iphone 3 keeps disconnecting from WiFi

[Halloween Jack2]

Hi folks,

We just got a 3G for my wife.

It joined our home network but now it keeps cutting off.

If you go on Settings/Wi-Fi in the row where it says 'Choose a Network' every few seconds the little circular 'loading' icon appears then randomly our network and the neighbours may or may not disappear, when ours does reappear it is no longer connected.

Is the phone broken? or could this be something else?

I'm testing this along side my iphone 4 which does keep updating but hangs on to the WiFi connection.

Cheers

 

[Thomasjtsi]

What iOS version is her 3G currently running?

 

[Halloween Jack2]

Sorry, it's the latest available for that phone. 4.2.1 I believe.

 

[Thomasjtsi]

Unfortunately... many iPhone 3G's experience Wifi connectivity issues w/ that iOS version. It's an unfortunate hickup w/ the last few 4.x.x iOS versions and the iPhone 3G that goof w/ the Wifi. From what I've seen and understand that last "useable" iOS version was 4.0.1... w/ 3.1.3 being the best for the 3G to run smoothly on. However, in your case... you might just be stuck w/ the issue. Have you tried restoring as a new device via iTunes?

 

[Halloween Jack2]

Yes I have, it didn't work.

Can I not just put 3.1.3 on it?

 

[Thomasjtsi]

So, you've restored via iTunes as a "New Device?" And not from a backup. 3.1.3 can only be used if you have SHSH's for that iOS version specifically from this iPhone. The two ways of having SHSH's is if the iPhone is Jailbroken and Cydia has them saved or they were manually saved when 3.1.3 was being signed by Apple.

 

[Halloween Jack2]

Yes a new device. We bought this with 4.2.1 already on it so I don't think we have any backups.

It's not Jailbroken but unlocked officially by O2 aparently.

Is it worth restoring again? Or once it doesn't work it will never work?

Seems crazy that apple left a dogey IOs with no way to downgrade.

How about this method:

How to Downgrade Your iPhone 3G from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3-from-ios-4-to-ios-313

Thasnks for your help by the way

 

[Thomasjtsi]

I've never used the RecBoot method... and I honestly forgot that it existed. This method still works in downgrading a 3G to 3.1.3 from what I'm seeing after a brief search online. Give it a try and let us know how things go. The only problem you might encounter is if RecBoot will not kick it from the error message.. then you'll need to hold the Home & Lock buttons together to bring it out of recovery/DFU mode.

 

[Halloween Jack2]

Yep, thanks for the tips.

I'll try that tonight if I get the chance.

Will report back.

I was going to take it into a Apple shop, I wonder what they'd say about it

Thanks mate

 

[Thomasjtsi]

Apple most likely won't be able to do anything w/ it. They no longer support the iPhone 3G.

 

[Halloween Jack2]

Incidently, what causes this issue. I guess it's not all 3G iphones running iOS4. Is it a hardware thing or an installation thing?

I wonder if I get it working with iOS3 whether it's worth trying iOS4 again. Might it 'flush' out the bug?

 

[Thomasjtsi]

The how-to thread you link pretty much summed it up. The iPhone 3G runs like absolute crap on iOS 4.x.x. I've seen them run well on 4.0.1.. but that's just my personal experience. It's a hardware to software incompatibility issue that cannot be resolved.

 

[Halloween Jack2]

Sorry to keep asking things, but is there any way to get it to 4.0.1? Everything I've googled seems to need these SHSH things.

Are they specific to your phone? so you can't use a different one?

It's unbeliable that you can't put an old version on a phone. I hate Apple sometimes. Similar happened when a version of QT player had incompatibility issues with After Effects. At work we couldn't convince QT to roll back to an earlier version... we lost about 15 hours working time until we could work out a way of fooling it.

 

[Thomasjtsi]

SHSH's are always required to install an iOS version that is no longer being signed by Apple. SHSH's are specific to your iDevice and you cannot use SHSH's from a different iDevice.

It's Apple's way of making sure their devices are always, in most cases, running the latest and most up to date iOS version. Does that spark the "it's my phone... I should be able to do whatever I want w/ it" controversy? Sure does!! For those of us who this causes problems for, it's an unfortunate truth.

 

[zuluwhiskeyfox]

So, you've restored via iTunes as a "New Device?" And not from a backup. 3.1.3 can only be used if you have SHSH's for that iOS version specifically from this iPhone. The two ways of having SHSH's is if the iPhone is Jailbroken and Cydia has them saved or they were manually saved when 3.1.3 was being signed by Apple.

I have just noticed that the shsh's are no longer being displayed on Cydia. They used to be displayed at the top of the Cydia home page. Is Cydia still retrieving and saving them?