Motorola V710 Internal Antenna not working

I bought a roof (magnetic) mount external antenna for use in my car for the
V710. After a couple weeks of use my internal antenna no longer works on
the phone. The external antenna works fine. I brought the phone to my
local Verizon Store, they uploaded new software to the phone but the problem
still persists. They agree the problem is with the phone but Verizon does
not have any V710 phones in their distribution network to exchange the phone
with. They said for me to check back in in a couple of weeks. In the
meantime to use the phone I need to keep the external antenna hooked up.
It's OK when I'm at work, in the car, or at home but a big pain when I'm
walking around. Maybe I can get a metal hat and mount the antenna on top.

Has anyone else had a problem with the internal antenna not working, any
fixes, any alternatives?

Thanks,
Pete Rissler
http://web1.greatbasin.net/~rissler/
http://www.tccycling.com