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iPhone 4S vibrate soundclip

First iphone 4 had a bad compass (always needed calibration) and yellowish screen. Got a replacement and it is perfect except for the vibration noise. When I hold it at the bottom it goes aways or when I lay it flat on a hard table it goes away. Sounds like it is possible to get a perfect phone but very difficult. Maybe I will just live with it for awhile. Still have 30 days for Exchange and year wnty. Ive already used up 2 Powersupport screen protectors..
 
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Same issue here with the vibrate being too strong and loud plus:

1) On my third replacement. First one had a chip in the glass on the upper left side of the screen. The Genius was shocked. Thank goodness I did not leave the store with it because they could of said I did it.

2) Second one returned to Apple three days later. Couldn't hold a 3G signal to save its life. Brought my iPhone 4 to the store with the 4s and did a side by side comparison. 3 bars on the iPhone 4 searching on the 4s. Once again replaced on the spot.

3) Third phone (current one) Vibrate is so strong / loud that it wakes me up. Sounds just like the audio clips. The other two 4s's did not have this issue.

I have owned every iPhone and I have not had this amount of build quality issues. I think FoxCon is slipping. They are either being pushed too hard to get the volume of iPhones out the door or they are trying to increase their margins by cutting corners.

The iPhone 4s is a great phone but the quality is hit or miss for sure. Now the argument is that the people who complain are the ones that are posting. I disagree. The majority of the people who complain have had experience with other iPhones so we have a baseline experience to draw from. I suspect many of the others who are 100% satisfied have either not had an iPhone in the past or they are like my wife and could care less (if it turns on it is fine kinda of people.)

If Apple charges a premium which they do they then build quality should match the cost. There is a reason why we (Apple customer) pay the Apple tax and its for darn sure not to have a build quality product like we are seeing with the 4s.
 
duffer6 said:
Same issue here with the vibrate being too strong and loud plus:

1) On my third replacement. First one had a chip in the glass on the upper left side of the screen. The Genius was shocked. Thank goodness I did not leave the store with it because they could of said I did it.

2) Second one returned to Apple three days later. Couldn't hold a 3G signal to save its life. Brought my iPhone 4 to the store with the 4s and did a side by side comparison. 3 bars on the iPhone 4 searching on the 4s. Once again replaced on the spot.

3) Third phone (current one) Vibrate is so strong / loud that it wakes me up. Sounds just like the audio clips. The other two 4s's did not have this issue.

I have owned every iPhone and I have not had this amount of build quality issues. I think FoxCon is slipping. They are either being pushed too hard to get the volume of iPhones out the door or they are trying to increase their margins by cutting corners.

The iPhone 4s is a great phone but the quality is hit or miss for sure. Now the argument is that the people who complain are the ones that are posting. I disagree. The majority of the people who complain have had experience with other iPhones so we have a baseline experience to draw from. I suspect many of the others who are 100% satisfied have either not had an iPhone in the past or they are like my wife and could care less (if it turns on it is fine kinda of people.)

If Apple charges a premium which they do they then build quality should match the cost. There is a reason why we (Apple customer) pay the Apple tax and its for darn sure not to have a build quality product like we are seeing with the 4s.
Click to expand...

In a similar situation...

First iphone had terrible buzzing when vibrating. Got it replaced. Perfect vibration, no noise....but yellow screen! Had that one replaced and now back to a good screen with a ****ing obnoxious vibrate motor.

I guess it's pick whatever issue bothers you the least!
 
My first one had the vibragate. Replaced it Sunday and the new one has been perfect and then it started again yesterday. No I am concerned there is some flaw with the vibrators. May show up immediately, a few days or weeks later etc. At this point I am tired of replacing screen protectors etc so maybe I should just wait and see if Apple rectifies this problem as it is common.

Again this is not the camera lens rattle. That is different and normal.
 
The new vibrate is interesting, to say the least. There's no buzz on my 4S, but it sounds more like a resonant tone, almost like blowing air over an empty bottle.
 
richard371 said:
My first one had the vibragate. Replaced it Sunday and the new one has been perfect and then it started again yesterday. No I am concerned there is some flaw with the vibrators. May show up immediately, a few days or weeks later etc. At this point I am tired of replacing screen protectors etc so maybe I should just wait and see if Apple rectifies this problem as it is common.

Again this is not the camera lens rattle. That is different and normal.
Click to expand...

