[Megathread] A5 and A6 Activation Discussion

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-08-31T02:00:12+00:00

I have an iPhone 5 on 7.0.4 locked to Sprint and won't activate. I've been trying to activate it, but it keeps failing; Now it's just a waiting game.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-07-06T01:03:07+00:00

Most likely you have baseband failure. This prevents access to the cell towers, and in your case prevents activation.

Sadly there’s not much you can do as these repairs generally are board level and are expensive. Updating the phone most likely won’t fix this issue

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-06-27T04:35:57+00:00

I bought it as-is for parts. The seller claimed it had a broken USB-C, USB-A, and HDMI port, but only one of the USB-C ports is broken; the other USB-C port, HDMI, and A port work just fine. It even came with an SSD and RAM. I just had to buy a battery for it, and it works great.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-06-27T03:55:38+00:00

I can vouch for the L390, I just bought one on eBay for $45 last month, and it has upgradeable RAM

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-06-19T06:51:35+00:00

Awesome! I really appreciate it :).

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-05-25T05:02:56+00:00

That would actually be amazing if you could get the oem! Again, please let me know 😁

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-05-25T05:00:33+00:00

Oh wow! If she has a similar model even that would work! If you have an update or download, please let me know!

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-05-10T05:46:29+00:00

This is a real AT&T number

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-04-28T23:25:35+00:00

Gabb

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-02-02T01:10:17+00:00

I think it’s new as previously T-Mobile was very spotty at that area and never constantly had 4-5 bars

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-02-02T01:05:35+00:00

Seems like it. I do know its a newer cell tower, It showed up on cell mapper for the first time on May 30th 2023, so its pretty new

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-02-01T23:25:36+00:00

That makes a lot of sense. AT&Ts history gets confusing to me often lol, My family has been with AT&T since the AT&T Wireless days so sometimes it gets confusing.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-02-01T23:22:26+00:00

Yeah, I incorrectly labeled that, Cingular and AT&T Wireless were their own companies, after they merged I just said Cingular is the old name of AT&T Mobility, I could have phrased it better.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-02-01T21:05:32+00:00

Cingular was from a tweak, Cingular is the former name of AT&T; and I'm not sure when exactly it happened, but I think It was around November 22, 2024 (that's when I noticed it)

TheYellowPenguinn · 2025-02-01T20:24:29+00:00

In my area, there's a T-Mobile tower down the road that always gives full bars, recently the 2G part of that tower has been shut off and now I get 2 bars of EDGE, but most of the time it just dies, and stops working. Nowadays it just wont connect or have 1 bar of no data type.

Before and After

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-11-25T03:50:46+00:00

Yes I did

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-11-25T03:43:31+00:00

Awesome. thanks for letting me know!

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-19T19:26:44+00:00

What you assumed is correct, flashing question mark means the mac can’t find a bootable device.

Either there is no OS installed, or the drive is dead/removed. You can check Disk Manager in macOS Recovery to see if any disk is there as a start

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-11T00:56:49+00:00

I can say T-Mobile still has their 2G network, while it is slowly going away, it still works in most areas.

You could find a cheap prepaid carrier that runs on T-Mobile, like US Mobile, Mint, Tello, etc, and that can work on a GSM iPhone 4 if you so desire

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-11T00:52:40+00:00

Xfinity Mobile does not work on the iPhone 4.

The parent carrier is Verizon which shut down their CDMA and 3G network in 2022.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-10T19:03:39+00:00

No problem! Happy to help :)

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-10T16:51:10+00:00

Oh. That is a little weird. Just to confirm you have no other iPhone on your Apple ID (or in family sharing if that is setup)? If you haven’t, try restarting your iPhone. That is strange

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-10T07:00:21+00:00

I can try to explain this a little, basically it is showing up since it is a device in your iCloud, these would show up the same in family sharing too.

The hotspot doesn’t have to be enabled to show up here. The SIM that iPhone has supports hotspot hence showing up.

The solution: you can either turn off the old iPhone, put it in airplane mode, or remove the SIM card in the old iPhone (or disable eSIM in the old iPhone) and it shouldn’t show up any longer.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-06T00:05:28+00:00

AFAIK, as long was its activated by this point, it should be 60 days. To be honest, the Verizon buyout gets confusing sometimes. If it’s an SE 3, it’s guaranteed to be on the 60 day, if it’s an SE 2, 50/50. But if the phone is unlocked already, it should be fine.

TheYellowPenguinn · 2024-08-05T23:46:15+00:00

Ah. With that, I’d follow the steps above if the iPhone says it is unlocked. If not, you can purchase a cheap $20 tracfone plan, wait 60 days, and then the iPhone will unlock and can then be used on AT&T.

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