nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

JakubHadamek — Sat, 01 Aug 2026 16:41:40 GMT

Hello Jonathon,

I just found I have the nRF9151-DK with the same defect. Is it possible to solve this directly with Nordic or I have to contact the distributor (Mouser)? I don't have the right equipment to do the replacement myself and I suppose it will be faster to get properly functional board from you rather than Mouser which could have more of those defective boards on stock.

Regards,

Jakub

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Arnoo — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:21:10 GMT

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Arnoo — Tue, 14 Jul 2026 11:18:23 GMT

Bonjour, même chose pour moi sur deux kits NRF9151DK, aucune détection de la SIM, malgré le test sur deux kits avec trois Sim différentes. Kits achetés chez Reichelt Allemagne.

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

JONATHAN LL — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:52:26 GMT

Hi,

[quote user="Tom01"]I am unsure in which way you have written me a message. Have you sent me an e-mail or a message on this platform? [/quote]

There should be a message here on Devzone, not sure exactly what it looks like from your side, but I did send you a request so something should pop up somewhere, you might also have gotten a mail about it from Devzone.

[quote user="Tom01"]

If you are willing to try then you can do that.

Ok, I'll discuss this with our eletronics department and let you know if we attempt to fix the boards ourselves.

[/quote]

If you need any assistance or help here I will gladly help with this process.

Regards,
Jonathan

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 13:06:37 GMT

Hey Jonathan,

thank you for your quick response and for initiating the replacement process.

I am unsure in which way you have written me a message. Have you sent me an e-mail or a message on this platform?

[quote userid="91187" url="~/f/nordic-q-a/128415/nrf9151dk---uicc-failure-is-sim-installed/568534"]If you are willing to try then you can do that. [/quote]

Ok, I'll discuss this with our eletronics department and let you know if we attempt to fix the boards ourselves.

Best,

Tom

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

JONATHAN LL — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 11:22:57 GMT

Hi Tom,

The nRF9151 SMA DK will functinaly be the same, https://ch.farnell.com/en-CH/nordic-semiconductor/nrf9151-sma-dk/development-kit-32bit-arm-cortex/dp/4834414?cfm=true so this is an in stock alternative.

I have also contacted our sales team here so someone should contact you soon to help with replacements.
I have sent you a message with the contact persons contact info, so you can also reach out to them directly to get things going faster

[quote user="Tom01"]If fixing the hardware issue by ourselves does not void our right to return the DKs, we would also be willing to attempt to flip the D5 component ourselves. In case we did that and the physical SIMs still do not work, would we still be able to get a replacement?[/quote]

If you are willing to try then you can do that.

You should still get a replacement for the broken kits you already got.

Regards,
Jonathan

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 07:48:19 GMT

Hello Jonathan,

thank you for your response.

I think we need your assistance here: Farnell has not responded since I have opened a ticket about these DKs with them. That has been two weeks ago. Furthermore, they do not have any more DKs in stock. Could you please assist us in the replacement process?

If fixing the hardware issue by ourselves does not void our right to return the DKs, we would also be willing to attempt to flip the D5 component ourselves. In case we did that and the physical SIMs still do not work, would we still be able to get a replacement?

Feel free to contact me privately via e-mail. I'd very much appreciate if we could accelerate this discussion and resolve the situation within the next few working days.

Best,

Tom

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

JONATHAN LL — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 13:07:05 GMT

Hi Tom,

Sorry for the unclear answer here. The issue is with the D5 component here, it is mounted incorrectly, the issue can be fixed by mounting the component correctly, so soldering it off and on in the right orientation will fix this issue.

The suppliers will provide you with a replacement Kit for each of the kits you have with this issue. There is nothing else wrong with the kit and it will work as intended for everything else except the SIM card holder.

So contact the supplier here and provide them with the info that you have a DK that has the SIM card issue and they should provide you with a replacement.

Issue is a single component rotated 180 degrees, it has effected some units and I believe the suppliers have been informed so you should be able to just contact them and take it from there.

If not then follow up here and I will help with getting you replacements.

Regards,
Jonathan

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 06:51:27 GMT

Hello Jonathan,

thank you for your response.

