phone problem

[kaysixteen]

I was wondering if any of you could help me out here.   I have a cell phone, which is on my aunt's cellphone plan-- truth be told, I  do not even actually know what carrier she uses.   It periodically asks me to load up some updates, which it did last night.  I have never had any problems with this when it does so.   Sadly, I am apparently stuck now-- I  just tried to use it and discovered that it is not working, saying that there is no  SIM card in it and as such only 911 emergency calls are acceptable.   I know I did not take anything out of the phone, and, indeed, I can see no place to take anything out-- it is a Samsung phone, if that makes any difference.   Either of you know what is likely wrong, and how to fix it?   I will likely have to ask my aunt where I could go for service, but figure if there is anything I could do myself, well that would be better...  Thanks!

[mamselle]

I hate updates, and avoid them as long as possible.

They always mess something up, or change things I didn't want 'fixed.'

You can Google the question itself and see if there's an answer; it may be that just some part of the update requires an SIM card and there's a known workaround, or it's a problem with a solution on the Samsung site itself.

M.

[mythbuster]

About how old is the phone? If it's really old (more than ~6-7 years) it may no longer be "supported" and you will need to get a new phone.

[Parasaurolophus]

Turn it off and back on again. That usually does the trick.

Otherwise, it may be a question of the SIM card being loose (or read as loose by the phone). Take it out and put it back in (you may have to rely on the internet to show you how if the location is non-obvious).

[ab_grp]

Kay, can you say more about what kind of phone it is? Some carriers are phasing out their 3G networks (e.g., AT&T) and are sending replacement phones.  I had this happen with the plan I have that has my mother on it, so she and I each received replacement phones that could handle the upgraded network.  Unfortunately, they shipped hers to me (I live 2000 miles away from her), but because of that I found out that supposedly the phone would be activated automatically after a period of time post-shipment.  I mention this as an unlikely possibility, that your aunt's carrier has had a similar switchover, a phone was sent to her on your behalf, was overlooked somehow, and got activated automatically? Also, for my part, I had neglected to change my address (I mean really neglected... it was several addresses old), so we were initially worried it would go there instead.  Could that have happened to her as well?

Again, this is a very remote possibility, but when this happens the SIM would be deactivated in your phone and leave you only the emergency  call option.   

Regardless, I think that you should be able to retrieve your carrier information from the phone itself (if you have the phone model, we can hopefully figure out how from some googling).  The carrier would probably be able to help you with what your phone status is.  It may be a phone issue, but it could also be a carrier issue. 

On preview: this is along the lines of what mythbuster suggested.  But try Parasaurolophus's trick first!

[kaysixteen]

Thanks all.   I did try turning it off and on, without success.  It is not old, only a 2 year old Samsung bought new.

I had thought maybe taking the SIM out and putting it back in would work, but am not actually sure how to do that with this phone.   I am going to take it to work now, and have a tech guy there tell me how to do that.   I will update you all when I get back this evening... short shift today.   Thanks  again.

[kaysixteen]

Ok, thanks again to all of ye.   The tech guy did remove and put back the SIM card, and then rebooted the phone.   No luck.   So he tells me that one of two things are likely to be the case: 1) SIM card is shot and needs replacing (which he said would be the better of the two problems, or 2) the whole phone is kaputt.   Now as I said the thing is only 2 years old.   It has on occasion been dropped, but I certainly have not dropped it at least in the last few days.  It is also true that the WM tech guy reset the settings temporarily to the in house WM wifi, and that allowed me to get onto the net there-- I could of course only use that at WM.   I asked him whether that would indicate that the phone itself could not be broken, since it works on wifi for the net, but he said that this was two different things?   It is a Verizon network phone, so I am going to hunt up a local Verizon store and check on it within the next two days (the one my aunt got it at is probably an hour north of here).   Any thoughts?

[Katrina Gulliver]

The Verizon shop should be able to give you a new sim, so do that first.

[EdnaMode]

The Verizon shop should be able to give you a new sim, so do that first.

I second that. A couple years ago I had a less than 2 year old phone stop working, it was the sim card and my provider replaced it for free.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

The Verizon shop should be able to give you a new sim, so do that first.

I second that. A couple years ago I had a less than 2 year old phone stop working, it was the sim card and my provider replaced it for free.

Tripled. :)

Replacing the SIM card is the cheapest fix.

[jerseyjay]

I would second (third? fourth) the recommendation to take it to the carrier's shop. It's their phone and they should be able to tell you what the problem is. Of course, you need to know what your carrier is.

I, too, once had a SIM card stop working on me. I was told to replace my SIM card every few years.

(I have also had weird issues with foreign SIM cards, but that doesn't seem to be your problem.)

[Langue_doc]

Adding my voice to take the phone to a Verizon store. I found the staff at Verizon to be quite helpful on the two occasions I had to ask them to troubleshoot some issues with my phone.

[Juvenal]

Brand new to an iPhone (bought refurbished).  It came with no sim card.  The "machine" has sat for two weeks, dark and brooding, near the computer.  I tentatively turned it on (to dismaying [to me] results.  A savvy friend said, "Take it to the Verizon "superstore" near your mall."  And, so, today. 

The Verizon folk were most helpful (although the chairs at the counter were designed by Torquemada) and did what seemed needed to be done.  Maybe.  Well, it still sits, less brooding (maybe), but it's been linked to the friend's account and I've kept my old flip-phone number.  The weekend promises some angst, but if ten-year-olds can master an iPhone..."Don't answer that!"

[kaysixteen]

That seems to be the consensus.  I am probably however going to have to wait till I visit my aunt Sunday, and have her go with me, because, well, it is her name on the phone plan, which she is paying for (she apparently has some contract that allows two numbers).   If I showed up alone, how exactly would I demonstrate that the phone was mine, that I had not stolen it?

[Hegemony]

When a similar thing happened to my phone, I went it to the Geek Squad at the local Best Buy. They didn't question me at all about whether I had stolen the phone. I think they must be aware that this kind of thing happens to phones. In my case, the phone had aged past its ability to incorporate the new updates. The phone was 4-5 years old but I had not bought the latest model, so it was a model that was more of out of date than a cutting-edge 4-year-old phone would have been. I ended up buying a new phone, but they had explained the situation very thoroughly so I am convinced they were not just trying to get me to upgrade. Anyway, my experience with the Geek Squad was very positive, for what that's worth.