IPhone 3gs 16 gig. Black screen. Makes sounds, shows up in iTunes. Tried hard reset, soft reset, restore (both factory and in recovery mode) to no avail. The apple logo does NOT show when I reset. I just hear the alert when it powers up.

If you are facing application and startup errors with your iPhone, and you may have tried to perform a 'soft' reset which failed to work, the only solution would be to perform a hard reset.

Some of these system errors may include, application launch failure, failure to be detected by iTunes, startup failure (iPhone may freeze on startup), the solution may perform a full factory reset.

The only bad side is that, you will lose all your data, but, you will have a functioning iPhone. If you had earlier backed up some data, you can perform a system restore after performing the factory reset.

To perform a full factory reset, follow the procedures below:

1.Press the home button (the big circle below the screen) and the sleep wake button (the button on top of the iPhone) simultaneously. Ignore the “Slide to power off” message.
2.Hold both buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds.
3.The iPhone will shut down.
4.Wait for about 10 to 15 seconds then turn the iPhone back on by pressing the sleep/wake button.
5.You should now see the Apple logo, your iPhone is restarting and thus booting up.
6.The hard reset will have completed successfully.

System Recovery:
After the hard reset has been successfully complete, it will not be functioning so you will have to perform a System Recovery.
Please note that System Recovery is different from data restore.

Follow these steps to perform system recovery:
1. Plug in the iPhone into your computer.
2. Run and open iTunes.
3. iTunes will prompt a message that says “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.” Click OK.
4. You will be taken to the iPhone pane. Then, click on “Restore”.
5. Wait for the full restoration process to complete, and the iPhone will have been restored back to the state in which you had just bought it.

After the process is complete, you can restore your data from the backup you made, if you made any back ups before the problem occurred.

Thank you for using Fixya,
Kenneth.

If you are facing application and startup errors with your iPhone, and you may have tried to perform a 'soft' reset which failed to work, the only solution would be to perform a hard reset.

Some of these system errors may include, application launch failure, failure to be detected by iTunes, startup failure (iPhone may freeze on startup), the solution may perform a full factory reset.

The only bad side is that, you will lose all your data, but, you will have a functioning iPhone. If you had earlier backed up some data, you can perform a system restore after performing the factory reset.

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} To perform a full factory reset, follow the procedures below:
1.Press the home button (the big circle below the screen) and the sleep wake button (the button on top of the iPhone) simultaneously. Ignore the “Slide to power off” message.
2.Hold both buttons for about 10 to 15 seconds.
3.The iPhone will shut down.
4.Wait for about 10 to 15 seconds then turn the iPhone back on by pressing the sleep/wake button.
5.You should now see the Apple logo, your iPhone is restarting and thus booting up.
6.The hard reset will have completed successfully.
System Recovery:
After the hard reset has been successfully complete, it will not be functioning so you will have to perform a System Recovery.
Follow these steps to perform system recovery:
1. Plug in the iPhone into your computer.
2. Run and open iTunes.
3. iTunes will prompt a message that says “iTunes has detected an iPhone in recovery mode.” Click OK.
4. You will be taken to the iPhone pane. Then, click on “Restore”.
5. Wait for the full restoration process to complete, and the iPhone will have been restored back to the state in which you had just bought it.
After the process is complete, you can restore your data from the backup you made, if you made any back ups before the problem occurred.
Thank you for using Fixya,
Kenneth.