Freezer Trick and Wifi

[-aggie-]

Maybe someone will actually see this thread despite all the insanity for the iPhone 4.

I’ve told people to use the freezer trick to detect whether your iPhone has a wifi hardware fault (put your iPhone in two ziplock bags with most of the air removed and then place in a freezer for several minutes; if wifi works for a few minutes after taking it out of the freezer, then it’s a wifi failure). However, there are those on the net that say leaving the iPhone in for hours will fix the wifi permanently. I thought this was total crap and never tried it. Anyway, my wifi stopped working at all several months ago (I never even saw a wifi spot to join), so I decided what the hell, the iPhone 4 is coming out, so I might as well try it. It’s worked for 4 days now! WTF? I have some electronics background, and I see no reason why this should work, since after the iPhone heats up, it “should” return back to how it was before freezing. Any ideas? I’m glad it worked, but it just makes no sense. FYI, if you try this, I take no responsibility for your results. When I took mine out, it had a thin sheet of ice on the glass, so I kind of thought I might now have water damage, but the sensors are still white. Anyway, do so at your own risk (or do a better job getting the air out than I did).

 

[segers909]

I think the cold drains the lithium battery down to 0 volts, so that the electronics "reset".

 

[mstrze]

I think the cold drains the lithium battery down to 0 volts, so that the electronics "reset".

Colder batteries actually 'hold' onto charge better.

 

[-aggie-]

Colder batteries actually 'hold' onto charge better.

Yeah, I don’t think it has anything to do with the battery.

 

[rdowns]

I'd much rather stick iPhone thread starters in the freezer rather than the phones.

 

[mstrze]

Perhaps there is something mechanical...like a small piece of metal that popped out of place, for lack of a better term, and freezing this connector, shrinking the metal, may actually force it back into its original position and placement.

I know that one can pop out small dents in a car by applying dry ice to shrink the metal and return the metal to its original placement and appearance.

I would bet that something similar must be happening in this situation.

 

[Arran]

Colder batteries actually 'hold' onto charge better.

Yeah, but I wonder if chilling the battery arrests its chemical reaction enough so that current is no longer supplied to the phone? That would be the equivalent of removing the battery - which was the old-fashioned way of resetting electronics.

And it might not be the main battery here. It might be one of those soldered-on button cells/caps that are only used to maintain settings?

Mind you, I'm still a bit concerned about what freezing could do to the display.

 

[-aggie-]

Yeah, but I wonder if chilling the battery arrests its chemical reaction enough so that current is no longer supplied to the phone? That would be the equivalent of removing the battery - which was the old-fashioned way of resetting electronics.

And it might not be the main battery here. It might be one of those soldered-on button cells/caps that are only used to maintain settings?

Mind you, I'm still a bit concerned about what freezing could do to the display.

Well, none of my settings got reset, so IDK.

Yeah, I didn’t expect the ice to form, but I must not have removed all the air. It didn’t affect anything though.