vB Easy Archive - ::Dishonest Trader. Going to see a Mac Genius::**

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::Dishonest Trader. Going to see a Mac Genius::**
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Posted by: azn_G

Hello, I got scammed into buying a defective iPhone. It has the no wifi, no bluetooth which has no solution at the moment. I tried ziphone and every other suggestion from three different forums. I even brought it to Bongowireless which Kevin himself tried to fix.

I basically gave up and made an appointment with a Mac Genius this week. I am from Toronto, so it is going to be a far drive upto Buffalo (Walden Galleria), I would like to get my iPhone fixed with one trip. I have a laptop and will probably bring it with me to Buffalo. I have a couple of questions however.

I have read the posts here and many suggest buying a $10 Pre-Paid card (from AT&T?) and use ZiPhone to activate? Using this method, would you suggest activating it before I go up to Buffalo and then just insert the prepaid sim OR activate it after I insert the sim?

I'm not sure if it matters or not regarding the activation. I was also wondering if there are any other methods I could use or is the best way to buy the prepaid sim? Thank you in advance for your time and help.

Posted by: XanderMac

This sucks really but the first thing they will probably do is restore the phone and ask for your Sim to activate it. Obviously you won't be able to use ziphone in the apple store. Your best bet is to do a full restore and do not restore any data, leave the phone empty so that the genius can see that you restored it. I've heard different things about whether or not you should activate it, I have heard some people tell the genius that the sim is in a different phone etc. In your case I would activate the phone so that you can show them wifi and Bluetooth aren't working, tell them you're on the clock and only have a few minutes and just wanted to swap the phone out. Good luck and report back.

Posted by: fordmanss12

or...brick it so that it won't power on, or it's stuck on restore mode, then activation isn't an issue....

Posted by: azn_G

Hi, thank you for the quick replies.

So basically I should..

1. Drive to buffalo.
2. Head to the AT&T store and get a prepaid card.
3. Go back into my car and activate my iPhone through my laptop (ZiPhone).
4. Head back into Walden Galleria and go for my scheduled appointment with the Mac Genius.

I do not need to unlock it because I am using an AT&T Pay as You Go simcard am I correct? Thank you by the way, all the replies are much appreciated

Posted by: bobbyr

Is it showing an IMEI number in the settings? if it shows the dreaded 0049xxx any decent Genius should recognize it as bricked due to messing with it. If it shows the same IMEI as the back of the phone it could be a genuine hardware failure.

BUT

One way to hook yourself up is to put it on Craigslist (or eBay) for what it is. A bricked iPhone - problem unknown. Some hotshot (like me) will buy it just knowing that he can run ZiPhone and fix it. You would not be lying - 100% honest. It is a bricked iPhone. Take whatever you get - maybe $350 easy, put $50 with it (and sales tax) for a fresh new phone, and jailbreak it with ZiPhone (if you want it jailbroken) and you were honest about the whole thing.

Of course all the above is IF the Genius doesn't give you a replacement.

Good luck.

Posted by: fordmanss12

I've got one where the speaker (external) doesn't work. Doesn't matter what I do it will not work. I'm told if I take it to the genius bar they will send it off to apple which could take a few weeks. I'd rather just have a new phone and I'm worried if they send it off to apple they will somehow be able to tell I've messed with it. So I was told to just brick the phone completely before I take it in...

Posted by: funky_kracka

azn G if you dont mind me asking. I know you said it doesnt have wi-fi or bluetooth, but what about an IMEI or an ICCID? If it doesnt have those, there is actually a simple solution on fixing this. Ive had to do this to my Iphone 3-4 times, it kept messing up. Go to Ziphone, and use the ierase 3.9 BL. When that is done, use itunes to put the 1.1.3 firmware on the phone, after that, use ziphone again to jailbreak and activate. This method worked perfectly for me, after i spent hours and hours trying to fix the no wi-fi, bluetooth, imei or iccid. If you have tried this already, sorry about the post, but this method worked great for me. Good LUck

Posted by: n3t108

Quote:

Originally Posted by azn_G

Hi, thank you for the quick replies.

4. Head back into Walden Galleria and go for my scheduled appointment with the Mac Genius.

I was there in early Jan for a power brick problem and both apple phone support and genius will ask you for your AT&T mobile number before they even asking you about your iphone issues.

After they decided to replace my power brick, the genius will print an invoice quoting what was being replaced and right on it was my AT&T phone number.

I am not sure if all apple store operates the same way, but the one I went to (5th ave store) seem to be doing it this way.

Good luck though!!!

Posted by: azn_G

@bobbyr - It has IMEI, ICCID when powered on. The numbers corresponds to the iPhone box.

@fordmanss12 - I'm not sure if I want to take that route of bricking it completely.

@funky_kracka - Should I try it even though I have an IMEI and ICCID? I understand by doing your method it will re-write the baseband. After I delete the 3.9BL, and do a restore would my IMEI/ICCID correspond with the box? But I'm not sure if it is a baseband problem to begin with. It could be hardware.

@n3t108 - I'm planning to get a Pay as you go sim card from AT&T. I'm going to head into the AT&T store saying I'm in Buffalo for a business trip and put in $10 on the card. Which will give me a phone number. With the Mac Genius I'm not going to tell him that I have a Pay as you Go sim in there until he asks. Which then I wil have to come up with an excuse

Thanks guys for the replies!