That's really interesting, as my first replacement was nice and quiet. Kinda sad to think it would have started making the noise also. It's almost as if the motor is too strong. I wonder if Apple could undervolt it to quiet it down.
 
Sounds like a feature to me. I'd be willing to buy the 4S just for this "problem" considering I can never feel my 4 when it vibrates >_>
 
The problem is it isnt that much stronger, it's just that the vibrate motor is resonating perfectly against the metal frame causing this buzz sound.

Highly annoying
 
My theory is that the inner part of the linear motor that moves up and down has thin tolerances with the motor housing. If it starts to touch the housing at all it will cause the rattle. When you pinch the bottom or grip the bottom of the phone or lay it flat on a table it sounds normal because the shock is being absorbed. Im concerned if I swap it out and get a good one it will happen again. Sounds like a design flaw to me.
 
richard371 said:
My theory is that the inner part of the linear motor that moves up and down has thin tolerances with the motor housing. If it starts to touch the housing at all it will cause the rattle. When you pinch the bottom or grip the bottom of the phone or lay it flat on a table it sounds normal because the shock is being absorbed. Im concerned if I swap it out and get a good one it will happen again. Sounds like a design flaw to me.
Click to expand...

I think that's a good theory. Seems like Apple sourced some crappy motors.
 
Hey there. I pre-ordered two iPhone 4S phones - a black 16GB for me and a white 16GB for my wife - both of which have had this vibrate problem from the day I took delivery of them on October 14. The vibrate buzz drove me crazy because it was loud and the buzz cheapened the experience for me. I just expect more from my expensive iPhone. I do like the stronger feel of the new linear motor, though. Regardless, I ended up returning both phones and going back to my iPhone 4 because I couldn't stand the buzz. I was too worried about getting another one that did the same thing. (I am a bit OCD, by the way.) I'm sure Apple will quietly fix this problem in future manufacturing batches, so I'll wait a while and purchase again.

Anyways, before I sent the phones back, I did pop the back cover to see if I could determine what the source of the vibration was. I noticed that as soon as I put any pressure at all on the left side of the speaker enclosure, which is right below the new vibrate motor location, the buzzing stopped. I thought maybe it was the hard dock connector ribbon cable running over the top of the speaker enclosure rattling against the speaker enclosure, but it is adhered to the speaker enclosure, so that wasn't it. I tried everything I could think of to fix the buzz without disassembling anything, but couldn't do anything to calm it. I then thought that something beneath the left side of the speaker enclosure was rattling, but wasn't about to tear into the brand new phone that deep. So, I sent them back.

Well, I just replaced the home buttons in both of our iPhone 4 phones because after after 16 months, the phones weren't reliably registering home button clicks. (By the way, if anyone is having home button issues with your iPhone 4, replacing the home button will make the phone feel like new.) When I got to removing the speaker enclosure, I noticed it was only secured with one screw on the right side of the enclosure with no mechanical attachment on the left side. You can actually press on the left side of the speaker enclosure and watch it move up and down slightly. I checked out the teardown for the iPhone 4S and saw that the enclosure method of attachment is the same as the iPhone 4 - only one mechanical point of attachment on the right side. On the iPhone 4, the vibrate motor isn't anywhere near the speaker enclosure - it's at the top of the phone. However, on the iPhone 4S, the linear motor is adjacent to the left side of the speaker enclosure. I'll be willing to bet that the buzz is the left side of the speaker enclosure resonating against what is beneath it. I bet that if the speaker enclosure was removed and a small piece of double sided tape was placed beneath the left side of the speaker enclosure to mechanically attach it to what is behind it, the buzz would go away. If I would have discovered this before I sent my two 4S models back, I would have tried this. I wonder if you may be able to get the speaker enclosure out with only removing the battery, unhooking the dock ribbon cable, unhooking the antenna, removing the screw on the right side of the speaker enclosure and pulling it out. If you can do it without removing the logic board, then it might be worth a try.

This is a great forum, by the way!
 
^

Now that's a quality post. I also noticed that the buzz would stop by placing a finger on the speaker enclosure. I don't think it is easy to remove though :(
 
catalyst6 said:
^

Now that's a quality post. I also noticed that the buzz would stop by placing a finger on the speaker enclosure. I don't think it is easy to remove though :(
Click to expand...