How did you find this out? Is the hardware version that we have known to be faulty?

Should we watch out for anything if we decide to continue evaluating the nRF9151? If we return our DKs and order new ones, are they likely to work as intended?

Best,

Tom

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

JONATHAN LL — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 21:09:50 GMT

Hi Tom,

The issue lies with a single component here that is causing a issue with the SIM holder. You can contact the distributor where you bought the Kits and ask for replacements.

If you got it from us then contact you local sales contact and we should help with the process.

Regards,
Jonathan

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 07:14:11 GMT

Hi Jonathan,

thank you for looking into this. Do you have any updates yet?

Best,

Tom

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

JONATHAN LL — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 11:12:29 GMT

Hi Tom, I am taking over for Håkon here.

Thanks for the images, I will follow up with an update here when I have something for you, should not take to long.

Regards,
Jonathan

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 08:08:42 GMT

Here are the two boards front and back:

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Hakon — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 11:47:14 GMT

Just take a photo for both the back and front side of the DK, and maybe sure everything is visible.

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Wed, 17 Jun 2026 08:39:30 GMT

Ok, is there anything specific you need to see, or should I just take a photo of the boards?

I am out of office until next Monday. I’ll post the photos then.

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Hakon — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 13:54:41 GMT

[quote user="Tom01"]How would you proceed in this case? Do you recommend to return the two development kits?[/quote]

Before we do anything else, can you upload a picture of the two DKs?

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 20:55:14 GMT

Hello Hakon,

thank you for your response.

How would you proceed in this case? Do you recommend to return the two development kits?

Best, Tom

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Hakon — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 08:11:49 GMT

Some comments;

Based on the log file, SIM slot selection is correct (slot 0), but SIM card is not responding when powered on, i.e. no ATR (Answer To Reset) is received from the SIM card.

07:33:48.652916 L23_AT_STRING AT_STRING => +CFUN=1
07:33:48.684868  uicc_apdu_control_ind_t { ... data : 6 (UICC_APDU_CTRL_SELECT_SIM_HAL_SLOT_0) }

07:33:48.685051 POWER_PMIC_SIM_ON power_sim_on
07:33:48.807915 POWER_PMIC_SIM_OFF power_sim_off
07:33:48.807915 APDU_CARD_POWER_ON_NO_ATR apdu_card_power_on: NO ATR, sim_hal_card_activate: -1.
07:33:48.808434 APDU_CARD_ACTIVATE_FAILED apdu_card_activate: Card activation failed.

SIM_VCC is expected to be switched off in this kind of case. That is based on ISO/IEC 7816-3 requirement: “If the answer does not begin within 40 000 clock cycles with RST at state H, the interface device shall perform a deactivation.“

After that there are some retries ending with same result.

Looks like there is some kind of connection problem in some of the SIM interface pins. I’m not sure if this could be some kind of development kit configuration issue. If not, then I suspect that the board HW may be faulty.

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Hakon — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 12:05:56 GMT

I have forwarded the log to the modem team.

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:52:58 GMT

Hello Hakon,

the modem firmware is mfw_nrf91x1_2.0.4.

We've tried the two SIM cards included in the development kit (conexa and onomondo) and a third SIM card from conekkt (melita.io).

I've attached the modem trace here:

devzone.nordicsemi.com/.../trace_2D00_2026_2D00_06_2D00_11T11_2D00_46_2D00_12.866Z.mtrace

Best,

Tom

EDIT:

The trace file was using the conekkt SIM card. Since then we've also tried registering the Onomondo SIM card included with the development kit. The wireshark trace with the registered Onomondo SIM card shows the following output.

