i have an iPhone 4... after several attempts with custom ipsw from snow breeze i decided to update to stock ipsw with iTunes.. got the iPhone powering on..
shows activation and gets to "Connect to iTunes" and when i do.. iTunes displays a message saying the iPhone might be damaged and can't be activates.
as an interesting note.... the phone always says "No Service", whether there is a sim card or not.
any ideas?

thanks in advance.. .

What version of iOS are you running?
What baseband is the phone running?
Do you need an unlock in order to obtain service with the SIM card you're attempting to install?
How was the phone obtained? Is it possible the IMEI is blacklisted?

Originally Posted by n1ckn4m3

What version of iOS are you running?
What baseband is the phone running?
Do you need an unlock in order to obtain service with the SIM card you're attempting to install?
How was the phone obtained? Is it possible the IMEI is blacklisted?

thanks for the reply...
i have no idea what baseband it has since .... oh wait.. i guess. since it powers on forecast should read it.. right?
the OS is 5.1.1.. since i updated the phone with the stock regular firmware through itunes..
i'm not sure on the original carrier... i do need it unlocked. but that's the least of my problems for now
and i don't know if the IMEI is blacklisted. but shouldn't i be able to activate through the ATT sim card?
as i posted. the phone always says ' No Service ' .. and not " No SIM " either with or without any SIM card.

hope this might help
BTW i have an even worse problem with a 3GS i posted on the IOS 4 section.. would you mind giving it a look?
thanks!!!!!

Depends, there's a lot of supposition in your post.

The concern with not knowing the original carrier is that it's very important for the iPhone 4. If the original carrier was Verizon, you'll never be able to use the phone for AT&T, and vice versa. Even with the 4S, though it contains both the CDMA and GSM basebands, they still haven't figured out a way to get a 3G locked (AT&T) model to work on the CDMA network, even with T-Mobile or Verizon adding the IMEI/ESN to their networks.

Past that, the baseband included in the iOS 5.1.1 update is NOT presently unlockable with ultrasn0w, the only known method to unlock it us using a Gevey SIM or Turbo SIM, and those are illegal depending on the model as some of them require you to dial 119 (or dial it automatically) to obtain service. In any case, knowing the baseband revision is needed in order to determine whether it is at all possible to unlock the device -- though I don't believe it is presently.

If it's a US phone and it's GSM locked, then there isn't an IMEI blacklist for it yet, though they're working on one. Only CDMA carriers have a blacklist in the US presently, and not all of them. You'll need to know the model number and find out exactly what phone this is before I think I'll be able to give much additional help.

I'll see what I can find in the 3GS section relating to your other problem when I can.