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My iPhone 4 signal issues are gone...

from reading that article,
I'm gonna say Engadget (or the reporter) was too quick to jump to conclusions.
 
The only way to tell for sure is to download the Speedtest app and check your speeds with and without the deathgrip.
 
shawntkeating said:
Jav said the only thing that changed was that his sim card was taken out and put back in. Then he stopped having the issue. This means it is something to do with one of or all of the three or four things below with respect to his specific iPhone 4 since this fix doesn't seem to "fix" it for every single person trying it:
Click to expand...

I fixed that up a bit for you, which is more technically accurate... leaving out the fact that it's his phone he makes the claim for is an important distinction - I've never said anything about other people's phones except "if you're not having problems, fantastic, but I am" because I'm careful to make sure that I'm not saying every single phone is broken or defective but that mine sure as hell is.

Even in spite of what I have in my sig, I've never said every single iPhone 4 is borked - my sig says I believe they are - big huge humongous difference.
 
this will not work - I put small thin 1/2 mm of 3M electrical tape to cover just a bit of the gold contact touching the sim tray - and signal still drop.

This myth is BUSTED.

Next, please.
 
Honestly, guys. I have a feeling this whole "fix" is a fluke and many people are simply refreshing their connections with nearby 3G towers. Some people have reported the fix working immediately after a reboot, but succumbing to the same problem 20 or so minutes later.

Others have said bars have dropped LESS post-fix. This indicates that the so-called "shorting" is still occurring to some degree, or simply put they have a stronger connection with a tower.

For those successful with the fix, report back 3+ hours, or even tomorrow, and see if the fix holds. If it does, lo and behold, the source of the problem could very well be the sim-card housing. If the problem returns... :confused::(
 
If you look at the entire Engadget article you see TWO different AT&T Micro SIMs. I wonder which one Apple was using when they were testing the devices? Perhaps, they even have special ones just for them (maybe why the didn't see any issues???) Pure speculation, I know. In any event, if this fix works for you, good stuff, but I think it's pretty clear that there are other, perhaps more serious, reception issues involved.

Congrats Jav6454 for helping some people out tonight!
 
jayo123456 said:
from reading that article,
I'm gonna say Engadget (or the reporter) was too quick to jump to conclusions.
Click to expand...

Agreed. It would be great if he had to eat his words. We shall see...

Actually, if this issue is resolved without a case, there will be a lot of word-eating going on ;)
 
iPadThai said:
this will not work - I put small thin 1/2 mm of 3M electrical tape to cover just a bit of the gold contact touching the sim tray - and signal still drop.

This myth is BUSTED.

Next, please.
Click to expand...

So, if you couldn't get it to work, it must not work for anyone. LOL
 
Tried a sliver of scotch tape and it didn't fix the problem.

It's really tough to cover enough area so that you are insulating the contacts from the tray and not cover areas that are necessary for the sim to function. 1mm too much and the sim doesn't work. SO who knows if I insulated enough to make this test valid.
 
Took my SIM out for 40 minutes. After putting in back in, signal was 5 bars for 2 minutes during test call, then went down to 4, all while "death gripping" it. Before it would gradually go down to 1 bar.

So add another tally in the improvement column.
 
Chimpware said:
Just reseated my sim and it appears to have improved the situation. Before reseating I tested in exact spot at my desk holding it in death grip form and dropped to 0 bars within a minute. After reseating sim I still get some dropped bars but only down to 3, and can not get it to go lower, and in addition, if I move, even slightly it moves back up to 4 almost immediately.

I will continue testing, but this definitely improved the signal issue for me and I did not use tape (although tempted as the sim does appear to make contact with the tray).
Click to expand...

Sorry to report back that testing data rates a number of times shows no joy. Death grip still gives data rates 50 times slower in identical positions :(
 
kuaiyouming said:
Fact 1: If it does not work for everyone, then it is not a fix.
Fact 2: People who reported it working earlier are already coming back to withdraw their claims.
Probability 1: For those whom it works, it is indeed a placebo effect caused by wishful thinking and desperate grasping at anything that will cure our defective phones. Random error is the more likely cause than any real solution.
Click to expand...

A placebo isn't going to create a hallucination of AT&T bars :rolleyes:
 
Im going to bed guys. I said my two cents and it seems to have been identified in a lot of peoples phones.

If the solution to this issue comes as a result of this thread, I will feel happy that I contributed in a positive way.

If it leads to nothing, well it didn't hurt to try.

Good night.
 
absolut` said:
Honestly, guys. I have a feeling this whole "fix" is a fluke and many people are simply refreshing their connections with nearby 3G towers.
Click to expand...

Agreed. On the plus side, this bodes well for a possible software fix. Hopefully we will know in a few days.
 
well, it seems it didn't work for me, tried tape and even scraping one side of the sim card so everything would be centered, then tried a network reset, and then a complete restore and it still drops to no service within 10 sec. of holding it with my left hand. I'll try getting a new sim card tommorrow from at&t, but it doesn't seem like that is what is wrong with my unit. Congrats to those who fixed the issue.
 
Either way, it's good news really.

1. The SIM card/tray is to blame. Those who still have the issue happen to have a SIM/tray that is just to fubar to be fixed in this manner.

2. Reinserting the SIM "refreshed" the signal/tower mapping for a brief time. This bodes well for a software update.

Either way, the bottom line is people are gripping the hell out of the iPhone's 'vulnerable zone' without dramatic adverse effects!
 
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