stuck "Preparing iPhone for restore"

[scarf]

Hi, i have an old iphone 4, trying to repurpose it. It was previously jailbroken with ios 5.0.1 but worked fine, until I tried to reset and restore it. Now it's nearly bricked. I want to use it for a phone again. I also still have an old machine with Winxp that i'm trying to use to itunes to restore it (otherwise all Linux here). The itunes version is 12.1.3.6 which is i believe the latest supported since it was just automatically updated, and it's trying to restore and update the phone to ios 7.1.3 i think. Itunes is stuck on "Preparing iPhone for restore" and the phone is stuck with the 'plug in to itunes' icon. Have tried replugging it, power+home for 10 seconds, different cable but it's still stuck. I've let it sit and after about 20 minutes it will reboot itself and i'll see the apple logo briefly followed by the 'plug in to itunes' icon again, with itunes still saying "Preparing iPhone for restore". Any ideas to get it working again? Thanks

 

[J. A.]

Welcome to iPhone Forums!

I hope this thread will help solving your problem:
TUTORIAL - Failsafe method to restore the current version of IOS

 

[scarf]

Thanks! I tried following that but getting the 3194 error. I think it's because it's Winxp and it's something to do with old certificates or something? Maybe updating itunes could help but the itunes download from apple is too new for Winxp, maybe there is a place to download an older version but something newer than the version i have, 12.1.3.6?

 

[J. A.]

You will find the iTunes version you need on this page:
Apple - Support - Downloads

There’s another Apple support article that might help:
If you see Error 3194, Error 17, or 'This device isn't eligible for the requested build' on your computer

 

[scifan57]

If you’re computer is running Windows XP, then iTunes 12.1.3.6 is the latest version of iTunes that your computer will support. Do you have a computer that’s running a newer version of Windows?

 

[scarf]

No just have this old laptop. When i open itunes i get this error:
iTunes can't verify the identity of the server play.itunes.apple.com
The certificate for this server was signed by an unknown certifying authority. blah blah blah

so it's probably having to do with that since it need to contact the update server to install the firmware. Itunes is too old and apple has changed their certificates. I could try installing a newer version of windows but doubt that will work. Isn't there a way to hack it or something?

 

[scifan57]

If you have anti virus software on your computer, try turning it off before trying again.

 

[scarf]

Nope don't have any. Thanks

 

[scarf]

Well I finally made some progress after borrowing a Macbook pro. Although the option+restore with the iOS 7.1.1 download didn't work, iTunes was able to restore it automatically with 7.1.2 so maybe the Official Apple IOS Firmware Download Links for iPhone thread needs updating.
Thanks for all your help