Q: wifi greyed out iphone 4s

My update from Sunday:

Went to my local Apple Store here in CT at Westfarms Mall in West Hartford. Got the run around like everyone else. My local NBC station even did a story on it (search online for "nbc connecticut iphone issues"). The genius I saw sent me off to a tech and the tech pretty much gave me the "this is what they tell me to say" and blamed it on the wifi antenna, yet he never actually looked at my phone. He had it in his hand but never checked the wifi on it. I upgraded to 7.0.4 this morning then wiped the phone after that. he went strictly on what I told him about the battery and grayed out wifi problems. He did offer to sell me a new phone though. Then he got the lead genius and gave me the same speech, "buying a new phone was the best option" but let the cat out of the bag by saying if they sold me a new phone, not to restore it from a backup because it may bring the same thing back on because it's more software. So wait, first it's a hardware issue and now it's a software issue? Which is it? When I told him that I won't update my phone with ios 7.0.3 or 7.0.4 in fear of it messing up my wifi, he just says "fair enough". it's my choice to do that. Yet an iPhone which he likes to state that is 300 days over the warranty (bought 1/1/12), which worked fine before the upgraded ios, as soon as it it upgraded, it's my problem now? I don't think so. When I asked so anyone with an iPhone 4S that upgraded the ios and now has the grayed out wifi is just out of luck and he shook his head yes. Oh wait, you can't see him shake his head yes. Oh, yes you can.http://youtu.be/XR6AVn5EPIM . I video recorded the whole conversation and I am wondering if I should put the whole thing up or not, and what else to add to the video as far as video of it not working,etc. Im not letting this one go. Even this video shows that it is a software issue. http://youtu.be/4mVkiU2jNSE  Warranty or not, the iphone is like new and everything was fine before she upgraded it to ios7. It shouldn't be my responsibility to have it fixed or have to buy a new phone...We did nothing wrong!

Hi,

I just bought a set of iphone repair toolkit from ebay and open out iphone myself, found that one screw on top of my wifi attenna was gone (right hand side), i shift the left screw to to the right, and install it back. Open my iphone and the wifi just work again!

Let's test for few days see when will it last. Cheer!

Follow up to my Nov. 18 post re: hair dryer fix

Well, my wifi worked for a few hours after using the hair dryer.  Now, the wifi button is no longer greyed out and is ON, but won't connect to wifi.  With the wifi at least ON, my battery isn't draining like it was when greyed out.  This all reinforces my opinion that my problem is wifi chip/antenna related and not a software problem.

same deal here, but i tried the hair dryer move twice.  first time i cooked it for about 2-3 minutes and wifi worked after...only for about 30 min though.  so next day i cooked it again for about 5 minutes.  wifi has worked for over a day now since the second cook job.

i wonder if there's no faulty hardware but a software issue that makes an activity limiting thermosensor become a problem.  by cooking it with the hair dryer maybe it's just killing the thermosensor...

either way, my options were buy a new phone, or potentially fix problem/fry my phone and then buy a new phone.  i had nothing to lose.

I agree Vapor.  I think the new ios is what is causing the harware issue.  It appears to be a hardware problem that is caused by a sofware problem.  In other words:  Apples crap soffware broke my phone.  It's amusing that Apple fanboys will defend Apple and for some reason think that declaring it a hardware problem only, somehow excuses that fact that our phones barely last a year and then we are "out of luck". 

I ended up taking mine apart and using a heat gun to reflow the chip by blowing on it just below the headphone jack.  I guess I over did it a bit s I now have a bit of discoloration on that edge of my screen.  My wifi however has been working for over a week now.  I would love to see this get investigated under the consumer protection act here in Canada and what ever laws apply in the USA and UK. 

So this is something to do with the iPhone 4S only. The GSM model, with an older A4/5 proccessor is not affected, correct? I have had a number of GSM models come into my home that I fixed and sold and none of them had issues like the iPhone 4S, (A6 processor chip). Many people are sying its iOS7, but it's not. It's not software. It's obviously hardware.

