After a simple turning off and on, my iPhone 3GS (32 Gb, iOS 6.1.6) suddenly is just a small but expensive brick. It shows the 'connect to iTunes with usb-cable' screen.
In iTunes (10.7) on my MacBook Pro (15", Mid 2009, running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard) the iPhone has lost all information (name, serial number, capacity and software version). (I do not want iTunes 11 as my fiends have only had bad experiences (multiple crashes and no cover flow) with iTunes 11 and I cannot upgrade the OS X as I'm using important applications not compatible with OS X newer than 10.6.8 Snow Leopard. Until turning off my iPhone this morning none of this has ever been an issue.)
iTunes tells me to restore this iPhone and I accept. After downloading software iTunes tells me that "iPhone could not be restored. You cannot install this build on this device." and two buttons, 'More info' and 'OK'.
The 'More info' button takes me to the standard Apple support site for
Error 3194, Error 17, or "This device isn't eligible for the requested build"
which tells me to update iTunes to the newest version and comment out an entry containing "gs.apple.com" in the hosts file - but I have no "gs.apple.com" in my hosts file and I already have the latest version of iTunes 10 (not wanting iTunes 11).
I suspect that iTunes, probably not being able to identify my (anonymous) iPhone, has downloaded iOS7/iOS8 or something else incompatible with iPhone 3 GS, but this is just a suspicion ... and I can only work the terminal with very thorough and simple instructions ... so I'm stuck AND without a functioning iPhone!
How can I restore my iPhone 3 GS?
Thanks in advance,
