Galaxy S4: Major problem - SIM card not detected

[kunpifagor]

I made a new attempt to fix problem.
I took a solution from gsmhosting forum and made a connection marked bold orange line. Now all working correctly, but it is a first hoyr of testing. I will post a report in Monday.

 

[Apantz]

kunpifagor, can you please provide a link to the fix instructions that you found? Very interested to hear how your results go.
I have tried the following without success:

• pressure on ribbin with doublesided foam tape
• upgrade of software
• reconnecting ribbon
• replacing sim/sd slot (rev 1.3)

 

[captritchie]

Thank you. Such an easy fix and it worked for me.

 

[kunpifagor]

forum . gsmhosting . com/vbb/f258/s4-insert-sim-solution-here-1992148/
(An error has occurred kunpifagor! You must have 10 posts in order to post links. Your current post count is 4.)
There are all ways of simcard marked on picture. I made only one double-connection.
Now my phone works correctly. But I bought a new sim card for test only yesterday, and I think, there are too short time passed. I will post a report later.

 

[Chipmunk999]

View attachment 165303

Just a quick note to say the above worked perfectly for me - used a blob of blutac instead, but same principle. I was getting "simcard not detected" every hour before, but not one in the four days since.

 

[kunpifagor]

There are 5th day of the test, no one issue, no one warning, everything is ok. I think, I finally solved a problem.
I used ground-wire of Nokia headphones, was soldering with rosin.
I recommend my method if you have good experience in soldering.

 

[Samu233]

Have this "no SIM detected, must reboot" error since day one with different occurence.
The phone is SGH-M919 factory unlocked from ebay, "open box".
IMEI 355537/05/446792 - seems like in the range that orville666 mentioned in post #188.

I tried to use both of my (NON-NFC) cards, T-Mobile US and Vodafone EUR. Both works and both fails randomly. (Well, the T-Mobile holds better.)
I had no other apps than factory released and no SD card inserted when the problem started.

First I used the T-Mobile card for 2 weeks. When it asked for reboot, I did and it worked for a while, sometimes for several minutes, sometimes for 2 days.
Now I'm trying to use the Vodafone card. First it worked for an hour then it didn't with the "no SIM detected" error. I found this thread. Downloaded the suggested app, Bluetooth connect and Play. Voila - it worked! For 2 days.

Now "no SIM inserted".

Replaced it with the T-Mobile card. It works fine now (but formerly, it has stopped on me variously several times, see above).
So WTF? All of a sudden, it's not a hardware problem now?

I'm not a heavy phone user, no new apps beside Fb Messenger, Skype, Viber and Rynga. A word puzzle for game. Some air ticket finders. Uninstalled almost all unnecessary apps incl. Amazon store. Gonna try the foam/pressure thing but as I see, it is not a permanent solution.

Srly, what could be the answer? This is a phone without phone-ing option. It is just a very expensive tablet now.

 

[kunpifagor]

There are 5th day of the test, no one issue, no one warning, everything is ok. I think, I finally solved a problem.
I used ground-wire of Nokia headphones, was soldering with rosin.
I recommend my method if you have good experience in soldering.

There are 11th day of the test, no one issue, no one warning, everything is ok. Problem finally solved.

 

[Icone]

Well what would be awesome to have is a script or something that would made the phone restart itself when that annoying error message appears. That way we cold have our phone always available and avoid being without connection.

 

[iupimen]

Well what would be awesome to have is a script or something that would made the phone restart itself when that annoying error message appears. That way we cold have our phone always available and avoid being without connection.

Hello man, i use such a program that autorestarts the phone when no sim notification appears. Download it from Google market, is name is macrodroid. All you have to do is to create a new macro command with the trigger "sim" and action "restart" and it will autorestart without a problem. But you need root for autorestart to work, good luck!

