Ziphone not activating a refurb...

[ben1969]

(I'm moving this question from a similar thread in the general iPhone forum)
I just purchased one of the $249 refurbs, but am stuck with Verizon for another 6 weeks. I'd like to use the phone as an ipod/wifi in the meantime, but have no interest in jailbreaking or unlocking. Advice in the other forum pointed me to ziphone, I've been having trouble activating.

Here's what I've done:
1. Installed ziphone.
2. Ran the advanced, "Activate iPhone" option
3. Rebooted when Ziphone was complete

When the iPhone reboots it returns to attach to iTunes/slide for emergency graphic and when it connects to iTunes I am prompted to activate through AT&T.

Am I missing something? Thanks in advance for any help...

ps I believe i have firmware 1.1.4 -- 04.04.05_G when I dial into the field test

 

[ben1969]

Have tried...

jailbrake and activate, with similar results -- iPhone reboots and returns to the connect to iTunes/slide for emergency prompt. When I connect to iTunes the normal activate through AT&T procedure begins. Again, it feels like I'm missing a simple step. Do I need to make sure iTunes is quit at a certain stage? Do I need to manually reboot after successfully running ZiPhone (I think its been rebooting all on its own)? Do I need to be using a new/blank SIM (I've been using the one that came with the refurb)? Thanks, again, in advance for any advice.

ps the serial # gives a week 32 date, but I'm pretty sure during the process of recovering and restoring that I am up to firmware 1.1.4 (shows 04.04.05_G in field test)

 

[fredrickyoon]

Once you use ZiPhone to jailbreak, if you plug in the cord to your computer, iTunes will start up, make sure that you close out iTunes.

 

[ben1969]

When

do I close out iTunes? Here are the steps I take:
1. Plug in iPhone (iTunes launches, but I quit it).
2. I launch ZiPhone and run it.
3. When ZiPhone runs, it puts the iPhone in recovery mode (says iTunes after iTunes launches again). ITunes indicates that the phone must be restored, and then iTunes ejects the iPhone (after I click on the dialog box that tells me the phone must be restored). I then quit iTunes altogether.
4. ZiPhone runs successfully.
5. The iPhone automatically reboots at the end of the ZiPhone run, and when iTunes launches I am sent (again) to the activate with AT&T process.