yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] cangri82:
Had the same issue.

During the weekend removed the SD card to use it on another device

During the weekend issue did not appear

Monday put the memory card back in and error appeared.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] bongster:
Since I'm on Lineage 14.1 opt the issue disappeared. For weeks now and normally it happened once a day.

Anyone else or am I just lucky?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] cidxtc:
When my wife had the s4 changing to aosp helped for a little while. Although it ended up being a faulty sim card and not the reader.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] fattest:
I still get the issue after going from stock touchwiz to lineage 14.1. I did change carriers last year and this was happening on stock with my old sim card, so I don't think two faulty sim cards in a row is likely.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Mrkblo:
You're just lucky. I'm sure you'll eventually lay your phone a bit harsher on any hard surface and the good old problem will happen again. The foam/pressure on the conector did the trick for me, but I still get the No Simcard warning sometimes after I bump the phone or whatever. I'm running Lineage OS 14.1 and saw your post asking side if any kernel changes could have made your problem worse, but I'm pretty sure it's not software /RIL related.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] bongster:
I'm pretty sure too that it is hardware related, but after going back to LOS beta 5 my phone had no error since 24h hours. In addition i had no error for weeks and with stable 1 from yesterday it happened twice in less than an hour.

I will stick to beta 5 till the phone dies forever. :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] UsualNoise:
Hey guys - I'm working on this issue for a friend right now. One thing I noticed that I didn't see elsewhere in this thread is that there is a difference depending on the SIM card used.

- If I use a T-Mobile sim it works fine.

- If I use an H2O sim (AT&T based) it works fine.

- If I use a Verizon sim it fails to detect it. (Tried 2, either not detected or says 'damaged'.)

I was able to swap the SIMs back and forth but the above results kept holding true (T-Mobile and H2O *never* failed, Verizon almost always did). Any ideas on why I'm seeing this? I will note that the T-Mobile and H2O cards are 3-in-1 while the Verizon is a straight micro.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] cidxtc:
Well first off Verizon is a cdma based service while all the others you tested are gsm so that would be the reason verizon sim wont work.

So if the owners simcard is giving them issues then have them get a new one. I solved my wifes issues with a new card.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] UsualNoise:
I'm testing on an unlocked Galaxy S4, it runs on both Verizon's CDMA network (it's the Verizon version of the S4 after all) as well as GSM. I was mainly trying to see if anyone was aware of a known difference between provider SIM cards when it comes to the common "SIM card removed" error.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] cidxtc:
Oh sorry since you posted in the att sub-forum and did not say you have another variant I figured you were using att. Maybe someone else here can help you out.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] tomcio1231:
Great.. work perfect thx...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] stiff88_c:
worked perfectly, no message and forced restarting for a week now!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] zio_mangrovia:
I replaced sim slot but nothing!

I tried with new sim card and to reset to factory default but nothing?

Other suggestions please?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Kippy51:
Replace the whole motherboard. It's the only surefire fix!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Sheikh.ali:
I have galaxy note2 at&t. There is a sim issue sometime network doesn't work. Can anyone know how to fix this problem
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] audit13:
The Note 2 AT&T forum is here and may have a solution: https://xdaforums.com/galaxy-note-2-att
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Rana afzal:
Sir Yeh file may chaise
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] 65536:
I've also had this SIM problem from time to time for a bit more than a year. Like many, I also tried replacing the SIM and microSD slot, which didn't really help.

On Saturday, the SIM was disconnected almost every time when I took the phone out of my pocket, which basically made it unusable.

As an electronics guy, I tried to figure out in the schematics what's about the suggested "U203 reflow".

U203 is a BCM20794 NFC chip, which also contains a voltage regulator for the SIM card ("NFC_SIMVCC" in the Galaxy S4 schematics). If this voltage drops out for a moment due to a faulty solder joint, the SIM card powers down and the MDM9215 modem - to which the SIM data lines are conected - will think that the SIM was removed. Therefore, a broken solder joint on the U203 is a plausible reason for this annoying SIM issue.

Afterwards, I tried the reflow by applying some flux (which I highly recommend to do, as it improves solder flow and bonding), and heating it with a small heat gun.

By watching carefully under bright light (LED flashlight), I could see when the solder started to melt. From there on, I heated about 3 more seconds and then allowed the board to cool and reassembled the phone.

For now it seems to hold up; but I don't want to call it a success until I didn't have the issue for 2-3 weeks.

If this fails, I might attempt something crazy :cowboy: :

The NFC_SIMVCC pin is on pin 12 of the deaded HDC901 conenctor, the PCB trace is visible on top. And all modern SIM cards should run on 1.8V.

