Analyst: Apple iPhone screen problems may get worse – the dreaded “dead strip”
By Will Park on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 5:44 PM PST In Apple, Devices, Research, Technologies, iPhone, iPhone OS
Just when we thought it couldn’t get worse (seriously, we thought it would stay an isolated and rare defect), Nomura International analyst, Richard Windsor released a note to clients indicating that the iPhone’s “dead strip” display problem could become more widespread.
Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) bought the rights to the screen technology used in the iPhone from a Finnish firm. Finnish firm reported that usage led to the same unresponsive display problems after some time. Apparently, 3 to 6 months of “extensive use” would start to degrade the technology and cause a lose of sensitivity to touch-inputs. This suggests that the relatively new iPhone fleet in the US could start to exhibit similar problems with time.
With technologies as advanced as multi-touch, and production volumes as large as they are, hardware faults could very reasonably start to crop up.
We’ll keep a close eye on this problem for you guys, but should you find yourself facing the dreaded “dead strip,” drop us a line and let us know. Seriously, we’d appreciate it.
Update
The iPhone does not use heat chemical deposition technology, nor does it detect inputs based on heat.
[Via: The Inquirer]
my iphone (8gb) has the dead strip (at the very bottom) so i can’t press space when sending an sms or email. I updated to 1.1.4 but it wasn’t helping!
still the same problem. I am from Europe and got my iPhone from US! I don’t get support here for the “US” iphone! Apple Stores tell me that there is no contract -> this really sucks! if anyone has an idea please let me know! the
iphone is the only product from Apple which is NOT having Worldwide Support. This is what they (Apple) told me!
I am experiencing problems with my iphone seven months after purchasing it. The bottom part of the touch screen stopped working and when i turn it on the screen goes crazy jumping from internet to mail to text to phone to itunes. I can’t do anything with it so I will attempt to restore the itouch through itunes and if that doesn’t work I will take it in to Apple to get it repaired.
Hi, my iPhone was bought in September 2007 and shows the same problem. The dead-strip is in the middle of the display. Very annoying.
My Iphone just got the The dead-strip. This is a great phone, but it doesnt work with the The dead-strip.
My I`Ph(uck)one get the dead strip yesterday. it takes 7 mm high and the whole width of the vertical screen.
I really care my iphone, hard cover, protective film and all that expensive stuff, but its broken anyway, six hundreds dollars with the accesories, bought in the new york apple store. I live in argentina, and did all the resets available. doesnt work.
my screen stopped working! out of no where nothing works i can use it at all , i can turn the screen on and thats it?!?!
My iPhone started to do this recently. It’s been 9 months since I started to use it. Apparently you can edit the sensitivity in the general.plist file. It worked, but hen when I upgraded to 1.1.4, the screen is totally unresponsive even when I put the sensitivity to the maximum.
what kind of problems?
Hi,
I am from Holland and got myself an iphone 8gb (v1.14). Now I have my iphone for only one month, and suddely the bottom of the screen doesn’t respond anymore… I thought it had to do something with the bodygiardz that I applied because it happend on the same moment, but now I read that more people have this problem.
What can I do? The iphone isn’t for sale in holland yet… and besides, i have a sim-unlocked and jailbraked one…
Some tips would be appreciated!
dennis@photo74.com
My only suggestion would be to restore the device back to normal and try to take it to an Apple Store in Germany…
Hope that helps
See? This proves it! IPhones SUCK! But seriously, sorry everyone that you have to go through all this bullsh!t. Noone should be without their mobile phones. I know my life would shatter without a phone! If I loose mine for even a few minutes, I freak out so I can’t imagine the trouble you guys are going through. I’m a fan of HTC devices myself so I wouldn’t be caught dead with an Iphone.
hi guys,
i have 8gb iphone and i bought it feb 29. my iphone is unlocked. i’m using my iphone for almost 40days. i just put my iphone on the charger at the same time playing music, then my music suddenly stop and the screen become blurred. so i’ll try to reset but unfortunately the screen only blinking with the apple logo. after a few minutes the screen shows red dot line, what should be the problem of my iphone?
Hey,
So my iPhone has just received the dreaded dead strip… and it has occurred in possibly the worst location. I can no longer bring up my keyboard to text, and when it comes to entering URL’s into safari i can’t enter the period for .com or .org or so on, it’s possibly my worst nightmare, i can’t access websites and i can’t text people! i have done soft resets restore but with backup and even restore and set to new phone but to no avail. I went to an apple store tonight to try and replace or fix it but they were to busy… when i called into apple care they were just like “uhhhhh we can’t help…” so im prety much royally fucked…
My IPhone just did the same thing. Near the bottom of the screen the touch feature just died. I called apple and they are going to replace the phone for FREE!!! Just call tech support.
