Using MyTouch 3G without service

[popstrip]

I made the mistake of resetting my MyTouch 3G. Now that it's reset, it starts to the Google Sign In screen. Here is what I've tried so far.

SIGNING IN

This doesn't work because there is no service or wifi. There appears to be no way to access the normal settings menu to turn on wifi. It's a classic catch-22. You can't sign in without wifi and you can't turn on wifi without signing in. You can't go to the home screen (locked on Welcome to T-Mobile myTouch 3G / Google Sign In / Emergency Dial / Change Language), you can't pull down the notification bar, and the menu only brings up "APN settings".

SKIPPING SIGN IN

This doesn't work because I can't see any way to skip the sign in / sign up. There is a skip button to skip the three page "Learn how to use your T-Mobile myTouch 3G" help section which precedes the actual Google Sign In menu, but it ONLY skips the three help pages. It does not skip the actual Google Sign In screen. On this screen there are only three options: 1) Create 2) Sign In 3) Back

TAP THE FOUR CORNERS

I tried tapping the four corners on the Welcome screen (top-left, top-right, bottom-right, bottom-left) about 50 times, but it does nothing. I looked it up and several websites said that the four corner method does not exist on the T-Mobile MyTouch 3G. There are even videos on YouTube of people demonstrating with my exact model of phone that the four-corner tap does not work on this phone. Here is one:

typical android activation bypass doesn't work on the mytouch 3g - YouTube

REMOVING THE SIM CARD

Once the SIM card is removed, you are greeted with a delightful "No SIM Card" screen. Unless you know a method, I see no way to bypass this screen / or to access the normal settings menu.

BORROWING A T-MOBILE SIM CARD WITH SERVICE

Several websites say you can temporarily insert an active SIM card, turn on wifi, then swap the original non-active SIM back, and then sign in to Google via wifi. I know dozens of people with cell phones, but no one uses T-Mobile. I live in a town of 300,000 people, yet there are zero T-Mobile dealers. I tried Best Buy. No one there had a T-Mobile phone either.

UPDATING THE FIRMWARE

I removed the microSD card, connected it to my PC with a USB adapter, copied a firmware update to the SD card, put the card back in the phone, and ran the update. It took a while, did many things, and was successful, but it appears to have changed nothing after rebooting the phone.

INSTALLING A CUSTOM RECOVERY IMAGE

I tried doing this using these instructions:

TMobile myTouch 3G: Rooting - CyanogenMod Wiki

This fails on Step #5. After trying "fastboot flash recovery recovery.img", I am greeted with the "sending 'recovery' (2644 KB)... FAILED (remote: not allow)". Fastboot does see the phone ("fastboot devices" shows phone in list) but is not allowed to run the update. I read several web pages explaining how to fix this error, but all the fixes involved _already_ having full access to the phone (e.g. you would have to download apps, access settings menus, etc).

HBOOT / FASTBOOT INFO

I don't know if this is useful or not, but here it is:

SAPPHIRE PVT 32B SHIP S-ON G
HBOOT-1.33.0006 (SAPP30000)
CPLD-10
RADIO-2.22.19.26I
May 29 2009, 19:06:41

FINAL NOTES

I have exhausted my "Google Fu" and I'm out of ideas. I'm not impressed with android right now, but I'm keeping an open mind. Any help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[popstrip]

I'm not getting any replies, so, I was wondering if I posted in the wrong section or said something wrong? Thank you.

 

[sugarain]

i have same problem, my htc magic t-mobile mytouch 3g is greeting me with welcome to my t-mobile 3g touch to begin screen. i'v tap uncountable times already the 4 corners and the phone won't even blink, i'm beginning to feel i lost my phone

 

[cw96822]

I'm also having this problem. I've done a lot of searching for a resolution, but to no avail. If you now know of a solution to this, can you refer me to it here. Hopefully now in 2013, someone has started spreading the solution around...Thank you

 

[Tritolo84]

Hi peaple !!!
i solved this problem

This solution is only for magic 32b !!!

Download this sappimg.nbh --> ........mediafire.com/?jji2zycjdmh

Then transfer it in sd card

Start the phone in hboot mode and scroll the trackball

Wait for intall

YOUR PHONE IS OK

 

[cw96822]

but no luck. It said something like "failed, model ID incorrect". My myTouch is the one without the keyboard and without the headphone jack. Nice try, though.