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How to activate iPhone 3GS without SIM

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irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
Hey guys

So i water damaged my iphone and the phone works except the sim tray doesnt fit in anymore. I took it to Apple and they said the mechanism is broken/corrosion. So i cant use the phone anymore but i wanted to use it without the phone function. Thank god the iPhone 5 is coming out.

Right now i get the message "NO SIM card installed. Insert a valid SIM with no PIN lock to activate iPhone."

I also restored and updated the phone so im assuming its running firmware 4.3.5

I tried running blackra1n but didnt work. any help guys?

Thanks!
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
eastercat said:
Hacktivate it.
Click to expand...

Link?

I was going to try to use Redsnow 0.9.6b6 with Firmware 4.2.1. Would that work? and install ipad baseline so i can install ultrasnow...would that work? Once again my SIM tray doesnt work so there is no sim card in my iPhone 3GS
 
IrishVixen

IrishVixen

macrumors 68020
Jun 20, 2010
2,497
104
irfan22 said:
Link?

I was going to try to use Redsnow 0.9.6b6 with Firmware 4.2.1. Would that work? and install ipad baseline so i can install ultrasnow...would that work? Once again my SIM tray doesnt work so there is no sim card in my iPhone 3GS
Click to expand...

If you have no sim, why install the iPad baseband or ultrasn0w? An unlocked phone still requires a working SIM. Neither of those tools is of use to you if you can't use the device as a phone due to a hardware failure.
 
Applejuiced

Applejuiced

macrumors Westmere
Apr 16, 2008
40,672
6,533
At the iPhone hacks section.
IrishVixen said:
If you have no sim, why install the iPad baseband or ultrasn0w? An unlocked phone still requires a working SIM. Neither of those tools is of use to you if you can't use the device as a phone due to a hardware failure.
Click to expand...

I was going to say the same.
Unlock it for what? You cant stick a sim in it anyway.
You think there's a software hack that will magically fix your hardware and water damage?
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
Sorry i think i need to clarity. I wanna use the iPhone as a iPod Touch. I know my phone capabilities are broken. I wanna sync my music and my apps. How would i do that?

Ok so i googled hacktivate and discovered a program called green pois0n. Will that let allow me to use my iPhone as an iPod?
 
IrishVixen

IrishVixen

macrumors 68020
Jun 20, 2010
2,497
104
I think the only jailbreak for 4.3.5 is the tethered redsn0w one. Greenpoison was from quite a few firmware revisions back now.
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
ok so i used this video to hacktivate it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H4La0ukGHM

Is there a version of redsnow for firmware 4.3.5 with baseband of 05.16.02-6.4_M3S2?

I tried using redsnow 0.9.8b4 with firmware 4.3.4 then check marked deactivate and it still doesnt work.
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
OK I tried using redsn0w redsn0w 0.9.8b7b which looks to be the latest version and it recognizes 4.3.5 firmware. So i check marked deactivate and I said No to having a newer iPhone 3GS model.....still doesnt work. Really need some advice. i have the latest version of iTunes 10.4

Thanks for all the help
 
Last edited:
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
spent probably five hours on this... if anyone out there has any idea i would really appreciate it.
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
Crystal-RX said:
Jailbreak for 4.3.5 will be a tethered jailbreaked. Why don't you downgrade it to 4.1, then jailbreak it with Redsn0w.

you can get instruction on how to jailbreak your iphone from http://www.Iclarified.com
Click to expand...

I would love to downgrade so i could hackivate it but I dont have any shsh blobs files saved. Is it still possible to do?

I tried creating a custom IPSW with snoWbreeze and clicked hackivate and got itunes error 1600 when i tried restoring
 
MaxBurn

MaxBurn

macrumors 65816
Nov 25, 2010
1,453
337
Take it apart and fix your hardware problem, have a complete working phone again. I have seen sim trays, slots, the gold contact fingers etc for sale, pretty much whatever you would need.
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
MaxBurn said:
Take it apart and fix your hardware problem, have a complete working phone again. I have seen sim trays, slots, the gold contact fingers etc for sale, pretty much whatever you would need.
Click to expand...

I really dont feel comfortable taking the phone a part and replacing parts. Also, I plan on getting the iPhone 5 when it comes out. I just wanna hackitvate my phone so i could use the iPod and apps.

If anyone else has any helpful hints i would greatly appreciate it. Once again I'm running 4.3.5 and would like to activiate the phone. I'll downgrade to 4.1 or whatever so the device works.
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
Thank GOD finally! Apple is still signing 4.1 so just restoring now and hopefully will be able to hackivate with redsn0w.. Wish me luck!
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
ok folks i feel like im close. I'm now on firmware 4.1 running with a baseline of 05.16.02 on my iPhone 3GS

How would I hackivate this device? which version of redsn0w would I need? Do i need to change the baseline?
 
Last edited:
awadeee

awadeee

macrumors 68020
Jan 21, 2011
2,146
0
Canada
irfan22 said:
ok folks i feel like im close. I'm now on firmware 4.1 running with a baseline of 05.16.02 on my iPhone 3GS

How would I hackivate this device? which version of redsn0w would I need? Do i need to change the baseline?
Click to expand...

Baseband. Please.

I believe you can use either sn0wbreeze or pwnagetool to create a custom 4.1 IPSW that is pre-activated. :) I might be wrong though, this was a long time ago.
 
Crystal-RX

Crystal-RX

macrumors 68030
Dec 22, 2008
2,691
0
Seattle, WA USA
irfan22 said:
I would love to downgrade so i could hackivate it but I dont have any shsh blobs files saved. Is it still possible to do?

I tried creating a custom IPSW with snoWbreeze and clicked hackivate and got itunes error 1600 when i tried restoring
Click to expand...

I will not propose this to you if I know it is not going to work. For some reasons, Apple is still signing 4.1 for 3GS, so wrap it while you can.
 
I

irfan22

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2009
117
16
OK guys it worked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally! Thanks to every single one of you who helped me out. Really appreciate it!
 
H

h4lp m3

macrumors 6502a
Jun 29, 2011
500
45
New Orleans
JASC said:
Could you recap how you did it please?
Click to expand...

this is macrumors and it works like this:
  • OP asks a question.
  • people answer with things like "google it" or "you noob!"
  • OP figures it out and doen't tell how.
  • You go to Google and search for "How to activate iPhone 3GS without SIM" and this is the first thing page.
  • sorry. u got pwn3d. :(
 
R

rebhaf

macrumors member
Aug 25, 2005
79
0
Pretty insane

It's pretty insane that Apple products are so complicated. Honestly, all I want is for this annoying "Locked SIM" message to go away. I want to give my old iPhone 3GS to my daughter to play Angry Birds -- that's it! She gets "Locked SIM" messages popping up on her all the time. So I take the SIM card out and now she's getting messages saying she doesn't have one. Freakin' Apple.
 
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