Posted by: fordmanss12

Quote:

Originally Posted by n3t108

what's a 'power brick'?

Posted by: bobbyr

Do you know which bootloader you have? What is your week number?
I think that ZiPhone can bring it back as long as you don't have a bad comm board. If it was a fresh start, I would go to DFU mode, bring the phone up to 1.1.3 in iTunes, use a later version of ZiPhone and Activate, Jailbreak, and Unlock - that will reflash the baseband (this would be OK whether you have 3.9 or 4.6 bootloader). The ZiPhone 2.4 Full Automatic WITH UNLOCK should do it - you want the unlock to flash the baseband.

If that doesn't work, I would considering erasing the baseband and restoring 1.1.3, but I believe ziPhone baseband erase is for 3.9 bootloader and you may have 4.6. Don't worry about losing your IMEI - if your baseband gets corrupted it may not know your IMEI, but when baseband is happy, it knows your IMEI.

The 0049xx IMEI came about when 1.0.2 phones that were unlocked in a not so stable way were upgraded to 1.1.1 - but they are generally recoverable.

Posted by: azn_G

I have done your first method of using ZiPhone with reg. restore, unlock, jailbreak, activate which does not work. My iPhone is Week51 1.13OTB. I believe I have downgraded the 4.6BL to use 3.9BL as a last attempt before scheduling an appointment with the Mac Genius. However I am not 100% since I have tried many things within the last two weeks.

Is there a way to check through the phones software to see what BL I have? I gotta remind you that I do not have wifi.

I understand that I could..

1. iErase 3.9BL.
2. Restore to 1.13 through iTunes (re-write baseband + restore).
3. ZiPhone unlock, activate, jailbreak.

But isn't that a bit risky? considering if I do not get IMEI/ICCID, I'm stuck with five problems (IMEI, ICCID, No Signals, No Wifi, No Bluetooth) instead of two (No Wifi, No Bluetooth). If it is a hardware problem, all this is null and void.

Posted by: bobbyr

One way you can tell which baseband you have is through executing some commands through Terminal on the phone (which you probably do not have). Another way is through the ZiPhone unlocking process - there is a detection of the bootloader, which flashes by in verbose mode - and displays the bootloader. Of course the easiest way is with BBinfo app, without installer and wifi, hard to get there.

As for risky - I don't think it is too risky. At this point, about the riskiest thing you can do to a phone is use ZiPhone to downgrade bootloader 4.6 to 3.9 because of a risk of a real brick, although I have done it to 1.1.3 OOB in order to get the Google Location on T-Mobile.

Posted by: funky_kracka

@azn G. So you do have an IMEI and ICCID. Thats a good question man, i understand your point on if that doesnt work, you would have 5 problems instead of the two. I always had the 5 problems and the method i took, took care of the problem easily. I would go with what bobbyr said, as for the riskyness. Otherwise, just wait until you go to the MacGenius. Good Luck man.

Posted by: n3t108

Quote:

Originally Posted by fordmanss12

what's a 'power brick'?

AC Adapter

Posted by: azn_G

Just used ZiPhone to re-write the baseband. However, my bluetooth and wifi is still not functional

.

Steps I took..

1. Ziphone (cmd) -> Recovery Mode -> iErase 3.9
2. Open iTunes
3. ZiPhone DFU Mode
4. Restore to 1.13 (firmware from link on howardwiki)
5. Checked IMEI/ICCID and both corresponded to my iPhone box
5. ZiPhone -> unlock -> activate -> jailbreak

Everything is fine and works / doesn't work like before. I dont know, I think it might actually be a hardware problem. I was a bit nervous attempting this considering another person is trying to re-write his baseband right now in an above post and it completely screwed his phone. -_-... Any other suggestions?

Posted by: BornineastLA

Where did you buy this phone from?

Posted by: bobbyr

I've run out of ideas. But seriously on the Craigslist thing - if things don't work out with the Apple store, put it on Craigslist for what it is (be honest) and you will recover a lot of money. Put a little with it and buy a new one. If you represent it for what it is - no wifi or bluetooth, you will have buyers. Some people want it for parts - display, case, main board, comm board. Displays are worth $150US for the part alone.

Posted by: J t E s N a N i

i don't think you can activate your phone with a prepaid sim. it HAS to be the iphone plan with ATT, no? the only way to use the phone with an ATT prepaid sim is to actually have the phone jailbroken and unlocked...

Posted by: azn_G

You can use a AT&T Pre-Paid Sim in the iphone. There's a special way to activate it in iTunes.

Posted by: Peace_Of_Mind

If you're asked when you take the phone in about the pre-paid sim, just tell them you didn't pass the credit check in itunes.

Posted by: fordmanss12

Quote:

Originally Posted by azn_G

You can use a AT&T Pre-Paid Sim in the iphone. There's a special way to activate it in iTunes.

what's the special way in itunes?

Posted by: kelpo55

I am stuck in restore mode (iTunes icon /cable).

I am thinking about going to an apple store.

I have no att contract and bought it new/unwrapped from someone and it worked fine (I activated it ok with Ziphone).

It is a 8 gig, 1.1.1, 04.04.05_G, v3.9 (week 41).

Anyone know of a good store to goto in Colorado.

You can pm is you want.

Thanks.