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Asus P525 - Invalid or missing sim card ???

Hi All, I've down a fair bit of web searching but haven't found a reason as to why this would be happening. So here goes:
Basically, I bought the Asus P525 when it was about 9 months old, and after about 4 months it decided to flash this up on my screen - Invalid or Missing Sim Card. It seemed to fix itself, however, and I had another week of using it. Then, it did it again, and fixed itself again shortly after, but it wasn't long before it was dong it so often that the phone became unusable. It would flash that up, and usually stay that way, it would become a rarer thing for it to fix itself. So, back to my crappy old nokia with half working buttons I went, telling myself I should ring an Asus repair center and talk to them about it. Anyway, a couple of months later I got around to ringing them, they told me they'd probably have to replace the mainboard, and it could cost me more to do that than to get a replacement phone. Not very impressed as I was, I decided to boot the phone back up, and amazingly it worked again, and gave me another week of usage before packing it in. Now it's stopped working, so I tried different roms and different firmware, to see if that would fix it... nope.
So here I am. Anybody experienced this? Any idea what I can do? I don't have heaps of bucks to throw around on phones, I really like this phone except for this obvious problem, so would like to keep using it. But I don't think the future looks bright for it
Any help is extremely appreciated.
Thanks
Matt

Seems I've asked the impossible...? Anybody have any ideas? I'm going out of my brain trying to work this one out...
Matt

It seems noone in this part of the forum likes to answer questions I'm afraid.
As to your problem, it's likely a hardware fault and theres a loose connection betweeb SIM and phone somewhere.
You could try cleaning the contacts with an electrical contact cleaner solution sprayed on a cotton bud and wipe the pins that sit on the SIM.
Maybe you could also try using a needle underneath the pins and gently pull them up so that they make better contact with the SIM (maybe some are bent).
Bear in mind, I have no experience with this device and the sensible option would be to take it to a repair shop for service.
Hope that helps.

yeah I know what you mean
Thanks for the suggestions. I have tried to bend the pins up but that didn't work. I haven't tried cleaning the contacts... sadly though I think that may not be the issue. I'll definitely give that a go, I'll try just about anything, because obviously if I can't get it to work it will just sit in my girlfriend's car so she can use the maps and camera on it. Seems such a sad waste really...
thanks again for your help
Matt

I just powered it up, and it's working again. God knows for how long though... could it be a battery or cpu issue?

USB port issues

I am having issues with my Captivate's micro-USB port being loose. This is my second Captivate, and although it's still under warranty, the first one was RMA'd with the same issue. I never drop the phone while charging, etc, and I've tried multiple chargers so I really can't see why this would be happening. Both phones were 1008 versions, not sure if the 1008 is known to have this issue, or if I just have horrid luck. If anyone here can solder / fix the phone, I'm hesitant to go to AT&T again, as last time they made me go to the store and have the person working there verify that the USB port was not broken (luckily it still charged if you held it a certain way, and even more luckily I was able to flash stock before returning it!). Anyways, this phone is a refurb, and I did call and almost get it replaced as soon as I got it, as it had this issue slightly upon arrival, but decided it would be a hassle. It's only been about a month since the RMA, so I'm pretty sure that if I try now, they're going to get very mean about it, and possibly try and send me a bill for the phone, not to mention, the guy at the AT&T store will probably think something is up.
Any ideas are welcome, I love my Captivate, and I was just getting into develping on XDA :S
Sent from my Cappy using XDA Premium App
I actually found a fix to my issue. I actually was looking at it one day, and figured that in theory, it should be easy to fix, so I (CAREFULLY!!!) took a small knife I had and gently bent the inner part of the port up just a tad (it looked like it was too far down, and yes, I know it's supposed to be far down, but not that far), and it actually worked perfectly.

Thats weird... It kinda has to be what you're doing with it, since mine doesn't even have an irregular slight wiggle.
Obviously it could be just your luck but i doubt it.
edit: and who cares if the att dude thinks somethings up... its your $500..

