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iPhone 3G Intermittant signal loss

D

djrobsd

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
May 2, 2008
825
25
I have FULL 5 bar 3G reception in my apartment on the 5th floor in San Diego. My apartment is all windows, so of course the signal comes right through.

However, my phone lost it's signal today. It said "Searching..."

Normally when it does this, it will revert to EDGE, which also has a full 5 bar reception, but this time it didn't. I waited. I switched to airplane mode and then back to normal... No dice.

So, I shut the iPhone off, and back on, and the signal came right back.

I also notice at night when I'm sleeping, sometimes it looses the 3G and switches to EDGE.

What's going on? Is this phone having issues holding a signal? I haven't had a single dropped call yet (except in the elevator).... But it seems like when I'm not using the phone, is when it likes to loose signal or revert to EDGE....

What gives? Apple problem or AT&T?
 
Woah, isn't anyone else having this problem? No replies to this thread?!

My signal is dieing again today. Switches from EDGE to NO SERVICE.... Back to EDGE, 3G has been down on my phone for 20 minutes now...
 
I have also experienced this. No Service in areas where I know 3G signal should be full bars. If I wait long enough it will come back in, and restarting the phone has brought it back before, too. Not sure why this happens.
 
If you are having a lot of issue with it I would just disable it for now until the 3G is more reliable.

Settings->General->Network->Turn Off 3G

I know its lame, but it will work better in certain locations and save battery life.

So, I figure if the signal is jumping, just turn it off and it should be fine.

But they do need to fix this issue soon
 
last week my phone was showing "no service" so I did a power cycle thingy.
And all I got was "connect to itunes" screen after that. And itunes gave me a sim error. Couldn't restore. After countless hours with att (trying different sims) and also countless hours with apple, they decided to give me a new phone.
So watch out for that "no service" stuff....it literally killed my phone.
 
cenetti said:
last week my phone was showing "no service" so I did a power cycle thingy.
And all I got was "connect to itunes" screen after that. And itunes gave me a sim error. Couldn't restore. After countless hours with att (trying different sims) and also countless hours with apple, they decided to give me a new phone.
So watch out for that "no service" stuff....it literally killed my phone.
Click to expand...

Yeah true that, sometimes if you have a no service sign, turning on Airplane mode an turning it off and reseting network settings can shake it lose, but the new software is so ridiculous right now.

2.1....can not wait
 
iPhoneKiller said:
If you are having a lot of issue with it I would just disable it for now until the 3G is more reliable.

Settings->General->Network->Turn Off 3G

I know its lame, but it will work better in certain locations and save battery life.

So, I figure if the signal is jumping, just turn it off and it should be fine.

But they do need to fix this issue soon
Click to expand...

This is an unacceptable solution. The EDGE network does not allow you to keep your iphone any where near the computer due to the unshielded speaker interferance, and obviously you need to plug it into the computer to sync and charge it. UGH.

I got a new SIM card today, and it has already done it once, so I guess the SIM card didn't fix it, but I'll keep an eye on it tonight and see how many times, it seems to have only happened once so far.
 
cenetti said:
last week my phone was showing "no service" so I did a power cycle thingy.
And all I got was "connect to itunes" screen after that. And itunes gave me a sim error. Couldn't restore. After countless hours with att (trying different sims) and also countless hours with apple, they decided to give me a new phone.
So watch out for that "no service" stuff....it literally killed my phone.
Click to expand...

Cenetti,

Why didn't Apple or AT&T have you try a new SIM card first? AT&T overnighted me a SIM card, but I don't think it has fixed the issue.

Did you have any issues sending text messages? Even when I see full 3G service, I also sometimes have issues sending texts!
 
Yep, the "No Service" has been showing up quite often. I had BT with my previous iPhone, but sold it with one of my iPhones, and I could use the BT while the iPhone was in the same spot and that spot would fluctuate between 0-4 bars and sometimes the "No Service" thingy. I live in a bowl/dip next to the water, so I've endured this since 1993. Recently, my text messages have "error sending" and "no service" seem to appear more often than ever before, b/c I've moved the location of my iPhone. Oh well, I'll pick up the new BT (Plantronics 925L sold out in Best Buy California) tomorrow that I ordered. Not sure if this helps, but that's the way I roll...:eek:
 
Ok, so the SIM card didn't fix the issue. I'm having those dreaded "Error sending text message", and NO SERVICE again. I guess either the phone is faulty or the reception in my neighborhood for 3G is not there yet. It doesn't make any sense to me unless the microwave towers on top of the AT&T TELEPHONE COMPANY building 5 blocks away from here are interfering with the cell towers? But, you would think that a cell phone company that also owns a phone company would have thought those things through.

