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Iphone Phone/Data stops working

M

mdgolom

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 26, 2006
319
0
I've noticed over the past two weeks, my iPhone (3G) will all of a sudden stop receiving/making calls and data connections. If I reset the phone or flip to airplane mode then back, it works again for a while. I did a full restore and it's still doing it. I'm guessing something is going bad with it and it's not under warranty.

I called at&t and I'm not eligible for an upgrade until the end of December. My options are to pay $599 for a new iPhone, pay the pro-rated $105 to cancel and switch from at&t, or they said I could use another at&t phone until the end of December. If I do this, I would be able to drop the data plan until then.

I'm leaning towards using another at&t phone for 3 months, but I have a couple of questions.

1. Has anyone else experienced this problem with voice and data stops working?

2. If I remove the sim card from the iPhone, can I still use it as an iPod?

Thanks
 
I have the same exact problem as does about 10 other people at my work but it only happens with data. Has been happening for about the last 3 weeks.
 
I had a similar problem as well. It seemed to happen right after I upgraded to 3.1. After going to Genius bar and then speaking to an Apple Care rep, they ended up replacing my phone (I also had a battery life issue, also caused by 3.1 upgrade IMO).

New phone works great so far and I will not be upgrading to 3.1 anytime soon.
 
NYYPaps said:
I had a similar problem as well. It seemed to happen right after I upgraded to 3.1. After going to Genius bar and then speaking to an Apple Care rep, they ended up replacing my phone (I also had a battery life issue, also caused by 3.1 upgrade IMO).

New phone works great so far and I will not be upgrading to 3.1 anytime soon.
Click to expand...

Do you know is an easy way to downgrade to 3.0?
 
Didn't know, but wish I had. Possibly could have saved myself a few unnecessary trips to the Apple store.
 
NYYPaps said:
I had a similar problem as well. It seemed to happen right after I upgraded to 3.1. After going to Genius bar and then speaking to an Apple Care rep, they ended up replacing my phone (I also had a battery life issue, also caused by 3.1 upgrade IMO).

New phone works great so far and I will not be upgrading to 3.1 anytime soon.
Click to expand...

As a follow up, I borrowed an iPhone from work that wasn't being used and swapped the sim cards. The new iPhone is having the exact same problem. I'll need to see if the one from work is covered by AppleCare. In any case, I'll call Apple tech support today and see what they can do. If they can't fix it, as much as it pains me, I'll have to switch away from the iPhone.:(
 
I've had this same issue for two weeks, and joined this forum to share my experience. Similar to the OP, my IPhone will randomly lose the ability to send/receive calls and texts, and I can't connect to the internet. However, the signal indicator shows a full 3G signal the entire time. I hadn't tried toggling the Airport Mode before; instead, I'd power off/on every time. This problem was occurring a couple of times a day.

On Friday, I went to an AT&T store and they gave me a new SIM card and said if the problem continued I'd need to go to an Apple store. About two hours after I left, it happened again. On Friday night, went to an Apple store, and it was packed so I made an appointment for yesterday.

On Sunday, I explained my problem to the Apple rep, he ran some diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong, and then he tried to convince me that I was probably just in an area with a bad signal. I said it didn't make any sense that the problem would randomly occur a couple of times today and it would show a full signal strength and the only solution was restarting the phone.

Anyways, fortunately I'm still under warranty and they gave me a new phone yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, the problem just happened again - tried to make a call and there was nothing. Restarted the phone and had a voicemail. I did upgrade to 3.1 yesterday on the new phone, so maybe I'll try to downgrade as mentioned above.
 
It's an issue with the 3.1 software.
If you search, you'll find a few threads about it here, and a lot of them on Apple's forum as well.
No known resolution for it either. Just keep rebooting your phone and hope the next update solves the issue.
 
mdgolom said:
2. If I remove the sim card from the iPhone, can I still use it as an iPod?
Click to expand...

Yes, you can use the iPhone as an iPod Touch. My wife is doing essentially the same thing with my 2G iPhone. Well, she left the SIM card in to be able to upgrade the OS and restore it, if necessary, but just has the iPhone Touch (as I call it) in Airplane mode to avoid using the cell data. I believe if you take the SIM card out, you just won't be able to restore it or upgrade the OS. Other than that, I don't think you should have any problems, at least I haven't heard of other's problems related to removing the SIM card.
 
Similar Story

Almost the exact same story here. Went to the Apple store on Saturday, and nothing was working. Walked in and it lit up. Appears the Wi-Fi worked but not the 3G. I bought it less than 30 days before, so they swapped it for a new one. Of course, I'm getting the same sudden loss of functions as before. Clearly, its an Apple/3.1/ATT problem and not the hardware. They should really get their act together.


KLB said:
I've had this same issue for two weeks, and joined this forum to share my experience. Similar to the OP, my IPhone will randomly lose the ability to send/receive calls and texts, and I can't connect to the internet. However, the signal indicator shows a full 3G signal the entire time. I hadn't tried toggling the Airport Mode before; instead, I'd power off/on every time. This problem was occurring a couple of times a day.

On Friday, I went to an AT&T store and they gave me a new SIM card and said if the problem continued I'd need to go to an Apple store. About two hours after I left, it happened again. On Friday night, went to an Apple store, and it was packed so I made an appointment for yesterday.

On Sunday, I explained my problem to the Apple rep, he ran some diagnostics and couldn't find anything wrong, and then he tried to convince me that I was probably just in an area with a bad signal. I said it didn't make any sense that the problem would randomly occur a couple of times today and it would show a full signal strength and the only solution was restarting the phone.

Anyways, fortunately I'm still under warranty and they gave me a new phone yesterday afternoon. Unfortunately, the problem just happened again - tried to make a call and there was nothing. Restarted the phone and had a voicemail. I did upgrade to 3.1 yesterday on the new phone, so maybe I'll try to downgrade as mentioned above.
Click to expand...
 
add me to the list

nothing to add for solutions, only that switching to airplane mode and back fixes it.

Real PITA though...
 
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