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Will Replacing The Upper Antenna Fix My Greyed Out Wi-Fi Issue?

Hey everyone,

I've got a iPhone 4S that is about a year and a half old, and I didn't buy Apple Care, so it no longer has a warranty. I recently updated to iOS 7 over the air via Wi-Fi, and as soon as the phone rebooted, the Wi-Fi option was greyed out. I've tried everything from resetting all the options, and even restoring it as a new phone. Nothing worked, so I took it to the Apple store. Of course they told me that my hardware was already on its way out, and the update probably just finally caused it to fail completely.

I knew from reading forums on Apple & iFixit, that this was probably due to a bad solder point. I got out the hair dryer and gave my phone a quick shot of hot air directed at the back of the phone near the headphone jack. Immediately the iPhones Wi-Fi was fixed. Of course the fix was only temporary (about 5 minutes), but it confirmed that it is indeed a bad solder point.

I've read about more permanent solutions including reflowing the solder using a heat gun or a baking the PCB in the oven. Neither of these solutions seem ideal, so I looked around iFixit, and see they have a upper antenna assembly for $15. I know this controls the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, but when I emailed iFixit to confirm this would fix my problem, they told me it may also be directly related to the logic board.

I'm wondering if anyone knows where the bad solder point is on the phone that is causing the greyed out Wi-Fi issue. Is there a chipset on the logic board that's causing it, or is it somewhere on the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antenna?

Has anyone with this issue replaced the upper antenna and have it fix the problem? Does anyone know where the most common bad solder point is (Wi-Fi/Bluetooth antenna or logic board)? I'd rather replace the upper antenna than to have to reflow the PCB.

Any help I receive would be greatly appreciated. I'll also keep this post up to date to help anyone else who's having the same issue.

Answer this question I have this problem too

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I've seen this issue quite a bit.

What you need to do is:

1) remove the back glass and unplug the battery and remove it.

2) Remove the Emi shield that covers the LCD connector

3) inspect the board and you will see a black big chip (the wifi IC). Looking straight down with the charging pins closer to you, it'll be on the right next to the LCD connector.

4) THE FIX - you need a hot air type of tool. I'm not sure if a hair dryer will do the trick, but I use a heat gun. You need to apply slight amount of heat. NOT a lot. Just enough to get it hot but not too hot (too hot = you can't touch) like I said, slight heat.

5) put the phone back together and voila. Works!

I've seen roughly 3 phones already same issue same fix. No warranties so far.

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Is that big black chip (Wi-Fi IC) directly on the logic board?

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look guys when watching on youtube the jobs video lauching iphone 4 a light when on in my head ahe talked about the design of frame how frame was a techno magic tirck this same fram has 3 segments wifi 3gb gps

yes the ic replacement heat will work a few weeks but

after watching the jobs lauch video i tried this ordered a mid frame for iphone 4 and boom grayed out was gone and wifi is 100%

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This has nothing to do with bad solder point! You could have fixed for way longer than 5 minutes. You needed to wait until you got temperature warning by iOS. This will trigger reset of Wi-Fi chip setting. Please see this detailed article on using hair dryer method. For me it worked for over a month, and now I did this again without issue.

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So, in short term will new wifi antena solve wifi issue or not? I'm also considering to buy one if this od gonna bring my wifi again. I tried to use hair dryer but that works only for short period of time. I would like to solve this permanently

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I'm having the same issue and I've ordered a new antenna I'll give you my feedback as soon as I do the replacement ... still waiting to receive the part next month... :(

Meanwhile, I found this article and may be helpful as well --> [http://www.payetteforward.com/why-is-wi-...

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Matthew Beckman will be eternally grateful.
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