Iphone 4s WIFI and battery woes

[olegunnar]

Hi,

I just purchased a second-hand iPhone 4s, only to discover that WIFI doesn't work (can't turn it on) and the battery is drained quickly (8hours on a full change on standby with no usage).

Searching the internet, I've found that this is a common problem for 4s phones and is due to bad solder joints on the WIFI chip(s) (wow, Apple, are you STILL doing this - you retired my iMac with exactly the same issue. Grrr!).

Apparantly iOS 7+ diagnoses the WIFI chip before enabling it and if something's wrong, it won't. Fair enough, I suppose, except the issue was probably there all along, including while it was under warranty, only you couldn't know.

What I'd really want to know is whether the battery problem is associated with the WIFI problem or not. I can live without WIFI and replacing the battery would be fine, but if the battery is drained because of the WIFI problem, that wouldn't do me any good.

Does anyone know?

Reflowing the solder on the WIFI chip(s) is a solution, but not one I'm eager to perform. The hairdryer/freezer trick is not a substitute.

Thanks in advance.

 

[olegunnar]

Anyone? Come on, I know you're the brain trust of the mac (and accessories) community.

 

[olegunnar]

I went ahead and ordered a pentalope screwdriver and battery. Thanks for nothing

I'll update this thread when I get it replaced, so others will know whether it's the WIFI problem killing the battery life or not.

 

[olegunnar]

Changed the battery. No change to battery life. It thus seems that there are two options for users facing the WIFI issue on iPhone 4S:

1: Attempt to reflow the solder to the WIFI chips. Cumbersome and hit'n'miss unless you have the right equipment (and we don't).
2: Throw the phone away and curse Apples (lack of) quality assurance to hell.
(3: Be clueless and overheat the phone using a hair dryer, then stress it by cooling it quickly. Repeat ad nauseum)

 

[sy1888]

Tip no1-Check phone fully works before buying, Tip no2-check phone fully works before buying Tip no3-Sell as spares

 

[adamhenry]

Brittle solder is now the norm. The new solder mandated by the EU does not contain lead which reduces reliability.

 

[sy1888]

Hi Adam i bought a 4s which seemed fine at the time but when battery got down to 30% phone died,luckily i got one from ebay for £10 and fitted myself and problem solved but i checked all usual common faults before buying speaker,wifi etc