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iPhone 4, 5.0.1 BB 04.10.01, JB, hacktivated. Why "No Service" with AT&T SIM in US???

O

OneMore

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2011
9
0
Hi gurus,

Need advice: how to figure out whether it's something wrong with iPhone itself, or I'm doing something wrong???

Story:
- Bought iPhone 4 off eBay, with iOS 4.3.3 (8J2), BB 04.10.01.
- Never inserted any SIM (because never had one).
- Called AT&T to check whether this IMEI is blacklisted for any reason - was told no, phone is officially off contract.
- Jailbroke untethered for 5.0.1 (redsn0w_win_0.9.10b4), preserved baseband, hacktivated successfully. Everything works except cell network (of course).
- Bought prepaid precut US AT&T microSIM off eBay (stated "iPhone 4 compatible), first inserted into old clamshell w/adapter, activated, added some money to account, checked calls OK, inserted into iPhone - oops, "SIM error".
- Figured out the prepaid SIM got locked to that clamshell, nevermind, threw away the SIM.
- Took a micro-SIM that came with iPad (never used it), called AT&T prepaid cust svc, told them I lost the SIM and got another one, asked to activate - got it done. Yahoo, now I'm getting prepaid iPhone, right?
- Nope. Even though that micro-sim works fine with 3 different old phones, and in iPad it gets AT&T network and shows all bars, no data - nevermind, don't need it there... But in my iPhone4 it can't find the network and shows "no service"!!!
(and yes, I am checking it in a good location, all phones get full bars)
(and yes, Wi-Fi works on this phone)

What to do???
I am OK to buy a proper Gevey card, but why would it help if it doesn't work even with AT&T prepaid micro-SIM in US?
I am NOT OK to go for contract or data plan for this phone, don't need it.
And I am NOT SURE if it is OK to go to AT&T with a jailbroken/hacktivated phone and ask to check it with their SIM.
I am MAYBE OK to go to non-ATT repair shop and pay them to have phone checked, in case of no other options and someone refers me to a reliable store in Boston.

Can I reverse hacktivation and re-activate that phone with iTunes, does it matter?
At this point, is there a way (other than full official restore and upgrade the BB which I'd rather not do), to tell whether it's cell phone receiver problem (too late to return anyway), or activation problem, or what?

Please advise. Model MC610LL, BB 04.10.01, iOS 5.0.1, "Carrier": AT&T 10.0, "BasebandBootloaderVersion": ICE_2_13.
 
Last edited:
i followed the exact same steps and my phone works fine. My phone was locked to anther carrier so i hactivated and use a gevey sim. I had no other choice.
Are you positve you have a locked at&t phone? If you are then why did you update and hactivate instead of using an active at&t sim and itunes? This part was kind of unecessary
Anyway you can remove the hactivation with SAM and then just do it with itunes.

also you may want to try the gevey in case you don't have a at&t phone
 
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Your problem is you are hacktivating it. Let the AT&T SIM activate the phone normally.

People usually have this problem when using pwnagetool and fogetting to uncheck the activate box when building their custom firmware.
 
@Stever71,
Thanks for reply and hint for SAM tool (is it full name?).
I bought this iPhone as locked, the price was appropriate.
I hacktivated because I initially thought of buying Gevey unlock and continue using T-Mobile prepaid service.
Then I learned people have different luck with Gevey, and I will need to transfer service to a newer TMobile SIM and cut it (mine has contacts bigger than microSIM), and I thought it would be more reliable to switch from prepaid TMobile to prepaid ATT and port the number, no big difference.
And now it looks like maybe Gevey could have been better choice...

----------

@hackthatphone

Thank you for your prompt response.
You mentioned pwnageetool... Do I have to erase/reformat the phone in order to undo hacktivation?
Soooo much stuff there, my daughter will kill me if I lose that again, restore from backup didn't work last time I restored after jailbreak...
Is there a way to undo hacktivation in a different way? Maybe there's just some file to edit/erase/create at filesystem level via iFunBox or so, as the iPhone is jailbroken anyway?
 
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@Applejuiced,

Thanks for noticing. That's why I am asking, I'd prefer to avoid restoring unless there are no other options...
 
It worked!!!

Guys, thanks a lot for your help!
Downloaded and installed SAM tool (wasn't necessary,but just for case), looked at options there (clever tool got auto disabled), ran redsn0w_win_0.9.10b5c, entered DFU mode, unchecked "Cydia install", checked "deactivate", waited, SIM card was inserted, USB connected.
It was kinda scary to see that verbose/debug text flow while system was booting, some lines read "error... giving up... orphaned files found...", then "wait..." or "retrying..." filled almost all screen, and I thought "damn, it looks like double jailbreak, now will have to start all again from scratch" and system froze with apple logo for a minute or two... but then rebooted and I saw pineapple logo for a while, the phone restarted and everything was the same - "no service" still there. Then I started iTunes, it opened up but didn't detect iPhone for a minute or two, then switched to iDevice details screen, and WHOAAA! - displayed the cell number, which it never did before.
For the next minute or two the iPhone still displayed "searching...", then AT&T logo appeared. I went to settings and checked SAM status, it was on, I disabled it. Then turned airplane mode on/off, rebooted phone a couple of times, got a springboard crash, power cycled, next time it didn't happen.
Went to "how to use iPhone as Go-phone" manual, set up APN, checked data, looks like "normal flight" for now.
Whoever gets the same problem - follow the path, it works!
Thanx a lot again.
 
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