iPhone 3GS - I am so beyond lost :(

[SophiaiPhone]

Good evening,

I was hoping to send a private message to someone, not having to bother the rest of the community with my illiteracy of iPhones and computers, but I apparently require 5 posts to do so

I bought a 3GS for my niece's upcoming birthday. I was told it was already unlocked and jailbroken with a considerably old version, but I did not mind much as it worked flawlessly. When I tried to reset the data from the previous owner the phone went unresponsive with a black screen and revolving white circle.

From what I gathered so far, I will have to put it in DFU mode to get it out of the unresponsive mode, then unlock it before it can be jailbroken. But since I do not know what software it had before, I am somewhat afraid of doing something wrong which cannot be reversed.

Your help in identifying the current characteristics of the iPhone and pointing me towards the right programs and software to install would be greatly appreciated.


Sophia

 

[cadetandrew]

When you see the revolving circle after deleting data that is the phone doing a secure delete, which means it is deleting EVERYTHING. Doing this takes about... Wait for it...

3 hours.

To get it out of this state of deleting, DFU mode is not necessary. Simply press and home the power and home button until the screen flashes off, release the 2 buttons at the same time after about 3 seconds and the Apple logo will appear. Some data may be lost while some may not be. Might be best to restore from a backup but it sounds like you may not have one around...

 

[SophiaiPhone]

When you see the revolving circle after deleting data that is the phone doing a secure delete, which means it is deleting EVERYTHING. Doing this takes about... Wait for it...

3 hours.

To get it out of this state of deleting, DFU mode is not necessary. Simply press and home the power and home button until the screen flashes off, release the 2 buttons at the same time after about 3 seconds and the Apple logo will appear. Some data may be lost while some may not be. Might be best to restore from a backup but it sounds like you may not have one around...

I let go through the process of deleting for about 12 hours before I inquired and now, after some good 20 hours, it barely deleted anything but it did come back, thank you
The version is 4.3.3 (8J2) and the modem firmware is 05.13.04; I believe these are the two important numbers?

Can you tell me what the most recent version is that an iPhone 3GS can be updated to? I believe iOS 6 still was not quite worked out, so 5.1 or of that sort?
Since it is already unlocked & jailbroken, can I simply update it with a program (name?)?

 

[cadetandrew]

I have a 3GS running iOS 6 and don't have many problems to report (except Maps). iOS 5.1.1 was the latest before 6. You can obtain that with some googling (I believe Absinthe has previous iOS download links). If you're looking to go to iOS 6, I've attached a screen of the details from my phone.

 

[willerz2]

If possible, jailbreak it at it's current state of iOS 4.3.3 to save the SHSH blobs so you can avoid iOS 6 which is buggy and not jailbreak friendly at the moment. Save the blobs to stitch a new iPSW for iOS 4.3.3 to basically install a fresh copy of it on the 3GS. Your baseband of 05.13 shouldn't change.

After the fresh restore, you can unlock it using ultrasn0w from Cydia