iPhone upgrade -> 3G, activation

BusError · 13 Aug 2008 at 19:00

I was walking in town and asked the local carfone wh*rehouse if they had any 3Gs, and, they had ! So I picked one up to complement the 'old' 2G. I'm a developer, so I'm quite happy to have 2 targets.

Anyway, I was told I just had to plonk the SIM into the new phone, launch iTune and it would activate. And well, it appeared to work, however iTune refused to restore my 2G settings because the new 3G was running 2.0 and I needed to upgrade to 2.01.
So I did, and restored and it worked fine, but now it seems the 3G de-activated itself. The phone shows 0 bars, or "No Service" despite trying to restore several times etc... the SIM still works fine in the 2G phone tho...

Anyone experienced that before ? Any tip on re-activating the new phone ?

LPL · 13 Aug 2008 at 19:05

Not had the problem myself. I had 3G on 2.0 and 2.0.1 fine. Did 3G work on 2.0 or did you not try?

BusError · 13 Aug 2008 at 21:25

Ok, I've figured it out. You need to remove the sim card before doing a restore (the secret combo 10+10 second DFU one)
IF you remove the card, the phone complains that you need a valid SIM to activate, and just popping the card in will do just that, and do a restore afterward happily after.

If you keep the card in, it somehow fails to reactivate properly !

Maybe it's just a corner case I've hit here, but for anyone who might run into it...

Kainz · 13 Aug 2008 at 21:43

I had the same issues as the OP, albeit a slightly different situation in a way.

I got my 3G as an upgrade from my pansy pos 12 month contract Sony Ericsson w880i. I just switched my current sim onto the 3G and was merrily away in seconds. 48hrs later I had the no service message and I was baffled. I thought CPW screwed up.

I gave them a shout (their customer service is superb, unlike the stores) and the lady told me to look into the pack that came with the phone and insert the new sim in that. I was like "er but wont that give me a new phone number as it's a new sim?", and she stated that it is an updated sim but with my old sim details. So I stuck that in and everything has been fine since.