IPhone 3gs activation issue - Belgium Mobistar

So here is my situation. I got an iPhone 3GS about 2 years ago from someone who got it from Belgium. The iPhone was supposed to be carrier unlocked and thats what they say on Apple's site. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1937
Now I had been using it and was working fine (it had the hacks in it though) and then last month I took it to the Apple store and asked for a battery replacement. Instead they gave me a refurbished one with the same settings.
The phone couldn't be activated since I didn't have the carriers sim. So used the *other* way to activate it and it ran fine on T-Mobile. But after a week the battery died and I restarted it and since then it keeps giving me "No Service".
I don't want to hack my phone but I don't have access to a sim from the belgium mobistar carrier. Is there any way I can get this phone to work?
How can I really know which carrier the phone is tied to, since there are two in Belgium and the woman at Apple support says its AT&T (bizare)
Also even if I somehow get hold of a Mobistar sim, will the phone activate even if Mobistar network isn't available where I am?
Really in a bad fix, appreciate any help you guys can give.
Thanks,
-Aamir

I understand the jailbreaking part. But I still don't think it's locked to AT&T. The phone could originally have been an AT&T phone before getting refurbished cause the guy at the genius bar told me that he locked it to the same carrier as my previous phone. Also said Belgium somewhere in the apple support section when I put in my phone's serial number, can't remember exactly where.
So second part of my question, if I get hold of a sim from the carrier, can I activate my phone even without network coverage for that carrier or do I need a connection to get it working for the first time?
Thanks.

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Hi, I was having the same issue while updating with iTunes, the fix is to add your device to the "portal" with XCode. No need to have the new Xcode 4.5.
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2- Xcode will ask you to add this device to the "Portal"
3- Wait until "The version of iOS on “Catarino’s iPad” does not match any of the versions of iOS supported for development with this installation of the iOS SDK. Please restore the device to a version of the OS listed below, or update to the latest version of the iOS SDK; which is available here." message appears.
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5 - done.
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Infuritated with iphone 3gs recognition issue

