iPad stuck on wrong iOS version

[MikeX8819]

Hi everybody

So today my friend and I found my old iPad (3rd gen) back.
Charged it and it still worked, except it's so slow it's a pain in the ass to use (iOS 9.3.5).

We found this tutorial online that claimed we could downgrade to 6.1.3.
This is what we did:

• installed Phoenix2(?) using Impactor;
• installed Cydia;
• installed iFile;
• changed the iOS version and version build in the plist thingy like described in the article;
• rebooted the device.

The device indeed said it's on iOS 5 and I magically should've gotten an OTA update to iOS 6.1.3. Unfortunately, I didn't. It said it's on iOS 5 and up to date.
We wanted to start over again, because someone in the comments said you need to use a different version build, so we tried restoring using iTunes (it recognised iOS 9.3.5 is the newest available firmware). However, it wouldn't restore (iPad was in DFU mode).

So I tried erasing the entire iPad, still no luck. It still thinks it's on iOS 5.

I know we shouldn't have been messing with this kind of stuff, but we expected / hoped the tutorial would've worked. Is there any way to get this iPad back to normal?
It's a 64 GB 3rd gen iPad 3 GSM (European).

Offtopic: is it even possible to downgrade to iOS 6 or 7 (anything over iOS 7 was unusable)? Starting to lose hope. I don't have SHSH blobs. It's kinda stupid Apple just won't sign older versions of iOS, they know old devices like these are total garbage on the latest, supported version of iOS.

Thank you guys and gals so much in advance!!!

 

[PilotTiny]

Sounds like you need to Factory Reset the iPad using iTunes. You can only install the latest version of iOS that is being signed for your device (9.3.5). It is impossible to downgrade to an earlier firmware without the required SHSH Blobs. The only hope you have to get back onto iOS 6 is to keep an eye out, as sometimes Apple may start to randomly sign older firmware. Hope this helps!

 

[akash.nu]

It’s not possible.