iPhone 2G stuck on "Restore needed", iTunes cannot restore, Error 23, etc. etc

[fa6ista]

There is this 2G iPhone that is (almost?) bricked.

As far as I know, the phone did work until recently, was not dropped, but suddenly got stuck at this screen:



The owner is not computer savvy, and is unsure whether the firmware has been updated (by chance or not).

Right now the phone is stuck at the "Restore needed" screen.
What have I done so far:
Put it in DFU, iTunes finds is, and tells me it needs to be restoed;
I have downloaded the 1.1.4, 2.2, and 3.1.2 firmwares for the 2G;
I have tried to SHIFT+RESTORE many times, and every single time it ends up giving me error 23.

I tried all of the above-mentioned firmwares, have tried with iTunes 9.0.3, 8.2 and 7.5 MANY times -
with the same result: Error 23.

There is something interesting:
when I tap the "i" on the screen, it shows a windows that says: IMEI: Unknown, and ICCID: Unknown

I have searched online for a whole day now, and people say that this is related to a hardware problem with the modem;
others said that it could be fixed by flashing w/ older firmware and older iTunes version - both of which I have tried...

So bottom line is that after all I have tried I am still nowhere...
And ideas what else I could try?

[pryncearif]

Thats the acivation screen, if you can get your hands on a sim card thats used for att and is with the iphone data plan, just put the sim in there and it should activate the phone so it can be used. Theres no way you can put 1.1.4 on the phone, it looks like it may be on one of the 3.x or 2.x firmwares, i can tell because of the icon its showing for itunes

[fa6ista]

I have my old AT&T SIM card, which is not active because I disconnected my service (currently out of the US).
Well, I put it in, plugged the phone in the USB and started iTunes, I got this message:

Is it because the SIM card is inactive? (I am sure there is NO PIN set on the card!)

So then I followed what you said, DFU the phone and started iTunes;
got the 'need to restore the phone message', clicked restore (withOUT SHIFT)
and when the 3.1.3 firmware was downloaded and extracted I got this message again:


So what gives now

[edge777]

For the 2G, you can use 3.1.3 with no problems, but 3.1.2 is fine.

You can try running Blackra1n again to jailbreak and unlock it.

Also, in place of DFU mode, try Recovery Mode.

Or in this place, if recognized by iTunes, simply try to restore (no shift-click), just restore. Again, for the 2G 3.1.3 if fine for jailbreaking and unlocking.

[fa6ista]

Well, I am getting somewhere, but still not quite there.

I tried restoring via iTunes numerous times, tried BOTH with and without SHIFT+Restore, also
tried different firmwares; all the times I ended up with error 23.

Then I ran redsn0w, and ONLY when used firmware v3.1.2 it said: "IPSW successfully

identified".
It continued through patching the kernel as it should, and then I chose to have Cydia installed and the phone unlocked.
It guided me into putting the phone in DFU mode, and rebooted the phone.
Went through uploading ramdisk and kernel, and said it is finished.
From that point on the phone screen showed "Flashing NOR", Setting up BootNeuter, etc. etc.,
then rebooted.
What happened next is that the phone remains stuck forever on the BootNeuter screen:

With a pop-up saying "Determining current settings". And that's it.

Any ideas why?


It is worth mentioning that I never successfully managed to restore via iTunes,
as the tutorial on iClarified says I should do. Again - every time I tried I get error 23.

Is it possible that the OS currently installed is so fubar'd that all my attempts to fix the phone fail?


Input?? So what else could I try???

[fa6ista]

Anyone ?

[TechGuy40]

Anyone ?

Yeah. Error 23 is a hardware error. Normally it means your phone is toast. However it seems alot of 2G users have experienced this error on 3.1.2 when everything is fine.

I did find a solution that worked a few weeks ago involving a patched dll that allowed itunes to ignore this error. But I can't remember the link. Sorry. Its out there, on Google somewhere.

[fa6ista]

I have been Googling error 23 for the iPhone for many days now and came up with nothing... zit.

You don't happen to keep that link somewhere, do you?

[TechGuy40]

I have been Googling error 23 for the iPhone for many days now and came up with nothing... zit.

You don't happen to keep that link somewhere, do you?

Read this thread. Hopefully the links are still good. Since you have no IMEI or ICCID you might actually have a hardware issue.

Good Luck!


http://www.hackint0sh.org/f203/104422.htm

[Canice]

Bump any up date ? Got te same problem

.

[Scooby94596]

I have been Googling error 23 for the iPhone for many days now and came up with nothing... zit.

You don't happen to keep that link somewhere, do you?

http://bit.ly/4mSMUN

[Mrlovkim]

There is this 2G iPhone that is (almost?) bricked.

As far as I know, the phone did work until recently, was not dropped, but suddenly got stuck at this screen:



The owner is not computer savvy, and is unsure whether the firmware has been updated (by chance or not).

Right now the phone is stuck at the "Restore needed" screen.
What have I done so far:
Put it in DFU, iTunes finds is, and tells me it needs to be restoed;
I have downloaded the 1.1.4, 2.2, and 3.1.2 firmwares for the 2G;
I have tried to SHIFT+RESTORE many times, and every single time it ends up giving me error 23.

I tried all of the above-mentioned firmwares, have tried with iTunes 9.0.3, 8.2 and 7.5 MANY times -
with the same result: Error 23.

There is something interesting:
when I tap the "i" on the screen, it shows a windows that says: IMEI: Unknown, and ICCID: Unknown

I have searched online for a whole day now, and people say that this is related to a hardware problem with the modem;
others said that it could be fixed by flashing w/ older firmware and older iTunes version - both of which I have tried...

So bottom line is that after all I have tried I am still nowhere...
And ideas what else I could try?

I am having this problem but error 21 and could never get past that screen or the apple logo comes on.