Iphone 3g Dead?

[shabbuji]

Ok. This could be the worst (& dumbest) situation for an iPhone user. Here's the story.

I have an iPhone 3g. Apparently the lock switch is broken and I haven't got it fix yet. Yesterday someone told me of this fix which can boost the speed of your iPhone 3g with iOS 4.2.1.

Most of the jailbreak methods require you to put the phone in DFU mode and that's really difficult with the lock button broke.

So I download RECBOOT to put it into recovery mode as I can downgrade my phone to 4.0.1 (with iTunes) and use http://jailbreakme.com; which till then was the only way I could do a jailbreak.

Now the problem. I click on "Enter Recovery" and the phone goes to recovery mode, but fails to show in iTunes. I felt this was weird. So I google for an hour and find this fix, "Install_IOUSBFamily_kext_10_5_5". What I did not understand is that this fix was for 10.5.5 or 10.5.6 only. Not 10.6.7 which my MBP is running.

I run this fix & gone. My phone is gone. Its just blank. No apple logo on screen, nothing. The computers (Windows 7, Windows XP, Mac OS X) do not detect my iphone.

Is my iPhone 3g dead? Please help.

 

[Applejuiced]

The iphone 3G is slow as hell on 4.2.1, I dont know why people bother with those so call speed boost hacks or whatever. Nothing you can do for outdated hardware with new more demanding firmware.
And knowing your power button is broken getting into something like that requires DFU mode is asking for trouble.
Time to get a newer model anyway.

 

[awadeee]

Buy a new phone. It sounds like she's about toast with that broken power button anyway.

 

[shabbuji]

Couldn't disagree with you there. But for now if I could get it to start. I know the phone wizards out here would have an answer to this.

Has anyone here encountered a similar problem?

 

[awadeee]

Couldn't disagree with you there. But for now if I could get it to start. I know the phone wizards out here would have an answer to this.

Has anyone here encountered a similar problem?

Plug the phone into a wall charger and see what happens? I fix iPhones as my job and while I've seen some weird things, I honestly have never encountered this before.

 

[shabbuji]

Plug the phone into a wall charger and see what happens? I fix iPhones as my job and while I've seen some weird things, I honestly have never encountered this before.

Plugged it to my Lenovo running Windows XP & it returned to the "Recovery Mode" & then used "Last DFU 3G" to exit Recovery mode & Voila!

My iPhone is back.

Thank you people.

 

[shabbuji]

But my iTunes does not detect the iPhone. Yet!

 

[labman]

honestly sell it on Ebay for parts or As is. even this way they fetch decent coin. then use that to buy a 3gs or I4. that's what I would do. a out of warranty exchange is $199 at apple but they will replace it with a 3g. that's a bad deal. broken lock switch is not worth the headache unless you either repair it or send it out to repair. I still think selling it then upgrading is the best way to go.

 

[shabbuji]

honestly sell it on Ebay for parts or As is. even this way they fetch decent coin. then use that to buy a 3gs or I4. that's what I would do. a out of warranty exchange is $199 at apple but they will replace it with a 3g. that's a bad deal. broken lock switch is not worth the headache unless you either repair it or send it out to repair. I still think selling it then upgrading is the best way to go.

The situation: Even with the good presence of Apple Stores & authorized resellers/service, Apple in India does not support iPhone hardware service. Their policy on iPhone hardware is bad.

When I encountered the lock problem I contacted the "Authorized PREMIUM Reseller" and they informed me of this policy and that my phone would only be eligible for an exchange. But no repair of any sort, not even removing the dust under the front panel.

So I ain't buying an iPhone till Apple changes its policy which the APR claims it to be in late 2012. (Does Jobs believe in the Mayan thing?)

But I am ordering the button from iFixit and will get that done soon. Might even order the Front Panel screen due to scratches.

 

[shabbuji]

DONE!


The problem lied in the stage when I executed the Automator action "IOUSBFamily.kext".

All I had to do was uninstall iTunes, browse to /System/Library/Extensions/ and delete "AppleMobileDevice...", "AppleUSBHub.kext", & "IOUSBFamily.kext", the latter present since I executed the "IOUSBFamily.kext" action.