Q: Wifi greyed out on iphone 4s with ios 7

Thanks for your help a pity some other people on this forum couldn't be more constructive!

Meh. You do what you gotta do!

Please read my post about repair, posted on 15 November. It has been 3 days and my phone is working absolutely fine. I think first try the "hot air" on chip and if it doesn't work then replace it.

Hi, I have 4s and had the same problem of grayed wi-fi since updated to IOS 7. I kept on finding solutions, read every single mail on this forum and tried every trick to solve this issue. When I first time cooled down my phone in freezer and exposed to hot hair dryer after that, wi-fi was turned on and it wept working for one day untill the battery was down. Then it never turned on, no matter whatever I tried. Some times I could see address of wi-fi in settings but sometimes not.

The part of the world I live in has no customer support centre of APPLE but I do have technicians who can do repairs of all kinds. They suggested me to replace the wi-fi chip but there was a chance of losing the phone. I was facing a slowed down phone with no use other than for making and listening calls. I was very frustrated and decided to take a chance of getting it repaired.

When the technician opened the set, I asked him to blow some hot air on the wi-fi chip. He separated the whole motherboard from the set and exposed wi-fi chip area to very hot blower for 1-2 seconds for 3-4 times and let it cool naturally. The blower was so hot that it could burn a cotton bud in 2 seconds.

He assembled the set again and when turned on, every thing was fine. Wi-fi and blue tooth were working fine and I also noticed a quiker response of apps especially of SETTINGS and PHONE.

I wish this repair may help me and other affected 4s users. I think we should not fall in temptation of new updates and be happy whatever we have. But if we want to update then we should first do it in iTunes on our computers and then through it on our phones. It will not overheat our phones. I don't agree to the statement that  APPLE claimed that 4s had a hardware issue, exposed by iOS7. I think they should have suggested to the customers to download updates first on computers and then on phones plus it is very disappointing that they still have not noticed this problem and if noticed then haven't issued any suggestions.

APPLE we love your products therefore you should care your loyal customers.

TJBUSMC1973 wrote: But tell me, what, in your mind, is an appropriate time frame, from date of purchase, for Apple to replace a defective device?

When it is Apple's own software that caused the problem....none!

nuyhsemaj wrote:

 

i have this same issue. Has anyone tried downgrading to ios 6? If so, did it solve the wifi issue?

Not only is it not possible to downgrade your iOS, even if you could, it wouldn't fix the issue of the wi-fi greyed out.

It's not a software issue.  It's a hardware issue.  Restore your iPhone as a new device (iOS: How to back up your data and set up your device as a new device) and test the issue.  If it persists, then it's probably hardware.  But until you restore it as new and test it, you haven't ruled out the other possibilities.

vaportrails2002 wrote:

 

TJBUSMC1973 wrote: But tell me, what, in your mind, is an appropriate time frame, from date of purchase, for Apple to replace a defective device?

 

 

 

When it is Apple's own software that caused the problem....none!

Apple's software didn't cause the problem.  The problem always existed in the device, because the device was defective, but that defect was not revealed until the HEAT that is produced as a byproduct of the update process caused the wi-fi chip to fail.  ANY source of heat that exceed the defective tolerance for the chip would have caused the issue.

Imagine a car, that happens to have defective paint.  You use the car for three years, but never wax it.  You only use regular sopa & water when cleaning the car.

One day, the car delaership offers a free wash & wax to ANY previous customer.  You decide to take them up on the offer.  But it turns out that the wax causes the paint to peel off.  Now, you are OUTSIDE of your warranty period for cosmetic issues such as this, and the defect would have been revealed if you had ever waxed the car.

It's not the dealership's car wash system in particular that is the problem.  It's the wax, which you could have exposed the paint to at any time prior.  Now, if the defect had been revealed within the warranty period, you could have put in a claim.  But since the warranty has expired, you have to pay an out of warranty cost.

And the out of warranty cost is YOUR responsibility.  Now, if you ask politely, you MIGHT get the dealership to defray the cost, or even pay for the new paint job.  But you have no legal standing to DEMAND such service.  If only you had purchased the extended cosmetic warranty that you voluntarily declined at the time of purchase...

TJBUSMC1973 wrote:

 

vaportrails2002 wrote:

 

TJBUSMC1973 wrote: But tell me, what, in your mind, is an appropriate time frame, from date of purchase, for Apple to replace a defective device?

 

 

 

When it is Apple's own software that caused the problem....none!

 

Apple's software didn't cause the problem.  The problem always existed in the device, because the device was defective, but that defect was not revealed until the HEAT that is produced as a byproduct of the update process caused the wi-fi chip to fail.  ANY source of heat that exceed the defective tolerance for the chip would have caused the issue.

 

Imagine a car, that happens to have defective paint.  You use the car for three years, but never wax it.  You only use regular sopa & water when cleaning the car.

 

One day, the car delaership offers a free wash & wax to ANY previous customer.  You decide to take them up on the offer.  But it turns out that the wax causes the paint to peel off.  Now, you are OUTSIDE of your warranty period for cosmetic issues such as this, and the defect would have been revealed if you had ever waxed the car.

