New iPhone 4 not responding - did I get a lemon?

[Kenzembo1]

Hey guys,

I've been on hold with Apple technical support for over 20 minutes. I have no idea what's going on with the new iPhone I got today- I had absolutely no problem with activation today at the Apple store and was even able to make calls from the device on the way home.

It's been a long day, so I decided to take a much needed nap after I got home. I was looking forward to making my new iPhone my night project- loading it with apps, etc. Well, I woke up about an hour ago and the phone was non-responsive. My first thoughts were that it was dead, as it's a new phone and it may not be fully charged. I plugged it to my computer and nothing. I then plugged it into the wall via the wall charger and again nothing.

At this point I was really perplexed and I called my dad from my roommate's phone- I told him to try calling my phone to see what he would hear (to see if it would go straight to voicemail or if it would ring). He called me back a few minutes later and told me that the phone rang and went to voicemail like normal. It's obvious that something is wrong because my screen is black and it's not responding even when I try to sync it with my macbook. I'm at a total loss for words. Best Buy messed up my pre-order, so I braved the lines at the Apple store for hours upon hours, even getting drenched in the rain in the process and I'm disgusted that this is the end result.

I'm currently still on hold with Apple iPhone technical support. We tried the DFU mode trick and it didn't work, so I've been on hold all this time. If anyone has any advice, suggestions, anything, please post here or send me a PM. I'm worried that they won't have the new iPhone 4 (32 GB) in stock if I go to the Genius bar tomorrow to try to get this issue resolved if it indeed needs to be replaced.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

[yarrowgirl]

Yikes, mine too

I have been playing with my new iPhone 4 all evening. I've synched it, set it up, activated it, shot video, etc. I was uploading a video I'd created using iMovie to Facebook when my phone screen went black. It now will not respond no matter what I do. I have plugged it into the wall, into the computer and pressed every button (yes, I held them down). Nothing, no response. My battery was more than 1/2 full when it shut off, I had just checked on how much battery I had left and it was not warm to touch or anything unusual, just shut off for no reason and will not respond. Please update this thread to let me know what Apple help says, I am very curious and SCARED!!!! Yikes!!!

 

[afters]

Same problem here. My battery was at 100% before I went to bed, and when I woke up in the morning the screen was blank and non responsive.

I'm now restoring it (hold Home button and Sleep button for a while until apple logo appears), but in all honesty I've come across more issues on this phone in a day than I ever had on my 3GS.....

 

[lazer310]

I was having similar issues. I went to the Apple store last night (on launch day!) Walked up to the front door, told them I had a defective unit, talked to a Genius with no appointment, and had a brand new unit in about 20 minutes.
I'm a happy camper now, no issues! ( knock on wood)

Goto your local Apple store or AT&T store and exchange it.

 

[raymondkerr]

I've experienced the same problems since getting my phone yesterday at the Glasgow Apple Store, my battery was at about 90% last night when I set the alarm on it and went to bed, I got up in the morning, to no alarm ringing, the phone was dead, black screen. tried holding power/home button for a fair few minutes, tried putting it on the dock to sync, itunes said it was corrupt error 1600 "could not restore" I then left it a while, and tried again with the home/power buttons, after hold them on together for more than 3 mins, the phone came back to life, everything was ok and all my data/apps were still working. So I went to work, put it in my locker, and at the end of my shift, when to collect my phone, again, it had switched off, the battery was at 74% at this point, I managed to get it back on again, but this is no use, the phone turning itself off all the time.

Should I contact Apple ? I was going to try and restore it again to factory. I was wondering it the battery required a longer charge, yesterday I was mess about with it all day and it was on and off the charger, should I maybe let it charge from the mains power overnight first, before taking it back.

I am concerned now though, that the Glasgow Store won't have any more to replace it with.

Not a happy camper so far, seems to be lots of issues, come on Apple ? whats the deal ?

 

[yarrowgirl]

Back on & all seems well... for now...

I was able to get my phone to come back on last night by holding home & power buttons. All apps are normal, phone seems fine. I have charged the phone overnight now and *hope* that is the end of the truoble. I will update if this happens again.