I was just looking at the teardown video on the 4S and it looks like you can get the speaker enclosure out pretty easily if you're a little daring - no logic board removal at least. It does require battery removal, antenna cable disconnection and dock cable disconnection, but after almost totally disassembling my iPhone 4 just to get to the home button, should be a breeze (if I only had a 4S to try it on). It is a bit different than the iPhone 4 setup. It looks like there is a spacer under the left side screw that is supposed to hold the left side of the speaker enclosure secure. Maybe there was some tolerance stack-ups or something in some of the first units, which caused the screw and spacer to not place as much pressure on the left side of the speaker enclosure allowing it to resonate. I could be wrong on all of this, but I'm still convinced it's somehow related to the speaker enclosure. Maybe it's something internal to the speaker enclosure that is resonating...
 
rkeato1 said:
The new vibrate is interesting, to say the least. There's no buzz on my 4S, but it sounds more like a resonant tone, almost like blowing air over an empty bottle.
Click to expand...


Update: Mine (White 32gb 4S) started buzzing midway through the day yesterday. I'm don't know that it's really an issue, but it bothers me because both of my friends' 4S phones (white 16gb) don't do this...
 
catalyst6 said:
here's a YouTube video testing out what has been discussed in this thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc7T20yVve8
Click to expand...

Nice video! If I still had my 4S, I would so try it. I'm pretty sure a small piece of 3M double sided tape under the left corner of the speaker enclosure would do the trick. There is a warranty void sticker in the phone covering one of the screws, but it is a screw that secures the logic board. This can be done without removing the logic board. You might not even have to remove the battery, but I would at least disconnect it.

----------
bth75 said:
Nice video! If I still had my 4S, I would so try it. I'm pretty sure a small piece of 3M double sided tape under the left corner of the speaker enclosure would do the trick. There is a warranty void sticker in the phone covering one of the screws, but it is a screw that secures the logic board. This can be done without removing the logic board. You might not even have to remove the battery, but I would at least disconnect it.
Click to expand...

Check out the guide on replacing the speaker enclosure assembly on the Verizon iPhone 4, which has the same vibrate motor setup at the 4S. It should give you everything you need to get the speaker enclosure out of the 4S without removing the logic board.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Installing-iPhone-4-Verizon-Speaker-Enclosure/4882/1
 
I'm going to try it, but it looks like one of my screws is stripped that is holding the little metal cover over the dock connector ribbon.

Going to try getting a higher quality Phillips 00 to see if I can get it out tomorrow. Else, I'm not sure how to remove a stripped screw that small :(
 
catalyst6 said:
I'm going to try it, but it looks like one of my screws is stripped that is holding the little metal cover over the dock connector ribbon.

Going to try getting a higher quality Phillips 00 to see if I can get it out tomorrow. Else, I'm not sure how to remove a stripped screw that small :(
Click to expand...

Hmmm. That sucks. You might have luck getting it out with a very small flathead screwdriver. If you can't get it out, then it sounds like you should just get the phone replaced by Apple again. Maybe you'll get lucky with your third replacement. It just sucks that you have to go through this with an Apple product. It makes me never want to pre-order again and wait a couple of months after a new release for Apple to work out any issues.
 
mmm..i got this problem too...is it possible they will fix it with an iOs update? maybe the motor is vibrating over the right tollerated value and making it slowing down could solve it...I really don't know if they could do it with an os update...
Also I'm really scared to change it...mine has been ok for a week and then it started acting weird when vibrating since yesterday!
What I fear is to change it and then end up with the same problem after 1-2 weeks (and maybe echos..yellow screens..battery gate...did they even test this 4s? :mad: )
 
Just an update guys:

I disassembled the phone and removed the speaker enclosure. The rattle is still there even with the whole unit removed from the phone :(

Basically, the motor is just vibrating off the aluminum frame perfectly and causing a buzzing noise. Pushing down on the speaker enclosure just dampened the noise by also pushing down on the frame. I tried putting some material in there to buffer it, but nothing seemed to work.

Basically, the motors are just creating the perfect amount of vibration to cause resonance in the frame. Oh well, it's going back :(
 
Is this an issue for anymore people? I would say it's normal, but my phone didn't do it on the first day, and it doesn't happen on my roommate's 4S phones.

I spoke with AC and they are fwd'ing the issue to the engineers. I went to swap it at my local store yesterday, but the one they pulled from the service replacement box buzzed even louder than mine does :confused:
 
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