Please help me wake up my iPhone.
January 20, 2010 8:47 PM Subscribe
So my iPhone has suddenly died. This is very bad. I can't restart it and I can't get my computer to recognize it. Help?
Early today my iPhone 3GS 3.1.2fw suddenly stopped operating. As in black screen, no response. In a protective case, and I don't remember doing anything excessive to it besides accidentally bumping into a corner, and that might just be me imagining I hit the phone, didn't see any noticeable damage. I'd sent an MMS earlier and it was fine. (BUT it was acting really slow while it was on moments before.. maybe a software crash??).
It's jailbroken but I've never had any problems before, long time 3 year jailbreaker. Only one or two minor springboard crashes, and I've never seen a case of a jailbreak completely bricking a phone anyway. Plus, I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to my friend's iPod Touch (as in, not turning on) and he was not jailbroken. Haven't been able to call him, of course.
So, the dilemma: it's not on, the screen's black. It had around 80% battery when it suddenly died. I've charged it for hours since it stopped working. Won't respond to soft reset (home+sleep buttons), DFU mode reset (home+sleep 10 secs then just home button), iTunes recovery (home then plug into computer), or just about anything I can try.
Any help or last ditch methods you can suggest to wake this phone up? I made the mistake of not backing up the phone this month, so any way of trying to restart it without going into a mode that would cause data loss (like recovery) would be a noted miracle.
Early today my iPhone 3GS 3.1.2fw suddenly stopped operating. As in black screen, no response. In a protective case, and I don't remember doing anything excessive to it besides accidentally bumping into a corner, and that might just be me imagining I hit the phone, didn't see any noticeable damage. I'd sent an MMS earlier and it was fine. (BUT it was acting really slow while it was on moments before.. maybe a software crash??).
It's jailbroken but I've never had any problems before, long time 3 year jailbreaker. Only one or two minor springboard crashes, and I've never seen a case of a jailbreak completely bricking a phone anyway. Plus, I'm pretty sure the same thing happened to my friend's iPod Touch (as in, not turning on) and he was not jailbroken. Haven't been able to call him, of course.
So, the dilemma: it's not on, the screen's black. It had around 80% battery when it suddenly died. I've charged it for hours since it stopped working. Won't respond to soft reset (home+sleep buttons), DFU mode reset (home+sleep 10 secs then just home button), iTunes recovery (home then plug into computer), or just about anything I can try.
Any help or last ditch methods you can suggest to wake this phone up? I made the mistake of not backing up the phone this month, so any way of trying to restart it without going into a mode that would cause data loss (like recovery) would be a noted miracle.
And have it plugged into the computer when you do this.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:15 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:15 PM on January 20, 2010
If you've tried the recovery mode and DFU and that didn't work, then it may have passed on.
The good news is if it is still under warranty, you should be able to make an appt at your local Apple Store and show it to them. Provided it hasn't gotten wet and doesn't look damaged they'll swap it out for a new one. If the screen is dead it will be hard for them in the store to tell it was jailbroken so they should just replace it. The bad news, is you'll lose any of the stuff you've added since the last time you made a backup.
posted by birdherder at 9:19 PM on January 20, 2010
The good news is if it is still under warranty, you should be able to make an appt at your local Apple Store and show it to them. Provided it hasn't gotten wet and doesn't look damaged they'll swap it out for a new one. If the screen is dead it will be hard for them in the store to tell it was jailbroken so they should just replace it. The bad news, is you'll lose any of the stuff you've added since the last time you made a backup.
posted by birdherder at 9:19 PM on January 20, 2010
Have you plugged it into an outlet instead of the computer? That has done it for me for one or two weird iPhone outages when fully charged.
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:04 PM on January 20, 2010
posted by furiousxgeorge at 10:04 PM on January 20, 2010
take out the battery for a minute and then reinsert and turn on?
posted by bunny hugger at 7:54 AM on January 21, 2010
posted by bunny hugger at 7:54 AM on January 21, 2010
take out the battery for a minute and then reinsert and turn on?
First with iPods, then iPones and now laptops, Apple has made the battery non-removable.
posted by jkaczor at 7:58 AM on January 21, 2010
First with iPods, then iPones and now laptops, Apple has made the battery non-removable.
posted by jkaczor at 7:58 AM on January 21, 2010
Do let us know if anything worked!
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:38 AM on January 21, 2010
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 8:38 AM on January 21, 2010
Sounds like it's dead. Take it back to the Apple store and get a replacement.
posted by wongcorgi at 10:19 AM on January 21, 2010
posted by wongcorgi at 10:19 AM on January 21, 2010
They do that all the time. Try holding the on/off button and the round button simultaneously for about 15 seconds to perform a reset.
posted by Artw at 11:54 PM on January 28, 2010
posted by Artw at 11:54 PM on January 28, 2010
Or what Blazecock said.
TBH iPhone hangs are a weird magical thing that are beyond the world of human prediction... it may well be that if you leave it for a while for the battery to trickle down to nothing and then plug it in to the computer it will suddenly start working.
posted by Artw at 11:55 PM on January 28, 2010
TBH iPhone hangs are a weird magical thing that are beyond the world of human prediction... it may well be that if you leave it for a while for the battery to trickle down to nothing and then plug it in to the computer it will suddenly start working.
posted by Artw at 11:55 PM on January 28, 2010
Response by poster: I got it replaced, gratis. Sorry it took me so long to respond but my old iPhone is out. Thanks for the advice, however.
posted by Askiba at 9:47 AM on January 30, 2010
posted by Askiba at 9:47 AM on January 30, 2010
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posted by Blazecock Pileon at 9:15 PM on January 20, 2010