Massive problems in iPad setup
I'm hoping the community can help me with this one. I have set up dozens of iOS devices, and have never had this many issues. They've always gone off without a hitch.
I bought my daughter a new 9.7 inch iPad Pro. Her previous iPad was an iPad 2 or 3 running iOS 7.1, and she has the latest version of iTunes for Windows (I know, I know...)
It was not possible to upgrade the old iPad to iOS 9 because there wasn't enough space on it. The new iPad has iOS 9.3.1
We restored the last backup of the old iPad to the new iPad. I figured if it installed iOS7 on the new one, we would upgrade to 9 after the restore. It did restore, and the new iPad did say the version number was 9.3.1
But then she could't download apps from the App Store, and she couldn't sign in with her Apple ID. It was also having other issues, such as constantly dropping the WiFi signal.
So we did an Erase All Settings. My plan was to set it up as a new iPad instead of restoring from the 7.1 backup. I successfully wiped the iPad. It would not move past the Apple ID sign in screen. Either an error message popped up (Could not connect to the Apple ID server), or it simply has the "waiting" circle in the upper right corner. I then restored to factory settings through iTunes instead of on the device itself, but ended up stuck at the same screen.
Another curios thing: the iPad is named "OfficeMax's iPad", even after the restore. The thing is, I didn't buy the new iPad there. It is possible that I bought the old iPad there in 2011 or so, but the name was changed at setup to my daughter's name. So the "OfficeMax's iPad" name is another mystery to me.
I've scoured the community pages, and I've tried several fixes to similar problems, but I did not find someone with the same scenario.
An Apple Store is not nearby, so the Genius Bar is not a viable option.
I would greatly appreciate any assistance I can get. This was a birthday gift, and I'd really like to get it to work for her.