iPad 2 WiFi greyed-out (N/A)

I purchased an Apple iPad 2 over half an year ago. I bought a Rilakkuma smart cover with it. The iPad was tugged inside the cover in the shop, and I never felt the need to take it out since. However yesterday the iPad gave me a scare.

It had been rather hot and humid the past couple of days, more humid than hot. Despite the temperature being around the 35-36C bracket, it felt as though it was actually over 40C. I had been using the iPad as a content consumption device heavily, but of late, I had only been reading books on it, thus keeping the WiFi disabled. Yesterday, however, I had issues with the WiFi scanning for networks. It couldn’t find any. I had given the problem to some rogue setting on the WiFi router (the WiFi, alledgedly, on iPad is sensitive to WiFi routers). But today, to my utter shock, I found the WiFi option under Settings disabled (greyed-out). What shocked me more was finding “N/A” listed next to WiFi under Settings > About, which meant that the OS didn’t find any WiFi chip/interface on the iPad.

That freaked me out. My first assumption was the WiFi chip had died. Reading a couple of posts on forums about the issue (there weren’t many covering the issue) confirmed that. However, someone suggested cooling down the iPad before powering it on again. Since I had already assumed the worst, I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I tried that suggestion.

I took the iPad out of its cover for the first time since purchasing it. I turned on the airco, powered off the iPad, and left it directly under the airco to let it cool off. After around twenty minutes, when the Aluminium backside of the iPad felt chilled to the touch, I crossed my fingers, and powered it on. Voila! The WiFi option was no longer greyed-out, and the Settings > About no longer showed a frightening N/A.

I heaved a deep sigh of relief.

I am lost as to the exact cause of the problem. I do know that high humidity (coupled with heat) plays havoc with electronics. And the iPad had been left around in closed, hot rooms every now and then (with other electronics, I must point out). Nevertheless, I’m glad it is working now.