1	0.000000			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT+CFUN=1
2	0.032624			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
3	0.041993			AT	26	Sent AT Command: AT%XCONNSTAT=1
4	0.041993			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
5	0.049317			AT	25	Sent AT Command: AT%XCONNSTAT?
6	0.049347			AT	41	Rcvd AT Command: %XCONNSTAT: 0,0,0,0,0,0  OK  
7	0.061585			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT+CMEE=1
8	0.061615			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
9	0.081513			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT%XSIM=1
10	0.081543			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
11	0.088135			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT+CEREG=5
12	0.088166			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
13	0.094544			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT%MDMEV=1
14	0.094574			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
15	0.100678			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT%CESQ=1
16	0.100708			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
17	0.107514			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT+CGSN=1
18	0.107605			AT	42	Rcvd AT Command: +CGSN: "357387860020809"  OK  
19	0.116883			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CGMM
20	0.117066			AT	30	Rcvd AT Command: nRF9151-LACA  OK  
21	0.124726			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT+CEMODE?
22	0.124756			AT	28	Rcvd AT Command: +CEMODE: 2  OK  
23	0.132294			AT	20	Sent AT Command: AT+CMEE?
24	0.132325			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: +CMEE: 1  OK  
25	0.147004			AT	20	Sent AT Command: AT+CNEC?
26	0.147004			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: +CNEC: 0  OK  
27	0.165741			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT+CGEREP?
28	0.165741			AT	30	Rcvd AT Command: +CGEREP: 0,0  OK  
29	0.182496			AT	25	Sent AT Command: AT+CIND=1,1,1
30	0.182526			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
31	0.191529			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT+COPS=3,2
32	0.191559			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
33	0.202363			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT+CGDCONT?
34	0.202485			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
35	0.211487			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT+CGACT?
36	0.211609			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
37	0.218110			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CESQ
38	0.218140			AT	46	Rcvd AT Command: +CESQ: 99,99,255,255,255,255  OK  
39	0.227540			AT	20	Sent AT Command: AT%XSIM?
40	0.227570			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: %XSIM: 0  OK  
41	0.238099			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CPIN
42	0.238099			AT	28	Rcvd AT Command: +CME ERROR: 13  
43	0.246186			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CIMI
44	0.246216			AT	27	Rcvd AT Command: +CME ERROR: 0  
45	0.253998			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT+CNEC=24
46	0.254029			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
47	0.279175			AT	24	Rcvd AT Command: +CEREG: 90  
48	0.279328			AT	24	Rcvd AT Command: %XSIM: 0,9  
49	0.296448			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CEER
50	0.296479			AT	33	Rcvd AT Command: +CEER: "UICC 0"  OK  
51	0.313263			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT+CGEREP=1
52	0.313294			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
53	0.337983			AT	28	Sent AT Command: AT%XPOFWARN=1,30
54	0.339295			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
55	0.355439			AT	25	Sent AT Command: AT%XVBATLVL=1
56	0.355469			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
57	0.379029			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CGMI
58	0.379120			AT	42	Rcvd AT Command: Nordic Semiconductor ASA  OK  
59	0.396576			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CGMR
60	0.396607			AT	35	Rcvd AT Command: mfw_nrf91x1_2.0.4  OK  
61	0.413422			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CGSN
62	0.413514			AT	33	Rcvd AT Command: 357387860020809  OK  
63	0.431092			AT	25	Sent AT Command: AT%XMODEMUUID
64	0.431122			AT	67	Rcvd AT Command: %XMODEMUUID: 11866dbb-3d51-4226-8098-59dc6b9b5a50  OK  
65	0.454712			AT	25	Sent AT Command: AT%XDATAPRFL?
66	0.454743			AT	31	Rcvd AT Command: %XDATAPRFL: 2  OK  
67	0.471589			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT+CEREG?
68	0.471680			AT	30	Rcvd AT Command: +CEREG: 5,90  OK  
69	0.490693			AT	20	Sent AT Command: AT+CFUN?
70	0.490784			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: +CFUN: 1  OK  
71	0.509736			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT%CESQ=1
72	0.509766			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
73	0.524903			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT+CSCON=1
74	0.524933			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
75	0.542237			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT+CSCON?
76	0.542267			AT	29	Rcvd AT Command: +CSCON: 1,0  OK  
77	0.558350			AT	19	Sent AT Command: AT+CPAS
78	0.558381			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: +CPAS: 0  OK  
79	0.575867			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT+CEDRXRDP
80	0.575959			AT	30	Rcvd AT Command: +CEDRXRDP: 0  OK  
81	0.593201			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT%XTIME=1
82	0.593232			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
83	0.608674			AT	22	Sent AT Command: AT%CONEVAL
84	0.608887			AT	29	Rcvd AT Command: %CONEVAL: 2  OK  
85	0.625977			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT%XCBAND=?
86	0.626069			AT	74	Rcvd AT Command: %XCBAND: (1,2,3,4,5,8,12,13,18,19,20,25,26,28,66,85,106)  OK  
87	0.646637			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT%XCBAND
88	0.646760			AT	28	Rcvd AT Command: %XCBAND: 0  OK  
89	0.663300			AT	24	Sent AT Command: AT%HWVERSION
90	0.663422			AT	46	Rcvd AT Command: %HWVERSION: nRF9151 LACA A1A  OK  
91	0.684601			AT	30	Sent AT Command: AT%XMODEMTRACE=1,2
92	0.685486			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
93	0.706421			AT	27	Sent AT Command: AT%XSYSTEMMODE?
94	0.706452			AT	39	Rcvd AT Command: %XSYSTEMMODE: 1,0,0,0  OK  
95	0.726014			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT%XICCID
96	0.726044			AT	27	Rcvd AT Command: +CME ERROR: 0  
97	0.739563			AT	21	Sent AT Command: AT%XEMPR?
98	0.739686			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: %XEMPR:   OK  
99	0.756653			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT+CGDCONT?
100	0.756775			AT	16	Rcvd AT Command: OK  
101	0.776032			AT	20	Sent AT Command: AT+COPS?
102	0.776124			AT	26	Rcvd AT Command: +COPS: 0  OK  
103	0.794343			AT	23	Sent AT Command: AT%XMONITOR
104	0.794465			AT	31	Rcvd AT Command: %XMONITOR: 90  OK  
105	0.815949			AT	30	Sent AT Command: AT+CPINR="SIM PIN"
106	0.816163			AT	27	Rcvd AT Command: +CME ERROR: 0  
107	0.847962			AT	31	Sent AT Command: AT+CPINR="SIM PIN2"
108	0.848176			AT	27	Rcvd AT Command: +CME ERROR: 0  
109	0.869080			AT	30	Sent AT Command: AT+CPINR="SIM PUK"
110	0.869294			AT	27	Rcvd AT Command: +CME ERROR: 0

