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‘How to claim warranty for a hardware damaged Jailbroken/Unlocked iPhone?’ in a nutshell!

31 May 2008 25 Comments

I am forced to write an article on this issue given the number of occurrences. You might as well bargain for a 3G iPhone in return!

The following write-up applies to an iPhone which has mal/dis-functioning home button, iPhone sync/charging USB pin and some other similar situations.

Hey, hardware failures are taken care of by Apple, why do I care? What if you jailbroke your iPhone and you are now unable to get rid of the most favorite installer.app icon which Apple Geniuses are fond of since they can deny service outright if they find that the iPhone OS is tampered with.

If your iPhone is not damaged at all, then your best bet would be to restore your iPhone to the latest software and approach an Apple specialist. If you are denied service since you didn’t register with an ATT sim, try registering with ATT Prepaid as described here .

IMG_0090.jpgIf you Unlocked your iPhone, install BootNeuter.app from installer (Make sure community sources are installed from installer.app) and make sure Neuter, FakeBlank, Unlock are all ‘OFF’. Now hit the Flash button at the top right corner and wait for it complete the operation. There you go, a virgin iPhone waiting for the next few steps!

If your iPhone’s Home button acts naughty or/and the iPhone is not detected by iTunes due to a possible USB pin connector damage, your best bet would be to :

  • Uninstall all the applications installed using installer.app
  • Make sure BSD Subsystem and OpenSSH are still hanging in there (they are vital apps for the next few steps!)
  • Make sure your iPhone and PC/Mac is connected to a WiFi access point. Noted down the IP address from (iPhone) Settings -> WiFi -> Click on the Access Point -> Jot down the IP Address
  • Go to Settings -> General ->Set Auto-Lock to ‘never’
  • SSH into your iPhone using your favorite FTP tool be it FUGU (Mac), CuteFTP (Windows) or the like using the IP from the above step with username as ‘root’ and password ‘alpine’ (for 1.1.3,1.1.4 iPhone, ‘dottie’ otherwise) and leave all other fields blank
  • Now go through the screenshots attached for the applications we are looking for. They can be found at ‘/Applications’ (the top most level/directory – essentially ‘/’

  • Now locate installer.app and double click (open) it and delete all the files barring directories (folders) due to a permissions issue. Now delete all the files in the sub folders as well.
  • Now rename the sub-folder(s) to something generic or a web app like name (homepage.app) and rename installer.app to Websearch.app or something like that just ot be on the safe side.
  • The installer icon should be gone for good thereby enabling you a shiny new iPhone!

Please note that these are some of my experiences which never failed, your mileage may vary!

Note : When in an Apple store, look for Apple Geniuses/techs of the opposite sex, it might sound silly but trust me it works! Depends on how well you tackle them!

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