One could cut the NFC_SIMVCC trace to the U203 ship, and supply the SIM card with 1.8V from another pin using some magnet wire. A pad of the nearby resistor R913 is connected to 1.8V.

I tried to illustrate the idea in the attached image. But I hope I don't have to try it, as I don't like the idea too much.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] 65536:
Update: It has now been 3 weeks of everyday use since my reflow attempt, and so far the phose is working completely fine.

I didn't get this dreaded message message for a single time :D , so I'm glad I don't have to mess around with the board and try my other fix idea.

It seems like a reflow does the trick, if it's done with the right amount of heat to really melt the solder.

Just an idea to get this quite old phone fixed if you don't want to reflow it yourself: Go to a phone repair shop which also does soldering, and ask if they would reflow the chip without any warranty if you bring the mainboard: Disassemble the phone by yourself, bring the board to the shop, have them reflow the chip, take the board back home, reassemble the phone and hope for the best.

Since the reflow is a 1-2 minute job, a honest repair job shouldn't charge more than like $10 for it. The disassembly and reassembly of the phone is the time-consuming part, but that is quite easy to do by yourself.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] 65c102:
Starting last week this has been happening every day between 6 to 10 times per day and was driving me nuts

Today I was going to reflow both the motherboard connector and the cable connector but after opening it I didnt find any loose pins or dry joins

Instead I added a piece of expanded foam on top of the connector and so far its been ok

Thanks
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] machokingjim:
in my case a little pressure on the sim slot (with the sim inserted) did the trick..

thank you for your post:D
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Restless_CA:
Hey there, just want to post that after reading these instructions and doing a version of your shim fix my phone now works. I had a third party sim for roaming that would not work at all in my phone and it now works. My regular sim has yet to show a Removed state since this too.

What frustrates me is how Samsumg will not stand by their product...they gave me the warranty run around until I finally just hung up. It makes me really reconsider if my next phone will be Samsung or not.

Anyway, thanks again!

---------- Post added at 03:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:49 PM ----------

I used foam tape. I think any squishy material that allows easy compression would work. The foam tape is nice because it's sticky so it stays in place well.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] jimbait:
I also had this problem with my galaxy s4 purchased online.

It was a new set (but import from another country).

I'm starting to get this problem mere 3 days after using it. It had gotten from bad to worst from few times a day to every 1 hours.

So I cut a thin sponge and stuffed it left to the led flash, slightly below the camera and put the back cover on. I didn't want to unscrew the back plate as I still can return this phone provided it's not tapered .

Amazingly the message disappear. Now I've gone 3 days without the message.

I hope this permanently solved this issue.

For those who still having problems even after tried this, try adjusting the sponge position a little bit.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] m00nman:
Just FYI, the error has returned for me after 3 weeks. Tried different thickness, different cuts foams over the last several months. Nothing helped. The error would return randomly hours to weeks of use after the change.

To be honest iam not convinced to 100% that it is a hardware problem. For most people this happens after an update. For me it happened after i tried cm11 for the first time on this phone. I have a feeling that something trips some protection. I do have aws band mod + efuse blown because of "illegal" flashing with latest bootloader. Now I am trying a CM12.1 for 9505 with a corresponding twrp for the same model + ril for 9505 (using getril app). So far so good (6 days), but as always im not holding my breath. Will report back in a few weeks if i don't forget.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] alexmagalhaes:
I wont let you forget that, sir :D having the same problems here.

Im going to test 2 diferent things.

1st the foam thing

2nd I'll try to disable this pop-up message via software (so it wont compromise/interrupt other apps or my tasks)

3rd i'll sell this thing to parts :/ hope not
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ezwierz:
Please HELP!?

Hi,

I just tried the method described above in the original post (with the earplug) and I don't know what I did, but when I turned the phone back on, I saw the Samsung logo for a second, and now the screen is black. Please help! What did I do wrong and how can I fix it?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] N2Droids:
i had this problem too. I just removed and reinserted the sim a few times and havnt seen the error message since.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] alexmagalhaes:
Guys, I've actually managed to solve this via software. I just installed a very know custom ROM wich simply can close the pop-up message and when I have the time I restart the phone.

that was exactly what I was looking for so I'll only test the foam thing if I really feel the need, wich I dont see anymore.

Thanks for the tips anyways. If you guys want and the forum allow me I'll leave a link to the ROM i've installed.

Best reggards.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] padamati:
Worked perfectly for me!!

This worked perfectly for me. Thanks for the detailed post on the procedure.

