Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I made a small video where I show off me holding for 40 secs the iPhone 4 without loosing signal. I drop 1 bar because of my apt complex being concrete, which is within normal as my old 3GS did that to.

Link: Click Me

Edit - Yes I realize my English is not great. At the end I am supposed to say 4 bars but it sounds like full.
 
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 :(

OK changed servers for the test and now identical data rates in 10 tests for death grip and non death grip trials. I give up. Seems now again to have worked.
 
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.

First off, I didn't say it was a fix or even that it worked at all, but the fact that one person couldn't get it done doesn't mean it's not possible. Irrespective of the iPhone4 reception problem, his theory of "it didn't work for me, so it doesn't work" is ridiculous and his word choices imply delusions of grandeur, which I found funny. Reading comprehension, it's your friend or your worst enemy.
 
The fact that it's not working for everyone doesn't make these findings useless.

The "contact" theory as to why may be off.

It seems clear that manipulating the SIM card seems to have improved and possibly worsened the issue for some.

1) It may be a physical manipulation of the SIM card
2) It may be the resetting of the iPhone's networking settings.

In any case, I think it's interesting and hopefully will be investigated further -- even if the contact theory proves to be untrue.

People are too quick to say "oh, it's just observational data", not some randomized controlled study. C'mon people, no one is going to fund a massive scientific study on this, so forum case reports are the best way to get information on possible fixes

arn
 
I wonder if someone sends an email to Steve Jobs about this potential SIM card insertion problem if he'd respond "Just avoid inserting it in that way."

I wonder...
 
The fact that it's not working for everyone doesn't make these findings useless.

The "contact" theory as to why may be off.

It seems clear that manipulating the SIM card seems to have improved and possibly worsened the issue for some.

1) It may be a physical manipulation of the SIM card
2) It may be the resetting of the iPhone's networking settings.

In any case, I think it's interesting and hopefully will be investigated further -- even if the contact theory proves to be untrue.

arn

I posted a video about my situation. That should clear somethings up.
 
I made a small video where I show off me holding for 40 secs the iPhone 4 without loosing signal. I drop 1 bar because of my apt complex being concrete, which is within normal as my old 3GS did that to.

Link: Click Me

Edit - Yes I realize my English is not great. At the end I am supposed to say 4 bars but it sounds like full.

nice!

I'd love to point out that people are being REALLY anal about the iPhone 4

"ZOMG MY PHONE DROPPED A @#*%ing bar!!!!!"

It happens people, when I was on my last phone I'd always sit at 1 bar, now with the iPhone 4 I'm always in the 4-5 range.

Also would like to add this:

Received 2 iPhone 4s on June 23rd and they both had a "No sim" error, I simply turned them off and back on and never noticed any connectivity problems and couldn't reproduce effects I read on the forums or on YouTube, possibly because my microsims were in the right place to begin with?
 
If it made it worse it means it is related to the SIM card. Try it again.

So far I have: Turned off my phone and taken the SIM out for 20 min. and reinserted, taped the edge of the sim so the gold part on the sim wouldn't touch the SIM tray, and I kept on repositioning it... and nothing, just made it worse.

But I will keep trying to mess with it.
 
This thread is proof that there is no issue and has never been an issue. The whole thing has been a hoax and people convinced themselves there was a problem where none existed. Sim card contacts is just the latest placebo to a problem that is only in your head. I'm surprised that nobody has reported that standing on your head while balancing the iPhone on your nose fixes the issue.
 
Just tried removing my sim and rebooting

I've been doing alot of speedtest today to see if holding the phone with the Deathgrip effected download and upload. When i held the phone in my right hand, i would get 4 mbps down 1.5 mbps up. When i held the phone in the Deathgrip, i would get .7 mbps down and .3 up always. This is a image from my iPhone after removing the sim and rebooting. All 5 speedtest were done holding the iPhone with the Deathgrip. Hope other have the same luck as me!
 

Attachments

  • photo.PNG
    photo.PNG
    91.5 KB · Views: 82
Sadly, it didn't work on my phone or my girlfriend's. In fact, her phone seems to drop much faster now than before. I gave it shot. Here's to hoping another fix comes soon. 
 
having a total deja vu moment here. didn't we all try this with the 3G and 3GS with the electrical tape on the SIM card?

here's my story. i was at home and my call dropped on my iphone 4. signal loss, you name it. however, in my house i have a microcell. and i was 5 feet away from it. so...i called back, but this time on my wife's 3GS. signal dropped to 1 bar, call dropped.

conclusion - not isolated to 4G. something is wrong out there though...hoping for a resolution quickly.
 
Just did this and it worked great! Thanks! :-D I just put a thin strip of tape across the long side of the SIM card!

- Joe

Do you/others use regular clear scotch tape? Isn't that bad shouldnt we be using electrical tape?
 
This thread is proof that there is no issue and has never been an issue. The whole thing has been a hoax and people convinced themselves there was a problem where none existed. Sim card contacts is just the latest placebo to a problem that is only in your head. I'm surprised that nobody has reported that standing on your head while balancing the iPhone on your nose fixes the issue.

How many times will I and many others - and arn himself, as done already at least once that I know of - need to remind you that just because you may or may not being having any issues at all (if you even own an iPhone 4) that some of us, a great many and the number is still rising, are?

Do yourself and the rest of us a favor: stop posting in these threads, completely, as you're not adding anything of any use to them, at all.
 
This has helped me. Prior to reseating the microSIM, I could hardly use the phone over 3G as my upload speed dropped to zero per Speedtest. Now I'm getting relatively normal download speeds and my upload speed is non-zero. Upload is around 50% less than it is when I'm not holding the phone, but that is much better than it was.

Bars only drop to 3 as the lower limit now, whereas I was dropping to 1 bar before.

UPDATE: bars just dropped to 2, but then quickly went back up to 5. That had NEVER happened prior to reseating the SIM. Speeds are now 2.5 Mbps down, 1.34 Mbps up, which are normal numbers when I'm not holding the phone. Wow. Seems to have corrected my issues. Will continue to monitor.
 
Do you/others use regular clear scotch tape? Isn't that bad shouldnt we be using electrical tape?

Actual Scotch-brand tape is dielectric, as pretty much all consumer "invisible" tape is, so it should work just as effectively. Actual electric tape tends to have a thicker consistency so, it might actually work somewhat better but the additional thickness might cause more problems.

One thing people need to keep in mind is that if they wish to attempt any tape "fix" they need to keep the amount of tape to incredibly minuscule amounts - if you put too much on it, or if the tape is too thick you do stand a good chance of getting your microSIM or the tray itself wedged into the slot and you're not going to get it out without using a fairly significant amount of force.

Aka, you could really screw this up, cause more actual damage than currently potentially exists. As stated in every episode of "Hill Street Blues," I offer this advice:

"People, let's be careful out there..."
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.