No Wifi after iPhone 3.1 upgrade

Additional "IPhone WiFi" trouble shooting info... (Apple... are you watching seeing these data points...)

1 - My original iPhone 1st Gen worked well on WiFi prior to ver 3.0.
2 - 1st Gen iPhone worked on WiFi under 3.0 for approximately 2 days (it was not too stable though...) After that, nothing. Sometimes tapping the back would make the network show up for a moment, but then it faded away again... Decided to wait patiently for 3.1.
3- 1st Gen on 3.1 still did not fix Wifi. Patience wearing thin... Bit the bullet and got iPhone 3G S (company phone, 2yrs w/1st Gen etc.) 3GS works like a champ on all my WiFi spots - Home, Starbucks etc. Way faster than 1st Gen iPhone.
4 - Decided to perform FULL RESET on 1st Gen iPhone. Treated as new, no backups, clean restore. The WiFi WORKED!!! BUT ONLY FOR 5-7 Minutes!! What is going on here???
Does this make sense to anyone? The 3.x firmware has somehow disabled the older WiFi hardware. Tried Network reset... Not even a glimmer of WiFi on 1st Gen as it sits next to the 3GS with Full WiFi indicated. Help!
5 - Can I put 2.2.1 back on my 1st Gen iPhone? Thanks for any advice!

** 5. Yes you can. That's what I did.
Google for instance pwnage tool. There are plenty of sites that explain how to 'virginise' and revert to an earlier firmware. A backup in itunes is of course highly recommended as you will lose ALL data on your iphone.

If you read the threads you will establish that not every iPhone that has upgraded to 3.01 or 3.1 has an issue with WiFi. And if there have been no changes on the WiFi answering point [Router] then it follows that the problem may be with the iPhone. Given that every manufacturer is driven by price points it is possible that the WiFi chip in some of the iPhones are not the same and as a consequence perform differently at an OS level. Perhaps those with an issue need to established what they have in common. For example my iPhone 3G WiFi works with 3.1 the Model is MB496X Modem Firmware 05.11.07 OS Version 3.1 (7C144). Perhaps those with this issue might like to post this information together with their treads so that subscribers including Apple can determine the point of failure.

The iPhone information is in Settings/General/About

Message was edited by: adnixon

Update:

Another side effect of 3.1 - Battery life is terrible on my 1st Gen 4GB. I wonder if apple is doing this so I'll buy the new 3GS. J/k

I have had this problem since shortly after the 3.0 update. To my dismay, the problem persists despite multiple restores, resetting of the network settings, and both the 3.0.1 and 3.1 updates. At first I assumed that there was a hardware issue with my iPhone, but after seeing that so many others have this issue, I would really like to see Apple say something about this. While my 3G is pas the 1 year warranty period, I feel this should at least be covered by Apple, as it seems to be caused by their software update.

I've yet to hear of a successful attempt to fix this besides changing network settings on the router. I'm at college, and I cannot see personal Airport Express or the school's WIFI.
Any suggestions? Has anyone had success getting their iPhone exchanged because of this, even if it was out of warranty? That last detail is key for me.

My recent experience with Apple [Genius Bar] was that they replaced my iPhone under warranty because it had a stress crack in the back case with a new iPhone at 3.01. This brand new replacement iPhone at 3.01 could not see any WiFi Networks so it was upgraded to 3.1 and still could not see any WiFi network so without any arguement they replaced the replacement with another brand new iPhone which worked at 3.01 and 3.1 perfectly. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions mine was that either the Wifi Radio Transmitter/Receiver was faulty or the hardware was not compatible with the software.

As mentioned in another post it would be useful to publish your iPhone Specifications in order to determine if there is anything in common. Unfortunately I did not take the opportunity to check if there was any technical difference between the two iPhones the new one that did not work and the new one that did work.

In conclusion I found Apple to be more than helpful in what was a face to face experience. I still have considerable confidence in the product and am still recommending it to persons who are considering but yet to make the leap of faith.

Perhaps Apple need to consider a testing regime that involves actually users. I for one would be happy to put my hand up.

Message was edited by: adnixon

Message was edited by: adnixon

I purchased my iPhone 3 weeks ago with 3.0 installed on it. Three time since then I have lost the ability to use wifi. The first 2 times it came back unexpectedly, this last time it hasn't. If I go under Settings my WiFi option is greyed out with "No Wi-Fi". I have no options to pick a modem, nor can I get into my wifi settings. Please help, this *****, considering I don't even get phone reception at my house. (unknown to me when I signed up for at&t) Also, my router is fine, because both my laptop and friend's iPhone pick it up just fine.

another one with the same problem, i tried all the things on the faq page and nothing worked for me.
im an it working this job for 13 years and i know it a software problem, now im stuck i can not downgrade to 3.0 when the wi fi worked fine.
at least tell me if there is a way to downgrade my software to 3.0 becouse 3.1 has a bug.

iPhone 2G, 16 GB

Since update to 3.1:

*- No wifi-reception at all*
*- If phone is in sleep mode, it will not indicate incoming calls*
*- visual voice mails arrive only if phone is switched off and on*
*- From time to time phone will ignore power button, when I try to switch it off.*
*- Battery life is ridiculous. Less than 50 % prior "update". I turned off wifi, push, location service ... still less than 50 % ...*

I WANT 3.01 BACK!

I hoped to be able to downgrade with my bootable back-up and iTunes version 8 ...
But nooo, iTunes 8 downloads also stupid 3.1

Guess what!

I'm absolutely fed up with this situation.

Message was edited by: amicus

Looks like Gizmodo has picked up the story.

http://gizmodo.com/5363538/apple-taking-more-active-role-in-iphone-31-battery-li fe-troubleshooting

I'm having exactly the same problem. My iphone can not see any wireless network either home network or hotspot.

add me to the list too 😟

I'm also having wifi problems since the 3.1 upgrade.

I can detect my home network but cannot connect as before. Also I cannot connect to any cloud network as you might expect (which rules out my home network being the problem).

I spoke to O2 who took me through the obvious, ie Restore & reset network settings and Mac address twice, to no avail. Apple told me that the problems were down to my Simplicity Sim, however O2 'reluctantly' told me that this shouldn't be an issue...back to Apple.

Having spoken to the Apple 'Genius' in store today, I believe that they know more than they're letting on.

Anyone else having wifi problems with a Simplicity Sim?

Same problem with me, updated to 3.0 and lost all wifi. The phone (3G model) actually sees the networks but clicking join returns with an unable to join network message and the option to dismiss. Went to the apple genius bar, they took a look at the phone did a hard reset using itunes, still no luck. So they actually asked me to buy a new phone as I was out of warranty by a month, when I went in to the Genius bar although the problem started before I was out of warranty. Since I was not eligible for the upgrade to the 3G S model for another 6 months I am stuck with slow 3G acesss. I think the folks at the Genius Bar is seeing this often enough and it is time that somebody at Apple realized there is a problem and did something about this.
And to those interested in conspiracy theories it seems suspiciously close to release of the 3G S model that we saw the 3.0 upgrade being released and then all the problems with wifi connectivity that followed.