Is this also the case for 16GB iPhones?
Hi, I bought iPhone 4 GB last august, n just recently the bottom part have is dead, no more working. Please tell me is there any solution to it . ?
Regards
Baig
Just got the deadstrip on the bottom of the screen. Unlock still works, but the space bar on the screen keyboard won’t work, or the other buttons on the bottom.
Hope my Apple store in Columbia MD can replace it.
My iPhone just had the same problem, bottom row not responding, can’t launch Phone or Safari or iTunes!!! I thought this has something to do with my unlocking the phone but now I can see it’s more than that. This really sucks.
Nice K.O. for me today.
(
The phone can not be turned off, no functions at ALL. It happened while I was browsing with Safari..I have all my numbers on the iPhone..so even if i get another phone..i can not have the numbers… I am currently in Europe and i have a very important meeting today..we agreed to have a previous call..i tried to call my number and the phone is turned off.. I really dont know what to do… that is a totally shocking..
Now i wait until battery goes down, maybe it will turn off itself and I can turn it on again after charging…but if it does not respond..i have to send it back to the states and replace it…I hope I have most of my numbers synced…
Grrr.
WOW
this is a really old problem huh..!!
i live in saudi arabia, bought my iPhone from UAE.
went to apple store in my town they said they dont fix it, took it and went to bahrain -its only 50 KM away from where i live- they said we dont fix this problem here (!!!!) .. now i have to send it back to UAE … i had it for less than a month .. i dropped it :/
The top half of my phone is dead, so I can’t access settings, texting, photos, calendar, etc…This blows.
ok ive had my phone sine july 1 and have had no problems last week my whole bottom half of my iphone wont work an the only apple store around me is like 50 miles away i dont feel like driving all that way if there not gonna do anythink do you think they will replace my dead strip phone if my screen is cracked
Went to the Apple store a week ago and they swapped out my dead-strip phone with a new one, in and out in about 20 minutes. Great service. They did a quick inspection of the condition of the phone, so I would not expect a replacement if your screen is cracked or has other damage.
The half bottom screen of my iphone doesn’t work. I hope apple will replace it with a new one. My problem is that i wanna save my sms text to my pc so i can move them back to my new iphone but i dont know how. If you can help I would apreciate it.
http://www.intomobile.com/2008/02/21/iphonedrive-becomes-megaphone-allows-users-to-access-edit-and-create-notes.html
Hi All,
I bought the Iphone before 3 month, Bottom 1 inch is not responding, Great thing is after lock , I am able to unlock that where as after that “Phone”,”Mail”,”IPod”,”Safari” is not responding . Similarly its not working in other places too.
Please let me know if any body has any solution for that.
Last but not least IPHONE is a junk product I ever bought in my life.
Just to add for my last post
1. I reset all setting,Its didn’t work.
2. I reset software by Itune,Still I am facing same problem.
bottom part of my screen died also. Warranty is expired apple says I cant do ISHT about it :[ ….. same thing just happened to a friend. If you own an iphone its just a matter of time before it happens to you!
I’ve just had the bottom strip on my iphone break, and now I can’t open mail, phone, safari & ipod (as like some of these posts). I’ve had it for under a year so am going to take it to apple, with luck they have no iphones in stock and they will give me a 3G as replacement!
oztradamus… the iphone only came out yesterday last year (29th June), how is your warranty out already, it lasts for a year?
I noticed unresponsiveness of the screen a day before and I am worried what to do. As I have jailbroken my iPhone to use it with non AT&T service provider I fear Apple will not replace my phone even it is in warranty. Moreover, I had dropped the phone once and it left with a small scar on the back cover. http://nothingofficialhere.blogspot.com/2008/06/revival.html tells about the drop and http://nothingofficialhere.blogspot.com/2008/07/just-bad-news.html tells about the screen problem.
Please suggest me what to do.
yes, mine done the same for about a week now.
1cm strip right in the middle of the screen no longer works.
phone is jailbroken, on a non standard o2 (UK) contract.
can anyone tell me if I virginise the phone, will Apple replace it?
as how am i supposed to know the strip is not working unless i had activated it by jailbreaking?