Like I said, the second one actually had the issue upon arrival, but it was barely noticeable (the USB port would work, but if you moved the phone a lot, etc, it'd disconnect, then reconnect). I called in and talked to them, but decided not to RMA because it'd be a pain (in hindsight I should have...), and the problem just got worse.

Is the port internally lose? Or just when you plug a cable in it wiggles alot? Ive heard about people stretching the casing inside the port from alot of flashing (plugging in the usb). But if the hole port moves inside the phone thats no good lol. You should try to locate a nearby device service center and show them the problem and make sure you walk out with refurb thats fine. Dont worry about the people at atnt questioning it. Hell I use to walk in and just say "gps dosent work" and they would switch it out no questions.

What you said makes sense, the port looks like it's pretty sturdy, it's just that the cable wiggles a LOT, and it makes it hard to get it to even register.

I had the same issue but a new cable solved it
Sent from my samsung captivation

erraz said:
I had the same issue but a new cable solved it
Sent from my samsung captivation
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also had this issue, i opened up the stock Samsung Cable end to find that two of the four wires had insufficient strain relief and broke off at the solder joints

Oddly enough I had issues with the first cable as well, but I replaced it, and have tried others from my current.

[Q] Transformer Getting HOT

I am so fed up with this tab. Almost drop kicked it today. I put in the microsd for my evo 3d in the tab to listen to music. Came back roughly 10 min later and picked it up by the right side and dropped it onto the bed. It was SOO hot it left blisters on my palm! So I got the micro out and surprisingly it wasn't melted in HOWEVER all data on it was gone. So I put in a different micro and within 10 seconds it was too hot to touch. Then I went and bought a new microsd and same thing. How do I get them to cross ship me one? Can I just get my money back from them? Bought it from a guy on ebay and it was doa so I sent it in and it came back with a replacement screen with a 1x2mm black speck between the screen and glass (have separate thread about that) I am ready to get a different tab. Suggestions? when this comes back from rma it is going on ebay

Or you could RMA it again.
If you do sell it on eBay I hope you disclose these issues. It would be dishonest to unload this on another unsuspecting person and make it their issues.

timinator94 said:
Bought it from a guy on ebay
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm ... It is likely that the unit you purchased was in fact defective.
But what's the batch number on it?

Thats very awkward.. first time I hear the microsd burning.
Was it being charged at the same time?
Could be a defect on charger or the 40 pin port?

Very bizarre... I always have my 4GB Micro-SD plugged in. When I play music or anything off it, it never gets hot at all. RMA it, and hopefully it will get fixed.

Hmmm, I should check this since I've yet to really use the microsd slot past the initial check..

Only gets kind of warm when I watch videos. Never gets warm at all when I listen to music. Never tried listening to music stored on microad but I don't think it'll be any different.
Sent from my Transformer TF101

blisters...huh....i've touched a red hot cpu and never even got blisters. Must have been glowing red.

Yeah, I've never gotten blisters either. Hmm. My transformer gets hot when I do something like stream movies or whatnot, but hot like warmer, not hot like scalding.

I have a my micro sd card int here listen music off it on a daily basis. never has it gotten hot.

never had a heat issue, only gets the usual warmth from charging thats normal with all devices

Sounds like a defect TF Could you test what kind of temp you are getting with SetCPU? I have a micro card and all my music is all it and I listen to it every day, and never had a heat issue.

I only feel heat or warmth when I'm transfering files or charging. Sometimes when I have been playing a game for an hour or 2 straight. But it's just warm, not blistering hot. Matter of fact, wouldn't the plastic backing of the TF melt before that?
Could it be that the cpu has a faulty heatsink/no thermal gel? or maybe it wasn't ventilating properly? Did you have it on a thick blanket or anything similar?
I still can't warp my head around "getting blisters" from it. I had a panini maker smash my hand when I was 5. It wasn't able to pull it off for probably 20 seconds, and no blisters. It would have to be extremely hot, and the device would've shut it self off. Oh and the SD card falling out? Probably didn't push it in enough. I use the screwdriver haed on my pocket knife to push it in and out. (Probably not the smartest idea, but I have clumsy fingers.