Hey, if the wifi went haywire on its own any other time...so be it, but for it to go haywire right after upgrading the ios just seems to be their problem and not ours. It has happened to way too many people.

here is a good question...did you update the ios by wifi or through the computer using itunes? Mine is fine and I did it through itunes. My wife's which no longer has wifi, upgraded using wifi. Just a thought.

I upgraded both mine and my wife's 4s with wifi; mine kept working and hers ended up being fried.  for what it's worth, it was almost a month ago that we both updated, but she just noticed a problem a few days ago.

On my iphone 4s the wifi greyed randomely a couple of hours ago, after trying all the hard resets nothing seemed to resolve the problem.

MY CURRENT FIX FOR THE PROBLEM (WIFI HAS BEEN WORKING CONSISTENTLY FOR AN HOUR NOW)

     - I took the back cover off the phone then bent/slighly pushed upward (CAREFULLY!) on the Wifi antenna.

     - Immediatly the wifi began to work again, I don't know if it was out of pure chance but maybe this can help a           few of you guys. (not responsible for damages/ warranty voids)

This could be due to inadequate contact...? You might have found a fix. I'll have to buy a lot of 5 or so iPhone 4S's and attempt to fix them...

turns out, not luck...

volfan2014 wrote:

 

(not responsible for damages/ warranty voids)

who you or Apple? lol

Having done the hair dryer method which ungreyed the ON/OFF button and turned wifi ON....however, without wifi reception.  So, there may be a lingering antenna problem.  One thing I did learn in this process is that with wifi OFF, your phone continually searches for a cellular connection which can rapidly drain the battery.  FYI for those of you like me that experienced rapid battery drain with the greyed out wifi button.  With wifi at least ON, battery life is fine.  Having had some success with the hair dryer, I'm taking the phone tomorrow to a professional iPhone repair shop for a reflow of the wifi chip and mother board to make certain all solder connections are closed.  If this works, I'll let you know.

I upgraded my phone 3 days ago from 703 to 704. before I had a lot of issues but it was manageable.

after the upgrade my wifi wont work. I cant turn it on in the the setting, its gray and it doent let me turn in on. I cant turn it on through the shortcut, but it doesnt do anything, it is still off.

I tried to restore it, but the itunes asks me to turn off "find my iphone" under the icould setting. it asks for password but it doesnt accept it.

I use anyother app on my phone but the main that I was doing with it was that I was using it to check my mail everytime in my univercity and also chat with my friends and group mates. now without internet I cant do any of those things.

I live in the netherlands and I got my phone from t-mobile. witha 2years contact, 40 euro per month, however not once I paid them 50 euros, I always paid them much more, sometimes 70 sometimes 80, sometimes 90, as I mentioned I am a foreign student here and I couldnt manage my money good so I could pay t-mobile the aount of 119 euros for two month. then they decided to cancel my contact and send it to these debt colleting agencies. those guys asked me the entire price for the contact which was roughly 1240 euro for two years and they asked me to pay the money. regardless of what I had paid t-mobile already. they were asking for 150 euros per month ut I couldnt pay that, I could only pay 50 euros (the original price that I was paying to t-mobile)

then I found out that from every 50 euros that I pay them 60% goes to them as a rent and 40% as what I owe them. so in7 month Ipaid them 350 euro, if u subtract that from 1240 euro that they asked it should be something like 910 euro that I still owe them while in reallity when I looked to see how much money I owe them its says 1100 euro. so like I only paid them 150 euros.

basically if u put everything together you will se that I am paying almost 1800 - maybe even more - to them for an IPHONE 4S, here in netherlands you can buy a car with taht money.

now after the upgrade, since I cant use my phone like i was using it yestarday, I dont know what to do. BTW i forgot to mension that when they cancel the contact for me, I couldnt use my phone to call anyone or even use the 3gs, that why I as only using the wifi, and now I cant even use that, so basically i am getting f-cked.

If i go to apple here in netherladns they refue to help, I go to t-mobile they wont help - not for the upgrade, I will fo there tomorrow to see what I can do.