IPhone 4S stops playing music

Question

Hi, my iPhone 4S randomly (or so I thought) stops playing music but still rings when a call connects and beeps when an email comes in. The on screen volume controls would disappear and the side volume button stopped working too.  I have seen many many comments on google/apple etc by people with this same issue.  Some people have even gone to the extent of writing blogs about this issue too. I had an old iPod 4 when they first came out and after about a year it developed the same problem.  It had been a bit misused by my then young children and assumed it was our fault but when it happened on my 6 month old iPhone 4S I thought it was odd.
I initially blamed my recent software update to iOS 5.01 and hard reset the phone 3 separate times with varying temporary success (if you try a hard reset remember to back up first or you lose everything) I took it to an apple store and the assistant said he'd heard about the issue and after checking all my settings were ok he performed a soft reset which worked until.....I plugged my iphone back into its docking station.
I read a couple of threads online about the iPhone thinking it was in docking station mode and decided to gently poke a thin implement into the dock opening.  Immediately and with the smallest of tweaks the volume controls appeared back on screen and my music played.  It only appeared briefly but with a little more wriggling of the implement the control came back and so far has stayed put. 
Apple want to charge 20 dollars for tech support calls but I've requested a call back for 'one off hardware faults' which makes the conversation free.  I want to see what they have to say about what appears to me to be an inbuilt hardware problem. I'll keep you posted here.  Beware that if you tinker with your equipment you could invalidate any warranty etc.  I'm quite appalled that apple seem to have complete disregard for a their hardware failure and when we, as customers, pay top money for Their products we should expect top quality goods. The hardware should not be routinely confused by periphal hardware or lack thereof.  Not good apple.
If you're reading this thread I assume you have the same problems and I wish you good luck.  Maybe if we all call their support line (selecting the one off free call option) they might start to listen and do something about it......

Answer 1

I am on my 2ndiPhone 4s (in less than a week) and BOTH have had this stop-start music issue…
I got a new one last night when my original 4s (received on Wednesday 11/02/11) would not play alerts, keyboard clicks, music, or videos without the ear buds or Bluetooth (after nearly a dozen hard restarts, one restore through iTunes and a “deep” restore for the firmware at the Apple store).   After I got my replacement, I was told at the Apple store not to sync through iTunes anymore if I am using iCloud because that would contribute to the problem?!?!?!  I thought maybe it’s an iCloud problem because it needs a strong Wi-Fi connection which I don’t have here at the office…
I hope this is just a software fix because I am tired of all of these problems.  5 iPhones, 5 iPods and this iPhone (4s) is the worst...  Apple, please get that operating system upgrade out FAST!