Phone keeps rebooting,sometimes detects and sometimes doesn't detect SIM

[Sasha Munir]

Hello everyone,
Someone put a micro sim in my tab, and then took it out with a paper clip. Perhaps this damaged my sim card slot, I'm not sure. Anyway, since then my phone reboots 10 times (or more) a day, and I've already done a factory reset. Sometimes when it reboots and doesnt recognize the SIM, I blow air into the slot, and then reinsert SIM and reboot, and ti start working. What should I do? I don;t even know how to open the slot and clean it (does it even need cleaning?). I'm THIS close to losing my mind.
My tab is 3 years old, so isnt under warranty, but I take great care of it.
thanks!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Just to be clear, you have the LTE-enabled Tab 4, correct? You referred to it as a phone, which is why I ask.

When the person removed the SIM, do you think they had to jam the paper clip in and scrape around a lot? That certainly could have damaged something.

Try booting into Safe Mode, which disables all 3rd party apps--this can help to exclude the possibility that something you installed is causing the instability: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-11558

Also try wiping the cache partition, which won't erase any personal data: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-11085

 

[Sasha Munir]

Hello! thanks for the answer and the welcome!
it is this one: GT P6200, and yes, it is a phone.

I only have whatsapp, Skype and Instagram. Skype and Instagram were installed later, whatsapp has been there since the factory reset ( a week ago). It even restarted in safe mode just now even though I cleared caches of the three apps.
It wont sign into google talk, and wont download from google play. I had to download .apk files of these three apps and transfer them to the phone.
My friend hardly poked around for 3 or 4 seconds and the chip came out, but yes, perhaps damaged was caused.
Some days phone restarts every 4 or 5 hours. Today it is restarting every 30 mins or so. Was ok in the morning for about 4 hours. Sometimes ti doesn't detect SIM at all. At other times it detects it after automatic reboot. I'm at my wits' end. Is the sim card slot dirty, or is it a software issue?
Thanks for the help!

 

[B. Diddy]

That's the Tab 7.0 Plus, so I moved this thread to that forum.

It might just be a coincidence, since it is a pretty old device, and hardware can start to fail. But the fact that all of this started happening after the SIM card issue is suspicious.

 

[Sasha Munir]

That's ok...I guess I'll have to go to a shop now...any good shops in helsinki?