3GS "searching..." all the time

[hobiecatter]

About two weeks ago my 3GS signal and 3G service started randomly going up and down to the point where about 90% of the time it just says "searching..." WiFi and everything else on the phone still works great.

I took it to ATT&T and they changed out the sim card, which didn't help, and sent me on to the Apple store. An Apple genius tried to restore from factory at the store, but that didn't help either. He said it's the phone and I would need to replace it. I am not ready to "cash in" my upgrade yet...I'm holding out.

I can't recall if it started happening after an update was applied or not. I was just wondering if anyone out there has had this problem or could give me a true diagnosis? It just seems weird to me because this phone has never been in water, dropped, or any other damage done to it and this just started out of nowhere....?

 

[Applejuiced]

Did the Apple tech said he was going to replace it for free?
If you're still under applecare warranty they will just swap it for you and wont extend your contract or anything.
You should have let him replace it.
Find out your warranty coverage here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do

 

[hobiecatter]

Did the Apple tech said he was going to replace it for free?
If you're still under applecare warranty they will just swap it for you and wont extend your contract or anything.
You should have let him replace it.
Find out your warranty coverage here: https://selfsolve.apple.com/GetWarranty.do

oh no, I'm out of warranty. I have had the phone for 2 years and no extended warranty. Actually I had this phone swapped out a year ago, so the particular phone is only one year old, but I'm way out of warranty.

But like I said, I do not want to use my upgrade yet.

 

[Applejuiced]

Oh I see.
Its pretty much what they told you, a hardware issue.
See if you can sell it as is on ebay or CL and get some money towards your next phone purchase.

oh no, I'm out of warranty. I have had the phone for 2 years and no extended warranty. Actually I had this phone swapped out a year ago, so the particular phone is only one year old, but I'm way out of warranty.

But like I said, I do not want to use my upgrade yet.