Apple iPhone users reporting unresponsive multi-touch displays
Posted by Will on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 7:49 pm under Mac OS, iPhone, Apple, Devices, Announcements
Just as we were starting to think that the Apple iPhone would make it through the launch windows relatively unscathed by hardware defects and technical faults, we're getting reports of a small number of iPhones' multi-touch displays going numb to touch-inputs.
Forum users at Apple Insider and MacRumors are complaining of a "dead strip" starting to plague some iPhones out there. The "dead strip" on the multi-touch display loses sensitivity to all touch-inputs, and seems to afflict the bottom or top portion of the screen. Explains one forum user, ""First the very bottom of the screen went out so I could not hit the space-bar on the keyboard, or change to the number/character screen. Then it got worse a few days later, now I cannot hit any of the main function buttons."
Updates, resets, restores - nothing seems to help the situation, indicating that a hardware fault is the root of the problem. Apple seems to be aware of the situation, and they're replacing afflicted handsets with few if any questions asked.
Our experience with Apple support has been quite positive, so it makes sense that Apple would make it easy on the consumer and readily replace these defective units. And, with the incredible production volumes that we're dealing with here, it's not all that surprising to see some iPhones getting hit hardware problems.
Drop us a line if you've been unlucky enough to have a defective iPhone.
[Via: Apple Insider]
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August 9th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
[…] Multi Touch Displays On iPhones Posted by: Drew in Multi-Touch, News Just noticed a post on Intomobile talking about issues people are starting to have with the display on the iPhones. Apparently, […]
August 10th, 2007 at 7:36 am
I had a different failure with mine. The on screen slider bar that you use to turn it on or to answer calls stopped responding. I could sometimes get it to turn on (but it moved very jerkily) but if a call came in, I couldn't answer it. I'd wait, work to get it to unlock (after it stopped ringing), and call them back. I did a restore of the software and it corrected the problem and nothing has gone wonky since.
August 15th, 2007 at 1:08 pm
i returned my iphone on day 15 and recieved a replacement.
a horizontal section of the phone from end to end stopped responding to touch. it's position was about the height of the QWERTY row in the keyboard screen. i could drag maps until reaching that position on the screen, at which point the drag would stop, and upon continuing further, the screen would begin responding further down and the drag would resume.
August 18th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
[…] Apple iPhone users reporting unresponsive multi-touch displays http://www.intomobile.com/2007/08/09/apple-iphone-users-reporting-unresponsive-multi-touch-displays…. […]
October 22nd, 2007 at 12:48 pm
My iphone has the upper line failure….. i bought it in mexico, (hacked) so i supose i will not gat a replacement…..
waste of money
October 27th, 2007 at 5:40 pm
I have had my iphone since like mid august and the keypad section with the shift button, backspace, and the letters zxcvbnm is now dead. When you hold it horizontally those work and the W key wont work along with another. Restart, reset, restore; nothing worked. Apple is sending me a loaner and an envelope to send mine in with. Who knows…
November 28th, 2007 at 10:22 pm
my phone is also having similar problems with the touch screen… does not respond at all sometimes..i press both the lock and the main button and switched it off. after i powered it on.. it worked.
will apple replace the phone?
it has been 4wks i bought the phone…
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:34 pm
I have problem that only upper 2cm of display is responding. I can not "slide to unlock" phone because bottom of display is death
Anyone knows how to reset this failure? This is FATAL BUG iPhone is useless with this issue
February 27th, 2008 at 12:13 am
Bought the iphone when it came out and am just now having issues. The top 1/3 to almost 1/2 of the screen is completely unresponsive.
I can still use it for calls, and i can get to my texts via my contacts list, but i cant type web adresses in bc of the location so the internet is useless now 
I have an appt tomorrow at the apple store. Im assuming they will just replace it since it is such a common issue. Looking forward to get a new shiney phone.. not looking forward to putting all my phone numbers back in the contact list! 
February 27th, 2008 at 12:26 am
Just make sure you sync your iPhone with iTunes before you take it in to the Apple Store. Your contacts will be backed up, so that when you sync your new iPhone with iTunes, the contacts will also sync up.
Good luck, Apple customer service is incredible! Being a girl helps too, those Apple "Geniuses" are just nicer to girls for some reason…
April 21st, 2008 at 11:46 am
Yep, I'm driving to my closest Apple store today after work… 2 hours away…
The screen entirely stopped working yesterday and I went to the ATT by my house and they wouldn't even talk to me! They wrote down a phone number and told me to call Apple… my phone is my primary means of contact so i had to ASK THEM to use their phone to call!! GRRR. Apple has been great with my choices of how to have it replaced, but ATT needs to work on their CS!!
But I'm still bummed I have to drive so far to have this done… When can't they just let me swap one out at ATT, ya know!?
May 11th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
Hi,
My 4day old unlocked iphone16GB 1.1.4 has frozen.
When i switch it on-only an apple icon is displayed.
No home screen.
Please can one help me
May 31st, 2008 at 9:36 am
I have had my I phone for a month. Today the upper half of the screen became unresponsive.
The phone is bought in England and I live in Denmark.
(which implies that I had to hack it to get it to work in Denmark). So I guess it leaves me with no option to get it repaired. I really like the iPhone so it irritates me quite a lot to run into this kind of problem.
June 27th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
This JUST happened to my phone. My boyfriend called my phone and I couldn't pick up because the screen was being unresponsive. And I ended up being able to call him back, but when no one picked up, i couldn't hang up. So I refreshed my phone to hang up and hopefully to get it to work and still, no good. (it did hang up though) I tried it again, but found that I could get the top of the screen to work. There also seems to be a problem with the speaker now. When the phone rings, the speakers are very faint and hard to hear. I ended up having to call my boyfriend through a VP (a phone made for deaf people).
You all should be fine with the 1 year warranty.
I have the $600 dollar version and it's about 1 year old, so i don't know if I can get it replaced
And unless somehow apple can get my phone numbers, email addresses, and calendar events, those will all be lost.
I'm now charging it, hoping that will somehow help. If not, i'll let the battery die and hope that helps.
June 28th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I think I will just write about the next part of my unresponsive iPhone I wrote about on May 31th.
I was on a trip to London and thought why not try and see what Apple have to say about my unlocked but unresponsive iPhone. I got an immediate appointment to the Genious Bar and after a 10 minute wait I had one of the Genious guys looking at my iPhone. They restored it back to default to see if it was the unlocking that was causing the problem. They found that the iPhone still didn't work and gave me a new one.
So now I am the happy owner of a brand new iPhone which I can see is a never version and had 1.1.4 preinstalled. I am back in Denmark again, with a nice working iPhone.
In the meantime I have washed my headset in the washing machine. ;-( Don't do that the earplugs still works, but the microphone is dead. Cannot blame Apple for that. Nice service Apple.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I bought my iPhone on day 1. Just last night I was surfing the web on it. Woke up in the AM and for no reason at all the strip where the QWERTY is for Safari/789 on the phone keypad no longer works. Dead. Unresponsive. Guess I'll wait a week until I get home from vacation and take it into the Apple store. Maybe they'll replace it with a 3G. Or maybe since the warranty for all us day one purchasers just expired, I'll have to buy a new one. Smart of them.