Basically I have a line of sight directly to the microwave towers, I'm on the 5th floor and that's about how high up the towers are.

So, I switched my 3G off. Now I get to hear the buzzing sound, no matter where I put the phone. It's much louder near my computer, a little better when I move it away.

UGH!
 
Well, i went to AT&T today and they basically told me I would need to take my phone to the Apple store and have it replaced. They offered to sell me a different model of 3G phone to test at my house, at full retail, and I could return it within 30 days for a full refund, so I bought a POS Samsung SGH-a737 phone just to test out and see if it has the same issues. If it does, then I'm screwed, it's a tower issue with AT&T. If it doesn't, then I'll go Apple and have them replace my iPhone, which sucks because I have an Invisibleshield on mine, and i'll lose that when they replace the phone (oops!).
 
Let the fun continue

My iPhone seemed to be working ok for a while tonight, and then I got the dreaded "Call Failed" messages when I tried to make a call, and text messages were hanging or not sending, even though I had a full 5 bars of 3G service. So, I took the SIM card out, put it into the Samsung 737 phone, and it worked RIGHT AWAY and I was able to call out with no issues.

Put the card back into the iPhone... "No service".

Reboot....

Works again, but will probably die after a while.
 
djrobsd said:
Cenetti,

Why didn't Apple or AT&T have you try a new SIM card first? AT&T overnighted me a SIM card, but I don't think it has fixed the issue.

Did you have any issues sending text messages? Even when I see full 3G service, I also sometimes have issues sending texts!
Click to expand...

They did. I went to Att store first and tried 2 different sims.
 
I get a signal lost message whenever my phone changes from edge to 3g and from 3g to edge.
Also when I turn on 3g I get this message and it is really annoying as I am on trains a lot so the phone has to change quite often from e to 3g. when I play games or do something else, it gives me the message about every 30 seconds.

Anyone having the same issue? And a solution?
 
me too... edge sticks around like a bast.... child....

and recently, too many dropped calls.... all this in the la area.

r.
 
the worst part is that in the first days i had my iphone it didn't do that at all. the "network lost" message only came up when there really was no network. I don't know when or how or why it changed, but like i said it is annoying to press "dismiss" every 30 secs

Me wanna solution
 
Well, after a little more troubleshooting, Apple has agreed to send me a new iPhone. I had to pay $29 for the advance replacement, but with the lines and the wait times at my local Apple stores, I figured it would be worth it. PLUS having BOTH iphones will allow me to make sure this is a problem with my iPhone, and not ALL iPhones. If the new iPhone works, then I just had a bad phone, but if it doesn't, then we're in for a real ride to get AT&T and Apple to fix the issues with this.

BTW, some of you mentioned that you didn't have this problem initially. I'm curious what you do with your phone? Do you listen heavilly to streaming radio like Pandora and the likes? I'm wondering if heavy data usage could tax the 3G radio in the phone... Or what?

Anyway, my neighbor on the second floor just got his, and he said he has had no problems with his signal in the house, so...

I guess we'll see how the new phone works!
 
Greaaaaaaaaaat. I tried to track it online today and it said "tracking info not available". So then I look when I get home and it turns out they delivered it today to my work! The receptionist never told me I had a package, so now I guess I'll wait until Monday, unless I want to drive back out to work tomorrow... LOL
 
What I've Discovered...

What I noticed that some phone cases block of signals. I recently got this case that has like a fun house mirror effect on it and the service started to get really bad and stay at one bar or "no service" but when I took it off and went back to my old eco-friendly case the service spiked back up to normal! It's the strangest thing, I think that some cases block of service and/or 3G or somehow interfere with signals.
 
Having same problem on 2 iphone4s

You are describing the same problem my wife and I have. Randomly the phone thinks there is no signal. I've tried turning airplane mode off then on, no luck. Power off and back on and it comes back with 3-5 bars.

Apple phone support gave me a sequence of things to try. First reset the network. Didn't fix it. Next will be reset phone ant restore, then afull reset and reinstall of everything not using restore. I haven't got to those steps, yet.

Let us know how the new phone works or if you find any other solution.
 
Ok I've had my iPhone 4 for about 2 weeks now and haven't had a single problem with it but now it's completely lost the 3G signal about twice. I wake up in the morning and the 3G signal is still there with a couple of bars but nothing loads at all (Maps, Safari, mail etc.).

A reboot of the phone seems to fix it though but I'd rather get it fixed with a software patch or a replacement.
 
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