Hello,
I have recently aquired a iphone 3G which appears to be in full working order bar the "home button". A quick bit of googling and it seems that the home button stopping working is a common complaint with respect to iphone 3G.
I opened up the iphone and notice that of the two "v-shaped goldish looking contacts that exist on the home button ribbon cable, one is missing. The simplest explaination as to why the home button is unresponsive is due to this missing contact.
So, i came across a quick fix that basically entailed placing tin foil between the contacts and the corresponding contact plates (labelled v3) on the iphone dock. This did not work
I know practically nothing about circuits and electrical engineering but noticed that I can "induce" the home button functionality if i press a piece of aluminium foil onto the contact plates with a metal screwdriver. This suggests that the problem is not a software related one and it is actually the home button hardware that is broken. My first question is this though: I am guessing that the home button works by passing a current through the ribbon cable to the v shaped contacts which then passes it onto the contact plates, with which the contacts are always in physical contact with, and it is NOT the case that pressing the home button lowers the v-shaped contacts onto the plates? If the latter is correct then where does the current come from when i touch the plates with foil?
OK, so I then tried to make a direct circuit connection with thin strips of foil from the v-shaped contacts to the contact plate and then press the home button to see if it registered- it did not, which now makes me think that the home button itself may be worn out or something along those lines. I know the preson who owned the phone originally used it a lot!
Do people think that is likely that the home button itself is the fault, even though one of the contacts was missing? Or should I focus on the v-shaped contacts more? If so, any ideas?
cheers.
I have recently aquired a iphone 3G which appears to be in full working order bar the "home button". A quick bit of googling and it seems that the home button stopping working is a common complaint with respect to iphone 3G.
I opened up the iphone and notice that of the two "v-shaped goldish looking contacts that exist on the home button ribbon cable, one is missing. The simplest explaination as to why the home button is unresponsive is due to this missing contact.
So, i came across a quick fix that basically entailed placing tin foil between the contacts and the corresponding contact plates (labelled v3) on the iphone dock. This did not work
I know practically nothing about circuits and electrical engineering but noticed that I can "induce" the home button functionality if i press a piece of aluminium foil onto the contact plates with a metal screwdriver. This suggests that the problem is not a software related one and it is actually the home button hardware that is broken. My first question is this though: I am guessing that the home button works by passing a current through the ribbon cable to the v shaped contacts which then passes it onto the contact plates, with which the contacts are always in physical contact with, and it is NOT the case that pressing the home button lowers the v-shaped contacts onto the plates? If the latter is correct then where does the current come from when i touch the plates with foil?
OK, so I then tried to make a direct circuit connection with thin strips of foil from the v-shaped contacts to the contact plate and then press the home button to see if it registered- it did not, which now makes me think that the home button itself may be worn out or something along those lines. I know the preson who owned the phone originally used it a lot!
Do people think that is likely that the home button itself is the fault, even though one of the contacts was missing? Or should I focus on the v-shaped contacts more? If so, any ideas?
cheers.