iPad, out of warranty, unresponsive to touch.

[AnthonyFlower]

Hi

I have an iPad Mini retina which suddenly stopped working, looks fine but it is completely unresponsive to touch. You cannot swipe to unlock or shutdown, it does nothing.

It's only 6 months old but isn't covered by the warranty anymore as I had the screen replaced a while back. I know I should have gone through Apple however we have a son with special needs and let's just say this isn't our first iPad screen replacement despite Otter Boxes all round. It would be very expensive to always go through Apple. (note this is the first replacement on this iPad though).

Now this happened to another Mini of ours and Apple took it in and sent it back 'fixed' saying all they did was restore iOS. Obviously I had done that myself to no avail and they did it in the Apple Store also without success but Apple Care did it and it worked.

So my question is, with this iPad is there anything more I can try? I have done a complete re-install (fresh install not a backup) and it's still unresponsive. Is there a tool to mimic whatever Apple Care did to the other one?

The cost of Apple replacing it out of warranty it is not worth it, better off selling it for parts on eBay and buying a new non-retina one but before I do I thought I'd ask.

Many thanks...

 

[Night Spring]

I don't have any suggestions for the current situation, but for the future, don't they have AppleCare+ in the UK? Seems like that would be a perfect fit for your situation. I believe it gives you two repairs/replacements for accidental damage, at a charge of something like US$50 for each incident.

 

[AnthonyFlower]

I don't have any suggestions for the current situation, but for the future, don't they have AppleCare+ in the UK? Seems like that would be a perfect fit for your situation. I believe it gives you two repairs/replacements for accidental damage, at a charge of something like US$50 for each incident.

Thank you for the suggestion however I struggle to understand who AppleCare+ is actually aimed at. You'd think with five iPads & three kids, one of whom has special needs and occasionally likes to throw things, it would be perfect. However in 2 years we would have spent more money on AppleCare+ plus the excess for each repair than we have without it and that's including completely writing off the cost of this iPad Mini (which I am assuming will actually fetch something on eBay). Crazy huh?

 

[sammy-boy]

Sorry if you've already tried this but have you tried a hard reset - pressing the home and power keys till the Apple logo appears? Might be worth a go if you've not tried it yet.

 

[BeefJerky]

My mother got her iPhone 4s wet, and it became unresponsive so we took it to a technician (just a regular that does Apple and many other products), and he said that the circuit from the screen to the motherboard was ruined.

So, I suggest you take it to one of them, and pay for them to look over it, so they can diagnose your problem. It would be easier to find solutions for an issue that you know what it is.

So your son throwing the device caused it to become unresponsive?

 

[AnthonyFlower]

Sorry if you've already tried this but have you tried a hard reset - pressing the home and power keys till the Apple logo appears? Might be worth a go if you've not tried it yet.

Hi, yep, tried that first, in fact it's the only way to turn it off and back on again as you can't shut it down as that requires swiping across the screen of course.

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So your son throwing the device caused it to become unresponsive?

No, dropping it cracked the screen, the iPad became unresponsive randomly while in use at a later date. This iPad is actually my iPad, the kids don't often use this one.

So, I suggest you take it to one of them, and pay for them to look over it, so they can diagnose your problem. It would be easier to find solutions for an issue that you know what it is.

It is tempting, but I worry about spending more money on something that might not be fixable outside of Apple as this happened to another Mini exactly the same way and Apple were adamant it was a software issue and not hardware. Does anyone know a reputable repair place that does a 'no fix no fee' type offer?

 

[Abarth1200]

How about buying second hand iPads, never mind a retina mini?