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BeerBelly

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 24, 2011
4
-1
My girlfriend bought a secondhand iphone 3G. Long story short, I'm trying to activate/unlock it for her, but I'm getting a little desperate.

I tried jailbreaking it, and I assume it worked, but whatever I do, I always end up on this screen:

NO-SIM.jpg


I tried jailbreaking with pwnage (but I always get the "wrong software bundle" error), jailbreaking with redsn0w (thought it worked, but ended up getting the screen), tried restoring it. I always get the screen above, and when I insert a sim card, the "no sim card installed" error dissappears, but I only get this: http://www.devdaily.com/blog-files/apple-iphone-3g-slide-for-emergency.png.


No matter what I search for, I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. From what I read, I assume the iphone must start up after a jailbreak, but that just doesn't happen.

Anyway, is there someone who can tell me how to activate and unlock this phone? A jailbreak isn't really necessary, as long as it gets activated and unlocked.
 
I'm going to assume you're trying to restore it to the latest 4.2.1. If you are you have two options.

1 - Put an AT&T sim (even if it doesn't have service) in the phone after it restores and it will activate.

2 - Download the proper version of pwnagetool for 4.2.1. When you're building the firmware make sure you select "Activate The Phone".

Should be good to go after that.
 
I tried several versions of pwnagetool with several firmware versions, but I always get the same error message. This time I double checked to see that I got the proper versions, but still nothing.
 
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