3gs stuck in recovery / dfu?

hi all,
i recently got a 4s and wanted to give my 3gs to my niece. i did a restore on the phone and now it is stuck in recovery mode. i may have tried dfu mode but i honostly can't recall.
the phone is behaving strangely too. after the battery drains completely, if i plug it in to either a wall outlet or my macs usb, it starts to charge. but once it has enough juice to show me the recover screen, the usb/power connection seems to die; meaning, it no longer sees that it's plugged in (no charge indicator, itunes does not see it).
fyi, i have NOT tried to jailbreak this phone so there is nothing weird on it. just stuck on that "plug into itunes" screen.
can anyone offer any help?

been reading up, dfu mode would just be a blank, black screen, so i'm not stuck in that.
this is weird. when drained, the phone sees that it's plugged in and starts taking a charge. as soon as it has enough power, the "connect to itunes" screen comes up and it STOPS charging and neither my mac or my pc (USB device not recognized) see the phone.
because it can't be seen, i unfortunately can't connect it to itunes to try a factory restore. i tried the hard reset, from power on and even power off and nothing.
thank you for the suggestions tho. anyone else?

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This is what I posted to someone else having an update issue... Just for your information:
I having the same issue about the and iTunes says "The iPhone cannot be restored at this time because the iPhone software update server could not be contacted or is temporarily unavailable.". I've had the iPhone 3GS since it came out. It was working fine until I just tried to update it. It has NEVER been hacked or jailbroken. WE AND A FEW OTHERS are having the same issue then it is more than likely that this is an update issue. I took mine to the Apple store and the tech tried to update it and he came to the same problem and told me he couldn't update it. My assumption is that we are not the only one's with this issue and that if there was a way to update it to the update before this last one it might be a solution. I don't know how to get the previous update. Apple probably is aware of the problem, and hasn't come up with a solution yet. Or, enough people haven't complained yet. The tech suggested that there might be something wrong with the phone itself, but that couldn't be since it was working perfectly before I updated it and others are having the same issue. It is highly unlikely that a lot of people are having the same hardware issue all of a sudden at the same time. Apple/iTunes needs to fix this... and hopefully soon
Also: I can update or restore my iPhone 5 and other iPhones so it is not an issue with my firewall or other software on my computer. No one touches my iPhone or my computer they are secure, locked all the time, and I have no jailbreak software on my computer (Apple tried it and they are clueless at the moment from what I can tell).

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My iPhone is stuck in recovery mode. I have a 3gs, firmware 5.0.
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Some important information you may need to know in order to help me solve my problem:
iPhone 3gs
Running iOS 5.0
Using iTunes 10.5
On an Acer Aspire One Netbook
Running Windows 7
All security updates installed as of November 7, 2011
Also iTunes 10.5 on Acer Aspire 57354774 laptop
Running Windows 7
Reply ASAP with a solution please!

Hello,
I have an iPhone 3GS which I updated with the last firmware (iOS 5) 2 weeks ago. Everything goes ok.
And suddenly, while the phone was recharching. It asked me to activate it but I was unable to do it as it was rebooting constantly every time I connected it to iTunes.
I tried both 2 restore modes (Restore and DFU) but since I can't achieve a restore with the last Apple iOS 5 firmware. I got the error code 1.
I I tried on 3 different computers but same error. I really don't know what to do next...
I already called Apple Customer Care and I'm still waiting for an answer. I let you know.
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Well This Is Bad.
So today i used my iphone 3gs.. and then it had a problem so i restored it. then during the restore it gave me error 20. i tried looking at apple support but it didnt help.
so heres what it has:
1. broken power button
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3. stuck in recovery mode.
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now i hear theres a "freezer trick" to get it out of this mode. but i tried it and no luck.
i also looked on youtube, google,and apple support and stores. but theres nobody who had this problem.
im trying to wait till the battery runs out but that will take long.
what should i do?!?

You are right there as a weard issue try with the battery comes out and then try to connect to the itunes should be working properly, if not fix the power on/off button because are escential to do it.

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The "hosts" file may be blocking the iTunes Store. Find your hosts file. The hosts file is normally found in the following location:
Windows XP: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC
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3. Drag the original hosts file to your desktop.
4. Right-click the "Copy of hosts" file and choose Open. You may be prompted to choose the program you want to use to open this file. Double-click Notepad.
5. When Notepad opens, click the Edit menu and choose Select All. Then click the Edit menu, and choose Delete.
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7. Right-click the "Copy of hosts" file, and choose Rename. Type "hosts" (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
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Pathum.

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Try:
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Hello,
I have an iPhone 3GS which I updated with the last firmware (iOS 5) 2 weeks ago. Everything goes ok.
And suddenly, while the phone was recharching. It asked me to activate it but I was unable to do it as it was rebooting constantly every time I connected it to iTunes.
I tried both 2 restore modes (Restore and DFU) but since I can't achieve a restore with the last Apple iOS 5 firmware. I got the error code 1.
I I tried on 3 different computers but same error. I really don't know what to do next...
I already called Apple Customer Care and I'm still waiting for an answer. I let you know.
And you, did you manage to get your iPhone back alive ?

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3gs stuck in recovery / dfu?

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