I believe it is a bad solder joint. I started seeing this problem when I took my phone to India and put a different SIM. I incorrectly assumed that the other SIM was bad. But when I got back to the states and put back AT&T, I was still seeing the issue occasionally. And thee days ago, it became so bad, that I saw the SIM card not detected error 5+ times in 3 hours. It has been 3 days since I applied this procedure and I am yet to see this error.

Here is my analysis on the issue - the additional heat that the phone is exposed to in India weakens the bad solder joint. From that point forward, the error is random - in the sense that even when the phone is not over heated, you could see this error... and oh by the way, this error could show up as SIM not detected or SDCARD removed ... some people may not notice SDCARD removed as it is less severe than SIM not detected. This makes sense as it is the same connector for both SIM as well as SDCARD.

Once I got the phone back to the states, my gut feel is that over the period of one to two weeks, the bad solder joint that was exasperated by the excess heat the phone was exposed to worsened... making the problem more frequent to a point where the phone was unusable...

in some cases, just pressing the case might work... and in some cases opening up the phone and giving a good press to the connector point might work.. but putting the foam to provide continuos pressure definitely adds additional insurance...

Hope this procedure works for others as well...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] t4duzan:
would you mind to PM me the link to the ROM that worked for you? I've tried a couple of different things, like the ear plug foam and small pieces of business card stock and it doesn't fix the problem. Question: with that ROM, if you're able to dismiss the dialogue box, is there really a need to reboot at a later time?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] alexmagalhaes:
Sure, just did.

[edit]

The cellphone thinks it has no SIM chip inserted so I cant call or recieve any calls.

Acutally I didn't find any other way to "reboot" the SIM or make the phone re-check for it. So the only way I found is turning off the cellphone and taking off the battery... since it doesnt happens all the time it works for me.

best reggards.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] m00nman:
cyanogenmod (12.1 nightlies for me) allows dismissing the message by just tapping the "back" hard button. Messages reappeared for me again.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Jchef:
Question: Anyone having this occur on stock carrier firmware?
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] t4duzan:
Thanks for the reply back. I'm on a locked bootloader using Safestrap with limited rom availability. I'll try the hard back button solution and see if it dismisses it the next time it happens.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ham-solo:
Has anyone tried removing SIM card's PIN?

If your phone is not constantly not reading SIM, remove the PIN in another phone and try with your s4.

Simple but worked for me.

Hope this helps
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] m00nman:
I have no PIN on my sim - and I have had this problem for a while now.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] fadajdnz:
I found this thread interesting... just wanted to warn readers to check the obvious, that it isn't the sim card that's the problem. I went to a store today and they said that was usually the issue (and it was in my case, whew...)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] c-non:
i have i9505 running on cm12.1 - Vodafone Turkey(3.5 G) ,i tried this solution and no error since 6 days,if i get error again i will write,thanks...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Jchef:
Also tried this today. Will report back.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] IRingTwyce:
Yes. Mine is bone stock, network updated to 4.4.4. I went a good solid two months with no problem. Then today...six times in an hour-and-a-half. :silly:

I have suspected that in my case it's related to cutting down my SIM to nano-proportions for another phone and then having to use an adapter in the S4. The same adapter has caused zero issues when used in my Nokia 920, but the bare nano-SIM has had a few read errors in the Fire Phone (this was the phone I cut it down for.)

Another caveat: my wife was using a factory stamped nano sim with the adapter (unlike my home-cut) and she was the first to experience the SIM error. She is now using that sim and adapter in the Nokia 920 with zero issues.

So.....who really knows? :mad:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] LINXC88:
I had this issue with Stock rogers firmware.

Also, I didnt have foam but just cut a piece of an elastic band and it worked fine for me.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] wizeguykev:
The dreaded "Sim card removed" error!! Galaxy S4

This is what you'll need:

Your S4

A micro Philips-head screwdriver

Scissors

A foam earplug (or something of similar texture)

I wish I had seen this like a week ago!! Just ordered a new sim card tray! Oh well I will do this after I install the new sim! I was putting vinyl on the one side of the sim card Figuring it was the sim card even got a new sim card! Oh well Thanks very much for the news!! :good::good:
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] ham-solo:
I'm sorry to report that after removal of SIM lock a few days later "No SIM" issue came back.

I gave up on the phone after trying all the solutions I can find around the web that I can try.

I believe the issue is about a malfunction of related processor due to heating.

Processor may be damaged or buggy...

