Hey,

So it's a bit hard finding information on iPhone 3G since it's an old phone.
Dead links to patches, outdated guides with missing images etc...

So here's the deal.

My girlfriend lost her phone and wanted to use her old iPhone 3G (1st Gen device)
Please note, it's not a 3GS.

This phone was unlocked to use with all carriers and Jailbreaked.
She connected to iTunes and chose to update.

You all know what happened (and if you don't you don't need to read further )

So, she followed some guides and tried to jailbreak it again.
She repeated the process many times with many different firmware versions.

In the end, she got it working (somewhat) but it was really sluggish and any time something was animated the screen flickered. The SIM wouldn't get any reception either.

So I told her I could probably help her out. However... Someone said "Just restore the phone by connecting it in DFU mode". So this was done.

Now, I can't check anything in the phone and I don't get anywhere with anything.
I'm struggling in the dark here!

I've managed to find a site with a bunch of firmware for download. But from my understanding, all those jailbreaking attempts she did before might have changed the baseband etc... I have no idea how to get into the phone and check anything (current firmware version or baseband).

So... Is the hone fucked?

Ok, first you go and do a DFU restore. Once it is back into total stock, you go to the download section and find the redsn0w version you need or any other tool you tried to find, they are all there

Than you rejailbreak it and it should be back to working. Instead of unlocking, you said the phone is rather old. Call your carrier, if the phone has a certain age, most of them unlock it if you dig a bit deeper. Try this first! Good luck!

Originally Posted by sam

Ok, first you go and do a DFU restore.

Done

Originally Posted by sam

Once it is back into total stock, you go to the download section and find the redsn0w version you need or any other tool you tried to find, they are all there

Ok, so which one do I need?

Originally Posted by sam

Instead of unlocking, you said the phone is rather old. Call your carrier, if the phone has a certain age, most of them unlock it if you dig a bit deeper. Try this first! Good luck!

I forgot to say, this phone was bought second hand from another country and there is no way of finding out which the original carrier is/was.

Originally Posted by sam

Than you rejailbreak it and it should be back to working.

I don't know what the original firmware is, I don't know what the current firmware is, I don't know what the original baseband is and I don't know what the current baseband is. I can't get further than "Slide for Emergency call" or whatever it says on the screen (indicates the phone needed to be activated if I didn't misunderstand the info from some post I read somewhere).

OK so I just figured out the correct firmware is 4.2.1 (ofcourse) since I did the DFU Restore (iTunes updated)

But I need to unlock the carrier lock... Either way, that shouldn't be too complicated. Thanks for your time man!

here is the NEW UNLOCK as of June 4, 2012...

iPhone Dev-Team Updates UltraSn0w to Support Unlocked Basebands on iOS 5.1.1

There is a new unlock available via Cydia but it is actually not supporting new baseband version, that isn't needed anyways since he can't got that far up on a 3G