For the past month I've been trying to resolve an issue with an iphone 3gs running OS 4.3.4. This phone is not detected by any pc/laptop or itunes. This issue is heavily reported everywhere with a multitude of apparent solutions, I swear to god I've tried everything multiple times except doing a factory reset which i'll be damned if I do.
Now this iphone used to connect/sync fine all the time without issue, we didn't update or sync it with the laptop for about a month and during that period obtained an ipad 2. We set up the ipad 2 on the same itunes account without issue. Later I finally went to update to iOS 5 on the iphone 3gs. This is when I first detected the issue. The phone was no longer being recognized at all. It doesn't show up in my computer, itunes doesn't detect it, it doesn't pop up in the device manager when connected and even the camera isn't recognized.
As I stated, I've tried everything except factory reset.
I've tried;
1) Changing cables- the official one that came with it, one with iphone 4s, ipad 2 cable, spare cable, 3rd party short cable, 3rd party long cable. No difference. none of these cablesd allow the phone to be detected, none of the phones allow the iphone to pick up a charge from a usb connection EXCEPT the 3rd party black one.
2) Using all above cables on 2 different laptops, 3 different pcs. Exactly the same as above.
3) Everything on this page http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538
- Apple Mobile Device Support is installed
- Have restarted the apple mobile device support service several times
4) Itunes is completely up-to-date I have reinstalled itunes about 5 times now, i'll be loathed to do it again. I've repaired, I've followed guides to completely remove all traces of itunes/quicktime/apple including from registry, and then reinstalled.
5) I've entered revovery mode and tried everything listed here http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1538
6) I've disabled and removed any potential 3rd party software including anti-virus.
7) I've tried removing potentially erroneous pictures created by apps or obtained by means other than directly from the iphones camera.
8) Tried removing lock on phone
9) Tried taking pictures on phone to bring camera up on windows.
10) Carefully and thoroughly cleared and cleaned the inner contacted for the usb connection cable on the phone.
11) Updated all intel based drivers (usb/motherboard) and reinstalled them.
NOTHING is working.
The itunes account for the phone is installed on a windows vista pc, as stated earlier it used to always work without issue. I can't see how the issue wis with the laptop as it is not recognized in the same manor on other devices.
There are 2 or 3 things that could be potentially causing the issue. My main thought is something to do with the install of the ipad 2. The ipad 2, on the same laptop, IS recognized, by both the laptop and itunes, in other words, there are absolutely no issues with the ipad 2 which the iphone 3gs has.
If I connect say my iphone 4 to the laptop (or any other device) it IS recognized. In other words every other apple device, be it iphone, itouch or ipad works with every laptop/pc i have except the iphone 3gs.
To clarify, the iphone 3gs is working absolutely fine on it's own, it just isn't being detected by anything. The iphone 3gs charges absolutely fine on a official apple power cable with plug.
My phone has never been and is NOT jailbroken.
There are some slight discrepencies to information in this article http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1538 pertaining to the Apple mobile device USB driver.
With the iphone 3gs, as mentioned, when connected, it does not appear in the device manager. All my other apple devices do appear. For example the ipad 2 and the iphone 4, however, slightly differently as described in the article. The apple mobile device usb driver appears not under "Universal Serial Bus Controller" but under "Portable device". When the iphone 3gs is connected "Portable device" isn't even listed (as the phone is not recognized).
Ive tried connected the iphone 4 on one cable then the 3gs on another but only the iphone 4 is detected on the pc/itunes still.
All I stated it as a potential issue I don't truly believe the installation of the ipad 2 is the reason as other devices work fine.
Another possiblilty is to do with the picture issue, this has been reported alot around the web and is by far the most bizarre issue. If this was indeed the porblem I'd be beyond infuritated, consider the phone has thousands of pictures from a multitude of origins, be it the camera, bluetooth, emailed, downloaded, another camera app, an editing app. Bare in mind this is over a number of yeears and has not caused issues, then suddenly, it is. And the solution, delete the pictures that didn't come directly from the camera, i don't even need to state how nigh on impossible that is, for myself, i'd have to delete every single picture to ensure I got them all. The problem there? As is the major problem? As is the reason I can't just factory reset? The phone hasn't been backed up in a long period of time, I'd be losing far too much. The bottom line, this absolutely should not be happening and there has to be a simple yet not obvious fix for this.
The final possiblity? The usb port on the phone is faulty? Now bare in mind it gets a charge from being plugged into a socket (non-usb) and also gets a usb charge from a single 3rd party cable? Could this really be the issue? Would it make sense a charge is possible but not detection? It's definately not the cable, so that would leave the physical port on the phone? As i stated earlier I've cleaned this properly and ensured there's no signs of physical damage. The phone is obviously no logner under warranty and I honestly don't beleive it's damaged to the extent it won't be recognized.
I've probably missed a fair few things out i've tried to resolve this, but this is lengthy enough for now. Any suggestions greatly appreciated. I would love to resolve this without having to attempt a factory reset or delete all the photos. If there was a way to mass send every photo at once via email or bluetooth I'd try that then delete them, is there? I mean i do NOT want to be doing this one at a time. I really need to get the phone detected so i can backup my phone and (if then possible) transfer the data to my new iphone 4s (in the post!).
I love apple but this issue is quite disgusting and it's very apparent and widespread, there's just too many possibilities to it and unfortunately all the above don't seem to be helping.
Thanks for reading!

It COULD be the photos; the Camera Roll was never intended to be permanent storage; it is for temporary photo storage until the photos can be transferred to a computer, just like you would do with any other digital camera. However, the problems that you have read about with corrupt images only prevents the Camera Roll from being accessible on the computer, it does not interfere with syncing.
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netsh winsock reset
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Dropbox (www.dropbox.com) - Open a free Dropbox account on your computer, install the free Dropbox app, then copy the Camera Roll photos to the Dropbox Photos folder. They will appear in the dropbox folder on your computer as if by magic.
Picasa (picasa.google.com) - Open a free Picasa account. Purchase the MyPics app for the iPhone (not free, but inexpensive), and upload all of your photos to Picasa using MyPics
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Hi, I am trying to get help with my iphone 3gs. It's not being activated.

Find some place that will provide support for illegally unlocked phones, or if you decide that you don't want to do something illegal, get it unlocked legally, through the carrier it's locked to.

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I Sent a Voice Recording 1687 KB
In a little over a minute by bouncing in and out of EMail Folders, also periodically I would Press the Fetch Control the file was Sent at
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This iPhone 3GS Email was Sent (Put in the Outbox at 3:53 PM.
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In any case, discussion of jailbroken or hacked phones is prohibited by the Terms of Use of this forum. Jailbreaking and hacking void the warranty with Apple, and eliminates the possibility of any help from Apple or it's forums, including this one.
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IPhone 3gs activation issue - Belgium Mobistar

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