We can't make out differences between traces when using either of the SIM cards. My smartphone's SIM card produces similar results as well.

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Hakon — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 11:43:12 GMT

Hello,

do you have any more information about the SIM card? What modem firmware are you running? Do you have modem trace?

RE: nRF9151DK - UICC failure "Is SIM installed?"

Tom01 — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 10:12:06 GMT

We've now also tried to work with "nRF Connect for Desktop" v5.3.1 and its "Cellular Monitor" module. That module runs a couple of AT commands with the following results:

09:55:49.414	AT command AT+CPIN? failed: +CME ERROR:
09:55:49.424	AT command AT+CIMI failed: 13 +CME ERROR
09:55:49.810	AT command AT%XICCID failed: +CME ERROR:
09:55:49.893	AT command AT+CPINR="SIM PIN" failed: +CME ERROR
09:55:49.908	AT command AT+CPINR="SIM PIN2" failed: : 0 +CME ERROR: 0
09:55:49.924	AT command AT+CPINR="SIM PUK" failed: +CME ERROR:

We have also measured that P0.14 switches between 1.8V and 0V rapidly when running the Cellular Monitor procedure. Is this to be expected?

Additionally it seems that the supply voltage for the SIM card can not be held (measured at J5 C1 against ground) at one point during the Cellular Monitor procedure. We notice a small drop in voltage. Is this to be expected as well?

EDIT:

We've also tried/checked the following:

- ensured that the physical SIM card is selected software- and hardware-wise

- fixate SIM card supply voltage to make sure the described drop in voltage is not the cause of our issues

- tried three different SIM cards from three different suppliers

- tried the two nRF9151 DKs that we have available

It seems as if we are missing some obvious detail. Any help is greatly appreciated.