Repair DIY and antenna signal

[CKbass]

Hello,
I work as a repair tech and have been performing motherboard level soldering on over 200 laptops so far. I disassembled my iPhone 3G to repair myself and when I was done the antenna signal is sporadic at best or it says no service and seems to be worse when held in hand. The strange thing is that in certain geographical locations it works fine with a bit of breakup on the other parties listening side; this makes me think that the signal is merely super week. Is there a grounding issue I might have missed? Where is the antenna for that matter and what cable connects it?

[ja_vo]

All i have to say dude its that you should have not messed with it. Just bc you fix computer does not mean you can take a part a phone and fix the antenna in it.

Good luck getting your phone fix!

[Hawk]

The Real bad news is that by taking your phone apart, you voided your warranty.

[styfle]

Not much anyone here can do except wish you luck.

[CKbass]

Yeah so I guess my overzealous tinkering habit cost me a few bucks, could be worse. At least I know how to disassemble an iphone in less than 2 min now :) It might come in handy at some point. If I find out the root cause as to why the signal is sporadic I'll share.

[kenneth]

Just put it back together and no one will know.

[Napoleon_PhoneApart]

Just put it back together and no one will know.

The duct tape and paper clips might be a bit of a giveaway. :smile:

[kenneth]

damn... I didn't think of that.

[hardcorp]

So did the 200 laptops work after you were done?... Just wondering..

[Chasmanian]

The antenna should connect via a standard rf connector. If the signal is weak, try crimping the connection a little tighter. It can't ground to the case obviously so the only other option is the mb itself. Also is the sim card making good contact? I've heard of that causing a similar problem. Hope this helps.

[cuda]

dissamble ur phone and try to sure all connections(lines) leading to the ant(buzzzer the connection in/out 2 sure grounding) , comparing it with a similar device at the same location .if not the same check ur ant,, (thats wat i think)

[mlass]

the antenna signal is sporadic at best or it says no service and seems to be worse when held in hand. The strange thing is that in certain geographical locations it works fine with a bit of breakup on the other parties listening side; this makes me think that the signal is merely super week. Is there a grounding issue I might have missed? Where is the antenna for that matter and what cable connects it?

I had the same issue (sporadic and certain locations), but an exchange took care of that. May have been from the cracking of the phone and may have dislodged the antenna connection.

The Antenna is the metal ring around the phone. I'll have to look at my old post, I have one with pictures of a black iPhone disassembled.

[CKbass]

So did the 200 laptops work after you were done?... Just wondering..

Maybe one or two... JK, I think I messed one up in my early days, but thats way behind me now. Motherboard level soldering is what I do and when the laptops come to me with either a bad jack or fuse, I fix it. Otherwise that crap is too hard to trouble shoot for a 3rd party repair.:wink:

[CKbass]

The antenna should connect via a standard rf connector. If the signal is weak, try crimping the connection a little tighter. It can't ground to the case obviously so the only other option is the mb itself. Also is the sim card making good contact? I've heard of that causing a similar problem. Hope this helps.

Thanks! This is good info.

[johinho]

hi, i know this was discussed ages ago. but did you resolve the issue. I have a similar problem and i have ruled everything out bar the logic board itself. the problem follows the logic board. if you did or anyone else knows something else i can try, let me know. the phones i used were out of warranty, so i wasn't worried about taking them apart.