Jailbroke iPhone 3G won't connect to carrier network

95yj · Sep 22, 2011

I was given an iPhone 3G that was already SIM unlocked and that the owner tried to jailbrake with blackra1n. They said everything was working OK except that Cydia wouldn't start up so they asked me to fix it.

The phone was on 3.1.2 with baseband 5.15.04 and bootloader 5.9_M3S2. They didn't have any SHSH's stored so I performed a jailbreak with Sn0wbreeze v2.2 and jailbroke the phone to firmware v4.2.1. I used expert mode and enabled background, battery percentage, native multitasking, hacktivate, left the root partition at the default of 800 and selected package ultrasn0w.

Everything went seamlessly and the phone boots up, runs Cydia, connects to the Internet via wireless as expected. The issue that I have is if I put a SIM in from either of the two carriers down here, it just keeps searching for a network but never finds one. Accessing the carrier screen displays "unable to load network list". I turned off 3G but that didn't change anything. Both these SIMs work fine in a Nokia and Blackberry phone.

Anyone have any ideas what needs to happen to get phone service on this phone again?

iGaz · Sep 22, 2011

You don't need SHSH's for the 3G. When you say sim unlocked what exactly do you mean? Factory unlocked, carrier unlocked or ultrasnow?

Since its a 3G you could downgrade your baseband using fuzzyband then install ultrasnow and try the sims again...

95yj · Sep 22, 2011

Thanks for the response. As you can tell, I'm new to iPhones and am just trying to help out a friend. I have spent many hours reading over the past week though. A few more questions.

gaz6076 said:
You don't need SHSH's for the 3G.

If the 3G doesn't need SHSHs, why do I get an error 1015 when I try to load an unaltered v3.1.2 iOS onto the phone?

gaz6076 said:
When you say sim unlocked what exactly do you mean? Factory unlocked, carrier unlocked or ultrasnow?

I don't know the answer to that. I was given the phone with v3.2.1 jailbreaked and it supposedly worked with different carriers here. After installing v4.2.1 via Sn0wbreeze, it just keeps searching for signal. It does not state invalid SIM though.

gaz6076 said:
Since its a 3G you could downgrade your baseband using fuzzyband then install ultrasnow and try the sims again...

As stated, my bootloader is not v5.08 so I cannot downgrade the baseband.

Jmills87 · Sep 22, 2011

1015 is because you are blocking the Apple activation servers in your HOSTS file.

95yj · Sep 23, 2011

OK, I believe I have it figured out.

The phone must have been unlocked with ultrasn0w. When the owner jailbroke it with 3.1.2, they upgraded the baseband to 5.15.04 which broke the ultrasn0w unlock. Cydia wouldn't run because it had no GSM coverage so they handed the phone to me.

I was able to downgrade the phone to 3.1.2 again by installing it via iTunes from recovery mode receiving error 1015 and then using redsn0w with no options checked to take the phone out of recovery mode. At this point there's still no cell service. Same goes for when it was on 4.2.1 jailbreaked or not.

I re-upgraded the phone to 4.2.1 via iTunes and used redsn0w to upgrade the baseband to iPod v 6.15.00, then jailbreaked the phone with redsn0w and then installed ultrasn0w. Now the phone is working in a jailbroken state. I realize that it is impossible to downgrade the iPod baseband back to an iPhone baseband and also load an unjailbreaked iOS onto the phone with the iPod baseband.

Jmills87 · Sep 23, 2011

If you have the old-bootrom 3G you can downgrade your baseband

iGaz · Sep 23, 2011

Jmills87 said:
If you have the old-bootrom 3G you can downgrade your baseband

He has the newer bootrom...

95yj said:
OK, I believe I have it figured out.

The phone must have been unlocked with ultrasn0w. When the owner jailbroke it with 3.1.2, they upgraded the baseband to 5.15.04 which broke the ultrasn0w unlock. Cydia wouldn't run because it had no GSM coverage so they handed the phone to me.

I was able to downgrade the phone to 3.1.2 again by installing it via iTunes from recovery mode receiving error 1015 and then using redsn0w with no options checked to take the phone out of recovery mode. At this point there's still no cell service. Same goes for when it was on 4.2.1 jailbreaked or not.

I re-upgraded the phone to 4.2.1 via iTunes and used redsn0w to upgrade the baseband to iPod v 6.15.00, then jailbreaked the phone with redsn0w and then installed ultrasn0w. Now the phone is working in a jailbroken state. I realize that it is impossible to downgrade the iPod baseband back to an iPhone baseband and also load an unjailbreaked iOS onto the phone with the iPod baseband.

I was thinking that the phone had been unlocked by ultrasnow. The iPad

baseband therefore was your only option since the baseband was updated. Your correct with the restore process now. You will only be able to restore using a custom firmware with the iPad baseband preloaded. I would advise that you downgrade the phone back to 3.1.3 as the 3G is very slow/laggy and prone to crashing on iOS4...