3.0… Going… Going… Gone!
Posted on 18 June 2009, at 7:40 pm, by Travis Ehrlich
Wednesday evening was enjoyable as I tested out the features of the new iPhone OS 3.0 and walked some friends and family through the process of updating their phone. I went to bed satisfied and had many happy iPhone 3.0 users, thanks to my instructions. My step-mother called me early Thursday morning and said there were some iPhone issues. This was surprising as I walked her through the process on the phone and she tested the features while talking with me. She wasn’t the issue… my step-brother was… and he was extremely upset.
While upgrading, his phone reached the “Verifying iPhone software” prompt and it hung. It sat for an extremely long time and eventually locked down his entire computer. (Windows XP machine) He had to reboot to get anything to happen again. His phone was now also locked at the screen with the iTunes icon and the usb cable. He did try plugging in his iPhone several more times, each attempt caused the same issue at the same point of the upgrade.
Being such a great brother, (YEAH me!!) as well as the tech department of the family, Thursday morning I talked him out of running to the Apple Store and decided we would attempt to fix the problem together. With the help of my friends here at Gear Diary, I had a great plan. This was all being done over the phone, so a little difficult since I could not just grab the phone and perform the steps myself. STRIKE ONE
We decided to try starting the iPhone in DFU mode (Device Firmware Update mode) and seeing if we could restore. Fortunately he was able to enter DFU mode on his first try. I had him try to hold shift and click restore since this is supposed to give an option to choose which version of the firmware to install but his iTunes asked to insert a disk. He went ahead and tried to restore. The install hung at the exact same time. STRIKE TWO
DFU is reached by starting iTunes, then plugging in your iPhone. Hold the home and sleep/wake button for around 10 seconds. Release the sleep/wake button and continue to hold the home button down until there is a popup saying, “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode. You must restore this iPhone before it can be used in iTunes.” It is simple to do but the timing must be right.
By now, I had pretty much decided that his computer was the culprit. Our next move was to download iTunes and use the installer to fix any corrupt or missing parts. This brought no resolution. STRIKE THREE— NO FOUL BALL STILL ALIVE!
THE COUNT IS 0 AND 2 AND WE MUST PROTECT THE PLATE! RUNNING OUT OF OPTIONS
Since his mother’s computer had worked without issue for her update I had him try to use it.
A loud crack of the bat and it’s going going gone!!!!!
His phone updated to 3.0 with no problem.
From there it was simple. All he had to do then was re-sync to his computer to upload all of his addresses and music.
This did take all morning to accomplish but did save him a trip to the Apple Store. He also found out that his phone was in perfect condition, but his computer will need some clean up. (Can you say… get a mac???)
This goes to show, that when you use deductive reasoning with your technology problems, not only will you usually fix the problem but you might be able to fix problems you did not know existed. Either that or your iPhone’s GPS can get you to the nearest Apple Store…
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