3G jailbroken - not recognized by almost anything

[eddyeddy22]

Hey everybody!

Trying to see if I can get some support from this fine community - been reading it forever, first time posting.

I jailbroke my 3G a few months ago and enjoyed the added features a lot. Unfortunately the novelty wore off quickly because the phone started to get considerably slower. Now it lags a lot and I barely use it for anything but phone and txt - and txts have become extremely laggy.

I want to restore my phone but its gotten to the point that no PCs or Macs recognize it when it is plugged in and it won't even charge through USB-PC. In fact many third party wall outlet cables no longer work. Only one does and thank god or else I wouldn't be able to charge my unit. I know its not a physical issue because when the phone dies completely it does charge from USB but only until it gets enough juice to power up, then it stops charging.

I am going to try to SSH into it tonight and get all my photos and stuff off and then I am willing to try anything to restore my phone to normal.

Any ideas?

Cheers,
J

 

[Crystal-RX]

Can you try to clean up the charging dock on the phone and see if it helps? may be that the problem when dusts get in there over time and it doesn't make any contact with the cable.

 

[hfletcher]

Maybe try General>Reset then Erase all Content and Settings? (Obviously make sure everything backed up, etc).
Though your firmware will still be JB'd after doing that. Try putting your iPhone into DFU mode, then plugging into iTunes. http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=1034

DFU mode allows the phone to turn on without loading the OS, so it might work

 

[eddyeddy22]

Can you try to clean up the charging dock on the phone and see if it helps? may be that the problem when dusts get in there over time and it doesn't make any contact with the cable.

Thanks for the quick reply guys.

I know its not a physical issue because when the phone dies completely it does charge from USB but only until it gets enough juice to power up, then it stops charging from PC. So its obviously something with the OS.

I'll try DFU mode tonight. Just wondering though, I am sure if I reset from the phone, it will stop functionning basically until restore but now I am super scared that I may brick it if the reset pretty much ruins is and then it doens't get recognized by my PC I'm fried!

 

[hfletcher]

I'm not sure what happens exactly on hitting the reset button. Though it must be something..!

DFU mode is your safest bet. If the software is already dodgy, you don't really have much to lose. Anyway, if it gets completely mucked up just take it to the apple store. I'm guessing they wouldn't say "Oh, but you Jailbreaked it, too bad"(?). They might be able to restore it back to normal software.

 

[eddyeddy22]

I'm not sure what happens exactly on hitting the reset button. Though it must be something..!

DFU mode is your safest bet. If the software is already dodgy, you don't really have much to lose. Anyway, if it gets completely mucked up just take it to the apple store. I'm guessing they wouldn't say "Oh, but you Jailbreaked it, too bad"(?). They might be able to restore it back to normal software.

good point! Yeah I couldn't believe how I was treated at the store when I told them my phone is jailbroken. Felt like a leper! But if I just muck it up beyond recognition I could then maybe get them to perform their magic.

 

[eddyeddy22]

Just as I thought. I can't get into DFU mode because even though the cable connects the iphone to the pc, there is absolutely no transfer of anything. Remember it won't even charge from pc unless the phone dies completely and even then it will only charge while its in that DFU-style charging (ie screen is all black and grey and has a low res battery logo). Once iOS boots it stops charging. So here is where this starts getting tricky.

 

[eddyeddy22]

I just turned auto-lock off and turned on bluetooth and cranked brightness to drain the battery. Perhaps when it gets to that charging screen I could quickly get it to DFU then.... probably not because I can't boot from not iOS... soo glad I jailbroke!

 

[awadeee]

Just as I thought. I can't get into DFU mode because even though the cable connects the iphone to the pc, there is absolutely no transfer of anything. Remember it won't even charge from pc unless the phone dies completely and even then it will only charge while its in that DFU-style charging (ie screen is all black and grey and has a low res battery logo). Once iOS boots it stops charging. So here is where this starts getting tricky.

I'm not sure how much you know about Apple products and I hope I don't offend you, but maybe you put it in DFU mode incorrectly. When in DFU you shouldn't see any kind of logo, the phone should look as if it were completely shut off.

DFU mode video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34v8HMC9B98

From then you should be able to either restore from custom firmware or stock firmware. If using custom firmware you will need to change your hosts file under C:>Windows>System32>Drivers>etc. Basically open it in Notepad as administrator and then add

74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com

to the end of the "hosts" text. Do not add anything to this, like a # symbol before or anything. Just use exactly what I posted. This will allow you to trick iTunes into thinking it's reaching the Apple servers, when in reality it is not. This allows you to restore to custom FW. You may also need to use Snowbreeze or Redsn0w to put it into PWND DFU mode. Good luck!

 

[eddyeddy22]

To go into DFU mode the phone must be connected to a PC. Imagine that is not possible. My PC, or any PC or Mac for that matter, simply does not recognize my iphone. AT ALL - it won't even charge it. But I do know for sure that it is not a physical thing with the connectors being dirty or whatever because it charges from the wall and more importantly; when the battery completely drains, all of a sudden the PC starts charging it - you know when it charges before booting to iOS - thus I think its a software issue since when iOS is not booted, PCs do see it. But I can't go into DFU unless the PC recognizes iOS. Don't worry - no offense taken - is this clearer now?

 

[awadeee]

To go into DFU mode the phone must be connected to a PC. Imagine that is not possible. My PC, or any PC or Mac for that matter, simply does not recognize my iphone. AT ALL - it won't even charge it. But I do know for sure that it is not a physical thing with the connectors being dirty or whatever because it charges from the wall and more importantly; when the battery completely drains, all of a sudden the PC starts charging it - you know when it charges before booting to iOS - thus I think its a software issue since when iOS is not booted, PCs do see it. But I can't go into DFU unless the PC recognizes iOS. Don't worry - no offense taken - is this clearer now?

Yeah I think I know what you mean now. That seems really strange though! I repair iPhones and I can honestly say I've never run into that. If anything comes to mind I'll PM you or something, but I seriously have no idea what a method of repair would be for your situation.