OK, background to my issue first:
On New Years eve I dropped by phone down the side of the bed, picked it up, put it on the side. Thought nothing more of it. Next morning it kept saying "Searching". I tried a Network Reset and that didn't work, so I tried a complete Iphone Restore. Once it was installing the Firmware onto the phone it would state that an "Error 50" had occurred. I tried it numerous times and still said the same thing. I took it down to the Apple shop as some people on message boards said to try it on a different computer and they hit the same problem..."Error 50". They said that it was a hardware issue and that my phone is buggered basically. I took it back home anyway and tried again and again and still nothing. I took it into work and tried it on 2 computers and it still wouldn't restore. THEN, I tried it on the accounts ladies computer and it worked, which I thought was odd. But still the phone was saying "Searching", but at least it wasn't stuck on the "plug into iTunes" screen.
NOW, this is where it got wierd. I was talking to my colleague and he asked if I got it sorted and I threw the phone up in the air and it drop on the floor stating "Does that Answer your question? It doesn't work." I showed him that even if I put it onto Airport Mode, it wouldn't...hang on...It suddenly found signal. But it didn't last very long. It lasted about 10 mins and it was straight back to "searching".
I've now worked out that with my phone, I REPEAT, MY PHONE, if i drop it on the floor not from a great height, but high enough not to smash the screen and then airport mode it on and off, I can get it to work from anywhere between a couple of minutes to a few hours.
The takeaway here is that it must be a problem with the circuitry within the phone so really the phone needs to be replaced. But if you are in a pickle and need to use it desperately, it's up to you if you want top do what I've done and throw it on the floor.
Just make sure you've tried everything else first. 🙂
