Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
My iPhone 4 signal issues are gone...
- Thread starter jav6454
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Even better:
Just don't stick it in that way.
Steve.
-Sent from my iPhone.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA
arn is already on this threadjust check previous pages.
haha didn't read through it all. skipped a few pages.
btw guys, DON'T tape your sim card... jeeze, do you wanna ruin it?
maybe apple needs to send out plastic sim trays?
Wait - flip it over and let me see how it's sitting in the tray after you cut it. I don't see how the SIM is causing any issues
I got it to work! Here are some pictures, I apologize for the poor quality.
First of all - Mine did not wiggle. - I HAD TO SLIGHTLY CUT THE OPPOSITE END OF THE CONTACTS. It cuts very easily with scissors. Be careful you do not cut too much or the sim will not sit in the tray!
Before:
![photofl.jpg]()
After:
![photdo.jpg]()
I realize the pictures look similar. But there is a gap between the contacts and that is enough to fix it! No dropped calls, calls go instantly and no bars lost in any grip!
Better quality pictures coming.
Tape does nothing to a SIM card. SIM cards have gold contact points, and as we know, gold is a very inert metal and is known to not react with other elements. So a little of adhessive will not harm it.
But, it does appear to be working for some people though. There very well may be other reception issues involved, but at least a few people now have better reception than they did before. It's something.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_0 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8A293 Safari/6531.22.7)
I am not 100% convinced. I do not have a call drop issue at all, but I so have the bars drop a little when I touch the lower left corner, but never looses signal. My sim is contacting the tray and it was also printed a little of (about the width of the tray side that is touching). I added a sliver of double sided tape. Immediately I had all 5 bars in my house when I would get only 3-4 right before. While I am posting, it dropped to 3-4 bars again. This might be part of the issue, but there might be something else going on.
I am not 100% convinced. I do not have a call drop issue at all, but I so have the bars drop a little when I touch the lower left corner, but never looses signal. My sim is contacting the tray and it was also printed a little of (about the width of the tray side that is touching). I added a sliver of double sided tape. Immediately I had all 5 bars in my house when I would get only 3-4 right before. While I am posting, it dropped to 3-4 bars again. This might be part of the issue, but there might be something else going on.
FWIW...........
I have done some further testing and am finding this to be the ticket. If I do the death grip in the lowest signal area of my house the bars will fall from 3 to 1 but it will not lose signal. This credits the theory that all phones have that type of reception issue to which I was not surprised.
Previously, I could make this drop signal even in the strongest signal area of my house. Better yet, I actually now have reliable 3G service. This is the first time with any phone in my house that I could achieve that.
I have done some further testing and am finding this to be the ticket. If I do the death grip in the lowest signal area of my house the bars will fall from 3 to 1 but it will not lose signal. This credits the theory that all phones have that type of reception issue to which I was not surprised.
Previously, I could make this drop signal even in the strongest signal area of my house. Better yet, I actually now have reliable 3G service. This is the first time with any phone in my house that I could achieve that.
if you take out the sim tray, you will see on the under side of the tray where the gold contacts of the SIM CARD lay, the edges have some sort of insulation sprayed/glued on. It's enough to prevent the gold contacts from coming in contact with the metal tray itself.
Perhaps the goal here is to PREVENT THE GOLD CONTACTS FROM TOUCHING THE TRAY - not the other way around where you want it to touch the metal tray??
Perhaps the goal here is to PREVENT THE GOLD CONTACTS FROM TOUCHING THE TRAY - not the other way around where you want it to touch the metal tray??
Lol, i bet apple is fumbling around this thread as we speak. Hopefully we will get a new sim card this week that has plastic correctly surrounding the metal contact.
I have figured out with mine that if I am in an area with coverage that is 3 bars to 5 bars and I put my hand over the lower left it loses signal like everyone is reporting.
If I am in an area with a solid five bars, touching the lower left doesn't do anything.
I think that is why some see it and some dont.
Unfortunately I have it happen at home because my signal is 3-5 fluctuating all the time.
I will also note that the bumper did nothing to fix mine. It still did it in areas where the signal was not SUPER STRONG.
Sure wish we could still punch that code to get the actual DB signal number instead of the bars.
I just pulled my sim card out and the metal part on the sim in offset. The side with hardly any non metal area touches the sim tray.
Im waiting 20 to see what happens and if this doesn't work ill try insulating that side with some shrink tubing. and see what happens.
It's a 3G device, and 3G is affected.
I wish i could get this to work
Yeah but the ipad antena isn't on the outside is it? Or at least part of the frame that is touching the sim card tray.
Yes, so if we've learned anything, quickly jumping to conclusions based on personal experience and scattered and conflicting reports is the only way to get anything done.
I know I shouldn't post... I'm just a little excited.
Yeah, thats what i mean - that's why it doesn't affect the iPad's reception even though the sim touches the tray.
Great news if this is the fix. I don't have an iPhone 4 yet to try myself. Couple buddies at work have it, so I will see if it fixes theirs.
For those that might believe the contact issue with the microSIM tray isn't a problem, consider this:
![simpoints.jpg]()
Points 1 and 2 are microSIM contacts, only for that purpose; point 3 is the microSIM tray itself - and if there's some grounding or shorting going on between 1 and 3, or 2 and 3, or heaven forbid 1, 2, and 3 all at the same time or even sporadically, then again, "Houston, we have a problem."
While gripping the phone tighter decreases the resistance and increases the capacitance effect on signal attenuation (wicks away more energy off the antenna bands), it could have the secondary effect as I've already noted of causing that gap between points 1 and 2 and the microSIM tray itself, 3.
Does seem a bit odd that microSIMs don't have their contact points shielded on all 4 sides, doesn't it? Weird...
Points 1 and 2 are microSIM contacts, only for that purpose; point 3 is the microSIM tray itself - and if there's some grounding or shorting going on between 1 and 3, or 2 and 3, or heaven forbid 1, 2, and 3 all at the same time or even sporadically, then again, "Houston, we have a problem."
While gripping the phone tighter decreases the resistance and increases the capacitance effect on signal attenuation (wicks away more energy off the antenna bands), it could have the secondary effect as I've already noted of causing that gap between points 1 and 2 and the microSIM tray itself, 3.
Does seem a bit odd that microSIMs don't have their contact points shielded on all 4 sides, doesn't it? Weird...