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Sim Card Failure No Sim with iPhone 4S Anyone Else?

Got the new 32GB iPhone 4S today from AT&T, activated the phone was working all morning, I started experimenting with Siri and a couple minutes later the phone was hotter than usual and I get Sim Card failure, and Bad SIM messages. The phone now only says No Sim. I get home take out the SIM card and put it in my previous iPhone 4 and it works just fine. I then put in a blank micro SIM into the new iPhone 4S, but it still says NO SIM. Thinking the SIM reader got fried some how already.



Anyone else have this problem maybe a bad batch out there, or I just got an unlucky lemon?



I made an appointment for the genius bar tomorrow, but I seriously doubt they will have replacement stock of the 4S already. Guess I will find out what my next course of action will be tomorrow trying to get a replacement since new orders are taking 30 days to ship I am afraid I will have to wait awhile to enjoy the new features of my already paid for phone 😟

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 1:53 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 15, 2011 4:55 AM

I'm having the same issue... 😟

1,365 replies

Dec 16, 2011 6:26 AM in response to Andy_KZ

This is interesting. I updated to iOS 5.0.1 (9A406) and the place on my table where I got only

one bar before the update is now showing FOUR (4!) bars. I tried some other "dark places" and

can see that I get more bars there, too.


I was able to reproduce the SIM Error very reliable at those spots.


So either this new build simply changed the visual or they fixed something substantially in their

baseband software.


So my test case went to **** - maybe that's what the patch is supposed to do 😉


My battery is down to 75% now - was 100% at 6.5h ago. I think am reluctant to call this a "battery drain issue".


Cheers

Stefan


P.S. I am sure that Vodafone didn't put a new antenna close to my house this week 😉

Dec 16, 2011 7:43 AM in response to sschulte

***** STILL NOT WORKING *****


I am getting the SIM-Error at the same place I got it for the update. However, I see 4 bars and not only 1 as before.


So whatever change this version has in it, is not fixing the issue.


I am in the software business so I am willing to wait since this is clearly not an easy one to fix. But still getting no word from Cupertino and a honest response to the problem eventually will make me go back to a Blackberry. They have their issue - but they talk to their customers.


--Stefan

Dec 16, 2011 11:14 PM in response to sschulte

What do you mean with "no word from Cupertino?"

They're trying to fix the issue, the release of the new build is the proof.

What do they have to do more than this? A press conference to publicly admit they found a flaw in their product? Discuss with you any ideas the come up with? Recall each and every phone they sold??


Obviously they're trying to fix this without creating a mass commotion, every company would do that.

The place where they "talk" with customers is knowledge base.

They put up an update, trying to fix the issue. For some of us it's working; for some others it's not.

They'll keep on working on that and they may come up with another update or another firmware (5.0.2) or put the fix in iOS 5.1.

I don't know, but clearly they are NOT ignoring us.

Then again, I you need to be told every step they are taking to address the issue, maybe it's just your professional bias, being in software IT and everything. I assure you no company is likely to discuss and reveal the details of their under-the-hood work.

Dec 17, 2011 1:04 AM in response to Toothsaw

To Toothsaw...

You are wrong my friend. How hard was it to design 4S? All Apple had to to was to fix antenna issues from iPhone 4, place a new processor and new camera and yet thousands of us are now having this issue with No Service, Searching, SIM Failure and on and on...

So in my opinion Apple should apologize publicly to those of us with these issues. I paid a lot of money for this phone and I can't use it as a phone. I was lucky and found an old SIM that works great and now I have to take two phones with me every day so people can reach me at me old number and I can use iPhone 4S, sad, sad, sad.

Honesty has always been the best policy. If you're right, you're right but if you're wrong then you should let people know you're wrong.

Dec 17, 2011 8:12 AM in response to robsdoghouse

Oh dear dear. Very sorry folks. I did say In my last posting. I restored my I4s. To the so called 5.0.1 build 9A406 software. And it worked for me. Well, guess what. Yes. No good whats so ever. After only a couple of hours of no problems. Back came . Invalid sim, no sim, no service. Well done Apple. Yet another cockup. Why don't you get your fingers out and Fix the flippin problem. Or bring out a proper update ie. (5.0.2). Mind you. Monday morning I'm asking for a refund. As this pile of expensive JUNK I have is being returned. I now reverted back to my Samsung S2. Apoliges, again friends. And I do hope you get a fix for your phones soonest.

Dec 17, 2011 8:17 AM in response to robsdoghouse

Hello folks.


I've had the same issue with my iPhone 4S 32g. I've had 2 phones and 3 sim cards from Orange here in the UK and still no joy - invalid sim, invalid sim, invalid sim. It's been driving me mental to say the least......


Having spoken to Applecare this morning they suggested I swap it for yet another phone down at their Solihull store so, although fearing another wild goose chase, I agreed to humour them and headed off to the shop.


My appointment with genius A was overheard by genius B who informed me that the solution to this problem had been circulated late last night on some internal Apple mail or something. The issue is firmware and requires something other than a standard restore - something called a 'DFU' restore (I think that's what he called it anyway). This will be a complete restore of your iPhone so back up!!! Anyway here goes:


1. Plug in to iTunes and back up.

2. Hold down the power (top) button and the home (bottom) button together for approx 8 seconds.

3. Release the TOP BUTTON ONLY after 8 seconds. As iTunes begins to restore the phone you can release the bottom button.

4. The phone will go back to the factory settings. You can then restore from your save back up.


My firmware went from 1.013 to 1.014. However, my son has the same phone as me, on the same network and bought at the same time and he's had no SIM issues whatsoever - and his firmware is 1.013!! Work that one out!

Anyway it's all good at the moment........I just hope I haven't spoken too soon.


Hope this is of some assistance.

Dec 17, 2011 9:44 AM in response to big.jim.888

@Toothsaw:


It is quite simple and other vendors do it: Your product is having a problem and a large number of your customers are affected (proved by this discussion already).


So you post a message to your customers that you're aware of the issue and you are working on a resolution.

If you have a correction, another post to your customer with some idea what changed and what the customer can expect to get.


This is really simple and since Apple is able to send me marketing emails, they will be able to tell me that they are working on the issue and from time to time update me on their progress.


I am not interested in getting an update every hour - but I am convinced that this dicusssion here would have less than two (2!) pages if Apple has been proactive on this issue.


None of this happened hence I claim this "no word from Cupertino" - especially since I have a high priority bug report open with them (which they never updated since I sent them a number of crash dumps).


Stefan


P.S. Since updating to the new iOS 5.0.1 Build 9A406 w/ Modem Firmware 1.014 I get the SIM Error more often (4 times today).


P.P.S. I called into Vodafone and was told that I have to get a new SIM card which they will send out on Monday to fix this problem. How do they know? We will see next week...

Dec 18, 2011 7:56 AM in response to robsdoghouse

I bought my iPhone from Apple online store Singapore few days back, and it had this No SIM or Invalid SIM problem from day - 1, and I would need to reset every now and then. In fact most of the time I would be able to stay connected, could get calls & SMSes, but had difficulties in making calls (even in good coverage areas) and sending SMS was impossible. What was most funny was the Internet connectivity remained active at all times.


So I was wondering if my iPhone hardware was a problem or SW, and did Google and found about the iOS5 update (iOS 5.0.1 build 9A406), so I immediately updated my phone. Thanks God with this new update my problem has resolved completely, and now its been 48 hours or so and since then my phone is working perfectly fine.

Sim Card Failure No Sim with iPhone 4S Anyone Else?

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