 

[brian540]

strange.. i had an issue where the screen went black as well wouldn't come on but after a minute i was able to get it to come on by pressing the top button once was almost like the phone was asleep but wouldn't respond to home or the top for that minute...

 

[TheByrus]

https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/10308141/

 

[PezRadar]

Im having the same problem.

Just scheduled a genius appointment for tomorrow.

Its annoying!

 

[tsarsteve]

It appears that this is a fairly common issue:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2476608&start=0&tstart=0

Apple seems to be keen on replacing these units.

 

[PezRadar]

Yep just got mine replaced an hour ago. The genius couldnt even get it to turn back on.. and their computers wouldn't even allow for them to force a restore it was just a lemon/bricked or something..

 

[metanoia]

Mine responds to power+homebutton for 10 seconds... the thread over at apple seems to suggest that it's our 3g/3gs backups that are killing us. I had my iPhone 4 on virgin software (without restoring old backups) and it never once did this.

 

[afters]

Same problem here. My battery was at 100% before I went to bed, and when I woke up in the morning the screen was blank and non responsive.

I'm now restoring it (hold Home button and Sleep button for a while until apple logo appears), but in all honesty I've come across more issues on this phone in a day than I ever had on my 3GS.....

Just an update. I've had repeats of this problem and decided it was time to contact Apple.

Phoned them up and told them about the problem I was having. The girl on the other side seemed perplexed and offered to help me restore the phone from scratch but when I told her I've been doing this for the past 2 days she recommended a genius bar appointment. Unfortunately there were none for this weekend and since I work during the week, the earliest I could have it fixed would be next week.

Decided I'd just cut my losses and return the phone. I'll stick with my 3GS for now and probably pick one up a month or so down the line when stocks ease.

 

[Owyn]

Looks like I just got hit by this problem as well. I am adding my story to this thread so I can also keep an eye on any other responses...

So one minute it was working fine, the next minute it wouldn't wake up. Black screen of death. Just trying to power off didn't work. Plugging it into the wall, not a beep. So I held power/home for 20 seconds and I am restoring the phone now.

I think I will try to skip restoring from my backup settings?

I am willing to accept that this is an issue because I transferred data from an old phone, but if this happens again, I'm definitely going to exchange it.

 

[tsarsteve]

I've restored from scratch - as a new phone - and still have the problem. Apple's sending a new phone, no genius bar appointment necessary.

 

[sputnik3]

Mine just did the same thing OUTSIDE THE APPLE STORE.
I'm waiting now. Lets see what they have to say when I show them this thread.

 

[raymondkerr]

My "Black Screen of Death" was getting worse, doing it almost every hour. So I called the Apple Store yesterday and went in and swapped out the phone for a brand new one. The problem seems to have disappeared now. The chap at the Apple Store hadn't heard of any other specific issues similar to this, but never the less, he was very happy to give me a replacement phone.

I'll just woke up and the phone has now been on for more than 12 hours and still going strong, it appears to respond quicker now to the button presses and no sign of it going into sleep mode and turning itself off.

 

[PezRadar]

Just reporting in that my replacement that I posted earlier is NOT experiencing this.

It seems to be some buggy iPhones out there.

Get yours replaced at a Genius Bar. If it happens on the date of the Genius appointment I recommend keeping it in its dead state. I did this.. showed it to the genius and explained what I had to do to get it on. They will do the basic things needed but since this requires us to do the HARD reset TWICE to get it back on they will understand that something is off.

The Genius couldn't even get my phone to turn on.. I'm sure she could if she did the hard reset method twice but she only did it once.. and then tried plugging it in.. Apparently her Genius Bar Special Macbook detected it but refused to restore it cause it was that jacked up.


Thats how I got my new one easily

 

[sputnik3]

Mine just did the same thing OUTSIDE THE APPLE STORE.
I'm waiting now. Lets see what they have to say when I show them this thread.

The genius did a hard reset in 5 seconds that I was unable to do in 45 minutes of trying while waiting at the genius bar. Huh?
He said to come back if it does it again.