iPhone 3g/s owners, beware unknown error 23

[effowe]

A few days ago I was using Google Maps, and a dialog box popped up on my 3gs stating that I needed to restore my iPhone. I rebooted and it went straight to the "Emergency Call" screen, not allowing me to do anything.

Once I got home, I plugged the phone in and attempted a restore. I then received the following error message:

"The iPhone could not be restored. An Unknown error occurred (23)."

I tried syncing on another computer, and received the same error. After doing some googling, it appears that error 23 is a "hardware radio / baseband" problem. This means that the phone needs to be replaced. Luckily, I still had 34 days on my 1 year warranty, so I was able to take it down to the Apple Store for replacement.

The guy at the Apple Store said that the error resulted from a fried logic board. If you get this error and are outside of the warranty replacement period, you may be out of luck.

PS: From the searching I did, this either doesn't affect the 2g, or it can be fixed. 3g/s owners, however, are out of luck.

 

[TheWart]

How does it happen? Overheating?

 

[effowe]

How does it happen? Overheating?

Quite honestly, I don't know. I was doing nothing out of the ordinary when it happened, and my phone didn't feel hot. I think it was just a fluke and died somehow.

For reference, I was running 3.1.2 jailbroken on baseband 05.11.07

 

[zacharace]

This is a 3GS, correct?

Hate to be devil's advocate, but maybe the jailbreak had something to do with it?

 

[effowe]

This is a 3GS, correct?

Hate to be devil's advocate, but maybe the jailbreak had something to do with it?

Yes, a 3gs. I doubt the jailbreak had anything to do with it. I had a 2g jailbroken/unlocked before I had this one. My girlfriend runs a 3g jailbroken/unlocked on T-Mobile with no issues. I know a few other people that have also jailbroken with no issues. Also, when I was doing my googling of the problem, people with stock 3g/s phones were also getting the error. Hardware fails sometimes.

 

[eplebnista]

Mine's a stock 16gb 3gs and is about 7 months old. If it happens to me now I'll be aware that the phone needs to be replaced. Thanks.

 

[PCTC2]

And this is why I purchased AppleCare.

 

[accguy9009]

This is a 3GS, correct?

Hate to be devil's advocate, but maybe the jailbreak had something to do with it?

Just wondering, how could a jailbreak cause a fried logic board on a 3gs?

 

[dbk]

Dude, this happened to my iPhone today.. it wasn't even jailbroken at the time.
Apple store tomorrow..

 

[dbk]

ok got mine exchanged.. do you think my car charger could've fried the comm board?

 

[effowe]

ok got mine exchanged.. do you think my car charger could've fried the comm board?

Not sure, the error happened to me unplugged during normal use.

 

[skulkingghost]

I got that exact error on my jailbroken 3gs. It took me a bunch of boots in and out of dfu mode / restores before I finally got it working again. It occured after a bad uninstall of a backgrounding program.

 

[effowe]

I got that exact error on my jailbroken 3gs. It took me a bunch of boots in and out of dfu mode / restores before I finally got it working again. It occured after a bad uninstall of a backgrounding program.

Glad you got it going again. I also tried, unsuccessfully, restoring in DFU mode, with 3.1.2 firmware (using saved SHSH blobs from Saurik's server) and stock 3.1.3 firmware with Apple. Maybe all hope isn't lost if this happens.