SIM card removed

Question

My Samsung Galaxy S4 recently started displaying an error saying

SIM card removed. Unable to detect your SIM card.  Your device will restart to check for your SIM card.

There is nothing to do at that point than reboot, which is irritating of course. So, I thought it might be a hardware issue, so I used my insurance to get a replacement, which was of course a refurb.

This one came with a whole host of problems, including the accelerometer, gyroscope, and light meter not working. It would also randomly lose signal in places I know it should not.

So I got yet another replacement, and this one works fine, except it would do both the dropping signal and rebooting with the same message. So this time I replaced the SIM card, and it made no difference.

So, SIM card error. I've replaced the device itself and the card, yet the problem persists. The only things I can think of are maybe this replacement just happens to have the exact problem my first one did, or that there is a software issue (since software is the only common element that was never replaced), but I haven't installed anything new or upgraded Android recently.

Any ideas or should I go for #4?

tl;dr:

Phone not detecting SIM
Replace phone with insurance refurb
Refurb has a ton of issues
Get a second refurb, this one works fine except it still has the SIM card errors and also drops signal sometimes
Replaced the actual SIM card, no effect.

In case it matters at all, AT&T.

Neil Farquharson · Answer

This solution is for the Galaxy S4 recurring error: "SIM card removed. Unable to detect your SIM card. Your device will restart to check your SIM card.

I read every "solution" on the Internet, including this discussion board, and tried many of them, including playing with Bluetooth, putting pressure on the SIM card, replacing the SIM, factory reset, clearing the caches, changing radio frequencies, etc etc etc. blah blah blah.

The problem is Lollipop - there is a flaw - an incompatibility with the S4. Here is THE SOLUTION. Downgrade from Lollipop to KitKat 4.4.2 and your Galaxy S4 will be back to "normal."

Download Odin3 version 3.12.3 and search on the Internet for this exact tar.md5 file:

ALL_ATT_I337UCUFNB1_I337ATTFNB1_505595_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar.md5

Follow the instructions here:
http://androidsigma.com/how-to-downgrade-samsung-galaxy-s4-from-android-lollipop-to-kitkat/ (archived)

You may have to reset the phone and rerun Odin several times. My 6th attempt worked perfectly. With KitKat 4.4.2, the "SIM card removed........" error has gone for good.

Nalbi · Answer

Regarding the "SIM Card Removed" Error on Galaxy S4

I Had the same problem and already tried every suggested fix on the net, and nothing worked.
i Even sent it to the dealer, and they told me it's a motherboard problem and needs to be changed, but i wasn't willing to spend 250$ 
I almost threw the towel :) till i found a post that recommended removing the two screws above the battery
and when i removed them the error stopped, even the heating problem went away.
it's been three days now, and i even tried two different sim cards to try and check if i get the error back.
so far so good.

Please try it, and i hope it helps.

SIM card removed

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