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Is an unlock with no sim possible?

S

swanning-it

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2010
13
0
Gold Coast Australia
Hi all,

Seems a great deal of confusion on the web regarding Iphones with message No compatible SIM.

I've tried to jailbreak with redsnow but was unsuccessful (completed, but didn't work). I can't access the phone so I've no idea what baseband or firmware is loaded so I'm assuming I linked redsnow to the wrong ipsw for the phone.

Can anyone help with how I find out which firmware and baseband I have or alternatively, which ipsw I should be using? The phone is a 3G purchased new (but locked to AT&T) in October 2009. Itunes has just done a recovery and update so I'm assuming it is the latest available firmware.
 
Isn't there a simple program that will tell you all this? Snowreport or weatherreport? It's made by that ihatesnow guy.

Plug the phone into tinyumbrella maybe it will tell you.
 
swanning-it said:
Hi all,

Seems a great deal of confusion on the web regarding Iphones with message No compatible SIM.

I've tried to jailbreak with redsnow but was unsuccessful (completed, but didn't work). I can't access the phone so I've no idea what baseband or firmware is loaded so I'm assuming I linked redsnow to the wrong ipsw for the phone.

Can anyone help with how I find out which firmware and baseband I have or alternatively, which ipsw I should be using? The phone is a 3G purchased new (but locked to AT&T) in October 2009. Itunes has just done a recovery and update so I'm assuming it is the latest available firmware.
Click to expand...

I am apologize some of the rudeness in this thread. Follow what eastercat posted.

It has been my experience that you will need to do your research swanning-it.

If you go to Settings, General and then to About you will find the information you are looking for about your 3G.

As for your own ipsw query, you will find it if you search for it with the information from your phone.

I hope this helps.

SethPen
 
Thanks very much for replying.

Part the issue that many of us newbies face, is that we are trying to learn a new language as well as understand it at the same time.

I've been using iclarified, but find there so many options that it's confusing as to which to use and there is no mention there of tinyumbrella so I'm not sure if that's part of the process or not. Now I find talk of creating custom ipsw but it seems there are few if any actually on the net for download. When I search iclarified for ipsw's, there are a number of them for my phone, but it seems I need to know the firmware, which I can't see as the phone is locked on the itunes and tether display on the phone. It seems if we were to put together simple steps it may be of great assistance.

As for tinyumbrella, is this a program to bypass itunes? When you say, "plug the phone in" what do you mean? How do I stop itunes from picking it up?
 
sethpen said:
If you go to Settings, General and then to About you will find the information you are looking for about your 3G.

As for your own ipsw query, you will find it if you search for it with the information from your phone.

I hope this helps.

SethPen
Click to expand...

Hi SethPen, rudeness doesn't bother me ... much :) and thanks for the reply.

The problem I have is that I can't go to settings as I can't access the phone. The screen displays the often quoted iTunes + usb tether cable sign with access to emergency call only flashing in different languages.
 
swanning-it said:
Hi SethPen, rudeness doesn't bother me ... much :) and thanks for the reply.

The problem I have is that I can't go to settings as I can't access the phone. The screen displays the often quoted iTunes + usb tether cable sign with access to emergency call only flashing in different languages.
Click to expand...

If you have access to any AT&T sim card, just put it into the phone, hook it up to Itunes and it will activate which will bring your phone back to life (home screen).
 
Crystal-RX said:
If you have access to any AT&T sim card, just put it into the phone, hook it up to Itunes and it will activate which will bring your phone back to life (home screen).
Click to expand...

No luck there I'm afraid. I'm in Australia.......no AT&T sims or phonebooks etc that I've read about. It's locked to AT&T USA. I bought it legally and brand new, but apparantly the "vendor" in Miami used a jailbreak and unlock without me being aware. I've been to Apple here and they say I have to go to AT&T in the US and request an unlock..........I may try that, but I don't hold much hope. It would seem the best way is for me to unlock it myself if possible.
 
swanning-it said:
No luck there I'm afraid. I'm in Australia.......no AT&T sims or phonebooks etc that I've read about. It's locked to AT&T USA. I bought it legally and brand new, but apparantly the "vendor" in Miami used a jailbreak and unlock without me being aware. I've been to Apple here and they say I have to go to AT&T in the US and request an unlock..........I may try that, but I don't hold much hope. It would seem the best way is for me to unlock it myself if possible.
Click to expand...

Why don't you download tiny umbrella, run it, then hook the phone to your PC? Tiny Umbrella will give you information about your Iphone software version and baseband.

This is exactly what the other people suggested to you earlier.

If Itunes opens, just close it.
 
Tinyumbrella didn't work for me. When I tried to run the exe a message box appear saying I didn't have a "JVM" on my system. I've no idea what a JVM is, but I have now got the jailbreak, the firmware upgrade and the carrier unlock working.
 
In case it may help others, I'll try to list all my steps here. Please note, this is for a 3G phone which I later found was on 05.15.04 modem firmware (baseband), which can't be unlocked. I needed to upgrade to the IPAD Baseband 06.15.00. I also used a PC rather than Mac.

Here is the process which worked for me.

1. Follow this link exactly to jailbreak the phone first. iClarified jailbreak using redsn0w.

notes:

When you download the ipsw in step 1, use "save" rather than "open" and when it finishes saving, right click on the zip file, left click on "rename" and then change the .zip extension to .ipsw instead, then hit enter, then "yes" to the box asking if you are sure you want to change it. Don't attempt to unzip the file. When you change the extension, the file works exactly as the instructions suggest.

To get iTunes to go to restore page, I had to place the phone into DFU mode (iTunes sees it as recover mode) BEFORE step 2 of the instructions. To do this, hold the power button (top left button) down for 3 secs, then without releasing the power button, press and hold the home button (centre bottom) down for a further 5 secs and then release the power button whilst still holding the home button down for a further 15 secs. The screen will go blank and when you plug it into iTunes (step 2 of the instructions), the required screen will display asking you to restore. It is important to then press "shift" restore (at the same time) not just restore.

At step 8 of the instructions, check the box "Install Ipad Baseband". I didn't realise that my firmware was one of the two that couldn't be unlocked, so I needed to upgrade the firmware as well. A warning appears, but as I couldn't use the phone anyway, I chose to accept the risk.

After the "shift restore" process (carried out before step 2), I found the phone could be turned off OK for step 9 of the instructions.

2. After completing this first step ENSURING ALL STEPS WERE TAKEN, then follow this link for instructions to unlock the telco. iClarified telco unlock

notes:

Ensure you enable WiFi so Cydia can update first before the steps in these instructions, which includes a reboot.

The final step of mine said Reboot, not restart springboard but the rest seemed the same as the instructions.

At the completion, the phone sat for ages on the apple logo. I thought it was frozen, but I just left it for about 10-15 minutes and it booted up. I'm not sure if this was normal or almost frozen or a dodgy tethering lead (I suggest you use a tehering lead that's new and confirmed as working well). I did play with the lead so maybe I just had a bad connection.

That was all I did and it worked for me. Read my notes as they need to be done in order and some aren't that clear in the instructions.
 
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