On the way home, I plugged it into my Griffin iTrip to charge it, and I got nothing - no red battery, no screen flicker. I left it on there for at least a solid hour.

When I get home, I plugged it into a wall charger thinking it just needed more juice. It had been taking a really long time to charge lately, but once it's charged, the battery seems to hold it just fine. I left it on the wall charger for several hours, and I still got nothing.

At this point I tried rebooting it by pressing Home+Power, and I actually see a little flicker - like it's trying to kick over. If I hold them down for about a minute, it will actually keep flickering until finally it shows the dead battery screen, but that will go away in a few seconds or as soon as I unplug it from the wall. I can't get back to it unless I repeat the process from the beginning.

My first thought was the battery, but after reading some posts here, I'm not so sure anymore. It seems like it might be the charge circuitry or the dock connector. It's out of warranty, so I'd like to try fixing it myself. I figure at this point I can't make it any worse.

Is there any way to help pinpoint the cause other than guess and check? If not where should I start? Has anyone seen something similar to this?

I've had the phone for about seven months, but it was a refurbished unit from Apple.

Any help is much appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

⟐ Commented March 09, 2026 at 20:11 MST

I use this app fairly regularly and haven't had problems charging and using the app at the same time until now. Is the GPS app somehow using more power or is my battery faulty?

⟐ Commented February 08, 2026 at 18:21 MST

Here is everything I’ve tried and all the issues I’m running into:

• iPhone 3GS enters Recovery Mode normally (connect-to-iTunes screen).
• iPhone 3GS also enters DFU Mode (black screen).
• The phone definitely turns on — not dead or bricked.
• Cable and ports work; the phone is detected by Windows.
• Battery isn’t the issue — it charges and powers on.

• The latest iTunes version DOES detect the iPhone 3GS in DFU mode.
• But when I click “Restore iPhone…,” it immediately fails with this message:

• “This iPhone was previously in DFU mode, but restarted and is no longer in DFU mode.”

• So iTunes sees the phone in DFU, begins preparing the restore, and then forces the device to reboot — kicking it OUT of DFU before the restore starts.
• This seems to be a Windows 11 + modern iTunes issue where DFU mode is not maintained on older devices (3GS/3G).
• Older iTunes versions do NOT detect the device at all, which prevents doing a manual IPSW restore.

iTunes detects the phone but cannot complete a restore — DFU mode breaks instantly.

• The newest iTunes detects the 3GS but cannot begin a restore (DFU breaks instantly)
• Older iTunes builds won’t detect the phone at all

This makes restoring impossible on my current setup.

• Windows 11
• Using a 30-pin cable
• Using USB 2.0 ports
• Tried multiple ports and cables
• Apple Mobile Device Service restarted
• Drivers reinstalled through Device Manager

• Detects the iPhone in DFU mode
• But restore immediately fails with the “DFU mode restarted” error

• Does not detect the phone
• Stuck on Music screen
• Shows “The iPhone software update server could not be contacted.”

• Install fails with Error 7 (Windows error 127)
• Complains about incompatible Apple Application Support

I fully uninstalled all Apple components, in the correct order:

• iTunes
• Apple Mobile Device Support
• Apple Application Support (32-bit + 64-bit)
• Apple Software Update
• Bonjour
• iPod Support

Restarted the PC after each uninstall.

Reinstalled clean versions of iTunes, multiple times.

• Use Shift + Restore with the IPSW for iOS 6.1.6
• But since iTunes either fails to detect the device (older iTunes)⏎
  OR⏎
  fails mid-restore (new iTunes), I cannot reach a successful restore.

• A version of iTunes known to successfully restore an iPhone 3GS on modern Windows
• Whether Windows 11 simply cannot maintain DFU mode on legacy devices
• Whether I should be using:
  • Windows 10?
  • Windows 7?
  • macOS (older version)?
• Whether a custom IPSW or patched iTunes build is required
• Any known workaround or tool that allows restoring a 3GS today

I do NOT care about the data.⏎
I just need the phone restored to working condition on iOS 6.1.6.

I am no tech man when it comes to this stuff, but I have been working on it for hours on end.

Anything that might help, I will try.

⟐ Answer edited December 07, 2025 at 3:11 MST

EDIT: Forgot to mention, that the only button that works on the phone is the Home Button, couldn't get the other ones working yet.

UPDATE: Temporarily fixed the power button, could try a force restart, that didn't work, i also tried a DFU restore, but that didn't work either.

