Help Key Redux: Fix an iPhone caught in a bad reboot cycle or that won’t boot
- July 10th, 2008
- 2 Comments
This was originally posted in April but I’m putting it here because I know some of you guys are going to try to upgrade and will begin crying once the iPhone bricks like a drunk frat boy at a co-ed All-Greek basketball game.
This has come up a few times in the past couple days with folks trying to install pwned and failing. What happens is that the firmware doesn’t flash correctly and you have an iPhone or Touch caught in a horrible boot cycle that consistently fails. Sometimes it draws junk on the screen, which is basically the kernel trying to start and then failing and retrying. These instructions are very simple but you have to be patient.
1. Hold down power AND home (the round button) until the phone turns off completely. Touch nothing else. Keep holding those buttons.
2. Once you’re in a reboot cycle, let go of power. Hold home down for two minutes.
3. Your iPhone/Touch may freeze with a blank screen. Do not panic or call your lawyer. Connect it to your Mac or PC and see if iTunes detects it in restore mode. Restore to the previous good firmware.
4. If this fails, disconnect from iTunes and repeat these steps. Do not lose patience. Sometimes it doesn’t work the first time. Sometimes it take a few turns to get it.
Carlos (Who am I?)
4 months ago
I tried Ziphone and my iPhone has been trying to reboot since then. I have tried the Restore several times but after a 5-10 minute wait iTunes gives me -1011 error message. I have tried these steps about 15 times and the same thing happens. Any hope?
Conker58 (Who am I?)
4 months ago
Mine did that last night. I was in the middle of browsing a Yahoo article and it just froze up. I could not get out of the browser and holding both button just did nothing. I put the phone into docking station, which was not connected to my pc. Nothing happening. I was about ready to call Apple, but finally it just reset itself.