The bottom half buttons on my iphone just completely stopped working for the last few days. I can’t even unlock the damn thing! I am taking it in today and hopefully they will own up and fix it but I’ve heard some horror stories about service. I’m prepared to be an irate and disgruntled customer who will probably be escorted out of the store for throwing a fit because irresponsible companies won’t stand behind their products!
The Dead Strip just happened to me. Had a jailbroken phone and just restored it to 1.1.4 and Apple arranged a collection to fix it. This was done via apple support in the UK
The dead zone was across 1,2,3 when you have the dial pad as if dialling a number. It just happened out of the blue.
Hope this helps.
My iPhone developed a “dead strip” on SOME appplications (texting, stocks, safari) along the top 1/2″ of the display. Called Apple, they set up an appointment for the Apple store, went in, they replaced my phone today, on the spot, I didn’t even ask. Phone is about a year old.
Hey, my ipod just started doing this yesterday as well. i thought it was because it mightve gotten a bit wet, but apparently thats not the case. the bottom half inch of my screen doesnt work. occasionally it will like, half work, but i dont know what to do…
Like James I went to the apple store on Saturday… it took about 15 minutes to get a new iphone… the guy checked it out, sprayed some air into it with a high pressure can (not sure that was a good idea but hey!), then swapped it out as it didn’t fix it! Now I have 2.0 + apps and am back in the iphone life!
Hi,
i am in india and have an 8GB iPhone. I am a huge fan of Apple and love everything that they do. My friends call me Tech Supp whenever they have a problem regarding their apple prods.
Recently i experianced the ‘deadstrip’. Never heard of that word until just now on this blog page. I was on the 1.1.3 firmware. Two days ago my bottom row went dead. I can’t use the spacebar,return or the 123..when i press these, the row on the corresponding top gets pressed!! So depending on where i press the spacebar, the corresponding alphabet on top gets pressed!! This ‘deadstrip’ is only when i use the keyboard. Other stuff works just fine no matter where i press.. I thought it’s a sofware glitch so i updated my firmware to 1.1.4 hoping to iron out the issue but alas!! No such luck..Its not a software issue but a hardware issue and i am so royally screwed cause i live in Mumbai,India and there is no way i can walk into an apple showroom and hope for them to replace my phone..grrrr!!! Whats worse is that soon when people realise that i have an issue with my iphone, they’re gonna laugh their heads of at ‘Tech Support’
;(((
Yup, this happened to me. First it started with no being able to push the number 3 and 6 on the keypad nor could i use any of that area on the iPhone. Then a few days later that area was working just fine. However, now I have a dead strip at the bottom of the iPhone and I can not call anybody because i can not click the phone app. I have a brick in my pocket now.
I Restored my phone and that did not help. All this started with upgrading to the 2.0 software update. I think that is what caused it for me as it has already crashed and forced me to install it again just hours after i upgraded the phone. I bought my 2G 8GB iPhone the day they came out about a year ago.
I went into AT&T to ask them if this is a known issue and they said no. I told them to fix it and they said no. Call 1800-My-iphone and talk to them. I replied and told the jerk that I pay you guys a monthly service and you are not giving me any help. I then told him that if I have to call the number and then I have to mail in my phone to be fixed I would just rather by the 3G iPhone right now. I can not be without a phone so I figure what the hell I will buy the new one, but he said that they did not have any instock and I would have to go to the Apple Store or apple.com and place an order which will take about 21 days to get me a 3G iPhone. I about dumbed in my pants.
Now I will need to go down to the apple store about an hour drive just to talk to someone to get this fixed. Big apple fan thinking apple is becoming more like Windows when it comes to product releases.
Same thing happened to me after upgrading to 2.0. I have the original iPhone. An area close to the bottom of the screen is now not responding. When choosing Reset All Settings for example there are two buttons that appear – Reset All Settings or Cancel. The area where the Reset All Settings button is located does not work so I cannot choose this option.
Also, after installing 2.0 I find that typing is very frustrating. When using the keyboard, hitting the S key seems to always insert the S and the Z. There is definitely something not working correctly in that area of the screen. VERY annoying.
Does Apple plan to do anything to fix this issue? It is very strange that it only began occuring after the 2.0 upgrade. Is this Apple’s way of trying to get us to buy the new 3G phone?
I hope these issues can be fixed with a software update. C’mon Apple…get with it.
I don’t think the update to iPhone 2.0 OS has anything to do with the touchscreen malfunction. It’s probably more of a horrible coincidence. Take the handset to your nearest Apple store. They’ll swap it out ASAP.
