BiloBlog

iPhone lost Carrier after Call

April 21st, 2008

I was in the middle of a call 3 days ago when it dropped and showed “No Service” instead of the usual 3 or 4 bars of signal strength.

Since then I’ve restored the iPhone twice, and it’s still crazy. The first 24 hours it wouldn’t find a Network in any way. Yesterday I suddenly received a call, and It worked fine for the rest of the day, making and receiveing calls. At night it dropped a call and started showing “No Service” again. The difference now is that it shows network connection, and when I try to make a call it fails and then shows “No Service”, and a few seconds later it restores the network connection…

So far I’ve found these candidates for an explanation:

• Some iPhones suddenly turn to crap, call tech support and get a new one – no option for me, I’m in Brazil using Claro/Telmex – no iPhone support from Apple in this case.
• Just restart the Network settings and it comes back to life – not for me…
• It’s a problem with the SIMcard/Carrier – No, I’ve already tested my SIM in other phones, no problem.
• It’s the firmware – I’ve seen people complaining about this with every firmware version available, so I don’t think it is software. Mine is running 1.1.4, and has been for the last 3 weeks.
• It’s a magnetic thing, the iPhone was placed next to some strong magnet and will come back to life eventually – Maybe, I do have a 2.5″ Hard Drive with a very powerfull magnet, and I carried it along with the iPhone a few times this week.
• It’s a short-circuit between the antenna and the aluminum case caused by charging the iPhone while it sits over some other heat generating device – Also very possible, as I frequently connect the iPhone cable and place it over a external storage that can get pretty hot from time to time.

The solution for the last case is openning the iphone and placing a plastic film between the antenna and the case to avoid the short-circuit. I’ll try it latter and post the results.

Below is the video showing full network connection, then I place a call, then it drops to “No Service”

Entry Filed under: tech