My advice to the pursuers of this issue to try older stock roms and keep their phones from intense workloads( if there's a way that is possible).
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] upncoming:
I started getting this error after swapping out my daughter board and the coax cable that runs from the motherboard to the daughter board along the volume button side. Switching back to the original coax cable stopped the error from popping up. Replacing your coax cable might be worth a shot for anyone that is still getting the error after trying other fixes.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] terrypeel:
I've gathered that the two screws above the battery (just above each corner) have been over tightened during the manufacturing process, which causes a bad connection. Therefore, removing those two screws completely solves the issue. Worked for me. Only try this if you know for sure that the issue is with the hardware.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Syd Fresh:
I am having this problem and I tried everything suggested here but still got the same error msg. If someone out there got the solution pease help coz I am pissed off now
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] davlo:
seems to have done the trick for me many thanks, this has been driving me nuts for months. Guy in the "phone repair" shop had no clue!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] Wolfberr:
Succes Story

After aproximately 3 months and after being tried any number of false solutions to fix this molesting "SIM CARD MISSING ERROR", I finally could solve it with the unvaluable help of Sean89us.

There was a definively loose contact on the connector which goes from the sim card tray to the mother board, and it had nothing to do with anything else, neither a bad Sim Card or tray, neither a software issue.

Again, many, many thanks to Sean89us and to the facilitators of this FORUM.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] c-non:
Hello everyone,

i tried this first with soft material part(non-slip pads for door,windows) and after 1 week get "sim card removed" error and again again again...then i open the case and see soft material be crashed with pressure of phone case and i cut a small part from credit card then put like OP pictures again,then after 12 days no error,i hope it will help for somebody who getting error message after this operation :)
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] weekdaysailor:
Am I the only one having trouble getting the bezel removed? On mine there is no lip to get purchase on and it seems quite firmly attached.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] LeoArg:
Its working for me!!

Thank you, my friends!!
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] PedroMcGee:
Bad solder joints

I bought a "new" GS4 on eBay about 2 months ago, made sure it worked for a day, and then installed a custom recovery and ROM. Three days into ownership, this problem started. I tried everything I could think of:

Making the SIM card thicker with tape

Making the SIM card longer with superglue and plastic (to push the SIM farther into the slot)

Installing new Radio firmware

Praying

Cursing

Drinking

Nothing worked. But, then I found this thread. Sean89us's foam earplug solution definitely provided the longest period of time between read failures -- my record was 5 days. I kept trying thicker cuts, and adding gorilla tape, but nothing provided a permanent solution, and my phone was looking more and more like it had a hernia.

Then, one day, I was at work, where I have access to a soldering iron with a very fine tip (a nice Metcal). I decided to open the patient up for operation. I'm not the best soldering guy in the world (I mostly do firmware), but I was able to hold my hand steady enough to re-flow all of the joints on both connectors. And, voila! After a week (the longest stint ever) with no foam and no bulge, using GPS and long downloads to make the phone heat up, there have been no read failures!

So, I definitely think Sean89us is on to something -- the cause is a breakdown in continuity/conductivity between the SIM card tray and the motherboard.

Here's what I did:

Open the phone

Disconnect the SIM card tray tail from the motherboard

Get a piece of tape or something to bend it back (gently) and hold it out of the way.

Touch the soldering iron tip to each of the joints on the motherboard's connector, just long enough to melt the solder and let it re-settle on each of the connector pins. Do this for the four, larger grounding pins as well.

Do this same thing for each of the pins on the tail connector. You'll have to be careful here, because you risk melting the tail material and damaging it if you touch the tail itself with the iron.

Any pins that seem like they don't have enough solder, go ahead and add a (very) little.

Reconnect the tail, close the phone up, and enjoy.

A microscope will definitely help here, because the pitch on these pins is so fine. I had to use one hand to stabilize the other as I moved between the pins.

Be careful not to heat two adjacent pins at the same time. You'll risk having the solder flow between them and shorting them together.

I realize a soldering iron and microscope aren't especially common equipment. But, if you continue to suffer from this problem with no solution, ask around. Maybe someone you know has access and can help you.

Good luck!

[update]

Three weeks after resoldering, and... "Sim card removed. Please restart". I'll provide further details in my next post...
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] t4duzan:
This makes sense for the crux of the problem. Unfortunately I don't have those skills and wouldn't trust someone with my phone to be as precise as you. Maybe you could check in every couple of months or so and give us an update on if this is still holding up. Thanks for giving us this info also.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] JaimeZX:
I will also be interested in updates as time goes on here. I replaced my entire motherboard and was good for a few weeks before the error came back. :(

Stock T-Mobile ROM here.
[AT&T Samsung Galaxy S 4 General] PedroMcGee:
I'll definitely keep you all updated. If this isn't a permanent solution, hopefully we can collectively find one.