 

[Fireloop77]

Dear fellow S4 users,
After days of forum browsing and struggle, I suffered too much to not post my solution. It's a lengthy operation, but it saved me. You need to take the back cover off, undo the 9 screws, carefully remove the plastic back and find the component circled in the picture. Then attach anything roughly 2mm thick to press it down when case is put back on. Hope it works for everyone! Credit to XDA for this solution

 

[jgreen3401]

I have an ATT Galaxy S4 on GOK2. I bought it used but started having the "sim card undetected, system must restart". I started researching online and decided to replace the sim card/sd card holder. I watched several videos and I ordered the parts online. I ordered the holder, a new midframe bezel and I have a tool set. It really was very inexpensive and took me about 30 minutes to do it.

Now the sim card, clicks in very solid and stable and the cable is very solid stuck in place. I felt a big difference after installing new parts.

I have no warranty and wouldn't have bought this phone had I done more research on issues. Caveat Emptor I guess.
It's been 2 days now and I haven't had the error until now. I had the error this morning on the phone when I woke up. It was charging, sitting there.

My wifi signal is very low now as well, so I could have damaged the antenna as well.
I don't know what to do now with the phone as I thought this would fix the problem.

Any ideas?

 

[rayfm9]

I had problems with my cell signal strength being very low related to this SIM card issue.
Removing the battery and SIM card for 5 minutes fixed that.
I'd guess the wifi and cell radios are separate parts but try that and/or consider
the low wifi could be affected by the SIM issues somehow.

 

[Fred73]

Thanks dude, I just did the reboot thing holding the volume up button and power button, then cleared the cache and finally rebooted and it fixed my problem with my Galaxy S4 constantly either showing Signal not available or SIM card missing.

 

[kain4]

kunpifagor,
Can you explain about " I made only one double-connection."?
I don't have any idea which part I need to solder in the picture.

Kain

 

[Aslan_bali]

I have the same problem, never use 3g or 4g networks or bluetooth im mostly on wifi at my work for only to listen radio.

I have that error everytime when i enable wifi, so i tought there should be something wrong with my wifi antenna/chip but my observations made me think it has something todo with software or the problem is caused by software, especially google play services.

-Ive rooted my phone and switched to cm based rom, the problem occurs very often then so cm based roms do little help
-google play services use alot network if your on wifi or 3g, its like spyware that consumes alot of battery and phones sources but you dont know why or for what. On cm based rom ive removed it and my simcard error was almost gone, i got that error very often like once a week.
-people on lollipop can check on their wifi advanced settings, there is a option to turn off google play services searching for network EVEN IF WIFI IS TURNED OFF!

 

[xrko]

Which ROM are you using? If you still have the problem, after flashing a new ROM, then the problem may be hardware. I mailed my gs4 back to Samsung on warranty and they refused to help. They accused me of an unauthorized repair which voids warranty. Why would I attempt an unauthorized repair if I am still under warranty?? So, I am stuck with this brick.

 

[kunpifagor]

kunpifagor,
Can you explain about " I made only one double-connection."?
I don't have any idea which part I need to solder in the picture.

Kain

This orange line (from NFC module to SIM module)

 

[Chipmunk]

This might not apply to others, but this has worked for me: when you get the simcard-not-detected message, turn off the phone, remove the battery, and leave it for 10 minutes. If I just reboot I keep getting the messages.

I hadn't had any of the messages for a month now, but let the battery run down dead today. Switched it back on, simcard-not-detected, reboot, same, reboot, same, reboot, same. Removed battery for a few and powered up, it's now working fine again.

 

[Karl Iper]

Having the same problem, I tried all the solutions posted here; I ended up by trying to change my NFC card with a non NFC one.
I spent the all day from one place to another ending at Wallmart where they were able to locate a non NFC chip after 20 minutes of search (we are in January 2016, I am with Telus and they don't do any more those cards). Now it works. Thanks for providing such solution. I must say that I had to insist to get such a card, every sales person trying to convince me it was not the root of the problem.