Why is WiFi greyed out on my iPhone 4s?

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Level 1

21 points

Why is WiFi greyed out on my iPhone 4s?

Why is WiFi greyed out on my iPhone 4s? I have iOS 8.1.3 installed. I have tried all the fixes offered in these pages. Most don't work, some do. Those that do only work temporarily. The most successful is the thermal shock treatment, but even that only works for a few weeks. Speaking from an electronics background, it would suggest that there is a defective WiFi component or connection that iOS 8 has somehow revealed by exploitation of a function using this defective aspect. When the defect manifests itself, not only does y iPhone loose WiFi connectivity it also seems to go into overdrive, consuming battery charge at a 50% higher rate.

Why does thermal shock only offer a temproary fix? What is the weak link between hardware, software and function?

Posted on Mar 9, 2015 4:44 AM

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Answer 1

JimHdk

Level 7

28,898 points

Mar 9, 2015 4:47 AM in response to Arnorf

Try the suggestions here to see if they resolve your problem:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ts1559

If those solutions don't work your iPhone 4s has developed a hardware problem. The permanent solution is to get it replaced.

You can search the internet for heating and freezing solutions that might work (at least for a while).

For example, see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj10bz5bI6A

Root cause: On some iPhone 4s devices there may be a flow soldering problem with the WiFi chip. After long periods of WiFi activity such as installing an iOS update (for example, iOS 7 or iOS 8) there may be a connection failure. A work-around to this is the procedure in the youTube video.

A true hardware fix may be found here:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/How+to+Fix+iPhone+4S+Wi-Fi+Grayed+Out/22167

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