Erratic speaker

[Wampus]

Hello,

A few days ago a problem appeared with my new iPhone 4S running iOS 5.0.1. The speaker delivers sound in some situations, but not (or erratically) in others.

These work properly : ringtone (phone) ; timer and wake-up alarm (clock app).

These don't :

* SMS alerts - most of the time, no sound, BUT sometimes the sound begins to play and stops after a random delay. This happens both for "real" incoming SMSes and when I try the sound from the Settings/Sound panel. It is rare that the sound plays at all, but when it does I cannot correlate it with any other manipulation I might have done.

* iPod : no sound. No volume slider on the screen either. When I plug the earphones, they get the sound, and the volume slider appears. Unplug the earphones, both the sound and the slider go away.

Some radio app I use : No sound, but interestingly a message that says "No Volume Available" where the volume slider normally is.

In general I suspect that no other app can produce sound any longer. I think that with the exception of what I listed above explicitly, no sound is output by the speaker any longer.

No the mute button is not switched on.

I tried both a soft and a hard reset, to no avail.

I tried closing all the apps from the dock, to no avail.

Help please ?

[Sponsors]

[Thomasjtsi]

Welcome to iPF.net!! :-) Since you're already attempted to resolve w/ a Hard Reset... I would suggest restoring your 4S as a "New Device" via iTunes and see if the problem persists. Be sure to perform a backup via iTunes before doing so... just in case.

[Wampus]

I found a thread about the very same problem here : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3470125?start=30&tstart=0

Last message in thread contains a plausible explanation of the problem : due to corrosion in the USB connector the phone believes that it's docked. Indeed I tried blowing hard in the outlet, and I was rewarded by a nearly complete performance of the "info flash" alert sound. Then silence again...

[mike1544]

Try cleaning the earphone jack with a cotton bud.
Mine had the same problem after I was stuck in a rain storm without a raincoat. The earphone jack got some water in it and then the sound stopped working.
The water was contacting the inner plates and making the phone think the earphones were plugged in. When they are you still have the ringtones working thru the exterior speaker so your eardrums don't burst

I stripped the cotton off the end of a cotton bud and left a little bit still on the end. The stalk fits perfectly into the earphone jack. Spin it around a couple of times and you'll be amazed at the dirt and crud that comes out. You may have to do it with 2 or 3 times making sure you don't leave any cotton inside. After that plug your earphones into the jack and pull them out. Do this about 15 or 20 times quickly and the contacts will be clean.


Presto, I had my SMS and notification eounds back.


Hope it works for you