Apple Independent Repair Provider
What Are the Symptoms of iPhone Touch Disease?
There are two primary symptoms of the disease:
What Causes iPhone Touch Disease?
According to Apple, the Disease is caused by repeatedly dropping the iPhone on hard surfaces and “then incurring further stress on the device”.
On the other hand, iFixit—a site that focuses on repair and understanding of Apple products—says that the issue results from a design flaw in the iPhone and can happen on devices that haven’t been dropped and on devices besides the iPhone 6 Plus. The problem has to do the soldering of two touchscreen controller chips built into the iPhone, according to iFixit.
It’s possible that both explanations are correct—that dropping the phone can loosen the soldering of the chips and that some un-dropped phones have manufacturing flaws—but there’s no official word.
How Do You Fix iPhone Touch Disease?
The Touch IC microchip on your phone’s logic board will need replacing (specifically, the U2402 Meson and Cumulus U2401 chips). We can offer this repair, please contact us for an updated price. The device will need to be sent away for repair and takes 1-5 working days to be completed.
Soft OLED vs Hard OLED vs LCD screen replacements
iPhone X models or newer, now use an OLED screen. An OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display are light-emitting diodes containing thin flexible sheets of an organic electroluminescent material, used mainly in digital display screens. There are two kinds of OLED, hard and soft.
Soft OLED: This type of display is more pricey however a better match for iPhone X (or newer) models and close to OEM quality. They are made of a flexible plastic substrate, which is why they last longer than Hard OLEDs. They are much more resistant to impact. Soft OLEDs also fit better into the frame of an iPhone X than Hard OLEDs.
Hard OLED: This type of display is a cheaper alternative to a soft OLED display but performs nearly as well as soft OLED and have almost the same vibrancy/brightness. Hard OLED screens are built using a hard glass substrate instead of the flexible substrate found on the iPhone’s original screen (and soft OLED’s). The hard glass substrate can’t flex to accommodate the original curve of the display, so the screen has an very slightly enlarged bezel. All of this means is the display is more prone to cracking when dropped.
LCD: This type of display is more commonly seen in Apple’s budget models (such as the iPhone XR and iPhone 11). This is another cheaper alternative to the more expensive soft OLED display however you may notice a slight difference in vibrancy and dullness compared to your original display. There has been reports of possibly 15% battery drain too as the LCD display draws more power.
What should I go with?
It does depend on what you use your phone for and what is important to you. Do you want to spend as little as possible on the repair or is money not a large factor? How often do you use your phone during the day? Maybe you just want it to get you to the end of your contract.
Because of how fragile Hard OLED display’s can be, we do not offer this option as we have found customers coming back after the smallest drops. Our aim is to repair your device using the best quality parts for your budget and this display is not reliable in ‘real-life’ use.
If the battery in the newest iPhones (iPhone XR, XS, XS Max or newer) is replaced, a message indicating you need to service your battery appears in Settings > Battery, next to Battery Health. The “Service” message is normally an indication that the battery is degraded and needs to be replaced. The message appears when you insert a replacement battery – even when you swap a genuine Apple battery (or from another iPhone), the phone will still display the “Service” message.
You will see a notification on your lock screen for the first 4 days that you use your device, and in the Settings app for 15 days. After that period, you can find the notification by going to Settings > Battery > Battery Health.
Starting with iOS 15 and iPhone 12 models (the 12, Pro, and Pro Max) and newer, your phone will show a message if it has had a part replacement: “Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple part.” It starts as a message on your lock screen, lasting for four days. After this, the warning hides itself in the Settings for 15 days, and then in Settings > General > About after that. It does not affect your ability to use your device.
This warning, similar to the recent addition of battery warnings, happens even if you swap a genuine Apple camera from one phone to another. To avoid the warning, you have to have a rear camera installed by Apple themselves. It starts as a message on your lock screen, lasting for four days. After this, the warning hides itself in the Settings for 15 days, and then in Settings > General > About after that. It does not affect your ability to use your device
Starting with iOS 15 and iPhone 11 models (the 11, Pro, and Pro Max) and newer, your phone will show a message if it has had a screen replacement: “Unable to verify this iPhone has a genuine Apple display.” It starts as a message on your lock screen, lasting for four days. After this, the warning hides itself in the Settings for 15 days, and then in Settings > General > About after that. It does not affect your ability to use your device.
This warning, similar to the recent addition of battery warnings, happens even if you swap a genuine Apple screen from one phone to another. To avoid the warning, you have to have a display installed by Apple themselves or the screen IC’s transferred across.
The TrueTone functionality will stay on the iPhone as we use a special programmer to transfer the data across.
The Audio IC issue appears on both the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus & is now one of the most frequent faults being repaired on a board level. Owners of the devices will notice:
Why Does This Happen?
We believe that this is another manifestation of the same underlying problem that plagued the iPhone 6/6 Plus with the touch disease problem that we brought to the world’s attention in 2015. With the touch disease, it is the M1 pad under the Meson Touch IC chip that separates from the board due to the inherent bendiness of the iPhone logic board during normal daily use.
On the iPhone 7/7 Plus, as the phone ages, the subtle bendy/bouncy forces of daily use eventually stretch and flex the thin wire of the C12 pad as the solder ball attached to it is wiggled like a nano-sized paper clip. Over time, C12 becomes an increasingly poorly attached and your phone begins to show the symptoms of Audio IC failures. Eventually, C12 will detach completely and you will have full blown Audio IC disease, meaning that your phone will have a really difficult time even turning on at all.
How long does an Audio IC repair take?
The turnaround time for an Audio IC repair is normally 3-5 working days. Your device would need to be sent away to board level technicians.
Method 1: Look in settings. Go to Settings – General – About – Model Name
Method 2: Look on your device.
Method 1: Look on your device.
Method 2: Look in settings. Go to Settings – About – Model Number.
Method 1: Look in settings. Settings – About – Model Number
Method 2: Look on your device.
