 using TinyUmbrella. If you can't get the partial SHSH blobs, your only choice right now is to restore to 4.3.5 and have the tethered jailbreak.

Not to make bad worse, but this is very specifically why almost all of the mods here recommend you read first and restore second. It would have been a lot easier to fix this if you were still running 4.2.1 without trying to restore, or without being stuck in DFU mode, etc. Especially since the advent of the SHSH, it's very, very important to look before you leap when it involves restoring. You may have just made it so that you can only restore to 4.3.5 and only use with a tethered jb...

Thanks for your reply.

I've tried your suggestion with iFaith, i've had no luck with that, it just doesn't shift when downloading.

I will now try to restore with 4.3.5 FW as you say, do i restore with custom 4.3.5 FW or original 4.3.5 restore?

Thanks

Regards
Jal.

If you're NOT worried about unlocking, you can restore a stock 4.3.5 and then jailbreak (tethered) with the most recent redsn0w. I do not believe there is a version of PwnageTool that will create a custom ipsw of 4.3.5 yet, but admittedly it's been a while since I have worked directly with a 3GS, so I may just be overlooking it. If you're worried about unlocking, there is another option but it's very not recommended, so I'm not going to detail it here unless it's absolutely necessary for you. If it is, let me know and I'll post about it, but I can't stress enough that it's an absolute last-ditch method and not something that most people want to do. It can't be un-done, and it permanently changes how you have to work with your iPhone during restores (you *always* would have to use a custom firmware to restore in the future).

In any case, once you've got 4.3.5 running, be sure and grab your 4.3.5 SHSH files. Having a tethered jailbreak can really be a nuisance, but keeping the SHSH should at least solidify your ability to restore back to 4.3.5 in the future in case they push further updates before iOS 5.0 releases.

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

If you're NOT worried about unlocking, you can restore a stock 4.3.5 and then jailbreak (tethered) with the most recent redsn0w. I do not believe there is a version of PwnageTool that will create a custom ipsw of 4.3.5 yet, but admittedly it's been a while since I have worked directly with a 3GS, so I may just be overlooking it. If you're worried about unlocking, there is another option but it's very not recommended, so I'm not going to detail it here unless it's absolutely necessary for you. If it is, let me know and I'll post about it, but I can't stress enough that it's an absolute last-ditch method and not something that most people want to do. It can't be un-done, and it permanently changes how you have to work with your iPhone during restores (you *always* would have to use a custom firmware to restore in the future).

In any case, once you've got 4.3.5 running, be sure and grab your 4.3.5 SHSH files. Having a tethered jailbreak can really be a nuisance, but keeping the SHSH should at least solidify your ability to restore back to 4.3.5 in the future in case they push further updates before iOS 5.0 releases.

Thanks for your advise, but it won't let me restore to 4.3.5 either. Looks like its probably a hardware issue - my last resort is to remove the battery for couple of mins and then try a restore, see if that helps at all.

What error do you get when you try and restore 4.3.5? That *should* work for you in just about any case. Give this a read: http://www.hackint0sh.org/f137/130802.htm

Then let us know the error you're getting, and post your restore logs for us as detailed in the post. I'm sure we can get this working.

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

What error do you get when you try and restore 4.3.5? That *should* work for you in just about any case. Give this a read: http://www.hackint0sh.org/f137/130802.htm

Then let us know the error you're getting, and post your restore logs for us as detailed in the post. I'm sure we can get this working.

log text is too big whats the best way to report on here?

Put it on pastebin or something, the forum post links to a few places you can paste long code snippets online. Use one of them and drop a link into the post and we'll review.

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

Put it on pastebin or something, the forum post links to a few places you can paste long code snippets online. Use one of them and drop a link into the post and we'll review.

Thanks - heres the log:

2011-09-07 18:36:03.078 [1608:17e4]: restore library built Feb 7 2011 at 06:28: - Pastebin.com

I'm still reviewing, but initially, Error 20 is usually related to network security software or virus detection / malware detection software interfering with the restore process. Take a quick peek here while I'm still digging to see if this can help:

iTunes for Windows: Troubleshooting security software issues

A lot of other people with the same errors (Error 20 / Error 1604) can be resolved by switching computers, switching USB ports on the computer, or switching cables that you're using to sync. Back when 3.0 came out, a lot of cheap cables that people got from Meritline were unable to restore 3.0 to their phones, even though they worked for everything else. Try a different USB port, cable, or computer and let us know as well.