 

It's not the dealership's car wash system in particular that is the problem.  It's the wax, which you could have exposed the paint to at any time prior.  Now, if the defect had been revealed within the warranty period, you could have put in a claim.  But since the warranty has expired, you have to pay an out of warranty cost.

 

And the out of warranty cost is YOUR responsibility.  Now, if you ask politely, you MIGHT get the dealership to defray the cost, or even pay for the new paint job.  But you have no legal standing to DEMAND such service.  If only you had purchased the extended cosmetic warranty that you voluntarily declined at the time of purchase...

and you just admitted that the problem always existed in the device, because the device was defective. So Apple sold me a defective device. Regardless of the warranty, it was always defective. You ever hear of an auto recall? warranty has nothing to do with it.

Also, if i bring my car in for that free wash, and the paint starts to come off immediately (like the wifi problem with ios7) you don't think the dealership is liable? Poor example.

How about if the dealership is offering an update to the cars computer, so after they flash it, it causes the anti lock brakes to fail because of an underlying manufacturing defect. This causes your brakes not to work at all. So you are telling me they don't have to do anything?

Please learn product liability laws. It's called strict liability. look it up. stop defending apple on this.

I'm trying to help a friend who has this problem with their ip4s. It, to me, appears like the software has caused/or activated a hardware problem. If Apple are saying that the defect has always been there then I agree with the previous post that they should sort it out, if it's always been there and iOS 7 has activated it then it's a defect from purchase. The warranty shouldn't matter, either that or hey shouldn't have allowed iOS 7 to be installed on the device.

I understand the whole warranty is a warrant and anything after that is the customer's problem, but it's obviously a known, common problem with the 4s from initial build.

I don't think they will do anything about it but it's poor treats end which will drive customers away.

I'll be getting on with changing the wifi antenna myself for my mate now.

BS! And just HOW does anyone spot the so-called "hardware defect" until is it triggered by Apple's upgrade to the OS?

That's like saying that your motorcar had a defective fuel system that was only trashed when the mechanic you had entrusted it to poured a bag of sugar into the tank.

GOOD DAY!

MY IPHONE 4S' WIFI HAS BEEN GRAYED-OUT LAST OCT 31, 2013 FOR ALMOST 1 WEEK.

AND DUE TO FRUSTRATIONS, I LET MY IPHONE BE REPAIRED BY A CELLPHONE TECHNICIAN.

AS PER TECHNICIAN, THE WIFI ANTENNA IS DISCONNECTED TO IPHONE ITSELF THAT'S WHY IT DOESN'T CONNECT ANYMORE AND BE GRAYED-OUT.

THE TECHNICIAN USED SOLDERING IRON TO CONNECT AGAIN THE WIFI CHIP CONNECTED TO THE IPHONE.

MAKE A HUBBY OF TURNING OFF YOUR WIFI IF YOUR NOT USING IT.

I HOPE IT CAN HELP YOU GUYS

To Senyorita Jenn,

Getting a paid-for technician to look at an out of warranty iphone with wifi greyed out is indeed a good move!

The 4 and 4S has this special antenna design where the steel band around the phone is separated into wifi and 3G antennas. There has got to be some place where these antennas are electrically connected to the motherboard, with connection point(s) on the antenna side, the wire itself, and connection point(s) on the motherboard side.

I remember watching how to fix it tutorials on ifixit.com showing this very very tiny round connector near the wifi chip. Now, I don't know if this connector is soldered on, but could this connection point come loose? Would dropping the phone jar this connector loose?

We won't know until the area is looked at. I think this wifi problem is a mix of different issues, making it confusing and frustrating. We have:

* wifi chips which have gone disabled after updates, for some people, it was right after upgrade to ios7, for some it was upgrade to 7.0.1, for some 7.0.2, for some 7.0.3, for some 7.0.4. None of those upgrades had any published changes to the wifi portion (for example, no 802.11ac introduced or wifi bug fixes), so why would the upgrade cause the wifi chip to get disabled?

I've encountered upgrades where we loaded a new os image onto the firmware (not talking about iphone here), but on reboot the boot process failed. Bad firmware, couldn't even survive a re-write. In the iphone's case, how can a upgrade, break exactly at loading of the wifi drivers?

But there are so many people who reported the wifi going grey right after an upgrade, and no matter what they reset the wifi won't come back. This is very strange.

* Then we have wifi that is not greyed out, but can't connect to their home wifi or public wifi. For some folks, reset-network-setting works, but not for some.

* Then we have the wifi that exits greyed out mode after freeze/heat. For some folks, the wifi stays working, and for some, it greys out after some time.

Given all this, I would say there's one thing left to do: open it up and look at the darn thing. Look at that wifi connector, take a tootpick and tap it to see if it's loose. Is any metalic part of the antenna/wire assembly frayed and touching the upwards the iphone back cover?

Thanks for sharing your experience.

http://youtu.be/4mVkiU2jNSE

http://youtu.be/4mVkiU2jNSE