I made this thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/891857/ yesterday describing my problem with the spinning wheel of death that happened when some idiot tried to restore my jailbroken iphone 3g then interrupted the process halfway through. I spent HOURS trying to find a solution and wound up having to piece together solutions from many different people and finally found a working solution.
So if your iphone is doing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9rGnWmVvc in an endless cycle and doesn't respond to anything (until it dies, then begs to be charged >:|) then here's what you do:
1. plug your iphone into your computer and be near something that counts seconds (clock with a second hand?)
2. watch your phone. every 10 minutes exactly the circle will load all the way then blink quickly (not too quickly that u can't notice) and then the apple logo will pop back up and the spinning logo will start loading again. watch what time it does this and 10 minutes from then be prepared
3. keep your fingers on the wake/sleep button when it's almost time for it to start over. AS SOON as it blinks, push/hold the wake/sleep button and the home button together for exactly 10 seconds, wake/sleep button FIRST
4. you will know it works when the logo pops back up like its about to do it again but then the screen goes black. now this is crucial. while you might want to pay attention to the screen, keep your attention to how many seconds you're holding the buttons. it needs to be 10 seconds from the point u pushed both buttons, NOT 10 seconds from when the screen goes black.
5. release the wake/sleep button after the 10 seconds but continue to hold the home button. at this point your computer SHOULD recognize your iphone within a few seconds and you can do a restore. if it doesn't, there's a possibility it didn't catch, the way it sometimes does when you normally try to put it in DFU mode and you will need to try the process again. time consuming I know, but it worked for my 3g.
This video really helped http://www.youtube.com/user/fuhaoz but its for an iphone 2g.
hopefully this helps someone and saves them the 13 hours i spent trying to find a way to fix mine! good luck!
So if your iphone is doing this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO9rGnWmVvc in an endless cycle and doesn't respond to anything (until it dies, then begs to be charged >:|) then here's what you do:
1. plug your iphone into your computer and be near something that counts seconds (clock with a second hand?)
2. watch your phone. every 10 minutes exactly the circle will load all the way then blink quickly (not too quickly that u can't notice) and then the apple logo will pop back up and the spinning logo will start loading again. watch what time it does this and 10 minutes from then be prepared
3. keep your fingers on the wake/sleep button when it's almost time for it to start over. AS SOON as it blinks, push/hold the wake/sleep button and the home button together for exactly 10 seconds, wake/sleep button FIRST
4. you will know it works when the logo pops back up like its about to do it again but then the screen goes black. now this is crucial. while you might want to pay attention to the screen, keep your attention to how many seconds you're holding the buttons. it needs to be 10 seconds from the point u pushed both buttons, NOT 10 seconds from when the screen goes black.
5. release the wake/sleep button after the 10 seconds but continue to hold the home button. at this point your computer SHOULD recognize your iphone within a few seconds and you can do a restore. if it doesn't, there's a possibility it didn't catch, the way it sometimes does when you normally try to put it in DFU mode and you will need to try the process again. time consuming I know, but it worked for my 3g.
This video really helped http://www.youtube.com/user/fuhaoz but its for an iphone 2g.
hopefully this helps someone and saves them the 13 hours i spent trying to find a way to fix mine! good luck!