The touch functionality stopped working for me today for the second row of icons from the main screen. The guy at the Apple store did a restore, (back to 2.0) and still no worky. Luckily it was still under warranty and they are replacing it at no cost. This is however technically the second iPhone I’ve had replaced, as the first week I had mine, there was a dead pixel. I believe I read that Apple is willing to replace two. I did also have them replace a pair of earphones. So I technically have only experienced this problem on 2.0.
To everyone posting to this site who experiences a ‘dead’ area on their iphone screen:
1) This is a hardware fault, no amount of software updates/restores will fix it.
2) If you’re warranty is still valid then take the handset to Apple, they will replace it there and then.
3) If you’re warranty is out of date – go buy an iphone 3g.
I have an iphone 8GB. I got the phone brand new over a year ago. Approximately 4-5 months after buying the phone, the headset hole stops working. Can’t use headphones. I’m ok with that and drudge onward. Few months later the camera starts to malfuction. The camera would turn green and stay green. I found out that if you knock the top of the phone into the palm of your hand, the camera would change back to regular.
I called apple about these issues hoping they could provide support (tell me how to resolve this on my own) or offer to replace it. They said they would replace it and within a day I had a prepaid box to send it back in.
I sent the phone back and 2 days later the new box came in. I was soooo excited. Opened the box, and there was my old iphone. Not a replacement. I turned it on thinking “oh well at least it’s fixed” and low and behold it was NOT FIXED! Instead there was a letter telling me that the issues were my fault and thus voided my warrenty and they were unable to help.
1 month after this the DEAD STRIP started. The bottom keys (phone, messages, safari and ipod) do not work at all. You can touch them all day long, but they will not respond. The unlock stip still works but these keys do not.
Is there anything at all that I can do considering the fact that apple refused to fix the 1st issues????
PLEASE HELP!!!! heathercaylor@msn.com
I just bought a white 16gb iPhone on the Softbank network in Japan. I don’t know if they rushed this batch to market, but straight out of the box the strip along the bottom row of applications is dead. It’s not someting you can work around. The dead strip is right were most application sign in buttons and message dimiss buttons are located.
It’s a wondrous gadget and I certainly won’t give up on Apple just yet, but I really hope Softbank replace this without an argument.
The bottom part of my screen stopped working! and my warranty just expired 1 week ago!! They said they won;’t do anythign about it!
One week I mean come on!
for of ya’ll who have LOCKED iPhones, that only work on the AT&T service…
1st GEN iPhone USERS, you HAVE to get it BACK TO the USA to get it fixed. all 1st GEN iPhones need to brought back to the states for WARRANTY repairs (i.e. NO costs and replaced for free of hardware issue like dead zones and other stuff like camera)
For all you who’ve UNLOCKED it, pretty much screwed. it already voids the warranty even if you bought it yesterday. you can try to but you guys are now being a$$es for unlocking it in the first place- BUT i can see why you should be able to get it fixed- the dead zone is prevalent in a couple of Batches of iPhones, so yea, it was bound to happen, regardless of unlocking or not.
the touch screen portion in the 4th row of icons, just above the dock just became unresponsive on my iPhone. It is clearly a manufacturing defect, Apple should replace even after warranty!
My phone had the dead strip near the bottom when i first bought it, and has been intermittent since then. Weird. Restarting has no effect. My phone has also begun “GHOST TYPING” (i.e. sending “gasddjf;odisjaf” text messages, making calls, opening ipod) while laying on the counter undisturbed.
Avoid this phone- I only hope AT&T will understand and let me go back to my old phone with Verizon.
My iphone is JAILBROKEN with dead zone on the bottom strip. no iphone plan or anything.
Brought to apple store w/ friends sim. They checked the imei and said it wuz under a diff name. I said i dont know, it shouldnt be. so he took it restored it and check it out. Then he just went inside, got a refreb out and replaced it.
if urs is jaibroken. restore to 1.1.4 with the ipsw, and use iliberty and ONLY jailbreak and activate. nothing more.
Right after I upgraded to 2.0 I started having the “deadstrip” problems as well. I just bought this phone from a friend (he upgraded to the 3G) and it is out of warranty. I had been holding out for the 3G but couldn’t upgrade because i was under contract. I had just switched to At&t in February because my verizon phone took a crap. Now I’m under contract and can’t get the 3G unless I pay full price. *** Why would I or anyone buy the new phone when they’ve had a multitude of problems with the first one and it’s carrier?!!?!!