What are my options? (Jailbroken iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1 stuck in iTunes recovery mode)

This is my first post on iPhoners and all I ask is a pointer in the right direction.

Last August I bought for my kid a jailbroken iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1 (8C148) for use on T-Mobile voice/text with WiFi for data & Windows XP; the iPhone is currently stuck in iTunes "recovery mode".

Unfortunately, I don't know the baseband version (because the iPhone 3G will not boot to the Springboard/Winterboard GUI).

I need advice on which general direction to proceed.

Here are relevant details:

• The jailbroken iPhone 3G iOS 4.2.1 has been working fine since August on T-Mobile
• The only 'problem' was that Cydia video apps apparently work best on iOS 3.1.3
• Suddenly, this weekend, the iPhone 3G locked itself into iTunes recovery mode
• I connected it to iTunes but stopped short when it wanted to install iOS 5.x
• Doing research, I have come up with a tentative plan for recovery
• Would technically knowledgeable folks here please review my plan & offer advice?

In my rough-draft plan, the goal will be mainly in this order:

1. Recover the phone, if possible with all data & with the jailbroken iOS intact
2. If that's not possible, at least recover the data & get the iPhone back on T-Mobile
3. That may require 'unjailbreaking' or learning how to 'jailbreak' myself
4. If possible, I would also like to downgrade to iOS 3.3.1

What confuses me is what are the proper recovery steps for the data and the iOS.

How does this plan look so far?

1. Download the iOS 3.3.1 ipsw from iClarified
2. Connect the iPhone to Windows XP iTunes via the USB cable
3. Start the backup process & hope that the data backs up (it has never been backed up)
4. Hold the shift key down to install the iOS 3.1.3 ipsw (somehow?)
5. Once the iOS 3.1.3 is installed, I need to then figure out how to jailbreak it
6. Presumably I use one of these WinXP jailbreak tools
   • iOS 3.x, JailbreakMe jailbreak tool
   • iOS 4.1 & 4.2.1 greenpois0n jailbreak tool
   • iOS 4.1 limera1n jailbreak tool (Windows & Mac)
   • iOS 4.3.3 pwnagetool Mac-only jailbreak tool
   • iOS 4.3.1 Redsn0w 0.9.6rc9 jailbreak tool, Windows & Mac
   • iOS 4.3.3 Sn0wbreeze 2.7 untethered jailbreak[/INDENT]
   • Or, maybe I can skip all that and just use an 'unjailbreak' tool?

Would someone kindly advise me as to the next steps?

May I ask:
Q: What would you suggest as my next steps to resolve this problem?

After googling like crazy and reading all that I could understand (all of this is brand new to me); I belatedly realize that the iPhone 3G doesn't have to save SHSH blobs; and that I 'can' downgrade from the iOS 4.2.1 stuck in restore mode to iOS 3.1.3 so that's the approach I took. I also realize the baseband is what the baseband is (it's probably the iPad baseband based on the results below.)

I did first try to get out of restore mode using Tiny Umbrella, RecBoot, iReb, & FixRecovery; but none worked for me.

So, I performed the following to get the iPhone 3G out of restore mode by downgrading the iOS from iOS 4.2.1 to iOS 3.1.3:

NOTE: This was all done in 'restore mode' (nothing was done in DFU mode yet).

1. I first installed iTunes 10.5.0.142 on the WinXP PC
2. I then downloaded the iClarify iOS 3.1.3 for iPhone 3G (iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw)
3. I downloaded Tiny umbrella v5.00.12 to the WinXP PC
4. I tethered the jailbroken iPhone 3G 4.1.2 stuck in recovery mode to the WinXP PC
5. I opened Itunes: I held the shift key & then pressed the Restore button
6. Itunes then asked for the ipsw file (I gave it the iPhone1,2_3.1.3_7E18_Restore.ipsw)
7. After a while, Itunes gave me a 1015 error (which, I think, means I have the iPad baseband)
8. I ran tiny umbrella and hit "exit recovery" & then unplugged the iPhone & tried to use it
9. I again ran thorough steps 5 thru 8 (and again got the 1015 error).
10. Tiny Umbrella tells me the following versions are installed:

• Device Model = MB702LL/A - iPhone3G
• Installed Firmware Version = 3.1.3
• Installed Baseband Version = 06.15.00-5.9_M3S2

I had expected the phone to have the desktop sea of icons; but it doesn't let me get there (is this because the SIM card is for T-Mobil?). All I can do is make an emergency call.

