So here's the deal, i inserted my sim tray in backwards and broke it off trying to get it apart. No big deal i thought, i took the phone apart, removed the broken piece and slapped a new one in. Except now my phone does not read the sim card.

On closer inspection after taking it apart again, I noticed one of the gold bar things (I have no idea what they are called but practically every phone that uses a sim has them) they are the 3 to 4 bars that makes contact with ur card. Anyways, one of them is missing and another is kinda bent up like.

My question is, how difficult would this be to replace or is it even possible? Im assuming they are the same for every phone so getting a new one would not be difficult, i just dont know how to attach it to the board. I went to a local cell phone repair store and they said they couldnt help. Any help or advise would be appreciated. thanks

No replies, anyone have any sort of solution to this problem?

It's not that hard if you have some soldering skills. this is what you need:
Sim Card Holder Junctor Reader Parts For iPhone 2G G14 - eBay (item 280385121200 end time Nov-11-09 19:30:40 PST)

you're going to need a very fine soldering tip and some soder wick, remove solder on 6 connections lift bad sim holder and replace it with new one.
you don't mention but this holder is for 2G iphone.

I just find this picture in the forum it's for repairing a different problem but clearly show what needs to be removed, the circled one and the rest 5 all around it.
I hope the author (Decode) doesn't mind if I repost it here, I think he's in the US I don't know but you could use his services he's been in these forums a long time.

I'm having the exact same problem with my iPhone 3G and already ordered a replacement sim reader. A friend of mine has the equipment for soldering this piece, but I have a question or two :

- is there a chance that the logic board will be ruined when the soldering takes too long (and it all gets too hot) ?

- do you need a hot air soldering station or can you use a regular soldering station with regular soldering ?

Thanx for the replies !

I have exactly the same issue. The sad thing is that I bought iPhone at Taiwan from official Apple telecom partner - ChungHwa Telecom. But they together with Apple Taiwan failed me because they want to charge me for USD$250 to fix it.

So I ordered the so called SIM junctor at usbfever.com at HongKong. What I found is that SIM junctor I bought is not exactly the same as the original OEM six contacts - it's simply a fake with three contacts working thus is basically a non-functional junk.

I'm sick with Apple Taiwan and its mobile Telecom partners. Anyone who did found where to buy the original OEM like the photo posted by crazy8, please let me know.

I had the same problem once. I got it fixed at iPhoneWorld - iPhone reparatie, accessoires & verkoop

They told me that it's more then just soldering because the logicboard has multiple layers or something.

Anyway they also said a lot of people destroyed their iPhone because they tried it themselves.

Originally Posted by Arne2606

I had the same problem once. I got it fixed at iPhoneWorld - iPhone reparatie, accessoires & verkoop

They told me that it's more then just soldering because the logicboard has multiple layers or something.

Anyway they also said a lot of people destroyed their iPhone because they tried it themselves.

Of course the boards are multi-layer but the SIM contacts are soldered to pads, they're surface mounted. Like I said before with the right tools and patience it's all possible. I just pulled one see attached picture, it didn't take long but care must be take no to burn the surrounding plastic, right where it reads X8.

Originally Posted by crazy8

It's not that hard if you have some soldering skills. this is what you need:
Sim Card Holder Junctor Reader Parts For iPhone 2G G14 - eBay (item 280385121200 end time Nov-11-09 19:30:40 PST)

you're going to need a very fine soldering tip and some soder wick, remove solder on 6 connections lift bad sim holder and replace it with new one.
you don't mention but this holder is for 2G iphone.

I just find this picture in the forum it's for repairing a different problem but clearly show what needs to be removed, the circled one and the rest 5 all around it.
I hope the author (Decode) doesn't mind if I repost it here, I think he's in the US I don't know but you could use his services he's been in these forums a long time.

Thanks for re-post crazy8.

I'm out for a long time,just a bit busy with some iPhone hardware repairing and unlocking.

il be posting "No Sim" solution for 3G and 3GS tomorrow.

Hi Guys,

I'm looking for a bit of help from anyone that has a logicboard/motherboard from an iPhone 3G to hand, and a multi-meter…

I had to re-attach one of the pins of the SIM card carriage/junctor, due to it shearing off when the SIM card tray was inserted the wrong way round - not by me!

So I re-soldered the damaged SIM carriage on to the little of the contact that was left on the Logicboard (point A on attached photo) which all went well…

But whilst checking the board with a multimeter I have noticed that there is continuity between the pin I re-soldered and point B on the photo, or any of the other pieces of metal shielding (I presume this is ground?).

I don't want to put the phone back together and power it up only to realise something is shorting out and in-turn blow a lot of components…

So I would be really grateful if someone could confirm if there should be continuity (connection) between the 2 labeled points (A and B) ?

Cheers

Oliver

I experienced the same problem with a 3GS bought from someone else. It was like "No Sim" the whole time.

What was weird was that it would momentarily detect the SIM when I push the SIM tray HARD into the iPhone, with one fingernail.

Then I opened the iPhone and noticed that the switch that detects that the SIM tray is flush all the way in the SIM slot was not being pressed, opening the circuit.

I taped a tiny piece of plastic cut from a credit card (1mm by 3mm) on the bottom of the SIM tray and reinserted it in the slot. At first try, the tiny piece of plastic did not line up with the tiny switch (also refer to the high res picture posted in this thread).

At the second try, it was lined up. The "No SIM" turned into "Zero bars" (is this the AT&T experience?), then "5 bars AT&T 3G". Ha!

When I first noticed the problem, I pictured myself waiting for weeks for a new SIM pin assembly and possibly messing up the whole phone. In retrospect, I didn't need to be so pessimistic.

I should probably redo the job: the SIM tray is sticking out 1mm from the iPhone surface.