One Possible iPhone 4 Antenna Fix With Mixed Results

[ferrous]

What A Joke!

THIS IS SUCH A JOKE
ONE CAN ONLY LAUGH AT IT OR CRY ABOUT IT
GOOD LUCK MAKING PHONE CALLS WITH ANY OF THE IPHONES

 

[catmistake]

OMG MacRumors, nicely done

not a bad piece, but what is notable, IF this is THE FIX (not saying it is or not, just if), you are teh anti-Gizmodo... someone posted in the forum something macrumorsuperforums to the rescue... for some, appears that's about right.

 

[iphones4evry1]

I'll bet Steve Jobs is sitting at home right now desperately cutting up SIM cards, trying to get this to work.

I do not doubt that it has worked for some people. I have a degree in science and I had to study electromagnetics when I was in college. Some of these situations have to be very precise or they don't work. Perhaps you have to get the SIM card away from the tray (by tape or cutting) at a precise distance for this to work. Some people luck out that they happened to get that distance, and others may have not. Apple engineers may be able to measure and learn what that distance is (distance is an example - no one knows the real reason) and then create some type of spacer that they can distribute to iPhone owners.

.

I glad we don't have to keep doing this now to get five bars...

 

[arn]

You want to contend that there has been some kind of scientifically valid and objective study to prove this is an issue, yet there isn't.

Why is everyone trying to make a scientific study out of it. It's like when people complain that their iMacs have a yellow spot, or their iPod doesn't turn on. The response is NOT "well, I don't believe it's a real problem, we need a randomized controlled multicenter study to see if it's real."

Not everything needs a scientific study for it to be real.

I agree the problem is varied and somewhat vague, but there are clear extremes of examples of problems (signal stopping cold with a touch). You can't simply ignore all the evidence under some bastardized call for "science".

arn

 

[Matthew Yohe]

They guy said that this solution had no objective measurement. Neither does the reported problem. You want to contend that there has been some kind of scientifically valid and objective study to prove this is an issue, yet there isn't.

Testing this personally, and communicating with others who also own these devices, yes, we can perform a certain level of science here. Our measurement tools may be crude, but to say that no study has been done? Care to tell us how you plan to prove that?

I am not going to stop speaking the truth. This has as much chance as being the legitimate issue as anything else brought up so far.

What's "the truth"?

Since I don't think most people even know what the "problem" is how to actually recreate it, and are likely just suffering from poor signal in general, I would dismiss a lot of those who say this does nothing for them at this point.

That's fine, and there are others who do know how to recreate it. Your point?

Right now it is more spot on to see if several or more people can see the problem go away by modifying/reseating their sim card.

I agree.

The fact that some people say it does nothing for them is not really relevant at this point, as we have no way to know if they were having a problem to begin with...

I do have this issue, others I personally know do, arn does (when he turns off his microcell ).

Believe it or not, there are people out there that don't happen to visit this forum that are actually objectively testing this issue.

 

[CFreymarc]

And what about underwire brassieres? Do those matter?

Quick, someone investigate!

I see a really good YouTube video going viral on that subject. Quick! Someone get their grandmother's old "torpedo bras" and do a video!

 

[drtyrell]

Who in God's ******** name holds a glass phone without a rubber cover? WHO?

Seriously, the world is a goddamn IQ test for morons.

PUT A RUBBER ON IT! DONE.

 

[richard371]

My sim was touching the tray. I did some tests in my room before and went from 5 bars to 1 with the death grip. I taped the part that was touching the tray with scotch tape. Now with the death grip I get 5 bars down to 3 then it goes back up to 4 or 5.

I tried again same place with the death grip and went from 5 to 1 bars. Still have not dropped a test call. Not sure if this a fix or a placebo but i do feel better that the contacts of the sim are not touching the metal tray which connects to the antennas. Only time will tell. Eventually the truth will come out. Good luck everyone.

 

[donny77]

Not really sure if I was having the "issue" to begin with. I was able to lower my reception and lose signal at my house and at my office. My house has a radiant barrier and work is a metal building. Both locations have always sucked for reception. I could not get the bars to drop at several other locations around town where I started with good signal.

So I stick the tape on, clear packing tape, all I could find. Restart the phone and I have one bar, not uncommon for my house. Touch the dead zone, for 2 minutes, no signal loss. Called my land line and left a message on the machine.

 

[austin.colby]

One of my coworkers and I were playing with our iPhone 4s at dinner and noticed that it was definitely isolated to the phone. No matter where I held his phone the signal remained the same however when I did the normal death grip on mine it would drop to 1 bar or sometimes say no signal.

When I saw the post tonight, I figured I would give it a try and sure enough, it seems to have worked perfectly. I used a piece of packing tape and covered about 2mm of the card (just enough to cover the contact that was touching the tray). Thanks for the awesome tip! Now to try another coworkers phone tomorrow morning...

 

[salesguy]

If the employee at the Apple Store had told him to run around the store whilst holding the phone above his head waving it around shouting "this will most definitely fix it," would he have done it?

I said earlier this was beyond comical, not its just ludicrous.

 

[donny77]

Again not something I tested before the tape, but I also tried the Internet test. holding my finger on the dead zone loaded 5 web pages, no problems.

Nevermind was on wifi. On 3G Internet data halts while touching dead zone. It appears to have improved reception though. I am getting 3 bars no when not touching the zone. Only lose 1 bar when touching it instead of all of them.

 

[iPadThai]

please stop what you are trying to do/fix.

Before you end up voiding your warranty because you decide to tape the sim tray and cause it to jam inside the slot and you can't pull the tape out ending up having to disassemble the iPhone to try to do so.

