Apple

[clarkey]

I have a 3GS which was unlocked on 26th March. I have performed a full restore on the phone but it won't accept any SIM cards. I do not have the original SIM card but I have bought a vodafone PAYG SIM today and it's not even recognising that.

Can you suggest any steps I can take to get it working please.

Thanks

[kids]

---

clarkey wrote:

I have a 3GS which was unlocked on 26th March. I have performed a full restore on the phone but it won't accept any SIM cards. I do not have the original SIM card but I have bought a vodafone PAYG SIM today and it's not even recognising that.

Can you suggest any steps I can take to get it working please.

Thanks

When you connected it to itunes with a non-Vodafone UK sim card in it did you receive the "congratulations your phone is unlocked" message?

When you put a sim card in it what message do you get?

---

[clarkey]

Itunes just says "There is no SIM card installed in the Iphone you are attempting to activate"

the phone says it can't be activated because the activation server is currently unavailable.

I'm not entirely sure what happened initially as my husband was doing it on Saturday, I think he did a full restore and upgraded to the latest OS before trying a new SIM though. (can't get hold of him to check right now)

[kids]

---

clarkey wrote:

Itunes just says "There is no SIM card installed in the Iphone you are attempting to activate"

the phone says it can't be activated because the activation server is currently unavailable.

If the sim card has not yet been activated (server unavailable) that could be why iTunes is not recognising there is a sim there, although generally iTunes will tell you the card is not compatible.

Do you get the same message if you try another sim in the phone that you know is activated and what happens if you put that sim in a different phone?

 Also have you tried calling 191 to activate the sim?

---

[clarkey]

Cheers for the suggestions.....

I put the new Vodafone SIM in another phone and called 191 and it would appear to be activated.

Have put a T-mobile SIM in the Iphone and am getting the same message in Itunes and on the phone as before.

[clarkey]

If it helps the reference number I have is 437959

cheers

[clarkey]

Still no joy with this this morning. Is there a way I can reset the phone to see if that helps - as it's not recognising the SIM in Itunes it's not giving me the restore option.

cheers

[kids]

---

clarkey wrote:

Still no joy with this this morning. Is there a way I can reset the phone to see if that helps - as it's not recognising the SIM in Itunes it's not giving me the restore option.

cheers

You can do a reboot of the phone:

Hold both the Home and the sleep (on/off) buttons down until the Apple logo appears then release them and wait for the phone to restart itself, that may take 60-90 seconds.

If that does not work you can plug it into iTunes and restore it as a new phone. Doing this will lose everything that is on the phone although you can then sync it with the latest backup..

---

[clarkey]

there's nothing on the phone anyway as my husband did a restore at the weekend, i just wondered if it might help now that I have a vodafone SIM to try in it.

Itunes is not giving me the option to restore though - it just says that no SIM in installed - can I force a restore some other way?

[kids]

---

clarkey wrote:

 can I force a restore some other way?

You most certainly can

On the phone: settings > general > reset > erase all content and settings

When it has done that it will then think it has just come out of the box and the screen will show you a conector and cable.

Plug it into iTunes and follow the  prompts to set it up as a new phone.

---

[clarkey]

Managed to get it to run a restore.

It does the extracting software thing in Itunes and then says it is verifying restore with Apple and then an error box pops up which says

"the iphone cannot be restored at this time because the hpne sofware update server could not be contacted or is temporarily unavailable"

[clarkey]

i think the issue is because it was previously jailbroken. I'm going to attempt to restore it on another computer! I think I should have kept using it without the unlock!!

[clarkey]

phone restored but it's still not activating same error messages as before

[clarkey]

i get as far as this stage in the activation process before it tels me it can't do any more

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonehowtos/ss/activate_iphone_3.htm 

Is this an unlock issue or should I be visiting an apple store for help?

[kids]

---

clarkey wrote:

i get as far as this stage in the activation process before it tels me it can't do any more

http://ipod.about.com/od/iphonehowtos/ss/activate_iphone_3.htm 

Is this an unlock issue or should I be visiting an apple store for help?

When the phone had all the contents and settings erased  then the phone should have been be able to be set-up as a new phone,

However now that you say that the phone had been jailbroken, 'all bets are off', That may also be the reason that the unlock did not work.

If you take a look on Google for "restoring jailbroken phone' or similar you will find plenty of suggestions. You could go to an Apple store and ask them for help and hope that they do not run a diagnostics test on their computer, if they do then they can see  the phone was jailbroken and may not be willing to help you any further as that voids any warranty. They may  though be willing to sell you an out of warranty replacement which I think on a 3gs is now around £125.

---

[clarkey]

However now that you say that the phone had been jailbroken, 'all bets are off', That may also be the reason that the unlock did not work.

I was worried you might say that! It's well out of warrenty anyway so I'm not expecting much help from Apple.

I'll keep searching and see if I can find a solution. It seems to be stuck in a different place to other 3gs phones that have been jailbroken so that's why I was thinking it was possibly an issue with the unlock. If only vodafone had let me unlock it earlier before I'd had to resort to jailbreaking!

[kids]

As you have in fact restored the phone to factory settings it will have removed the jailbreak causing the phone to relock itself to the original network.

Assuming this was Vodafone, are you using a Vodafone sim in the phone when you try to activate it?

[clarkey]

I bought a PAYG vodafone SIM yesterday and it doesn't work with that (and the sim is activated). I don't have the original SIM unfortunately, I have moved house since I got the phone and it has vanished - the contract is still running as it's part of a busines contract so I'm going to try another SIM from the same business contract later to see if that makes a difference??

Am feeling a bit lost without my Iphone so fingers crossed something works!!

[clarkey]

Well I tried it on another SIM from the same contract and had no luck with that. Is there any point in trying to get a replacement for the original SIM?

Any other suggestions???

[kids]

---

clarkey wrote:

Well I tried it on another SIM from the same contract and had no luck with that. Is there any point in trying to get a replacement for the original SIM?

Any other suggestions???

I can't see another sim making a difference as the phone only needs the correct network sim it does not have to be contract specific and as you have tried a sim you know is working another one will not help.

If it was me, having tried everything else,  I would go to an Apple store and just say there was a problem with the phone and tried to restore it and it is now stuck, then hope that they do not do an in depth diagnosic test on it.  You have nothing to lose, the worst they can say is that they can't help you, but Apple customer service is first class and you may be pleasently surprised. 

---