⟐ Edited by author December 01, 2025 at 12:10 MST

⟐ Answered November 18, 2025 at 17:40 MST

⟐ Commented January 04, 2025 at 11:06 MST

⟐ Commented December 14, 2024 at 19:45 MST

⟐ Answered October 18, 2024 at 10:56 MST

It's the 3GS 16GB, it does not power up, and does not charge, and it is not recognised in iTunes, it is basically dead!

this has happened after a cheap copy chinese wall charger was used to charge the phone, this is 100% sure because it has done the same to my wife's iphone!!

I have tried to press and hold home and power button, also tried, holding the home button and connect to iTunes, but Nothing!!

Anyway, I have opened it up, dismantled it, tested the battery with a voltmeter and it shows 0.12V, a good battery should show 3.7V

So I have bought a new battery and I have tested it before fitting, and it showed 3.7V on the voltmeter,

After fitting the new battery, the iPhone switched ON, battery showing 40%, but it still does not charge and is not recognised in iTunes, also, the slide button on the screen does not work, so I can't get to Home screen.

After 1 hour, same problem, iPhone does not switch on, does not charge, opened it again, tested the new battery and it shows 0.14V, so it is drained!!

Can someone point me in the right direction please?

What should I do next?

Thanks in advance

⟐ Answer edited August 07, 2024 at 10:39 MST

⟐ Answered August 01, 2024 at 5:47 MST

This is my first post here, so I apologize in advance if I missed something. It's a rather practical question.

Is there a way to turn off the iPhone (3GS in my case) without using the power button? The button works physically - I can press it (and it feels normal) - but to no effect. Since I don't want to open it while it is still powered on, I wonder if there is an alternative to waiting until the battery runs out and the phone turns off by itself.

Thanks,

Paul

⟐ Commented March 27, 2024 at 17:31 MST

⟐ Answered October 18, 2023 at 7:56 MST

I have iOS 4.1.2.

Thanks :)

⟐ Answered September 02, 2023 at 7:51 MST

⟐ Commented July 19, 2023 at 0:45 MST

My iPhone 3GS first stuck in iTunes.When tried to restore it iTunes from Recovery mode and as well as in DFU mode at the end of the process getting a message 'There is a problem with your iPhone'.Disassembled and assembled the phone.Now I get white screen without Apple logo.When tried to restore in iTunes same result and same message.After dismantling and assembling again,now black/blank screen!When tried in iTunes in Recovery/DFU mode process got aborted at the end and the same iphone problem message.In 3UTools all details of iPhone are shown correctly.Because of some activation issues, could not be proceeded with 3UTools any further.

Is the culprit is LCD display or some issue with logic board?Can anyone throw some light what was wrong and how to fix it? Thanks.

⟐ Answered May 14, 2023 at 0:23 MST

I have an iphone 3GS with its power button not working.When I took out the phone after one year and charged it, I found the phone was stuck in recovery mode with a display 'connect to iTunes'. I tried all the procedures to come out of the recovery mode to bring the phone back to normal condition but to no avail, I tried a third party software Tenorware Share ReiBoot on Trial version. When everything seemed to be going fine, at the completion stage of software and firmware verification, alas, there came a pop out , that my iphone has a problem! And the operation got aborted.

Can anyone throw some light on this? Is it because of the non-function of the power button? Unless the button is set right or replaced one can not hope to resolve the problem?

⟐ Commented April 03, 2023 at 8:57 MST

I had Iphone 3gs 16GB and the ios was 6.1.6. It was from England and the carrier was O2. So for that I did the jailbreak and it was correct but after jailbreak it shows NO SERVICE. I asked lot of poeple and read some commentaries about that and I decided to Jailbreak again but also click "Install IPad Baseband" in redsnow. Then Jailbreak was going but It shows me "ERROR put your iphone..." in something but i dont remmerber "and then try redsnow again".

So after that It doesnt worked. I pluged in charge put show Chargong with red colour and shows Apple for some minutes and then sweaches off. I tried again but doesnt works.

The I went to Proggrammer and he told me that he must install Ios 4 , then jailbreak, then upgrade iphone to 6.1.6. He installed ios 4 and jaibreaked but in boot. So now my iphone is in boot jalbreak. I didnt sweached off my iphone because the proggrammer told me that if i do this my iphone will be die.

I wached that he cant do that and I decide to fix this by myself but only with your recommendation and good ways to fix my iphone.

Please help me in this.

Thank you for your attention!

⟐ Commented February 28, 2023 at 3:49 MST