iOS 6 update = Speaker not working properly

Return it. Seriously.

Yes send it back if you have just got it.

Do not pass Go. Do not collect 200. Return and don't think about it. And check that the new one works before you leave the store. Don't take bs for an answer.

I have this same problem, due to a while back when I accidentally dropped my phone in a bucket of water for 1 second. After that, my phone seemed to work just fine except for the speakers. I took my phone in and they told me about the dock and headphone "sound" receptors. But, they were unable to help me due to the little strip that indicated my phone has water damage. I tried this dock method of plugging it in and taking it out, and it works for 3 seconds, until my sound bar goes away again. My speakers work just fine if it wasn't for this stupid software problem. It's frustrating when apple can't take the time to fix this issue, just because of a little water damage. At least sounds still works with headphones and docks.

Per Apple Genius bar support. On the bottom (back of phone side) of the iPhone (4S for me) dock connector there is a small retangular refflective area (use a flash light). If it reflects white/silver all is ok. If it reflects RED-ish, there had been waster exposure and there is nothing to be done but change phones...

My symptoms are the 4S is always in dock mode.

If I dock it and remove it, the dock mode issue is resolved but for a limited time - it will revert back to dock mode and some later time.

In dock mode, alerts, messages... will not be heard as they are directed to the dock. Else, inbound calls ring on the phone ok.

I will live with this limitation until June when I can renew again with VZW.

Upon further experimentation, there appears to be about 300k ohms between pin 11 and ground. if I apply a small voltage to pin 11 to override the grounfd effect), the volume control returns to the music player and the internal speakers work ok. The water damage must of caused some internal (as in not the connector) damage (corrosion).

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3302?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

On a working 4S there is no measureable resistance between pin 11 and ground...

Go-Figure,

My 4s Phone has never gotten wet and there is no indication of it ever being wet as per the link you included.

Could there be dirt or dust touching Pin 11? Well that is possible.

How do you even get a probe to measure Pin 11 without bumping an adjancent pin?

My phone worked perfectly before the last two OS updates. I really hoped the last update would fix the issue but it didn't

Could my phone have had some issue with Pin 11 before the update? - Yes, that is possible but I would not have known since the phone did not outwordly show any issues.

I believe Apple should fix the code in the latest OS to resolve this issue with all 4s phones having this problem.

If it worked before the OS update it should work after the Update. At the very least Apple could create a small app that software grounds that pin for us so we can be back up and running,

As a work around I reboot my phone and then apps like "Pandora" begin working off the internal speaker again. But as soon as I plug the Phone back into my cars docking port it gets reset and when I take the phone out of the dock I have lost internal speaker all over again.

I notice that Pandora even pops up a message stating there is an issue with the phone and Pandora can not play. Sounds like a software prompt to me.

I would not be suprised that just a simple status bit is all that has to be reset for us to get our internal speakers back.

One last question of Go-Figure if you take a "Non-Working" 4s and reboot it so the speaker is working again.Do you still measure resistance between pin 11 and ground? - Of course this is assuming that my phone is not unique in being able to get the internal speaker back by rebooting.

First your questions,

Could there be dirt or dust touching Pin 11? Well that is possible.

THIS CAN BE, AND IS, ONE OF THE MAJOR CAUSES...

How do you even get a probe to measure Pin 11 without bumping an adjancent pin?

I HAD AN EXTENSION CABLE THAT I CUT AND CONNECTED TO THE WIRES. I WAS DOING AUDIO WORK AND HAD A FEW AROUND FROM THAT EXPERIMENTATION.

One last question of Go-Figure if you take a "Non-Working" 4s and reboot it so the speaker is working again.Do you still measure resistance between pin 11 and ground? - Of course this is assuming that my phone is not unique in being able to get the internal speaker back by rebooting.

YES I DO.

UPDATE

I openned my phone and did more experimentation. The end results are that when I disconnect the ribbon cable for the 30-pin connector to logic board, the problem goes away. Therefore the issue is contained in this piece which is comprised of the 30 pin connector, speakers, microphone and button. I did all sorts of things without ever getting the issue to correct itself.

I have located a replacement part (cheap - $8 and up) and will update this once installed...

Go-Figure,

So your phone did not get the tell tail of ever having been wet either? Excuse me if you mentioned this in an earlier post.

Blowing out the dust or in some way cleaning the pins was not a long term solution either?

I will see if I have a spare docking connector that has the needed pins wired - some don't. And see if I get resistance - might be awhile as I have several other projects going presently.

"I have located a replacement part (cheap - $8 and up) and will update this once installed..." - This use to be fvery difficult to do in the early Ipods I hope it is easier in the 4s.

Yes, I had the red indicator showing. Apples' GB solution was $200 for another 4S (I assume it would only be 16gb, I have 64).

My connector is clean. I blew it out, brushed it, inspected it with a 30x eye piece and Apple GB agreed it was ok.

There are instructions on ifixit and it is easy. I did it before finding the instructions (am an engineer)!

If the solution above doesn't work I will wait for next-iPhone in June else 5...

GB = Genious Bar. gb = gigabyte

So in my case I have a non watered down 4S that may have dust or corrosion on the docking port pins or it may have none of these issues and what it really needs is some kind of software fix from Apple or some savy App developer who could write a small app that could reset whatever variable is being reset when I reboot my phone.

Buying a new phone for $200,00 is not an option for me. I can get a phone anywhere for that kind of money and mine is 32 also.

I have pulled apart and rebuilt IPODS but pulliing what I thought was a perfectly good phone bothers me.

D4321,

Agreed. This was also my case but, as an engineer, I took it to the extreme!

In most cases, when I first enable the music player, the volume control might be present but the OS detects the grounded pin 11 and the volume control disappears along with the internal sound. When I remove the connector internally, the volume control is always present.

A simple OS solution would be to always ask the user, via a pop dialog, which device to direct sound to. In this case, the options would be the dock or internal speaker. I get a dialog like this when I bluetooth connect where one of the options is a generic dock that doesn't exist! The always ask feature could be a switch in preferences.

Go-Figure,

A Pop up dialog would be a good solution.

I wonder if the speaker issue would even be an issue if the new Iphone still used our style docking port? 🙂

From an engineering standpoint do you think the resistance between pin 11 and ground could lead to the battery getting drained at a faster rate?