HELP iPhone 4 valid sim problem!

Hi,

On my recent trip to Moscow I bought an iPhone 4 from an unofficial shop and it was unlocked, but then I used the Restore function on iTunes and now I get this message:

No sim card installed - insert valid sim with no pin lock

I guess this shop was selling originaly locked iPhones and by restoring it the original lock came into action. What should I do? I have no idea what operator the phone was bought off, and I dont know which software version it is running on right now as Itunes doesn't let me do anything.

I've searched the forums and possible sollutions that I've found are Gevey sims, but I read that they aren't always successful in solving the problem.

Are there easier ways to solve this? I am willing to pay someone if he can unlock it.

Thanks

Applejuiced said:

No much you can do, you bought a locked iphone probably JB and unlocked with ultrasnow.
When you restored the baseband got updated and the unlock is gone.
Only thing you can use now is a gevey sim but that wont work either after 5.0 is out.
You should have purchased an official unlocked iphone from an Apple store instead.

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So after 5.0 is out, if I don't upgrade to it, will I still be able to use it with a gevey sim?

Applejuiced said:

Yes.
Not sure how you will be able to initially activate it though to get to the homescreen in order to use Gevey.
Not sure if gevey will activate the phone with an unofficial sim.

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Ok, they are quite cheap so I guess its worth a try.

Can't believe its so easy to brick an iphone.

Applejuiced said:

You didnt brick it, you just restored it to original firmware and in a non-JB state.
Its still usable and far from a brick. If you knew what carrier its locked to it will still accept and work with any of its locked carriers sims.

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That will be a hard task. I'll try and contact the store that I bought it from.
If I could find out the carrier and get a sim, would I be able to unlock it?

Applejuiced said:

No.
It cannot be unlock any more besides using the gevey.
The sim will only activate it so you can use the gevey.
But without the gevey the phone will not accept any other sim but the company it's locked to.

Click to expand...

Thanks for clearing everything up for me. I will try to get a refund.

Looks like I am kind of lucky after all!

I found a russian carrier sim card that I used in my old phone when I was in russia, cut it to fit the microsim dimensions and when I put it in the iphone I got the same message but a button saying activate appeared.
It asked for the sim card pin, after I entered it the phone unlocked! I restored the phone from the backup file on itunes and everything works just fine.

I don't have another microsim or spare sim card to check if it will work on my current operator, is there another way to see if it is locked?