I’ve had this 3G iPhone for a month now, and just pulled it out of my pocket to see a solid white screen. This is interesting at first because I have it locked and password protected, and know I have a half-full battery.
A quick press of the Sleep button shuts it down, but another quick press simply goes back to the white screen. WTF?
So I jump on Google and run a quick scan for “iPhone 3G white screen” and get some discouraging hits like “hope you made a backup since the fix is swapping the phone for a new one”. Well that’s crap.
A modified search yields people claiming every trick in the book being used, still to no avail…
So I decide to try myself. After a few random button combo attempts I found it!
- First, press and hold the HOME button.
- Second, press and hold the UP volume button as well.
- Third, with those still held, press and hold the SLEEP button.
After 5 or 6 seconds it displayed the black screen with the chrome Apple logo. About 15 to 20 seconds after that it booted into my password login. Once I entered the code, the phone operated normally.
This entry was sent from the iPhone immediately after the above steps were performed.
Good luck and I hope this solution works for you.
(edit 1/6/09 – fixed some typos, the tags, and some grammar)
Filed under: iphone | Tagged: 3G, apple, brick, freeze, help, iphone, troubleshoot, white screen
It worked!
Thank you for saving us a 70 mile trip to the nearest Apple Store
Thanks for sharing your information. Your answer fixed it within 30 seconds.
AWESOME! It worked!!!! Thanks.
[...] even turn it off. And now there are strange gray lines on the right side of the screen. Even Phaktor’s solution didn’t work. There’s nothing I can do. I’ll never save all my voice memos and [...]
I suppose I should have phrased the post as “a potential” solution, rather than *the* solution…
Thank You – Thank You – Thank You! It worked!!!!!
Thank you very much. You’ve save me a lot of hassle. White screen of death on a month old 3g s. It did wake me up a bit.
Thanks a lot.. I just saw my new 3gs only a few days old with a white screen just thinking this is not good..
You saved my day.. 
What a legend! I was about to throw my phone across the room! Honestly – I am so, so grateful – Thank you :O)
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I JUST GOT THIS iPhone 3gs with 3.01 which was impossible to find!!!!!! I was just sending a text and the phone went white!!!!! I can’t restore to 3.1 at this time because of the pineapple.
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
Can’t thankyou enough!!