I think I transfer more heat from my hands than the device to me.
In another word, it doesn't get hot at all. My laptop on the other hand...

Ok its a batch 4 I believe. It is blistered I can post pics if that gets it solved quicker. The plastic doesn't appear to be melted but it smells like it is on that side. and I would sell it only after it comes back from rma. I have perfect feedback and would like it to stay perfect plus I'm not a dishonest person.

Same
Just experienced the same thing with my microsd in. I've had it in for atleast 2 months now and never expeirenced it before. All I did was having it inside the sd slot. Not charging/gaming or anything.
Once I pulled out the sd card it got cooled down. Didnt get scalded or anything, but i guess it could have gotten that hot if I didnt pull out the sd card.

Battery Problem Really Corrupted µSD Card (I think...)

My unrooted Samsung Droid Charge was acting really squirly; rebooting, constantly scanning the media card, getting really hot, being a general PIA. I thought there was a problem with an application and found that if I was able to catch things at the right time, remove the µSD card so the applications couldn't access the network then I could usually get things working and put the µSD back and the Charge would work for a few days until it happened again.
So, after a couple of weeks and the problem possibly getting worse I take my Charge to a Verizon store (yeah, I know, what the hell was I thinking!!?) The first thing the petite girl tells me is the phone is out of warranty by twelve days. Then she tells me it has water damage (the red tattle tale is slightly activated). Now I was pretty sure about the latter (five minutes sitting in a half foot of river water was my clue), but the former was a bit off-putting. Nevertheless, I have a have a SquareTrade warranty so figure worst case is I send it to them along with $50 for a refurb replacement. Still, I want to see what the Verizon folks have to say.
The petite girl takes the phone to the service area and swaps out the battery. After ten minutes she comes back and tells my the problem with my phone is that the battery has been damaged by water and it needs to be replaced. I'm thinking of calling shenanigans on her but she has nice eyes. The petite girl says she's sorry but they don't have any batteries in stock but she can order one. I say thanks but no thanks and leave (nice eyes only go so far with me...)
When I get home I realize that the µSD card is named with some gibberish characters and I wonder if the thing is corrupted so it isn't being read properly. I swap the 32GB µSD card out for a 4GB (all I have lying around) and for the past couple of weeks the phone has only rebooted a couple of times, it isn't constantly scanning the media card, and the battery isn't getting crazy hot. It seems to be working okay.
Anybody have any thoughts on this situation?

Just had to share this experience....

Well I have been a owner of a LG Nexus 5 for the past (almost) 2 years now, in fact I am coming to the end of my contract very soon and will be able to either goto another company or get a new phone.
Anyways, sometime ago I experienced a problem with my microphone and external speakers not working, or at at least some of the time... After a bit of research online I found out my problem was related to a connection inside the phone that connected the bottom assembly to the main board at the top of the phone. It required me to remove the back panel and a few screws to remove the plastic cover, but the poster suggested putting some tape on top of that connection to hold it down more firmly to the socket it connected too. So I did this. I put some black tap (electrical tape cut to fit.) on top and then assembled the phone again. Viola, It worked!
Well, a short time after I decided that I wanted to update my phone from stock kitkat (4.4.4). Always been curious about custom ROMs and gave Cyanogenmod a try. Not only that I got bold and tried the nightly releases of the new marshmellow update. After some time I started experiencing things not working, like the camera, and a lot of freezing, hang ups and random reboots (not so much the reboots as the constant freezing). Often I couldn't get anything on the screen or the phone to respond from a locked state and when I did, often the phone would lag so much, that doing anything would take a long time and proved to be impossible.
I started thinking it was the nightly releases as the source of my problem and just kind of shrugged it off and figured "they will eventually fix the problem". I kept this thinking for quite some time. But it occurred too me one day that something else was causing the issue I was facing for the simple fact that the lag started showing up in the recovery mode (also custom) and a lot of times would continue to show up after I rebooted my phone. Hence, would rule out any 'software' issues I was facing.
I began to think that my problem was hardware. Maybe it was just time for a new phone. But still months away from the end of my contract, this meant I would have to pay off the 'problematic' phone first before getting a new one. I really didn't like that idea. So while looking into this problem, in a last ditch effort, I opened my phone again. Dunno why but I also decided to get rid of the tap on the connection I tried to fix before... I popped off the connection there and had a look at it. It didn't seem damaged in any way nor did the socket. Strange as it was I put that connect back in the socket and put the cover plate back on making sure not to torque the screws and assembled everything back up....
Now the mic and ext speakers work just fine and the phone is working like I just opened the box and took it out for the first time. And I have not once seen any problems... I understand what's happening here... still just wanted to share that for it was definitely weird or what?

