Forums Forums Enthusiast Forums A - Z Gadgets & Tech Iphone 3gs Crashed and wont restore :(

Morning all,

Im hoping someone could help me. My partners iphone 3gs which is around 3/4 years old (ios 5.1 not jailbroken) crashed yesterday afternoon and seems to be stuck in some kind of recovery mode loop.

Ive tried all sorts of things.....

Recovering the phone using Itunes using the normal method of plugging in and clicking restore

Putting the phone into DFU mode and shift clicking a separate IPSW file (I have tried 5.1 and 4.1) both downloaded from apple servers and its saying it couldnt be restored with an error (40)

I have also tried using Tinyumbrella and Redsn0w to kick it out of recovery mode, which still doesnt work.

I have also tried to jailbreak the phone to see if i could get it past the recovery mode screen (showing a picture to plug it into itunes) and as the bar comes on to the iphone as if to install the patched firmware, itunes says waiting for the iphone and then it flags up the (40) error code.

I have read online and some places say that its a hardware error code. Im just curious if anyone can confirm this or has come across this before?

Thanks for reading and take care!

Mornin.

Have you tried restoring the IPSW file with iReb r5? You'll have to jailbreak the phone to do so but it does get rid of error (40).

This guy suggests the same thing:

http://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/77649/error+40+itunes+restore

Thanks for the reply,

I havent tried that, but i have tried sn0wbreeze to patch IPSW files and then boot the phone into a pwned state and try a restore in itunes and then i still get the error and the phone freezes on the loading screen when it would have the file installed. But it also dispays the snowflake on the screen as if it was going to install the jailbroken firmware but then itunes says waiting for the iphone and it errors!

I can give that a try tonight after work if it does something different than sn0wbreeze it could possibly work (hopefully)

Thank you very much for that and fingers crossed.

If anyone else has anything else to suggest im willing to give anything a try to fix this phone.

It crashes with the same error after displaying the snowflake?

Yeah sadly,

If I try to do a restore just using Itunes it crashes with the error (40)

If I try and to a shift click restore with a clean IPSW in Itunes the same thing happens.

And if i patch an IPSW using Sn0wbreeze and a shift click restore the same again.

The phone reboots and either comes up with the apple logo and a progress bar or the snowflake and a progress bar depending on the IPSW used. But there will be no progress in the bar and after a minute of Itunes displaying "Waiting for Iphone" the error (40) appears

I also tried disabling my firewall and antivirus just incase, and still had no joy

Tried using a different cable and then on a different machine? Or tried reinstalling iTunes? Long shots but I guess everything is worth trying.

You're already aware but 4+ years usage without the phone dying makes me wonder if it isn't a hardware fault. Googling seems to support this as well.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3694#error40

Strange as it may seem, what anti-virus software are you using ?

Try doing the Restore again, but with your anti-virus either turned off or disabled, this error is usually a hardware fault but can also be caused by a connection problem with the Apple Server.

Check your cable as well, we've had all kinds of problems having faulty/damaged cables or using the cheapo "PoundPlanet" type.

I have tried it on two laptops, and using two different cables, one official apple cable and the other was an official apple component cable.

My antivirus is Trend micro. The phone was working fine until yesterday she tried taking a few pictures and it rebooted itself 3 or so times before finally rebooting with the recovery screen.

My lady was upset at loosing all her data since its been months without a backup but now i cant even get the phone back to a working state, and we dont even have any kind of insurance

I dont know if it might be worth trying starlight mobiles if i cant do anything, im not too bad if its firmware / software based but i havent got an igloo if it came to replacing hardware components.

Drop it down to my place and I'll try it on one of our machines, if nothing else that rules out software/cable/computer.

If you have half hour or so to spare ill try and do it whilst you wait.

That would be an incredible help just a small problem......

Where is your place? And between what hours are you free? I will work around when you are available if thats ok with you

Send me a Private message for details.

The address is for any one interested

Bigabyte
332-336 old Chester road
Rockferry
Birkenhead

Find it silly the way the dr can't mention it

Btw always a top service from Bigabyte, starlight? Pffft

Lol.