Fix White Screen Of Death on iPhone 3GS

Getting white screen of death on your iPhone 3GS? Error 28? Read on. 

If you ever tried updating your iPhone 3GS from iOS 4.x.x to iOS 5.1.1 while on 06.15.00 iPad baseband, there is a chance you had to deal with tons of issues when "by accident" selecting the wrong bootroom when creating the custom IPSW. 

Selecting the wrong bootroom at the creation of the IPSW and then "force restoring" your 3GS to that firmware creates a trunk load of issues that include:

1. Error 28 - many times used to identify the "connector" issue.
2. White screen of death. Just can't get out of it.
3. Numerous errors in iTunes (when trying to re-restore thinking that that will fix the problem 1, and 2).

The truth of the matter is if you have experienced any of those issues the possibility of restoring to Apple's stuck firmware isn't available ether. Your phone stuck in a limbo mode referred to as "bricked state". 

There is a way to get your phone back to life. Don't freak out although it is easy to do at first. 

Today I would like to share with you how I was able to get my phone back up and running without any issues. 

Originally, my iPhone 3GS was on 4.1. I've decided to upgrade by creating the custom firmware (5.1.1). The tricky part was when I looked at my serial number... according to it, my 3GS was created on the 12th week and was considered as having the "old bootroom". I never bother with checking what bootroom I have with tools like redan0w or others out there. Which is where it all went wrong.

After creating the IPSW, I have successfully restore my device to 5.1.1. It worked for about 15 minutes and then I got a black screen. After "force reset" my phone booted up into the white screen. From there, all hell broke loose. I've started to get errors I never knew existed (< exaggeration, but you get my point) including the hardware failure error 28.

Nothing worked. I had success putting my phone into the pwndDFU with redsn0w, but it simply wouldn't restore. 

Here is what I did to make my phone work. I do have to mention this though, the method described below is not an encouragement for you to do this. I am simply sharing what worked for me and am not responsible if you brake your device. 

1. Taking the iPhone 3GS apart. Yep, you read it right. The purpose of this was to disconnect the logic board from the battery for about 1 hour. 

There are many tutorials on how to take your 3GS apart on YouTube. Please search there. This tutorial is focused on a software fix. 

Keep in mind though, disconnecting all the connectors and leaving the logic board screwed to the back case doesn't count. I actually had to completely take it out as there is no way to disconnect logic board from the battery without unscrewing it completely.

I waited for about 1 hour before I started to assemble it back together. 

2. While waiting, create a new custom IPSW with the "new bootroom". You can triple check your bootroom (new or old) with redsn0w. Extras > Even more.

Important: I was updating to the 5.1.1 (which is the current iOS version signed by Apple) I didn't stitch the firmware (with redsn0w) as there is no need. In the future, stitching will be required (when apple releases a new update and no longer signs 5.1.1).

Important: Make sure your "hosts" file is not pointing to Cydia. To check if you have it setup properly, visit this page in your browser: http://gs.apple.com. If you get Cydia's page, you need to change a few things in your "hosts" file. 

- Navigate to /etc/hosts (Mac, don't know where it is on Windows)
- Open hosts file in TextMate and add "#" in front of any domain ending with .apple.com. 
- Save the file. Test the gs.apple.com in your browser. You should get Apple's 404 page.

If you get Apple's 404 (not found) you are good to go. 

Advice to those who follow: Don't bother with TinyUmbrella at this point. You don't need it. Starting with the iOS 5, TinyUmbrella is useless unless you want to downgrade to iOS 4.x.x.

3. Assemble the iPhone without braking anything. Now this step is super important. After, refer to step 4 quickly!

4. Connect your 3GS to a mac and launch redsn0w. Go to "Extras" and hit "Pwnd DFU". After about 15 seconds redsn0w will inform you that your device is in pwnd state.

5. Launch iTunes. Again, don't bother with tiny umbrella. It might be the reason for 16xx errors. Press "Shift+Restore" and navigate to your NO_BB_NEWROOM IPWS. This time, you should be able to restore. 

When your device is restored, you can relax. Everything went well.

6. At this stage, your device wont be activated. Absinthe jailbreak wont work. You will need to jailbreak with redsn0w. Do so.

7. After the jailbreak process completes, make sure you go back and "boot tethered" from redsn0w because the jailbreak will be tethered (will fix in a minute).

After your device is booted "tethered" open Cydia and install Rocky Racoon. This package will untether your device.

8. If you are a unlocker, install ultrasn0w. Then add this repo: http://repo.iparelhos.com and install 5.1.1 ultrasn0w fixer.

If you get "No Service" still, don't worry. There is a simple fix for that. 

If on T-Mobile, make sure to turn off the 3G in Settings > General > Network.

Open redsn0w again and hit "Jailbreak". Yep, re-jailbreak. This time, when you get to the screen where it asks if you want to install Cydia, make sure you have it UNCHECKED and install the iPad baseband CHECKED! This process will simply flush the baseband.

Unfortunately this process will require you to "boot tethered" again and reinstalling Rocky Racoon package (to make your jailbreak untethered).

So there you have it, those are the steps I did and now I have a perfectly functional iPhone 3GS on 5.1.1 with iPad 06.15.00 baseband on T-Mobile.

Got questions? Ask away!

Thanks!