Was this supposed to be the expected results?
If so, would someone kindly summarize the next expected steps?

I much appreciate any help you can provide and I realize you don't have to help me ...

I am now past the activation/hactivation step in restoring an iPhone 3G back to JB

Unfortunately, I don't have an 'active' AT&T SIM card; but I have my 3-month old AT&T SIM card (because I switched off of AT&T expressly because they penalize users of smart phones who do not want a data plan)!

The 'activation' step in iTunes 'seemed' to work using that inactive AT&T SIM card!

Here is what I 'think' are the next steps based on my googling (is this right?):

1. This morning, I downgraded iOS 4.2.1 to iOS 3.1.3 using iTunes, iClarify, & Tiny Umbrella (in order to get out of iTunes restore mode)
2. But then, the iPhone 3G had no sea-of-icons iPod home screen, and could only make emergency calls on T-Mobile
3. My next step was to activate (either with an active or inactive AT&T SIM card or using Hacktivate (with Redsn0w & SAM)
   
   
   

   • Note: Luckily, I didn't need Redsn0w because my 3-month old inactive AT&T SIM card worked great with iTunes to activate the iPhone 3G.
   • That finally got me the iPod-like sea-of-icons home screen! (I'm here now.)
4. I think now I need to set up the home WiFi encryption key information
5. And then, I think, I need to install Cydia (can I now upload Cydia at this point?)
6. With Cydia, I can upload Ultrasn0w
7. Then, I can Jailbreak (using Ultrasn0w)
8. Lastly, I need to unlock (again using Ultrasn0w)

Is this the correct plan of action for an iPhone 3G, iOS3.1.3, Baseband 06.15.00-5.9?

Success at last!

I'm hoping the 3.1.3 iOS will be faster & more compatible (e.g., with Cycorder) than the 4.2.1 was; however, I'm not really sure 'how' I downgraded to iOS 3.1.3 without going into DFU mode (must have been the TSS button in Tiny Umbrella); but with your advice and that from others, things moved (finally) right along!

Apparently, now that I'm on iOS 3.1.3, I had these options for jailbreaking:

a) Spirit (download it to the PC, tether the iPhone, and hit 1 button to jailbreak)
b) Redsn0w (as suggested here)
c) Jailbreakme.com (connect to wifi, go to [url=http://www.jailbreakme.com]JailbreakMe 3.0[/url] in Safari, follow instructions to jailbreak)

Here is what I did:

1. In a prior post, I finally got out of iTunes recovery mode by using Tiny Umbrella, iTunes, and iClarify ipsw files for the iPhone 3G iOS 3.1.3 (all the data was lost in that process)
2. In a prior post, I activated the iPhone by tethering to iTunes & using my 3-month-old inactive AT&T card
3. Now, with the T-Mobile SIM card in the still-locked iPhone ... I set up the WiFi encryption for my home network (I don't have the T-Mobile data plan ... which is the whole reason for switching off of AT&T)
4. And then simply went to Jailbreakme.com in Safari & moved the slider to begin the process
- I eventually saw the message "Cydia has been added to the home screen" (so that solves the question of how to get Cydia on board)
5. I started Cydia ...
- It asked "Who Are You?" (I said "Hacker" although that was being generous)
- Cydia started downloading packages & reloading data.
- Cydia requested one of 3 essential upgrades (Essential, complete, ignore).
- I let it do a complete upgrade & then it asked to "Close Cydia & Restart".
6. I clicked on the open-book icon for "Manage" at the bottom of the Cydia screen
- Then I hit the "Sources" button in the center of the screen.
- Then I hit "repo666.ultrasn0w.com" & then "ultrasn0w" (which only then revealed itself to be version 1.2.4)
- I hit the "install" and "confirm" buttons & it installed & reloaded data.
- I had to hit the home button to "Reaload Springboard"
- As I was reading what to do next, a zillion backed-up text messages came in (it is, after all, my kid's iPhone)
7. I went to the home screen & pressed Settings, General, Network, and changed "Enable 3G" from "ON" to "OFF".
8. I had the T-Mobile SIM card already in so I didn't have to pop it in at this point ... but ... everything was working perfectly by this point.

