[SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

Well today my HTC 8s, JUST SITTING ON THE TABLE suddenly rang with the notification tone, turned on the screen and got an error on the screen: "SIM Card is MISSING or INVALID".

Okay, f**k this s*it, I bought this brand new phone with 2 years warranty and 1 year paid insurance, somebody have to fix it for me. I called Orange Care, they told me to call the HTC Support and so I did. I checked every step they told me, and still nothing, same error (switched the phone on/off, remove - reinsert SIM), so they finally they told me to go to the closest Orange Store (opened today) for advanced diagnosis.

Got there, they installed the diagnosis software, checked it, and checked the logs and the only error was a missing SIM card (fhew, the hardware is okay) but the SIM was "DEMAGNETIZED" (that's how they call it) and they showed me that my phone would read other SIM cards but not that one, that one IS DEAD!

Okay, I got home, found an Orange SIM, chopped it down to the size, and guess what, the SIM was found (not active anymore) but found...! Now I will have to go to the central Orange store tomorrow and have a fight with those guise to recover my number and my minutes/options active on that SIM (it was 2 weeks old!)

My question now, why do SIM cards get "DEMAGNETIZED"?

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

Not demagnetized but maybe just broken? Can happen and they should just replace the sim.

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

Yes, nothing to do with magnetism, this :D
Maybe it was just this shop-rep using some slang expression for "dead" or "broken"

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

Well, now after I've been researching this problem with various friends of mine, I heard another variant of this: I'ts not "DEMAGNETIZED" as the people from the Orange Store told me, it's just FRIED, the chip inside the SIM is fried or dead or whatever. I insert the SIM in another phone, and still the same "INSERT SIM" message (a nokia 1XXX I think, it's a simple phone with just a flashlight).

Read about this on XDA, and almost never was the fault of the phone (my phone never overheated, never drained battery more then normal or stuff like that), so the questions still remain... WHY? WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?!

Correct, that's what a friend of mine working for Vodafone said to me.

Now here's his variant of the story: The SIM is like a fuse for the antenna, so if there are some frequency fluctuations the SIM card is the first one that gets fried just to protect the GSM Driver (chips or whatever). He told me that once a customer came with a FRIED (but the good kind of frying, that the SIM was physically burnt, with visible marks of burning) SIM card, they replaced the SIM and the phone worked beautifully for 2 more years flawlessly until the customer came to get a new phone.

Now still the questions remain, why this RANDOM breakdowns of the cards?

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

Electronics just dies, that's a fact of life. You were just hit by bad luck there.

Take simcards, for example. The things are produced by the millions, and they are done CHEAP. The mfg process is tuned so that acceptable amount of cards pass the tests, and also the life expectancy of the cards is not that long, thy are designed to last for a couple of years. Once in a while there's going to be a manufacturing defect that hits somebody and now it was just your bad luck to get one.

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

Thank you for this answer, I hope replacing the SIM will solve this problem (it was a PRE-PAY SIM), but I am asking all these questions because when I saw that message on the screen I began raging very hard knowing something like this killed my N900, a message like this broke a wonderful device, so that's why I was all these questions (ok it's one question, but still unanswered officially) and I wanted to go tomorrow to the store AND SEND BACK this device for a BRAND NEW ONE! But now, with your explanation I chilled down and started thinking that it's not a hardware problem, it's excluded (you know tests might be wrong, so I think it's excluded) to have a hardware problem...

Also, I want to think this is just my superstition, but this happened right after I got a new very powerful router (a 2.4Ghz N router with 3 X 9dbi antenna) and this occurred right after I fired up that monster, but I want to think this is is just my imagination and that router did not burst an EMP shockwave (played and made some EMP's - small ones - in my life) when it was powered up...

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

I'm fairly sure your router did not fry your card, the power levels of typical WLAN routers are so small (and the antenna radiation pattern is non-directional) that it cannot affect even sensitive electronics destrutively.

For EMP you need a lot more energy.

