Blackra1n hangs / stuck at blank screen while jailbreaking / Unlocking?

Blackra1n is the simplest and the fastest tool to jailbreak or unlock your iPhone. I use it every time I have to restore my good old Apple iPhone 2G. However, recently while unlocking / jailbreaking a friends iPhone 2G I came across a weird issue. When I run Blackrain the iPhone reboots to a blank screen. I can see the LCD is on with a backlit, but the screen is black (blank). Ideally this should display the Geohot photo and jailbreak the iPhone. But that just didn’t happen. After cracking my head for over a couple of hours this is what worked for me:

(I am assuming that  you have already updated the iPhone to firmware 3.1.2 using iTunes before running Blackra1n. Read the instructions to unlock the iPhone 2G using Blackra1n)

  • When the iPhone hangs at the black screen and Blackra1n reads, “done, waiting for reboot” leave the iPhone in the same state for 10 mins.
  • If this doesn’t work – Run the blackra1n.exe again. Without closing the existing session of blackra1n
  • Once blackra1n again comes to the “done, waiting for reboot screen” disconnect the USB cable from the iPhone and immediately connect it back again
  • You should now see the geohot photo on screen and the iPhone would jailbreak successfully.

I have not heard of this issue with 3G or 3GS, but you might want to try this for iPod touch or iPhone 3G / 3GS aswell, if you are facing the issue of blackra1n not working and sticking to the blank screen after reboot.