Hi guys. I realize this is an extremely long post, but if you had the blue screen of death with your 5s, read the whole thing. I fixed it after 12 hours of constant trial and errors, 9 and 14 to be exact.
Last nite I ran into the blue screen issue with my 5s, which is as old as it's first months release. I use it as my backup phone and turn it on a couple times a month. It had been jailbroken in the past, but in Dec, I updated via itunes and lost the jailbreak to use my apple watch. So It was on 10.0.1, and then was updated to 10.2. I have had odd instances in the past where it bluescreened, but after trying to restore, it just rebooted and fixed itself. Or several times it just shut itself down. But not last nite.....
I had turned it on, and came back to a blue screen. It wouldn't hard reset, wouldn't turn off, wouldn't go into restore, wouldn't connect to itunes, wouldn't go into DFU mode, it wouldn't do anything!!! I thought it was goner when the battery would run out, but I am one determined gal
I worked on it for 12 hours. I even bought REI boot for $29, since the free part wouldn't repair the OS. It wouldn't repair with the ipsw files, I had 10.3.1 and 10.2.1 which I knew they were still signing. The program just kept saying my phone was not fixable. I tried a different computer. It wouldn't find drivers. I tried another computer which I couldn't get the latest itunes installed..... Went back to REI boot, and finally the blue screen switched into the restore mode pic with the disk and cord. Finally some progress.
I was a little angry after buying REI boot and it not working, but that's what kicked it out of blue screen, but it wouldn't kick it out of restore mode. It said my OS was damaged.
I played restore with the original computer I started with- Would get error 9 issues, or error 14 issues. I changed usb cords and usb outlets, I restarted my computer about 10 times throughout the nite....I went into DFU mode, and finally success. 10.3.1 restored it!!!! whoooooo!!! Then I started it up, set it up, and before I got past the password screen it got stuck, I hard reset, and back to the blue screen it went. This went on about 5 times, where every 5th or 6th attempt it would flash the restore mode screen and the restore would be gone. Then I tried to then re-restore with 10.2.1 over 10.3.1, after reading all the problems with wifi, BT, fingerprint scanner, all issues that were freezing my phone or not connect to known wifi networks. This went on for hours. It would restore 75 %, then error out. Alternating with DFU and restore modes.....got back into a successful 10.3.1.
So, I downloaded a new ipsw file for 10.2.1, shut down itunes, shut down my PC, restarted, got the phone into DFU, and then restored into 10.2.1. over 10.3.1. And it worked.
12 hours of attempts, googling all the errors, problems with the 5s and blue screens, and now it is set up and working finel
So my conclusions..... I don't know what happened to kick it into bluescreen. Did it update by itself upon restart into 10.3.1? Was it just a freak occurrence? Why was it so stuck for so long? Why did it kick into restore mode? What kept it from being restored about 25 times???? Another weird issue, after the message restore successful, leave your phone connected and itunes will see it message, it would get a second loading bar, and boot into restore mode again!!!
So I started disconnecting from the computer, and letting the 2nd loading bar complete disconnected.
I know for sure 10.3.1 does not play nice with the 5s. I had wifi issues, it wouldn't accept passwords and connect, I had password issues, touch lock issues, and it would freeze 5 times before getting set up, then it would kick itself into restore mode... Bad issues with the latest firmware.
After finally getting 10.2.1 onto it, I let it rest awhile, and set it up from my computer. Everything went well and my 5s has been rescued once again as a back up phone. If I have a chance to trade it in at a decent price for the next release, I may just do that. It is 3 1/2 years old- got it Oct 2013.
Thank you for reading.
update- 6 hrs later it bluescreened again, this time a hard reset brought it back. So not necessarily the OS.
update #2- 24 hours after this began, it bluescreened again for the 3rd time just sitting idle and charging. Was able to hard reset. Again...
Update#3- 24 hrs later again bluescreened, and again I was successful after several tries to restore 10.2.1 after errors on restore of 9/14/40, and several more with 4 numbers that I forget right now. it has stayed, I did a basic phone set up, no syncing of itunes anything, and so far, so good for 12 hrs.
