I have an iPhone 4 that I dropped partway in water. Due to the wetness, I turned it off ASAP and then threw it in a bag of rice. I waited a day and then powered it on again. It seemed to be partly working; I could sync to my PC and also could faintly make out the screen. For some reason, I decided to go ahead and update from iOS 5.0 to 5.0.1 while the phone was down. This went fine, although my screen was dark so I couldn't verify very much. I then took my phone apart and placed it in tupperware with rice. I waited another day and everything appears to be working, except for the wifi (greyed out) / bluetooth (can enter menu but it never find it). I had read that some people have had issues with wifi after updating to 5.0.1, but I am also thinking it could be a hardware issue due to possible water damage or reassembly. On a side note, I have not jailbroken yet.

I was wondering if anyone here could provide me with some troubleshooting instructions. I have reset the network settings, hard restarted, and restored my iPhone to no avail. My wifi address is N/A, and my bluetooth has an address, but I can't turn it on. I have an IMEI and my modem firmware is 04.11.08.

Thanks,
Brett

Unfortunately, it sounds like your baseband fried while being wet. If doing a stock restore to 5.0.1 (and thus attempting to upgrade the baseband) doesn't fix it, you're likely out of luck as far as making the phone work again as a phone. Short of taking everything apart and using a solder sucker and specific tools to dismount the baseband chip and re-mount a new one, I don't think it'll be able to make your WiFi work again.

You've done just about everything I would recommend for getting WiFi working again, but if you want to see actual log files, go ahead and grab the Enterprise iPhone Configuration tool from Apple's site, it has a utility that lets you pull the console log off the device. Toggle wifi a few times, pull the log, you should see something useful. Post the log into pastebin for us to review and maybe we'll find something good to tell you!

As a freshly graduated EE, your mention of removing the baseband chip seems fun, especially since I probably have most/all of the necessary tools. Alas, I don't think I could get one of those for cheap unless I bought a few shady logic boards from eBay and got lucky with one not being hosed.

Also, my phone still works as a phone. I have 3G and can browse the web with that just fine (thank you 2GB data plan!). I am just unable to use the bluetooth / wifi. There goes the use of the Motorola bluetooth headphones I've been streaming Pandora on constantly :/

I have downloaded the configuration utility. I plugged it in, looked at the console, and then went to settings on my phone to look at the Wifi (grayed out, can't toggle it at all). Here are the results:

Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown com.apple.BTServer[59] <Notice>: Chipset.cpp:109 runBlueTool Default Error HANG: Waited 10 seconds for BlueTool to run boot
Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown com.apple.BTServer[59] <Notice>: PowerManager.cpp:168 powerInitEvent Core Critical Init failed, still in high power - BM3 STATUS 1
Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown com.apple.BTServer[59] <Notice>: Device not open yet, use 'device' to open it.
Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown com.apple.BTServer[59] <Notice>: Opening com.apple.uart.bluetooth @ 115200 baud.
Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown com.apple.BTServer[59] <Notice>: bluetooth wake is now ON
Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown kernel[0] <Debug>: BTServer[59] Builtin profile: BlueTool (sandbox)
Jan 18 22:50:09 unknown com.apple.BTServer[59] <Notice>: bluetooth reset was pulsed 100 ms
Jan 18 22:50:11 unknown Preferences[1801] <Warning>: -[WiFiManager init]: Couldn't find a WiFi device

My guess is that the Broadcom Bluetooth/Wifi chip fried. Is this the same as the baseband chip? I am unfamiliar with all of the terminology.

Thanks,
Brett

You're correct, the same chip manages all three -- the baseband chipset is the part that controls the cellular radio, wifi radio, and bluetooth radio. If that chip is dead, all three will stop working and you'll get blank IMEI and MAC addresses.

If you really wanted, you could buy the logic board and remove the baseband chip then install into your phone, but heck, if you already had the replacement logic board (unless it was non functional in general and you were trying to liberate the baseband chip), you should just replace it and be done with it.

I have the same problem too, here is my log data.


Oct 22 13:16:32 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: BTM: setting discoverable status enabled
Oct 22 13:16:32 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: BTM: setting connectable enabled
Oct 22 13:16:32 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: BTM: enabling device scanning
Oct 22 13:16:32 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: BTM: failed to start scanning with error 111
Oct 22 13:16:34 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: BTM: setting discoverable status disabled
Oct 22 13:16:34 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: BTM: setting connectable disabled
Oct 22 13:16:42 B-Relas-iPhone com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.BlueTool[447]) <Notice>: (com.apple.BlueTool) Idle-exit job exited while dirty. Will respawn.
Oct 22 13:16:42 B-Relas-iPhone com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.BlueTool[447]) <Error>: (com.apple.BlueTool) Exited with code: 1
Oct 22 13:16:42 B-Relas-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[448] Builtin profile: BlueTool (sandbox)
Oct 22 13:16:51 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: -[WiFiManager init]: Couldn't find a WiFi device
Oct 22 13:16:51 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: void loadAPTableCellImages(): loading images
Oct 22 13:16:52 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: -[WiFiManager init]: Couldn't find a WiFi device
Oct 22 13:16:52 B-Relas-iPhone com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.BlueTool[448]) <Notice>: (com.apple.BlueTool) Idle-exit job exited while dirty. Will respawn.
Oct 22 13:16:52 B-Relas-iPhone com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.BlueTool[448]) <Error>: (com.apple.BlueTool) Exited with code: 1
Oct 22 13:16:52 B-Relas-iPhone Preferences[213] <Warning>: void unloadAPTableCellImages(): unloading images
Oct 22 13:16:52 B-Relas-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[449] Builtin profile: BlueTool (sandbox)
Oct 22 13:17:02 B-Relas-iPhone com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.BlueTool[449]) <Notice>: (com.apple.BlueTool) Idle-exit job exited while dirty. Will respawn.
Oct 22 13:17:02 B-Relas-iPhone com.apple.launchd[1] (com.apple.BlueTool[449]) <Error>: (com.apple.BlueTool) Exited with code: 1
Oct 22 13:17:02 B-Relas-iPhone kernel[0] <Debug>: launchd[450] Builtin profile: BlueTool (sandbox)