Faulty iphone 3GS Help

MOPI

HI I have an i phone 3GS, 16GB, which I have been using for the past 6 months with no problems and with the latest version of iOS.

However last week my phone randomly crashed whilst I was typing out a text message. At the time of this happending the phone displayed a white screen then went off. When I attempted to switch the phone back on it kept hanging at the black screen with a white apple logo in the middle.

I plugged the phone into iTunes and a message explained that the phone was in 'recovery mode' and I would need to restore the phone. I clicked restore on iTunes, it extracted the software etc however when it came to installing the software onto the phone it would not boot onto the software update mode, eventually iTunes timed out and displayed a further error message saying the phone could not be updated.

I tried plugging it into iTunes time and time again with the same problem. I also tried a number of different, official, Apple USB cables incase that was the problem however it wasn't!

I eventually booked a genius appointment to try and sort the matter out however when I got there the guy plugged my iPhone into an iMac in the store and for some reason the phone restored straight away! I was happy at this point but sceptical!

I got home and on the advice of the guy in the Apple shop I 'synced' the phone instead of backing it up. When the phone was syncing with iTunes it crashed again! This has now left the phone in the same situation I was in at the start - with the black screen and silver Apple logo.

Since this I have tried connecting the iPhone to another computer and attempted a restore however I encountered the same problems.

The phone is out of warranty as I only received a 3 month warranty when I got the phone and in addition my nearest Apple store is a 45 minute drive from my house! I fortunately have insurance on my phone, which has a £35 excess charge.

I am unsure if I should take the phone back into the Apple store and argue that the phone should be replaced as I haven't physically damaged it or been messing about with the software or anything to cause the problem. I am slightly discouraged from booking a further appointment as the Apple employee who dealt with me last time was banging on about the warranty before we even tried anything with it.

or

Should I just claim on my insurance and save my petrol in travelling to the nearest Apple, to possibly be only disappointed that they won't do anything?


Thanks in advance for your help!

tweets

Ring the apple shop first and ask. I have read on various sites that the i genies in Apple shops give you new phones if they broke.

MOPI

Well I did ring up when I got home and discovered that the phone was broken again however the guy said well you can come into the store or I can put you through to Apple Care. I chose to speak to Apple Care, which was pretty much a waste of time.

I too have read on the Internet that some genius' will replace out of warranty phones for free but I am not sure if they would comitt to this over the phone?? Might try ringing up the Apple store one more time and see what they say.

coolesticeking

This can be a funny one, I had a problem when I had my iPhone and it crashed and wanted to do a full restore but it would not work no matter what I tried everytime just on my PC.

In the end, it was my security software - Simply disabled it and guess what it would Update & Restore. Whenever my security software was on, any updates would not work and I had to disable the security software until the update had completed.

Worth a try..

MOPI

coolesticeking wrote: »

This can be a funny one, I had a problem when I had my iPhone and it crashed and wanted to do a full restore but it would not work no matter what I tried everytime just on my PC.

In the end, it was my security software - Simply disabled it and guess what it would Update & Restore. Whenever my security software was on, any updates would not work and I had to disable the security software until the update had completed.

Worth a try..

Hi thanks for the info will try disabling my Microsoft Security Essentials in a minute.

Just encountered another problem when attempting a restore (yes I am still trying to fix it! lol), an MS-DOS look a like screen has come up on the iphone and right at the bottom it has the words 'panic: We are hanging here...61801d7361x'!!!

This doesn't look good at all!

coolesticeking

MOPI wrote: »

Hi thanks for the info will try disabling my Microsoft Security Essentials in a minute.

Just encountered another problem when attempting a restore (yes I am still trying to fix it! lol), an MS-DOS look a like screen has come up on the iphone and right at the bottom it has the words 'panic: We are hanging here...61801d7361x'!!!

This doesn't look good at all!

Hope you can manage to get it sorted - Hate it when things don't work they way they should

MOPI

I know its a nightmare!!!

I feel a bit annoyed that I have looked after my iphone so well, its not damaged in any way or jailbroken but this has happened! I sort of feel for this reason Apple should be helping me out more but I can't help but feel it will be a 'computer says no' response with regards to the warranty.

MOPI

Was also thinking is it worth trying to find someone with a mac computer, could this be the problem?

Would the iMac computer at the Apple store have any specialised software on it that would make the phone work?