My kid lost all the data ... but now, thanks to a lot of Internet research, we started with a T-Mobile jailbroken/unlocked iOS 4.2.1 iPhone 3G (baseband 06.15.00) which was stuck in iTunes restore mode - and now ended with a working T-Mobile jailbroken/unlocked iOS 3.3.1 iPhone 3G (baseband stayed the same)!

To help others, here are some related pictures.

Since GPS is apparently a problem on the 06.15.00-5.9_M3S2 baseband that my iPhone 3G 3.1.3 has, I'm trying to see how to downgrade the bootrom/bootloader.

First, I tried to find the BOOTROM version; but failed.

Here's what I tried:
a) I booted the WinXP PC (iTunes was not running)
b) I turned on the iPhone 3G iOS 3.1.3 BB 06.15.00
c) I connected the iPhone 3G to the WinXP PC
d) I launched iTunes 10.5.0.142 & waited for it to recognize the iPhone 3G
e) After iTunes recognized the iPhone 3G, I powered off the iPhone 3G
f) I waited for 10 seconds once the iPhone 3G was switched off
g) I simultaneously held the iPhone 3G Power & Home buttons for 10 seconds
h) I released the iPhone 3G Power button after the first 10 seconds but held onto the Home button until I saw the following message on iTunes:

Code:

"iTunes must check the iPod software update server to identify this device"

i) I right clicked on the WinXP My Computer -> Manage -> Device Manager -> Universal Serial Bus Controllers -> Apple Mobile Device USB Driver -> Properties -> Details and looked for "Device Instance Path" from the dropdown list. It wasn't there!
j) I was expecting to see the "Device Instance Path = [IBOOT-574.4]" or something like that in the string; but the property didn't exist!

5. I tried this multiple times, on two different WinXP computers.

6. Now I was stuck in DFU mode with nothing to show for it.

a) After googling how to exit DFU mode, I held the Home button & the Power button for about 10 seconds.
b) Since the iPhone 3G was connected to the WinXP PC, I heard a beep as the USB device was disconnected.
c) Then, I pressed the Power button and the iPhone 3G exited DFU mode & powered up to the apple logo & slide-to-unlock screen.

7. Now I was back running normally; except I had nothing to show for the effort.

I wanted to try to see if I can downgrade the unlocked iPhone 3G 3.1.3 baseband back to a less problematic (GPS, etc.) baseband than 06.15.00-5.9 (which is what Tiny Umbrella reports).

BTW, the serial number 3rd, 4th, & 5th characters indicate the iPhone was built in the 25th week of 2008, which would imply the 359.3 BOOTROM version (but since this phone was purchased off of Craigslist already jailbroken with the iPad baseband, I'm not sure if the bootrom was updated).

I found out belatedly that the bootrom version won't matter for an iPhone 3G but that the bootloader version DOES matter if I wish to downgrade the baseband so that GPS works again.

I tried (and failed) to find the bootloader version using these instructions I found on the net:
On WinXP, here's what I did to check the boot loader version:
1. I downloaded BBUpdaterExtreme to my WinXP PC
2. I downloaded & installed WinSCP to my WinXP PC
3. Connecting to my home WiFi network, I found my IP address using:
* Settings -> Wi-Fi -> {network name} -> {blue arrow} -> IP Address
4. While connected to WiFi, I tethered the iPhone 3G to the WinXP PC
5. In Windows, I started WinSCP and entered the following at the login "Session" tab:
* HOSTNAME = the hostname found in step 3 above
* LOGIN = root
* PASSWORD = alpine
* PORT = 22
6. Unfortunately, that 'should' have allowed me to log into the iPhone to run the necessary steps to check the boot loader version; but it failed with a network-communication error.

I'll keep googling.

I found the answer and fixed it all up but due to the lack of any responses, I'll be giving up on this forum and moving to another.