Please Help!!!! Is this phone a $400 brick now?

NCHornet · Jan 4, 2013

My son is in the Air Force and was talking to me about jailbreaking his IPhone 4. He liked the way mine looks and works and decided to do it last night. During the time it was downloading something happened and the USB cable came unplugged. He says the phone will not turn on now and I am worried he bricked it, but I knew if anyone could help it would be the experts here. Our cell phones are our main way of contacting my son, so I am praying we can recover his phone some way. Thanks ahead of time for your help and wisdom.
NCH

Pinkpoison · Jan 4, 2013

i moved your post here to see if it receives better attention.

Thomasjtsi · Jan 4, 2013

What state is his iPhone in right now? Black screen, Apple logo, spinning wheel, etc?

willerz2 · Jan 4, 2013

This is a pretty sticky situation, since if you're in the midst of jailbreaking or restoring and you disconnect the device, it can cause permanent damage to the device. But before we jump to conclusions, I agree with the questions Justin is asking. Also, see if you can put the device into DFU mode. Do you remember at which point of the process the phone was disconnected?

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NCHornet · Jan 4, 2013

My son is in Minot ND and I am in NC, plus he works nights so I don't have the phone in my hand to answer your questions. But I have emailed him to get some more details.Last night he told me that he only had a black screen and turning the phone off and on didn't do anything. I sure hope we can recover this phone. Thanks again for the help and for moving it to get more attention. I will post back as soon as I hear anything.
NCH

willerz2 · Jan 4, 2013

Is it a black screen as in totally black, or is there some screen lighting on it. There's a difference between this. He'll have to look carefully as he attempts to turn it on whether or not the screen is actually on a black screen or that it's a blank screen as if it's off or in standby

NCHornet · Jan 5, 2013

Here is the reply that I received last night from him. Thanks for the help. I will email him and ask him about the black or blank screen.

My phone is still not working, here is all that is going on since I didn't have enough time to tell you yesterday before I went to work.. I first downloaded the firmware, I go to restore my phone on the firmware I down loaded and it gave me an error code 3194. So I looked that up and the solution was to go into my hosts file and input some words. So I did that and still nothing worked, the next solution was to put my phone in DFU mode, So I put it in DFU mode, which has the itunes symbol with a usb cord going to it. I then tried to upload the firmware, still gave me the same error code. So I said screw it and went to just restore the latest update on it and wait till you got up here. As it was updating (in DFU mode) I accidentally ripped out the cord while it was installing the firmware. Now whenever I try and restore the phone, it will download up to the point where I ripped the cord out and just stop. I left it at the house the whole time I was at work and still did not move. I've tried erasing the extra input I had put in the hosts file, I've tried taking it out of DFU mode and still nothing. So there is my situation man, I messed it up pretty bad

willerz2 · Jan 5, 2013

No, DFU mode is not the iTunes logo with the cable. DFU mode is a total black screen. Recovery mode is the iTunes logo with the cable.

tlancaster47 · Jan 5, 2013

I was able to get it back up and working, thanks for the help!

NCHornet · Jan 6, 2013

I just wanted to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who helped my son recover his phone!!! It is hard enough being separated by almost 2,000 miles, loosing the use of his phone would sure affect how we keep up with each other!!!!
NCH