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Huusoku

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 16, 2014
6
0
Hello MacRumors forum!

Long time lurching, first time posting! haha Well, I'd like to laugh, but today sucks. My phone gave itself a heart attack and bought it's own farm yesterday, so I've registered to seek some help on this. Here goes-

(originally posted yesterday & requested to move to my own thread):

What happened: My 2-month old iPhone 5S bricked itself this morning on my way to work.

Background: Verizon CDMA 32GB 5S Spacegray Jailbroken the day I bought it on iOS 7.0.4 with only a handful of Cydia apps installed (SSLPatch, Multitasking Gestures, a few NC tweaks, MyWi, Flex, Springtomize 3, iCleaner, F.lux, and that's about it...), nothing too crazy as I like to keep my phone somewhat minimalistic, streamlined and organized for performance. I always fully close apps when not in use to conserve RAM. I've yet to drop the phone. It lives in an "elago S5" bumper case. I bought the phone outright (~$850) so I can keep my unlimited data plan (last month I used 23 GB so it will pay for itself before the end of summer).

What exactly happened: I was in the drive thu at a Starbucks with my phone plugged into my car radio's line-in headphone jack and charging on my Belkin 1amp USB/cigarette charger with a full 100% charge. I only had two apps open: Waze navigation (active app) and TuneInRadio (running in background). I got bored, hit the home button, launched my Facebook app, and the moment the familar blue Facebook loading screen appeared the phone just turned off. Everything, music died, it just instantly powered off. I heard short static sound on my car speakers as if I had unplugged the headphone cable. All I did was tap on the Facebook app and about 2 secs later it turned off. Temperature in my car was cool, maybe in the mid-60s. Phone was securely mounted in a car mount. None of the wires were in tension, wires are not bent, Belkin adapter never runs excessively hot, I hardly had any voltage draw on the car (headlights were off, windows were down so no blower fan, et cetera).

What have I done: I've spent most of today messing with my phone and reading forums ... nothing is working. I first wondered if the battery had lost 100% of it's charge. So when I got to work I plugged it in for 2 hrs without touching it. Nothing. Nothing appears on the screen, it's black, switching to silent mode does not vibrate the phone, it is as if it is entirely turned off. If I plug the phone into my computer with the newest version of iTunes open, it detects my phone (I hear my Windows 7's Device Connected sound) and a pop-up appears saying my phone is in recovery mode. Holding the Power button + Home button for about 6 seconds triggers the Device Disconnected sound, and when you release the buttons about 4 seconds later I get the Device Connected sound from my computer and iTunes pops-up the same message, "...detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used with iTunes." I've even held the buttons for 3 solid minutes and a few seconds after releasing the buttons the computer detects the device and iTunes detects a recovery mode iPhone.

Holding the + volume button while doing this makes no difference (I know that only applies if the phone is actually booting). I've tried all four buttons simultaneously, nothing. The screen remains black. Haven't seen the Apple logo since the last time I resprung the phone maybe a week ago. I can't even notice that the display is even powering up, ie. I don't see any contrast change on the crystal display even. The screen is not cracked, at 2 months old its still in near-mint condition apart from dust and pocket lint on the case.

Why am I posting here: I've been a Jailbreaker since I got my first iPhone in 2011 and this is the first time I've ever had this happen. I don't think it's related to my jailbreak. But I'm posting here because if this is a hardware issue, what do I need to be aware of if I go to an Apple store? I've never even been inside an Apple store before (bought my phone from a Verizon store). I assume they will ask me if it's been Jailbroken, and I'd like to say no because I don't believe this is related to Jb, but I also don't want to lie.

My Question: What options do I have? Will they warranty hardware if they know it is jailbroken? Software can't break hardware, right? So how could jailbreak void the hardware warranty? I am a ethical guy and I knew the risks involved in Jb'ing a long time ago. So I don't want to lie about it. It's not like I've installed a million apps & themes (I've never even installed Winterboard in my entire Jb experience). It's just that I've forked over a lot of cash and it's only 2 months old. If their hardware failed, I'd appreciate it if they'd replace the failed hardware. Is a 2-month warranty too much to ask?


