Strange loss of sound?

[lencuff]

All of a sudden a couple of days ago my wife's iPhone 4s has stopped playing any sound except when the phone rings! No sound when a text message comes in just a vibrate. Works fine when I plug headphones in and also works fine when I plug it into a docking station.

Any ideas please?

 

[scifan57]

Shine a light into the headphone jack and look to see if there's any debris of any kind in there. Something pressing against the speaker cut off switch would cause the symptoms your wife's iPhone is experiencing. If you see any debris you could try sucking it out with a small nozzle on a vacuum cleaner. If that doesn't work you could, very carefully, see if you could dislodge it with something like a toothpick. If you're uncomfortable with that, any local repair shop should be able to help you.

Of course, if there's no obvious debris in the headphone jack, the headphone jack may be defective. In that case, a diagnostic check at a repair centre would confirm it.

 

[lencuff]

Shine a light into the headphone jack and look to see if there's any debris of any kind in there. Something pressing against the speaker cut off switch would cause the symptoms your wife's iPhone is experiencing. If you see any debris you could try sucking it out with a small nozzle on a vacuum cleaner. If that doesn't work you could, very carefully, see if you could dislodge it with something like a toothpick. If you're uncomfortable with that, any local repair shop should be able to help you.

Of course, if there's no obvious debris in the headphone jack, the headphone jack may be defective. In that case, a diagnostic check at a repair centre would confirm it.

Thanks for the reply, tried looking in the jack socket but all looks fine. Headphones work fine but as soon as you unplug them the volume slider stops working. Wouldn't this stop the ring tones working though?

 

[scifan57]

There are various threads about this same problem on quite a few sites. Some suggest hardware problems and some suggest software problems could be the cause. It might be a good idea to have the Genius Bar at an Apple Store or an authorized repair centre run a diagnostic on your wife's iPhone.

 

[lencuff]

Took it to the local repair shop. Corrosion on the dock connector causing the problem as suggested.
£25 and phone as good as new.