iPhone Issue

[arus2001]

I'll just preface this with a hearty, "Fuck Apple!" since I spent the past two hours trying to fix this.

Anyway, folks decided to pick up a refurbished 8gb 3G. I've never touched an iPhone before, so imagine the horror of being called in as family tech support when they've done who knows what to it beforehand. We have iTunes installed, and I guess my mom went to sync it or something and the phone just locked on a black screen with a white USB cable pointing to the iTunes logo. I've gone through Apple's help crap, even tried their 5R BS and it's changed nothing. I think I'm powering off the phone holding the top button down for 10 seconds, but if I turn it back on, it's immediately back at that earlier screen. I can't navigate any menus or anything within it.

On the PC end, when I plug it in to the USB port it'll show the Apple driver in my Device Manager, but the Apple site suggests the phone should be showing up in My Computer, which isn't the case. Back in iTunes, I run diagnostics and the phone isn't being recognized in both tests. I've uninstalled and reinstalled iTunes, I've probably rebooted 50 times with the phone both connected and not, and I'm almost at the point where I want to throw the thing out the window and tell my parents they're too old for this since they're already pretty computer stupid.

Has anyone experienced this problem and/or know the solution? Next step is probably just sending it back or something, but if I can prevent that, may as well try.

[Spieler]

I haven't had an issue like this, but have you tried rebooting the iPhone (Hold down the power button and the home button until the screen shuts off and reappears with the apple logo). Short of that I'm not sure what advice I could give you other than to send it back to where you bought it and demand your money back.

[arus2001]

Assuming I'm pushing the right buttons (top right silver and the round one below the screen) that doesn't seem to help anything.

[EckoGecko]

Did you restore the phone? I know that I had to restore my phone from the itunes menu, you maybe able to do it manually but I don't know about that.

The restore option should be under the update option in the main menu for the phone on the computer that it was first synced to.

[arus2001]

I can't even see a Restore option in iTunes, and poking around seems to suggest the phone needs to show up in Devices on the left, which it isn't.

Kept tinkering to see if I could get it to reset by holding power and the home button, and it finally did... but now it won't power up at all. Probably safe to say it bricked, but I dunno. Back it goes.

[DAKPluto]

Your phone is in the "restore" mode already. Why your iTunes isn't seeing it, and why it's in restore mode already kinda makes no sense.

Since it's in restore mode iTunes may not be recognizing it as a iphone device, so possibly hasn't installed the drivers yet.

Follow below:

Verifying Your iPhone Driver and Service Installation
January 18, 2009 | By admin In iPhone troubleshooting | Comments(2)

When the iTunes installed in your Windows PC does not recognize your iPhone, there is a possibiliy that you are missing drivers files. If you are using windows and iTunes, there are two files that your computer needs so that iTunes can recognize your iPhones:

1. iPhone driver: USBAAPL.SYS

2. Apple Mobile Device Support should be present as a Windows Service

There is a way to verify whether these drivers have been installed in your computers. However, if you have time, try to reinstall the latest iTunes and check the minimum specification required by the iTunes.

If after re-installing it does no good, try the manual steps below to verify your drivers:

1. iPhone driver: USBAAPL.SYS.

* Connect you iPhone to your PC.
* On you PC, click. START > RUN.
* Type devmgmt.msc and click OK. The new window will display a list of device in your PC.
* Look down to Universal Serial Bus controllers. Click the “+” sign to expand the selection. iPhone will be listed in your PC either as Apple Mobile Device or Apple iPhone
* Right-click Apple Mobile Device (or Apple iPhone), then, choose Properties. Select the Driver tab.
* Lastly, click Driver Details to view more information about the drivers installed. You will see then what type of drivers installed in your PC.
* If USBAAPL.SYS driver is not there and you want to download and install it manually, download USBAAPL.SYS driver.

2. Apple Mobile Device Support should be present as a Windows Service

* Connect you iPhone to your PC.
* On you PC, click. START > RUN.
* Type services.msc and click OK. The new window will display a list of services running in your PC.
* You can sort the view in by clicking “Name” column header.
* See if “Apple Mobile Device Service” status is “Started.”
* If the status is not “Started”, right click on that row and choose Start from the small pop-up menu.
* If the service is already installed and started, right-click on that row and choose Restart from the small pop-up menu.

If this still does not work for you, try look another tips for iTunes does not recognize your iPhone.

Download USBAAPL.SYS driver to recognize iPhone with iTunes
September 18, 2008 | By admin In iPhone drivers, iPhone tips, iPhone troubleshooting | Comments(23)

USBAAPL.sys is bundled to iTunes (either v.7.7 or lower). When you installed, it is automatically put USBAAPL.sys driver in your computer.

If after installing iTunes, the computes does not recognize you iPhone (either iPhone 3G or previous models), you can try to check if USBAAPL.sys is present in C:\Windows\system32\drivers . If you could not find it there try download USBAAPL.SYS driver here:

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If you have USBAAPL.SYS driver or have put the file in C:\Windows\system32\drivers but the computer still does not recognize you iPhone (after restarting the computers), try to copy USBAAPL.SYS into C:\windows\inf folderand try again. Hope that could solve your problem.

[arus2001]

Heh, I remember reading that on the Apple site, but it didn't have links to (possibly older) drivers. Nonetheless, I downloaded those, rebooted, and it managed to get the phone out of the brick state and on the right track to getting it restored.

I think I'm good now. I just have no clue what mom did initially to create this fuck up. Hopefully it doesn't happen again. Anyway, thanks.

[Spieler]

Glad you got it fixed, nothing like buying an expensive piece of technology to have it crap out on you right out the box.

[arus2001]

It's totally gonna collect dust with them, too. Basically told 'em, "I hope you got the cheapest data plan..." since they don't travel much nor use the web anywhere near as much as I do... and I still can't see myself buying any kind of web phone since I only use my cel for emergencies as is. Oh well, their money.

[Khamsin]

It's totally gonna collect dust with them, too. Basically told 'em, "I hope you got the cheapest data plan..." since they don't travel much nor use the web anywhere near as much as I do... and I still can't see myself buying any kind of web phone since I only use my cel for emergencies as is. Oh well, their money.

There's only one data plan: unlimited. However, for extra, you can get text messages (like $5 for 200 texts up to $20 for unlimited). That's about it for options.

And if you're worried about it collecting dust, time to dust off your own phone and call them more often instead of just during emergencies.