GRR! Temperamental home button!!

Diggsy · 16 Oct 2011 at 21:30

Pez said:
If you did indeed have a launch day iP4 and they replaced it, would you be willing to provide some information for me to return to the Birmingham store with - to see if they wil match the service you received?

^^ This would actually be useful for anyone with these issues

Pez · 16 Oct 2011 at 21:33

Diggsy said:
^^ This would actually be useful for anyone with these issues

Agreed.

It seems Apple are a little inconsistant with out of warrenty replacement - the guy at the store said that if it was a little closer to the expiry date he may have been able to pull some strings.

Again, a little annoying that a well looked after product has not survived the length of the mobile contract.

mpy32 · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:23

Pez said:
And this was a launch day iP4?

If you did indeed have a launch day iP4 and they replaced it, would you be willing to provide some information for me to return to the Birmingham store with - to see if they wil match the service you received?

the phone was purchase at the beginning of august 10 so maybe not a launch phone

exchanged early sept 11

so a good month out of apple warranty

all he told me was it is dust and crap that gets under the home button making it unresponsive and unlike the 3gs it cant be cleaned out

he told me apple are fully aware of this problem and its quite a common fault

hope this helps

mpy32 · 16 Oct 2011 at 22:24

please delete double post

Diggsy · 17 Oct 2011 at 01:17

mpy32 said:
the phone was purchase at the beginning of august 10 so maybe not a launch phone

exchanged early sept 11

so a good month out of apple warranty

all he told me was it is dust and crap that gets under the home button making it unresponsive and unlike the 3gs it cant be cleaned out

he told me apple are fully aware of this problem and its quite a common fault

hope this helps

Hmmm, quite a difference though in that your phone was only a few weeks out of warranty, whereas mine is a few months. Will still try my luck though

mrochester · 17 Oct 2011 at 07:57

My iPhone 4 now has this problem after updating to iOS 5.

Dewotter · 17 Oct 2011 at 08:20

You're bound to have a local shop that does phone repairs. My mate got his done for £25 and you couldn't tell it was ever done. I was surprised at how good it was.

Diggsy · 17 Oct 2011 at 09:00

RKO said:
You're bound to have a local shop that does phone repairs. My mate got his done for £25 and you couldn't tell it was ever done. I was surprised at how good it was.

Not sure, but tbh I think I would actually enjoy the challenge of doing it myself if Apple won't sort it

Gibber · 17 Oct 2011 at 17:01

I had this problem with mine, fortunately I was still within my warranty period while it started to play up. It was temperamental though, sometimes it would work fine and other times it wouldn't.

I had a rather different experience with the Apple store at the trafford centre, they wouldn't replace my iP4 as was working fine in their hands, even though the guy failed to understand that it was an intermittent problem. I had even recorded a video of the problem which at no point he was interested in viewing. Anyway, the guy restored iOS and said it was the software that was causing the issue. I was calm about the whole situation but I found him rather condescending.

Anyway, left the store and it started playing up again - no surprise, couldn't be arsed dealing with them after that, didn't want to kick up a fuss in a store full of people. My first experience at an apple store wasn't a particularly good one I'm afraid, I'm just hoping that's a one off but it has put me off going there again.

Anyway with a bit of luck you may generate some success in getting a free OOW repair or a replacement phone. I think who you deal with has quite a lot to do with it to be honest.

mrochester · 17 Oct 2011 at 18:56

Gibber said:
I had this problem with mine, fortunately I was still within my warranty period while it started to play up. It was temperamental though, sometimes it would work fine and other times it wouldn't.

I had a rather different experience with the Apple store at the trafford centre, they wouldn't replace my iP4 as was working fine in their hands, even though the guy failed to understand that it was an intermittent problem. I had even recorded a video of the problem which at no point he was interested in viewing. Anyway, the guy restored iOS and said it was the software that was causing the issue. I was calm about the whole situation but I found him rather condescending.

Anyway, left the store and it started playing up again - no surprise, couldn't be arsed dealing with them after that, didn't want to kick up a fuss in a store full of people. My first experience at an apple store wasn't a particularly good one I'm afraid, I'm just hoping that's a one off but it has put me off going there again.

Anyway with a bit of luck you may generate some success in getting a free OOW repair or a replacement phone. I think who you deal with has quite a lot to do with it to be honest.

I walked into my local Apple shop at 9:40 this morning to get my temperamental home button seen to and walked about 5 minutes later with a replacement device.

Nick1881 · 17 Oct 2011 at 19:36

I just replaced the home button on my iPhone 4, didn't want to sell it while it was a bit dodgy.

It's not easy, I'm an electronic engineer and have experience of mobile phone repair (albeit on very old phones, Nokia 3310 etc.) I still found it fiddly, all good still, worked so much better afterwards.

Pez · 17 Oct 2011 at 20:17

mrochester said:
I walked into my local Apple shop at 9:40 this morning to get my temperamental home button seen to and walked about 5 minutes later with a replacement device.

When was the original purchased?

mrochester · 17 Oct 2011 at 20:19

Pez said:
When was the original purchased?

November last year.

Diggsy · 17 Oct 2011 at 20:50

Nick1881 said:
I just replaced the home button on my iPhone 4, didn't want to sell it while it was a bit dodgy.

It's not easy, I'm an electronic engineer and have experience of mobile phone repair (albeit on very old phones, Nokia 3310 etc.) I still found it fiddly, all good still, worked so much better afterwards.

Did you notice much dirt under the old button, or anything obviously damaged?

Mint_Sauce · 17 Oct 2011 at 21:31

My wife had this issue, she popped in to an Apple store today but was told it's out of warranty.

However, I've just made it 100% better and I did it purely by very quickly rubbing the back of my nail over the bottom section, going in and out of the button area (I hope this makes sense).

Might not work for anyone else but worth a go for a 30 second job.

Nick1881 · 17 Oct 2011 at 23:52

Diggsy said:
Did you notice much dirt under the old button, or anything obviously damaged?

The contacts are sealed so there isn't much to see.

Diggsy · 18 Oct 2011 at 00:02

Nick1881 said:
The contacts are sealed so there isn't much to see.

Ah, I see. Thanks for the response.

Jimmy1983 · 21 Oct 2011 at 09:20

How did the OP get on?

Diggsy · 21 Oct 2011 at 10:48

Jimmy1983 said:
How did the OP get on?

My appointment isn't until Saturday. Will report back after it, but I don't hold out much hope of a positive result to be honest. I reckon within the next 2 weeks I will be stripping the phone myself to repair it

sanofi · 21 Oct 2011 at 12:35

Diggsy said:
My appointment isn't until Saturday. Will report back after it, but I don't hold out much hope of a positive result to be honest. I reckon within the next 2 weeks I will be stripping the phone myself to repair it

I am having the same issue as I posted in another thread. Out of warranty with home button issues. The annoying thing is that it's difficult to replicate the problem as its very intermittent.

My concern about taking it to an apple store is that they will see the slight damage to the bezel and blame that.