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Questions about "bricking" the iPhone.

post #1 of 5
10/1/07 at 3:05pm
Thread Starter 
I've read a lot of chatter about bricked iPhones and angry owners of said phones and "so, what did you expect if you voided your warranty?" and all that, but haven't seen any answers to a few basic questions that I have.

1) How bricked is bricked? Totally beyond salvage by doing a complete reset of the phone? Totally beyond salvage via software of any kind? Actual physical damage... caused by software!? How is it that "mere" software is causing so much trouble for the hardware?

2) Is the bricking phenomena due to Apple actively, maliciously trying to make sure that their software update caused problems for hacked phones, or simply a consequence of Apple feeling they had no obligation (and I would agree) to put out great effort to accommodate and work around hacks to produce a more graceful result?

By "graceful result" I mean simply refusing to perform the update, or wiping the phone clean of all hacks with the update.

3) Bricking is occurring with unhacked iPhones too, and Apple won't fix these either?
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post #2 of 5
10/1/07 at 9:50pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone? Beuller?
We were once so close to heaven
Peter came out and gave us medals
Declaring us the nicest of the damned -- They Might Be Giants          See the stars at skyviewcafe.com
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We were once so close to heaven
Peter came out and gave us medals
Declaring us the nicest of the damned -- They Might Be Giants          See the stars at skyviewcafe.com
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post #3 of 5
10/2/07 at 6:20am
Ok,

It all depends upon how you bricked your phone. Folks please correct me if I am wrong here.

The last firmware "upgrade" 1.1.1 removed the 3rd party applications which the developer community were able to get loaded on the phone. It also "bricked" the phones that were sim unlocked to be used with any carrier. The iphone Dev team have worked around this problem by implementing a downgrade to the last firmware 1.0.2 then re-unlocking the phone.

If you screw up the unlock procedure you not only have voided your warrantee but you are now stuck with a useless phone. This is because the current unlocks re-flash the baseband and replace it with hacked code.

I have sucessfully downgraded my phone but have not sim unlocked it.

for more info look to:

http://iphone.fiveforty.net/wiki/ind...itle=Main_Page

You may want to donate too.
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post #4 of 5
10/2/07 at 5:09pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by TednDi View Post

Ok,

It all depends upon how you bricked your phone.

Fortunately for myself, I'm not having any problems with my iPhone. The only hack I ever tried was one for customizing ringtones. The worst that caused was the need to do a full restore to get the official upgrade that followed (one or two upgrades ago) to work.

I'm just curious about the iBrick phenomena, and whether or not Apple went out of their way to create iBricks, or would have had to go way out of their way to NOT create iBricks. That, and how difficult to reverse the damage is -- not in a legalistic, "You voided your warranty, we don't have to help you!" sense, but in a basic technical sense.

It would seem to me to be very bad design to not have some sort of service mode for any device of this variety, a mode that allows you to flush it clean of any changes and start over from scratch. That's an important safety feature for any manufacturer to have in place for any firmware-driven electronic device, to cover their own asses in case one of their own software glitches surfaces to cause problems.
We were once so close to heaven
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Declaring us the nicest of the damned -- They Might Be Giants          See the stars at skyviewcafe.com
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We were once so close to heaven
Peter came out and gave us medals
Declaring us the nicest of the damned -- They Might Be Giants          See the stars at skyviewcafe.com
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post #5 of 5
10/3/07 at 4:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by shetline View Post

It would seem to me to be very bad design to not have some sort of service mode for any device of this variety, a mode that allows you to flush it clean of any changes and start over from scratch.


If you mess with the baseband and try to sim unlock you run a serious risk of having your phone bricked either now or in the future.

So far, you can downgrade your firmware still, to allow you to run 3rd party apps without APPARENT consequences.

As in all things your milage may vary and use at your own risk. Once you venture into these shark filled waters, your warrantee is void.
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