iPad 2 - Sim Card Failure

[andy9l]

Our family has just bought another iPad 2 - this one off a close friend. Said friend has never inserted a Sim card to the iPad, and bought it from the Apple store in Birmingham, UK. Please note; I personally bought an iPad 2 3G two weeks ago which is working perfectly with 2 sim cards (mentioned below).

When a Sim card is inserted (the O2 one from my iPad, or an unused '3' Sim), the iPad immediately pops up with 'Sim card failure' and displays 'Invalid Sim' as the carrier.

I've tried the following:
Restore to iOS 5, clean
Re-inserting the Sims multiple times
Resetting/rebooting several times

The iPad activates fine, but seemingly not via a cellular network. Eventually it just displays 'No service'.

This is rather frustrating for both us and the seller as we want the discounted iPad, and they want the money. The iPad was only bought in April so is it still in guarantee??

Anyone else with this problem managed to solve it? Is it a definite hardware issue? Suggestions/tips more than welcome.

Are these two Sim cards I'm trying to use locked to my iPad only? ie. Will not work on the new family iPad?

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Sim cards are never locked to a particular device.

It sounds to me that the iPad is locked to a carrier - and since you tried o2 and Three SIMS, it must be either locked to Orange, TMobile, or Vodafone. If it is locked, then you should be able to tell by having one of those invalid Sim cards inserted into it while it's plugged into iTunes - you should get a page appear saying it's locked in iTunes.

If it does turn out to be locked, then either it was bought purposely locked to a carrier, or the Apple employee made a mistake and handed them the wrong iPad. I don't know if Apple will help you out, but it definitely is still under warranty (1 year). If you cannot get it sorted by Apple then you can always pay the carrier it's locked to (around £15) to unlock it.

If it isn't locked, then of course it sounds like an iPad failure and will certainly be replaced by Apple.

 

[andy9l]

Thanks for the response, much appreciated.

When I plug it into iTunes, I receive no message. It's as though the sim card slot is failing - I'm leaning towards believing it's a hardware issue that's never been caught out due to the fact the slot has never been used, in-fact the iPad has barely been used.

It's the message "SIM failure" that worries me, that looks fairly hardware-ish to me!

 

[Dangerous Theory]

I get the same error if I put a Three sim into my Tmobile locked iPhone 4 - SIM failure message, invalid sim in top left. I think the iPad is locked to a carrier, although I dn't know why you didn't get the message on iTunes. I think you're options are to go to the Apple store and ask them (I assume they have means of telling), or you get hold of TMob, Orange & Vodafone sims and try them out.

 

[andy9l]

Ah this gives me some hope! Really appreciate you helping out with this.

So if I pop a sim card in and plug the iPad into iTunes, iTunes just flashes 'Accessing iTunes store...' and the Apple logo at the top. Occasionally it comes up with an error along the lines of 'iPad could not be activated because the activation information was invalid.'.

If locked, it's likely to be locked on Vodafone. I'll go into one of their shops tomorrow and ask to try a sim.

Still sound like a potential lock to you, or is the iTunes problem a bit too strange for a lock issue?

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Ah this gives me some hope! Really appreciate you helping out with this.

So if I pop a sim card in and plug the iPad into iTunes, iTunes just flashes 'Accessing iTunes store...' and the Apple logo at the top. Occasionally it comes up with an error along the lines of 'iPad could not be activated because the activation information was invalid.'.

If locked, it's likely to be locked on Vodafone. I'll go into one of their shops tomorrow and ask to try a sim.

Still sound like a potential lock to you, or is the iTunes problem a bit too strange for a lock issue?

Ah, yes, that's the page! Sorry I didn't explain it properly.

It's definitely locked to a network, you'll just have to find which ;p

 

[andy9l]

There's no page that comes up though? It's in the 'Now playing' bar, all of this activity. Except for the error message.

Let's hope it's just locked to Vodafone...I'll post my findings tomorrow! Thanks for the help!

 

[Dangerous Theory]

Any update?

 

[andy9l]

Any update?

Hi there, sorry for the delayed response. There is indeed an update; just a simple replacement iPad. Apparently the problem 'is not supposed to happen' - so it was replaced without question at my local Apple store.

Your help was much appreciated

 

[naeemsayyid]

iPad 2 Sim Card Reader Failed (again)

Hi, I bought the iPad 2 32 Gig 3G model at the end of May. It worked wonderful for about 8 months and then started intermittently reporting the sim wasn't detected. This continued for a week or so until the sim just completely failed to be detected. I tried another sim, no such luck. I returned the iPad to the place of purchase. A week later, I was given a brand new iPad. This iPad only lasted a month when it too just simply reported no sim was inserted. Again I tried another sim, again no luck. Its been more than a week since I returned to unit to the shop. I now await a third iPad.
Anyone had similar bad luck???