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iphone vibrates spontaneously - help!

ero87

ero87

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Hey friends,

I'm on my 4th replacement iPhone - each one has had a little quirk (loose part, dysfunctional battery) - and this one has a uniquely annoyign quirk. It will vibrate spontaneously, randomly, and often. It displays the little "silent" graphic, as if I had just switched it from "Ring" to "Silent". The actual switch is not loose at all, in fact this happens when I'm blatantly not touching the switch.

A full restore hasn't solved the issue. Anyone have an idea? I'm really sick of going to the Apple store to get my phone replaced.

Thanks 🙂
 
If you iPhone is set to check mail automatically, i.e, after 15 mins, 30 mins etc, it will vibrate in silent mode when e-mail is retrieved.
 
That's a thought, but...

ddk121 said:
If you iPhone is set to check mail automatically, i.e, after 15 mins, 30 mins etc, it will vibrate in silent mode when e-mail is retrieved.
Click to expand...

that doesn't explain the little silent graphic appearing during the vibrating, or does it? 😕
 
Mine does the exact same thing and I dont have it set to check mail automatically or anything of the sort. Also my battery life is so weak that it normally won't last a day. Reason I bring this up is because I am probably going to exchange it. Since the original op has returned his four times I am assuming its a pretty simple process. Do I just go in without any appt? Do I need to bring the box? Do I need my original reciept? Anything else I should be aware off?
 
ddk121 said:
If you iPhone is set to check mail automatically, i.e, after 15 mins, 30 mins etc, it will vibrate in silent mode when e-mail is retrieved.
Click to expand...

unfortunately it has nothing to do with email - i'm saying that it will vibrate 4 or 5 times in a row, in quick succession, toggling the "Silent" graphic... it's definitely an error, I just don't know how to fix it.
 
Same Issue: iPhone Vibrates Incessantly, Randomly

I have the same exact issue, ero87. It started about a year after I bought the phone: about half the times I set it to Silent/Vibrate, it will start vibrating incessantly in a non-rhythmic pattern. This is definitely separate from the vibrating it does when checking email, getting a text, etc.

It also seems like the vibrating is affecting the battery life: some days I'll try to make a call four or five hours after a full charge and see that the battery is dead or at 10% power, despite not being used all morning.

I've contacted Apple Support (the phone is just out of warranty and I didn't buy AppleCare protection). They were kind enough to look into the issue, but my options were to pay for repair ($199---same as a new iPhone 3G) or take it into an Apple Retail Store where they said a technican may be able to "offer other service options." No clue what that might mean, but I figure it's just time to buy a 3G. It's not like I expected the first gen iPhone to last long...it's an Apple, after all.
 
Certainly sounds like you have a dodgy ringer switch connection from what you've described. It's replacement time, again...
 
ero87 said:
Hey friends,

I'm on my 4th replacement iPhone - each one has had a little quirk (loose part, dysfunctional battery) - and this one has a uniquely annoyign quirk. It will vibrate spontaneously, randomly, and often. It displays the little "silent" graphic, as if I had just switched it from "Ring" to "Silent". The actual switch is not loose at all, in fact this happens when I'm blatantly not touching the switch.

A full restore hasn't solved the issue. Anyone have an idea? I'm really sick of going to the Apple store to get my phone replaced.

Thanks 🙂
Click to expand...

lol wow, I turned the vibrate off totally, its quite unnerving lol
You could try reformatting, reinstalling the firmware, resetting device and so on.
 
Hooray!!! a vibrator

i dropped my old phone in the toilet and now whenever i put the the battery in it just vibrates non stop.
 
As long as you support Obama you will have a bad phone. Didnt you hear Palin say that last night? Jk but for real take it back. 5th times a charm.
 
I wanted to add that I just restored my phone after it being jailbroken and everything is fine except for this same exact problem. The vibrating just will not go away.
 
mine too wtf

This has happened on two different iPhones. Today it started suddenly on a phone I got as a warranty replacement a few months ago. Anybody taking theirs in for an AppleCare replacement?
 
Bad Vibes

My brand new 3GS had the same problem. It happened randomly, and I got the silent icon. Hard and soft restarts did not stop the vibration! At the Mac Store, the guy simply restored the firmware. Let's see what happens. 😱

The phone support rep said that it sounded like a faulty vibrate switch, but the "genius" claims that he has never heard of the problem, and doesn't look at the blogs.

So if it happens again, they said that it should be replaced.

On that note, there was a guy next to me on an out of warranty ipod, that had already been replaced for water damage, who got a freebie while I just got my iphone last month lol!
 
Like Wtf

Mine does the same thing. I pick it up from a flat position it goes vibrate silent vibrate silent with the symbol popping up and im like wtf this is soo stupid.. its quite annoying.. everything else works perfectly, but that is simply annoying.
 
hardware problem

Turns out it is a hardware problem for me. It is only happening when the phone is in silent mode (when the hold switch is on) but when switched off I no longer get the vibrating. When the hold switch is on, since the switch has become faulty, it is very sensitive to touch and whenever I even slightly nudge the hold switch it rapidly moves from silent to non silent or some variant thereof. So the moral is, at least in my case, this is not a software problem and it is caused by faulty hardware and because of this fault I can no longer use the hold switch on the side of the phone.
 
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