iPad 2 and wifi problems

[Lussac]

I'm asking this on behalf of my daughter as she is not technically minded and her husband is working away so can't help. She has had an iPad 2 for about two years which worked fine until two days ago when the wi-fi started dropping out, it only gets two bars showing when adjacent to the router and it drops out completely at a distance of five or six feet.

She brought it over to my place and it's the same here, her iPhone 4 gets full signal at her place and mine so it's the iPad and not the router that's the problem.

I've had look on the net and this seems to be a widespread problem, one Apple support thread was over a hundred pages long with no real solution, she was wondering what the situation is regarding support from Apple as it's such a widespread problem and given that it's two years old. I'm guessing they won't help and it's now an expensive paperweight.

I updated the software from IOS 6.01 to 6.1 for her but it made no difference. The nearest Apple store is 300 miles away so not really an option to pop in and see a Genius, she did try 'phoning Apple and after paying £25 just got the info and solutions that had already been tried by various people detailed on the net for free i.e no help at all. Reading some of the threads on the Apple support site it seems that Apple are denying that there's a problem but are replacing those newer iPads that exhibit this problem.

She will be visiting the UK in mid Feb and I've suggested that she tries to get into an Apple store to speak to someone there and maybe get it sent away for repair although there could be a problem in getting it back as she's only there for a few days.

Just asking here to see if there any other options that might be available to her.

Thanks in advance.

[burble]

It sounds like a broken/dislodged antenna module to me.

[m4ttm4son]

Always the first response: Has she tried doing a full reset and then restore?

Obviously make sure everything is backed up first.

[Lussac]

It sounds like a broken/dislodged antenna module to me.

Hmm, could be. She has 3 young'uns 3, 5 and 7 so I suppose it could have been dropped and didn't know about it. Don't think that's it's an inherent problem seeing that it been used without problem for 2 years, not like the new ones that are being delivered that have he problem from the off.