Other notes:
In iTunes after I close the prompt saying my phone is in recovery mode, I have the option to Restore the phone, but this will updated me to iOS 7.1 which means NO JAILBREAK and because I tether for work using MyWi (which is why my data usage is so high) I live by my Jb.

I ran Tiny Umbrella that reports "DFU Device connected" in the console log, and 'Enter Recovery' & 'Exit Recovery' are both grayed out, but 'Fix Recovery' is available. So I hit Fix Recovery and the log says "Attempting to fix ... Starting fix sequence ... Recovery finished ... Allow device to reboot!" But it never reboots. It just sits there, dead, for more than half an hour. I've done this about 10 times. Nothing.

I've read about all the dreaded 14xx and 16xx iTunes recovery errors and while I've not yet tried iTunes' Recovery feature -- because I don't want to be forced to upgrade to iOS 7.1 & loose my Jb -- I'm assuming I'll encounter these errors if I did try....

Never been dropped, never been in water, never been taken apart, has had solid battery life and runs like a top, pampered by someone who really cares about his expensive electronic device ... Should I take it in to an Apple store and see what they say? Do they have nice corporate Apple tools similar to iREB or Tiny Umbrella that can kick the device out of the recovery mode?

Many many thanks to anyone's help! I am not going to touch my phone any further until I figure out a game plan on what to do next (ie. don't want to do something drastic I'll regret later when I'm not pressed on time at the moment).

Regards,
Huusoku

----------

I originally posted to a different thread in this forum and received some feedback. I never meant to hijack that other thread but it's precisely what I did. I was kindly asked to move all my posts to a new thread, so here comes additional dialog originally posted from yesterday:

You may have to lose your jb if you want your phone back. You could restore, sell and buy another that can be jb

10-4. I'm slowing coming to reality with this. It's going to be a serious blow to me. If it wasn't for Jb I wouldn't even have gotten my first iPhone.

How about what to expect at the Apple Store? Do they do the repairs on-site or do they mail the phone off? I still have my old trusty Jailbroke iP4 on iOS 5.1.1 and I'm going to reactivate it when I get home tonight.

LTE... A7 chip... You were AMAZING while you lasted.

Maybe before I attempt the Apple store I will swallow my pride and just run the iTunes Restore feature and attempt to repair the phone myself. Maybe I'll get lucky and it will boot right up (on Jb-less iOS 7.1). Come to think about it, it's possible the Apple Store will tell me to try to restore it myself before they will want to help me (won't they want me to do as much leg work as possible before giving up?)...

Hmmmmmm It's a strange feeling. I am so incredibly fortunate to have such a nice phone that works so perfectly for me ... but at the same time it's so unfortunate how this happened. I'd rather it have died from something I did, not from just launching a regular AppStore app.

Huusoku

--

I would say you're actual best scenario is that the phone still crashes after a restore. That way you can take it in to the apple store without worry and get a replacement. Still have a decent chance of getting on JBable iOS.

That really sucks though. Definitely doesn't sound like anything you did.
This is very good advice, thank you.

So I called Verizon when I got home and I'm now replying to this thread with my old 32gb iP4. Man talk about nostalgia! The memories I have with this phone. It's Cydia has 32 available updates! Haha

The Verizon rep and I discussed my situation and they'd like to send me out a refurbished replacement for free. I was really happy for this!

But before I do that, I explained how I might as well try to restore my current phn because he said a replacement would come with iOS 7.1 (he never asked so I never mentioned I am Jb'n) plus I'd rather keep my current phn since I'm the original owner (means something to me).

But Tmlfan3... Good point, it may not even work even after restoring. He added all my notes to my file so if I call back they will be ready to just ship me a replacement. Thanks Verizon for the great service ... but bummed my precious phone might be a defect.

So do we have any hope that iOS 7.1 will be Jb? Does the community suspect that pod2g or MuscleNerd is gonna Jb 7.1 on their own?

