A Bizarre Experience with iPhone 3GS

[onedollardave]

Hello there, i've made an account on this forum specifically to tell you all about my experiences jailbreaking/unlocking my old iPhone 3GS, it's happened in a rather unusual way, and since i'm a newbie, i'd love for someone to clear up what has happened to me.

Basically, I've been following old guides in order to unlock the phone so i could give it to my mate. It became clear that a jailbreak was the only way i could unlock it for free, so i set upon the task. I was on baseband 5.16, and tutorials revealed that the only way to get ultrasn0w unlock to work, would be to upgrade to the ipad 2 firmware, and then downgrade to 5.13 from there. I received many warnings stating that if my iphone was of the new bootrom, i would brick the phone if i updated to ipad. They said that if the serial number showed it being built after the 37th week of 2011, the ipad 2 firmware wouldn't be compatible. Luckily my iPhone was 012, meaning the 12th week of 2010, which from what i understood, meant i was on the old bootrom.

However, when redsnow asked if it was old or new bootrom, i said old, but then when it started jailbreaking, it crashed with an error, saying i had given it the wrong info and it was actually new. So i had two conflicting reports, but any software i run to check, does confirm redsnow's belief that i'm on the new bootrom. The phone is smashed up, and i didn't really care about it getting bricked so i decided to try it anyway.

Strangely... it worked! And then i was able to downgrade to 5.13 with no issues! I read that some people on the new baseband could do that, but their phone would be tethered or semi tethered. But my phone isn't even tethered, it's fully functional on 5.13 even though it has the new baseband.

So, two questions.
1. Why does my serial number suggest i would have the old baseband, when in fact i have the new one?
2. How come, with a new bootrom, I was still able to change my firmware successfully, and produce an untethered unlocked phone out of it? Everything i can find on the internet suggests this is impossible.

I would MASSIVELY appreciate it if someone could clear this up, i'm sure it's just something i've misunderstood.

Dave

 

[willerz2]

So, two questions.
1. Why does my serial number suggest i would have the old baseband, when in fact i have the new one?
2. How come, with a new bootrom, I was still able to change my firmware successfully, and produce an untethered unlocked phone out of it? Everything i can find on the internet suggests this is impossible.

Hi, welcome to iPhoneForums. I'm Jon.

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1) Was just about to release a thread on identifying iPhones but pulled it off for revision. Which method of checking your serial number are you using? Are you using the serial number on the backcover? It might be that it's been swapped out for another iPhone 3GS' backcover.

2) There are a selected few iPhones that fall under the new bootrom week/year but still runs the old bootrom. If you're able to flash to the iPad baseband, then I would say that the serial might be incorrect. Open up Settings.app > General > About and check the serial number there for guaranteed accuracy.

 

[Bula]

Here's a good explanation of what your experiencing...have a read it may help

 

[onedollardave]

Hi both,

Thank you for your quick replies.
Willerz, I can confirm that the serial number i was reading was accurate, i didn't even realise you could check it from the back cover, I've been checking it through general-about. iDetector, snowbreeze and redsnow all confirm that it is new bootrom. I have been able to flash to iPad baseband, and I have been able to downgrade to 5.13, both un-tethered. Besides, I have owned this phone from brand new.

Bula, i read the forum that you posted, but I'm still unclear over what has happened to me. For a start, that forum suggests it is the 45th week of 2009 in which new bootroms were released. Whereas everything i've read as said 2011. Regardless, I am most certainly on the 359.3.2 bootrom, according to all detection tools, which would suggest from what i understand, that i shouldn't have been able to do what I did. I'm not even in the 'maybe' zone of week 40 - 45, i'm 2010 week 12!

Am i simply a member of the unexplained 'selective bunch of new bootroms'?

Dave

 

[Software]

Anything above the 39th week of 2009 is definantly a new bootrom but I think you've mistaken yourself you could only enter the iPad baseband if you've got a new bootrom. So anything with a serial number above (XX939) is definantly a new bootrom and anything that doesn't have a 135 as the 3-5 digit is a new bootrom. I hope that made it a little bit clearer for you!

Many Thanks,
Software