Guys - let's be realistic. Apple put years of work into building these devices. Let's let them deal with it rather than try to cut up our sim cards or put a bandaid tape to prevent signal dropping. I know we are all desperate for a fix but here's something really ironic:

I don't want steve jobs to tell me to hold it differently or put a rubber case over my iPhone. Even though I am fighting him to not have to install a case over my beautiful phone which just defeats the purpose of designing something so beautiful, I know deep down inside me that I'm going to slap a fxking case over it anyway even if he told me NOT to put one on.

the whole thing is just stupid - having to do this and that to fix these issues. It's only been 5 days for most since the launch. I will give apple some time to come out with a solution or just announce there is officially nothing wrong before I attempt another DYI fix.

It's a fantastic phone and works so well if you have some case over it. Why not just enjoy your device for now and just let it go. There aren't enough macrumor users here to make a dent in Mr. Job's opinion and for a fact, he never listens to any one of you. If he did, the iPhone 3G would of have had everything the iPhone 4 has now.

 

[Stuart in Oz]

Given that some people have the problem and not others, could it depend on what band the phone is working in at the time?

ie: 850/900 or 1900/2100. Could there be different signal attenuation characteristics with the different wavelengths?

Whatever their local base station is using may determine if they see the problem when they test for it.

 

[habubauza]

I seem to also have a messed up sim card where the circuitry is touching part of the sim card tray, do we know for sure that this is something that shouldn't occur? I would love to see a picture of properly seated micro sim card in the tray. Regardless, I think I will go to At&t tomorrow and ask for another sim card. If this issue isn't fixed before the end of my 30 day return period, I'm afraid I will have to return this phone.

The story all seems to fit though, why else would Apple push these "bumpers" that seem to serve no real purpose except to "add a touch of color and style" according to them? Apple "suggestive selling" an item like this is so unprecedented on their part that there has to be a reason for it, and common sense leads me to believe that they were aware of this issue beforehand.

 

[arn]

Given that some people have the problem and not others, could it depend on what band the phone is working in at the time?

ie: 850/900 or 1900/2100. Could there be different signal attenuation characteristics with the different wavelengths?

Possibly. That was one idea running around before. Not sure if removing the sim card resets that aspect of it. You could also just try reseting your network settings before doing anything and see if that "fixes" it temporarily. Some people had claimed that helped before.

arn

 

[cdeerinck]

Believe it!

I just tried it, popped the sim out, put a small piece of scotch tape on the edge of the tray, put the sim back, and used an xacto-knife to off the excess.

My phone would go from 5 bars to 0 when touching the death spot, and it did it like a clock. Now it doesn't move.

I never actually experienced problems when using the phone, I guess I just don't touch that part, even though I am a lefty.

Anyway, to the original poster, a huge THANKS for taking the risk of posting it, and having many try to flame you.

By the way, as a sort of side question, in the Keynote for, the diagram of the antenna showed the GSM antenna on the top and right sides of the phone. The two antennae next to the death spot are for wifi and gps. So why would that spot cause an issue?

 

[firewood]

There is nothing random about a detuning effect. Using a microcell so that one can tell when the phone switches cells, the touch of death is absolutely reproducible even three feet from the cell. I have done so repeatedly on three different i4s. Touch the left side, and bars drop within seconds, all the way down to 0, and then the phone switches to a different cell. On average the entire process takes 25 seconds. Standard deviation is 3 seconds. I have compared the effect to the attenuation effect, and found, unsurprisingly, that it is different (mere loss of bars). The effect cannot be reproduced on my two iPhone 3gs's or my 3G, again not surprising since a dielectric protects the antenna from detuning by touch. The effect also seems to occur in other locations, but the lack of visual indication of switching cells makes it harder to detect in some cases.

I was talking about the voodoo sim card tape trick. The touch of death is reproducible, but not too near a cell tower with my i4.

Is there a way to tell which frequency band the microcell is using?

 

[iphones4evry1]

Arn, I would like to request that a poll be added to this thread, if possible.

For those that have actually tried tape or cutting, did it improve your signal?
-It did not improve it at all.
-It improved it some.
-It improved it a lot or completely fixed the problem.

 

[JSal]

Didn't work.

 

[///Ben]

Steve told us that we were holding it wrong, but AT&T put it in wrong. So many jokes.

Okay somebody use this quote QUICK! I'm not witty enough to cleverly rework this statement.

 

[s1m]

Who in God's ******** name holds a glass phone without a rubber cover? WHO?

Seriously, the world is a goddamn IQ test for morons.

PUT A RUBBER ON IT! DONE.

I do. I have a cover that I use when I decide to but if travelling light then I dont use the cover (iPhone 3Gs here).

I seem to be able to hold onto many forms of glass without rubber coverings without suffering major problems. As such I can't see why I would have to use one for the IP4 unless that is how it was designed to operate (and then I would be unlikely to buy one).

 

[///Ben]

Who in God's ******** name holds a glass phone without a rubber cover? WHO?

Seriously, the world is a goddamn IQ test for morons.

PUT A RUBBER ON IT! DONE.

Putting a rubber on would solve a WORLD of problems! Haha!

 

[d00m42]

Didn't work.

I had a feeling...

I may just eject/reinsert the SIM just in case it does something with towers/service wise. I doubt it will do anything, but I might as well try this "fix" for the lulz. The SIM shorting to the chassis of the phone can't be a good thing even if it doesn't fix the "death grip".

 

[HXGuy]

Finished my second test where I waited 30 minutes with the SIM card removed and it did absolutely nothing. When I bridge the gap with my finger, it drops from 4 bars to 1 and the Speed Test app confirms that it is affecting the download and upload speeds.