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Is this normal for the home button?

TimothyB

TimothyB

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 20, 2008
795
91
Bay Area
Not sure if I should make a big deal of this and ask for a replacement, but it's getting annoying that half the time the home button doesn't respond.

Mostly due to when I place a finger on the button I naturally press down with the tip of the finger or with nail on the upper half of the button. Where it seems to have a dead zone.

The entire top half of the home button has a satisfying click, but does nothing. Not until I click perfectly center or the lower half will it work. And sometimes it can feel poorly made as it clicks between the dead zone and what works, as if it might get worse over time.

How about your iPhones? Can you press any spot with a satisfying click and still work? I wonder if it's common or I have just a spotty home button that I should get replaced. It just feels so cheap when I often have to press it again to get it to work when it seemed so sure the first click was spot on.
 
if you have chubby fingers (mine are a bit sausage-esque) you may not get a click, as half your finger is off the button, on the edge. and if that's the case, a click may not register.

if you have a chance, go to an apple store and play with a few different phones and see how they act. if it turns out yours is not working as it should, they may replace it.
 
mcdj said:
if you have chubby fingers (mine are a bit sausage-esque) you may not get a click, as half your finger is off the button, on the edge. and if that's the case, a click may not register.

if you have a chance, go to an apple store and play with a few different phones and see how they act. if it turns out yours is not working as it should, they may replace it.
Click to expand...

My fingers are normal, and pushes that don't register have a click to them that feels like they worked.

For example, if I place my fingernail right on the top white line of the little square on the home button, I can push down 10 times in a row and not work, while a hair lower it does. It's pretty much dead like that for the top half. While I can find dead spots on the lower half with specific fingernail taps like that, just no wear near as bad as the top. And when I push with my whole finger it's often more natural for me to press the top half that's mostly dead.

I'll head into an ATT store this weekend and check out a display model, that's probably the best bet for a direct comparson, or check out a coworkers phone next week.
 
If I had anyproblem at all with my iPhone, I would not hesitate to take it to an Apple store and complain. You paid a lot of money for a product that should be up to par with your standards of quality.
 
Man, the same thing happened when I got my replacement phone. It has scratches now and they wont replace it because of physical damage, so, I'm just selling it.
 
Benjic said:
Man, the same thing happened when I got my replacement phone. It has scratches now and they wont replace it because of physical damage, so, I'm just selling it.
Click to expand...

How can they choose not to repair something under warranty because of a visual defect that's not exactly a sign of abuse? Does scratching one's iPhone void the warranty or something? Unless it looks like it had a serious drop or something, but how can they associate that with whatever goes wrong from then on, or that it was dropped. Sadly, the design of the iPhone makes it such so any accident appears pretty bad thanks to the fragile outside. I mean, if I chose to have keys and loose change with my iPhone all the time and appears scratched to hell, that shouldn't be cause to turn me away when something goes wrong.
 
TimothyB said:
How can they choose not to repair something under warranty because of a visual defect that's not exactly a sign of abuse? Does scratching one's iPhone void the warranty or something? Unless it looks like it had a serious drop or something, but how can they associate that with whatever goes wrong from then on, or that it was dropped. Sadly, the design of the iPhone makes it such so any accident appears pretty bad thanks to the fragile outside. I mean, if I chose to have keys and loose change with my iPhone all the time and appears scratched to hell, that shouldn't be cause to turn me away when something goes wrong.
Click to expand...

On my first generation iPhone, the Home button was wobbly. It would register a click *most of the time, but you could wiggle it around as if the round key was too small for the circle cut in the screen. I brought it to a genius and he acknowledged the problem, but then fed me a line saying: "The issue recorded is within spec of the allowed movement." I just said back "Yeah, Okay." As sarcastic as I could make it sound and walked out. I felt so mad. I just spend $400 on a phone days earlier and it wasn't even near perfect. I'm SOO happy my white iPhone 3G is as flawless as they come! And I am SO satisfied. Hope this helps, give the exchange a try...
 
same here..

i also have that problem..
its like i have to press 3-5 times..
before it was not like this...
is dis normal?
 
Maybe this a is moot point right now. I think my iPhone is broken now.

For some reason 6 hours after first making this thread I found the phone dead, it had only been sleeping since then and it was at least at 30-40%. Turning it on I just got a low battery message and nothing.

So I get home and plug it directly into an outlet. It turns on with the white apple. But 15 minutes later, it still has the white apple, and only vibrated a couple times. I forced shut it down, then powered, but it just seemed to be stuck at the white screen. So I shut it down once more and let it charge again.

15 minutes later again, it was still a white screen, and I found the iPhone unusually warm hot, more than it has ever been.

Anyway, trying to connect it to my PC, it just seems to crash iTunes the moment I connect it. Is there another way to restore the iPhone?
 
Try Pressing the home button and the sleep/wake button for 10 seconds and then when you see iTunes logo plug it in to the computer
TimothyB said:
Maybe this a is moot point right now. I think my iPhone is broken now.

For some reason 6 hours after first making this thread I found the phone dead, it had only been sleeping since then and it was at least at 30-40%. Turning it on I just got a low battery message and nothing.

So I get home and plug it directly into an outlet. It turns on with the white apple. But 15 minutes later, it still has the white apple, and only vibrated a couple times. I forced shut it down, then powered, but it just seemed to be stuck at the white screen. So I shut it down once more and let it charge again.

15 minutes later again, it was still a white screen, and I found the iPhone unusually warm hot, more than it has ever been.

Anyway, trying to connect it to my PC, it just seems to crash iTunes the moment I connect it. Is there another way to restore the iPhone?
Click to expand...
 
my iphone's home button is the same. Does it seem like it takes even more force for it to register a click when it is plugged in? this seems to be the case with mine. Also my sleep/wake button feels loose and shaky. it works fine but is so annoying for it to rattle around. just trying to see if i should take it back and if anyone else has a similar problem.
 
ipod touch guy said:
Try Pressing the home button and the sleep/wake button for 10 seconds and then when you see iTunes logo plug it in to the computer
Click to expand...

Thanks,

I did find the answer after posting with a search. Then made an angry thread when I found my backup was corrupt, losing my saved game progress, contacts, notes, day by day budget input, flipbook animations, etc.'

I pretty much was so angry that I felt justified to go into the store I bought it from and demand my money back, refund for all my apps, cancel the contract with no fee, refund service charges, because this makes the device so unreliable that they shouldn't even sold it to me in the first place. Any serious use is pointless in the condition the device is in and the apps I paid for and what they were designed to do. Then 4 hour backups that don't even work, plus buggy software that's almost guaranteed to crash the phone again.

I can't recommend this phone to anyone anymore, total 180 from what I expected. And even if they get it fixed, what's to say another major update like 2.0 causes the same issues all over.
 
is everyone's 3g like this, because i honestly don't think its just some phones. and its not even that big a deal.

the button is better that it only works when u press it in the middle directly that way you don't turn phone on automatically.
 
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