Trying to restore iphone 3g?

OK so my 11 year old daughter put a password on her iphone 3g and now forgot it, we have tried several passwords and I tried to restore it. I backed it up so that nothing will get lost however it will not allow me to restore it to factory settings. At this point i don't care what she needs to lose in order to use the phone again. I keep getting an unknown error every time. The home button is broken on this phone and we set the phone so that the home button will be the down volume button to go back to the screen. Please someone help. This is an older phone and out of warranty with apple.

Keep trying passwords. If it is the number pad just start at 0001 and go up to 9999. Or start in the center and work your way down or something. If it isn't, then just take it to your local store or call apple and see what they can do to help you

Try the emergency call trick with ios 4

I'm not sure but when you slide there should be an emergency call option
Call 000 then press the home button to access the phone

I'm not sure if this will work but its worth it.

Why not just replace the LCD and digitizer component so it can be easy

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