Newbie - Jailbroken iPhone won't work since trying to upgrade to iOS 5

[jeffsinpdx]

I don't use iPhones normally and don't know any of the lingo and need some help that hopefully a newbie can follow.

Here's the sequence of events.

I had an AT&T Go Phone with SIM card that had been activated and given a phone number.

I wanted the functionality of an iPhone, so I bought a Jailbroken 3GS iPhone on eBay. I took my SIM card out of my AT&T Go Phone and simply plugged it into this iPhone and it worked fine.

I plugged it into my iTunes account it it loaded my apps and songs from my iTouch on there and all was right in the world and I've been using it for months now.

Today I saw an app I wanted and it said I must upgrade to iOS 5.1 in order to use that app. I went to my iTunes account and when I clicked on my phone under Devices, it had a button in the screen that said "Check for Update", and clicked that and went through about 30 minutes of updating the software and then it restored the iPhone.

Long story short, when it cycled back through after finishing the full restore and downloading the new software, the iTunes screen suddenly says "There is no SIM card installed in the iPhone you are attempting to activate" (It obviously does have my old AT&T SIM card in there).

If I look on the iPhone itself, it now just gives me a bar to slide, and when I slide it, I'm activating it for the first time setting the language as English, wi-fi networks, etc. But then after hitting next a couple times, it tries to activate the phone and it simply says, "Your iPhone could not be activated because the activation server is temporarily unavailable...".

So I believe I've wiped out the Jailbreak, or the unlocking of it from the previous owner, or whatever the proper term is by doing this restore update. So now I'm just wanting to go back to the way it was. I don't care if it has iOS 5, I just need my phone back since I chucked the old AT&T phone and now have an iPhone that I can't get to recognize any SIM card I stick in there.

Do I re-jailbreak it? Does anyone have a link on how to start when you don't even have a valid SIM card to use? I'm not sure how these work and where to start to get this back to at least being a functional AT&T go-phone that I can just use through an iPhone so I have the wi-fi and other apps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[dawards0628]

have you tried removing the sim and then entering DFU mode on the phone and trying to restore the os from iTunes?

 

[GPAbsinthe]

You need to re-jailbreak using RedSn0w - install Cydia and install iPad Baseband. It will get you past the activation screen. Then go on Cydia and install Rocky Raccoon 5.1.1 and Ultrasn0w 1.2.7.

iPad Baseband will likely disable your GPS but otherwise you should be fine, and get your unlock back.

Read all the instructions you can get on how to proceed with RedSn0w. You may find some here, and also tutorial videos on youtube. You'll need to enter PWN DFU mode, and it's always good to know in advance what you're up to. Also, remember to plug your phone in the computer prior to jailbreaking, make sure iTunes does NOT open (just close it if it does), and then turn the 3GS off using the normal way - holding power long enough to get the "slide to power off". Which still works on the activation screen, if that's bothering you. Don't disconnect until everything is said and done. And last but not least, before doing anything else, you'll need to detect if your 3GS is old or new bootrom. For that you'll also need to enter PWN DFU mode, and use something like iDetector or Sn0wbreeze on your computer to know which one you have. When you will jailbreak, the tool will ask you about the bootrom, and you do not want to be wrong.