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B0pUNVcVRCJ7MThMc0NHLUNkSEU
Sorry about the link, only way I can upload an image.
Just so there is no confusion... an image of the effected area, inside the phone. The arrow points to the connector and more importantly the area of the connector that seems damaged. If I press lightly where the arrow is pointing on this image, the assemable at the bottom (speaker/mic) will work, indicating a loose connection. Although after visual inspection, I cannot see any damage to connector or the socket. I suppose the only way to really "fix" the issue is to order a new part. As stated previously, already tried tape on the socket to help hold it down, but that seem to cause just as many issues with the phone performance. Any other suggestions?

When ordering a replacement part, you need to be careful because there was another XDA member replaced the same part with a cheap 3rd party solution and the phone would not charge until he replaced it with an oem part.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/to-buy-usb-charging-port-flex-cable-t3314357

Does anyone else have issues with there ext. speaker and mic not working?
An update on the phone;
back to square one. My ext speaker and mic will not work. And that socket has something to do with the LCD connection on the screen as it will black out if just the right area on the back of the phone is pressed. Only way to revive the phone is to long-press the power button for a reboot. Then will come up fine but speaker and mic still do not work.

audit13 said:
When ordering a replacement part, you need to be careful because there was another XDA member replaced the same part with a cheap 3rd party solution and the phone would not charge until he replaced it with an oem part.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/to-buy-usb-charging-port-flex-cable-t3314357
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that sounds pretty low level tactics of LG... just shameful really, but not hard to believe these days...
Quite honestly, I am just going to replace the phone. Think I got a pretty good run out of it and think its pretty well time for an upgrade. Anyway, for the reason I got the phone, it wont matter the speaker and mic don't work. Just going to use it for development and it will be a good test device.

Oh an this post is related to this thread so I thought I would link it for it may help someone else facing similar problems....
https://forum.cyanogenmod.org/topic/125227-nightly-cm13-releases-make-my-nexus-5-very-slow/

I'm not sure that LG had anything to do with the low-quality replacement parts.
If I were you, look for a n5 with a smashed screen that is suitable for parts.

audit13 said:
I'm not sure that LG had anything to do with the low-quality replacement parts.
If I were you, look for a n5 with a smashed screen that is suitable for parts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good idea, except the iphone is the most popular phone around here ... find it pretty hard to find one, been looking. But thanks.

I have seen quite a few busted n5 phones in Toronto. I have managed to get working phones with a smashed screen for as little as $30 which is rare for Toronto. Average I pay is $40 to $50. For this price, I either use the phone for parts in several phones or I get third part screen from Aliexpress for around $40 CAD.

I just want to update this as well...
I am fairly certain (now thinking about causes) its not really a design flaw, but more so because I frequently sat on my phone when it was in my back pocket...

audit13 said:
When ordering a replacement part, you need to be careful because there was another XDA member replaced the same part with a cheap 3rd party solution and the phone would not charge until he replaced it with an oem part.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/google-nexus-5/help/to-buy-usb-charging-port-flex-cable-t3314357
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was not me but I had that same experience. Replaced with a cheap oem and it didn't charge after that.
I found out why. The charger usb socket was not connected to anything ! Unbelievable! It lacked the black plastic backing for that part of the cable to connect to.