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

Yeah, thank you for clearing out this (for EMP's I always used capacitors from camera flashes, and I learned to do those from a tutorial on youtube - yeah silly - when I guy was filming this, fired up the EMP, and burnt his camera form a quite good range - meaning that the EMP did it's job!)

Long live the internet!

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

....speaking of 'demagnetizing', hotel / parking lot access cards can get demagnetized, by placing them in very close proximity to your cell.
(of course the magnetic swipe type only.)

Re: SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"?
 

That is 100% b*llsh*t, the GSM controller just talks to the SIM with a certain protocol, like it would talk to a memory chip or another controller. The SIM is nowhere near the TX/RX signals.

Of course, if some spike hits the antenna or powersupply (like an EMP), it will fry the SIM. But also the GSM controller and other stuff.

Just take it from me, the electronics in the SIM just died, no need to look for an explanation.

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

Today I went to the store and asked for a new SIM, and I asked them why did my SIM got fried. The answer was simple: Was your phone using the 3G+/4G connection? YES, it's always connected! Well that's why your SIM burned out, you have a standard SIM not a USIM (3G+) card, and it got overloaded and it burned out, and this is because the SIM card you were using was not designed to take that much stress.

So now I bought a Micro USIM 3G+ (for a very good price, with a extra 1GB 3G+ internet traffic) and now I have warranty for it :).

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

I don't know what sort of ******** they keep telling you and/or you keep telling us. A SIM card is a SIM card, regardless of whether you use GSM or UMTS.

For UMTS you need the UMTS application (USIM), for GSM the GSM application. The card itself is the same, namely a UICC which is what people usually call "SIM card".

Unless you got your SIM card in the early 90s any modern telephone will have no issues with it.

Perhaps the "root-cause" of all your problems is the fact that you (apparently) like blowing stuff up using soldering irons, hair driers and who knows what. If you stop that and learn how things work you might stop having problems.

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

Ohh please master reinob, teach me how a SIM card works. And if you are telling me there is no difference between a normal SIM and a USIM you are just too stupid to live on this earth. Get off!

First of all the USIM is THE NEXT VERSION OF THE NORMAL SIM, with a better chip, more resistent, more secure, that can handle the stress of 3G internet browsing or 3G video calls much better than an ordinary sim.

I see you, before leaving this reply over here, didn't make any reasearch. So from now on, before coming here and say stuff like that to me, READ THE F**KING GOOGLE, ASK SOME PROFESSIONALS IN SERVICE, and then come here and say what you have to say. I did that before writing my last reply, did you?

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

You can either insult reinob, or learn something...

You seem to believe the guys who are ripping you off so much I'd say you should check yourself for stockholm syndrome....

A SIM is just a bloody chip that holds keys and some memory. SIM/USIM relates to the software that runs on that chip (in VM).

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

You also didn't read enough before posting this. If it's the same "bloody chip" (man you sounded just like Ron Weasley) how is the physical memory on that chip larger? Also let me quote you this:

They both run on the same principal, a SMART-CARD programmed with those applications. The normal "SIM" uses a more older technology chip and the "USIM" or "3G" or whatever uses a newer technology with a better chip, larger memory, etc.

And the explanation given to me is pure reality + your explanation made perfect sense. That "normal sim" that I was using was maybe not so well built, the phone stressing it out with 24/7 3G+ network access burnt it faster than it was supposed to.

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

OK, my last word on this thread:
If you were using 3G you were already using a 3G-capable SIM, i.e. what you call "USIM".

And read what petur has written above: a SIM card is only used for authentication. It doesn't play any role during data transmission (you don't need a SIM card to use GSM. try calling 112 without a SIM card).

But hey, maybe things are different in your country.

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

i only know that the so called 3g sims . (They just have 3g preactivated). Have 128 kb memory . I rather than 64 k or 32 k:)

Re: [SOLVED] SIM card "DEMAGNETIZATION"? - Read last reply!
 

anyway theox looks cute when hot :p:D be hot and make people hot :p