I'm glad I'm taking my time on this. Gonna sleep on it and hopefully feel more relaxed at leaving the Jb world for a while. Man did I just type that sentence or what :'( Sux

Huusoku

--

If you go into the Apple store with a phone that won't boot up and is in recovery mode they will either:

  • Connect it to a store computer and restore the phone (bringing you to 7.1 and no JB)
  • See that the phone won't boot and they may offer you a replacement because it is so new (which may be on iOS 7.1 or it may be on an earlier version... you may or may not be able to JB based on the software version)

For comparison's sake... I had a replacement iphone 5 (GSM 64gb) on Saturday that came with 7.0.4... attempted to JB (and Apple or previous user of the phone must have OTA updated) because it went into a boot loop...
I took this replacement phone back to Apple on Tuesday and got yet another replacement phone... this one was on 6.0.4?!? So you never really know what version replacement phones will contain...

ivandr,

Thank you for the information on what to expect at an Apple Store. I think I'll go through with Verizon shipping me a phone (if I can't recover mine, and I won't have to go find an Apple Store [I don't think we have one in my city]).

Getting a replacement with an older iOS... Hopefully 7.04 or 7.06, this would definitely be a best case scenario and something to keep my fingers crossed for (the guy told me the replacement would ship with 7.1 but he wasn't sure on other detailed questions so I'm hopeful he is wrong on this).

Still have a decent chance of getting on JBable iOS.
Now I see what Tmlfan3 was talking about here.

I forgot how bad my old iP4 battery life was. Been updating apps for a few hrs and it's already down to 28% at only 9am here. Sheesh.

Gonna attempt to restore my 5S on my lunch break. Wish me luck! (however I realize that if it's successful I'll be non-Jb on iOS 7.1 and there is a possibility the phone may randomly crash again. Love-hate at the moment...)

Regards,
Huusoku

----------

:apple:




Which brings me to today.

I just tried iTunes' restore feature and while paying careful attention as the download of iOS 7.1 had completed, my phone suddenly turned on with the Apple logo and I immediately unplugged it from the computer.

I was mainly curious to know if the screen or motherboard or CPU was broken or not but it looks like as far as computing and sending data to the screen it's A-OKAY.

I cancelled the Restore process on iTunes and reconnected my phone ... sure enough same prompt appears that my phone is in "recovery mode" & Tiny Umbrella detects "DFU Device connected." Also I can hold Pwr+Home and my laptop will play the Device Disconnected then Connected sounds just as before. So the phone seems to be back at square one, detectable by my laptop in Recovery Mode.

So, it "feels" like I'm at an impasse, I mean surely it's an impasse, but all the while if iTunes is able to modify and work with my phone (so it "appears" thus far, ie. the phone is at least responsive and its display is now proved to be working), then why can't we use our own software to access the phone and save it's life from this recovery/DFU mode?

My question is, is there anything under the sun that I haven't thought of to try to kick it out of Recovery Mode? iTunes is able to fix it. Why can't we (very smart programmers)?

Pending any replies, I'll be forced to just run the actual Restore process and be forced out of my Jailbreak. I know this is my phone's fate, I just want to be absolutely sure before I pull the trigger on the restore process.

Thanks for helping and for being patient with me. I'm not in an extreme hurry to get it fixed, which is why I'm being overly(?) cautious. Whatever happens will happen, it's just not going to be fun owning a non-Jb phone.

Regards,
Huusoku
 
Last edited:

darricksailo

macrumors 601
Dec 18, 2012
4,353
113
As far as I'm aware of, all the tools used to kick your phone out of recovery mode relies on the use of a bootrom exploit. That's why I believe it won't work on your 5S

From personal experience, the 3GS has been the only device I've successfully kicked out of recovery mode (never dealt with a 4 before)

Last year when my iPhone 5 crashed all of a sudden and entered "restore" mode upon booting up (meaning it had the progress bar under the apple logo as if I was restoring; it was plugged into the wall charger at the time though and ever since, I've been paranoid about having the lightning cable plugged in whenever my phone crashes randomly)

None of the tools to kick out of recovery mode worked. Fortunately, I could still restore to a jailbreakable firmware at the time
 

Totally

macrumors 6502a
Feb 22, 2012
744
261
West Coast = Best Coast
My personal guess? Something software related happened. I highly doubt it's hardware related because your device connects to itunes and it says to restore.

Just my $0.02.
 

dhlizard

macrumors G4
Mar 16, 2009
10,214
119
The Jailbreak Community
Honestly, I read just one sentence from your "novel".

Only a sudden hardware failure can brick a newer iPhone. If the phone will not restore (did you also try getting it into DFU mode) then it will require being replaced.
 
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