Fixing my iPhone by squeezing it and sitting on it
Yesterday afternoon the touch screen of my iPhone started acting up, missing a few digits when I was trying to dial into a phone conference and enter the passcode. When I pulled out my phone later in the afternoon, the touch screen barely responded at all. There wasn't just a particular dead area (a problem I had once before, and have seen a lot more online comments about), it was the whole touch screen not responding or just barely responding a little now and then.
I tried power cycling/rebooting the phone. No help. When I got home from work, I did a full wipe/restore on the phone. It still didn't work.
I really don't want to deal with replacing my iPhone now. The phone is well out of warranty (I bought my phone around two years ago, the day after the first iPhone was released) and I don't know if I could count on a second out-of-warranty replacement for a bad touch screen. I want to hold out until the next version of the iPhone is released, which I'm hoping is only about two months away.
I decided for the hell of it to see if maybe the problem was just a loose internal connection or something like that, so I put the phone between to still-wrapped carpet pads (kind of soft, kind of stiff, nothing scratchy) that I happened to have sitting around, and went over the phone squeezing it a bit here and there between the pads.
That worked, oddly enough. I got my phone back -- well, at least for about an hour. I was out eating dinner when the phone started getting flaky again, so I simply put the phone down on the padded seat at our table and gently sat on the phone. The phone was working once again.
Once more later last night I had to sit on the phone again, but it's been working non-stop since then, all day today so far without any problems.
I don't know how long I can count on the phone holding out, or how tired I might get of squeezing it and sitting on it to keep it working. But maybe, just maybe, I can keep going with this phone until I can replace it with the soon-to-come new version.
I tried power cycling/rebooting the phone. No help. When I got home from work, I did a full wipe/restore on the phone. It still didn't work.
I really don't want to deal with replacing my iPhone now. The phone is well out of warranty (I bought my phone around two years ago, the day after the first iPhone was released) and I don't know if I could count on a second out-of-warranty replacement for a bad touch screen. I want to hold out until the next version of the iPhone is released, which I'm hoping is only about two months away.
I decided for the hell of it to see if maybe the problem was just a loose internal connection or something like that, so I put the phone between to still-wrapped carpet pads (kind of soft, kind of stiff, nothing scratchy) that I happened to have sitting around, and went over the phone squeezing it a bit here and there between the pads.
That worked, oddly enough. I got my phone back -- well, at least for about an hour. I was out eating dinner when the phone started getting flaky again, so I simply put the phone down on the padded seat at our table and gently sat on the phone. The phone was working once again.
Once more later last night I had to sit on the phone again, but it's been working non-stop since then, all day today so far without any problems.
I don't know how long I can count on the phone holding out, or how tired I might get of squeezing it and sitting on it to keep it working. But maybe, just maybe, I can keep going with this phone until I can replace it with the soon-to-come new version.