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diddl14

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 10, 2009
1,145
1,843
I'm trying to help a friend who bricked his iPhone 3GS. No clue what he really did but here's the symptom:
- phone seems locked in DFU mode
- iTunes brings an error 21 while trying to restore
- iRecovery can connect, 'bgcolor' command works
- iRecovery 'setenv' brings the error 'nvram_save: no oldest bank previously saved, cannot continue'

Now I'm kind of stuck, like the phone :(

What could be tried to bring this phone back to life?
 
I'm trying to help a friend who bricked his iPhone 3GS. No clue what he really did but here's the symptom:
- phone seems locked in DFU mode
- iTunes brings an error 21 while trying to restore
- iRecovery can connect, 'bgcolor' command works
- iRecovery 'setenv' brings the error 'nvram_save: no oldest bank previously saved, cannot continue'

Now I'm kind of stuck, like the phone :(

What could be tried to bring this phone back to life?

Is case it helps, here's the output of iRecovery:

Code:
iRecovery - Recovery Utility for 0x1281 and WTF.
by wEsTbAeR-- and Tom3q

Got USB
Error -9 when setting configuration
[NAND] Found Chip ID EC D7 D5 29 38 41 on FMI0:CE0
[NAND] Found Chip ID EC D7 D5 29 38 41 on FMI0:CE1
[NAND] Found Chip ID EC D7 D5 29 38 41 on FMI1:CE8
[NAND] Found Chip ID EC D7 D5 29 38 41 on FMI1:CE9


=======================================
::
:: iBSS for n88ap, Copyright 2010, Apple Inc.
::
::	BUILD_TAG: iBoot-1072.61
::
::	BUILD_STYLE: RELEASE
::
::	USB_SERIAL_NUMBER: CPID:8920 CPRV:14 CPFM:03 SCEP:04 BDID:00 ECID:000003DxxxxC2D0D IBFL:00
::
======================================

Entering recovery mode, starting command prompt
nvram_save: no oldest bank previously saved, cannot continue
(Recovery) iPhone$

Is this a hardware issue or something that might be solved via sw?
 
Restore in DFU mode instead of recovery mode.

In DFU mode the phone has to be hooked up to the computer and the screen will be black. Are you trying to restore a custom firmware?

If so you might need to get redsn0w and put the phone in "pwned" DFU mode. It's possible your friend installed the iPad baseband on it. If that's the case, you can no longer do stock restores with that phone. You'll need to build a custom firmware
 
Hi..when i run redsn0w and select pwned dfu mode..connect phone to usb then automatically run process..and i see done.. i created custom fw with latest snwbrz and 5.0.1..baseband preservation mode... still restore with error 21..im still in dfu..i cant get recovery mode..only when i run iFaith and start dump shsh..it upload ibss greenpoisoned..then phone starts in recovery mode..but ifaith is waiting for iphone 3gs..
 
??? error 2005

when i run redsn0w and query shsh blobs from server..it shows me that i have full blobs for 4.1 and partial for 4.2.1..i downloaded 4.1 for 3gs..customized with sn0wbreeze...i run iReb get dfu mode..tinyumbrella...start server..and restored with customized 3gs it shows me error 2005..i tried another pc..reconnected few back usb and tried other cable...still error 2005..any ideas?
 
still 21

i reinstalled to itunes 10.4.1..now i restore custom 4.1..it start restoring but still error 21..
 
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