i4 stuck in connect to itunes

[red fuji]

I took my chance with an Ebay bought Verizon iphone 4. $100. Told my kid if I can get it working it is yours.
ESN is good –seller stated
Phone looks in good physical condition- not dropped…
Problem:
Screen is stuck on connect to itunes image.
Will not power off . at least not using traditional method of holding the pwer button.
Holding down pwr button does not give me the arrow to pwr down.
If I continuously hold down the pwr button- it gets me a black screen but if I let go the button it goes back to Connect to Itunes logo.
iTunes detects the phone with “iPhone in recovery mode”
Itune Restore process generates error -1.
I don’t know what software was used for jail break (I am assuming its been jailbroken)

I been trying different things with redsn0w - played around with it for at least 12 hrs now - no avail.
I tried many things ( from message boards to youtube.. ( I hope I didn’t do more damage) DFU IPSW created an IPSW. I get all kinds of dead end message; baseband wont update,. Many times I am not able to get it into dFU mode. I am now utterly lost as what to do.

I really don’t care in keeping the jailbreak , I just want the phone to work- is it possible? Or did I buy a nice looking paper weight?

If anyone with a step by step solution or tips I would very much love to hear from you. – my son is getting depressed and losing hope( there is only so much dad can do) Thanks much.

 

[willerz2]

-1 is most likely a hardware issue. Try putting the device into DFU mode and restoring though I doubt it'll fix it

 

[tweekmaster0701]

This happened to me before... What you have to do is get redsn0w... Then go to extras... There should be something that says recovery fix... If not... Go to even more and it should be there... When you click on recovery fix put your device into DFU mode... Which is when you hold the home and power button for 10 seconds then release the power button and continue holding the home button for 15 seconds... When you do this the process should start automatically..... If this does not work try putting your device in DFU mode and restoring with iTunes or try sn0wbreeze ( it is the same process as redsn0w)...... If nothing works then you might have to get a new iPhone.