iPhone 6 Touch Disease

If your Apple iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus shows a flickery grey or white line at the top of the screen, and the touch has stopped working- or is very unreliable- it probably has the so-called “touch disease”.

Although the symptoms affect the screen and digitizer, it’s actually caused by a fault with the chips inside your iPhone. Most independent experts agree this is caused by stress due to the phone bending, in turn bending the board and straining its solder connections to the Touch IC chips inside. (Not to be confused with the unrelated “Touch ID” feature).

Some people claim that minor twisting fixes the problem, but we don’t recommend this. It might damage your phone, and the fix won’t last because the contacts are still broken and can move out of position again. Quick and cheap “reflow” repairs won’t last reliably either, as oxidation on the exposed contacts will prevent the reflowed joint from connecting properly.

However, there is light on the horizon.

Touch disease can be reliably repaired. Contact us for further details or to arrange your repair- or simply drop in to our stores in Dundee or St Andrews.

(If your iPhone is still under guarantee, we always recommend checking with Apple regarding your options under the warranty before anything else).

Further Information

The rest of this article is for those of you who are interested in the details- if not, you can stop here!

Causes

As we mentioned above, the actual fault isn’t with the screen or digitizer itself, it’s with the Touch IC chips (“Meson” and “Cumulus”) inside your phone which connect to the phone’s board via “BGA” solder balls. Most independent experts believe that when the phone bends, it strains these connections with the board and breaks them.

The iPhone 6 is more flexible than older models- remember “Bendgate”?- and Apple no longer “underfill” the gaps between the solder connections (which helped keep them rigid). In addition, the rigid EMI shield- which had the side effect of protecting the Touch IC chips from flexing- was replaced with a flexible sticker.

All this massively increases the risk of damage, and hence touch disease.

Solutions?

As we mentioned above, the problem might seem to fix itself under normal usage, when minor twisting causes the contacts to go back into position. Unfortunately, it can just as quickly move the (still-broken) connections out of position again.

Reflows (which heat the device, causing the solder to melt and reconnect- in theory) aren’t so good here because the oxidation on the contacts reduces the quality of the remade connections. You really need to remove the chips and clean the surface as we do. (See below)

Apple’s Position

Apple originally ignored the existence of “touch disease” and did not offer any special treatment to out-of-warranty iPhone owners. Eventually they acknowledged the existence of the problem, but haven’t actually admitted- as far as we can tell- any responsibility for it on their part.

Their claim is that the problem is caused by dropping the phone on hard surfaces (not previously seen as a cause) and then subjecting it to some unspecified “further stress” on the device (which may well refer to the bending of the iPhone).

For full details and analysis on Apple’s response and what it might mean for you, see our article at Disc Depot Dundee.

Repair Options

As mentioned above, if your iPhone is within its warranty period, you should always consider your options under that first.

If it’s out of warranty, please feel free to discuss your options with us, particularly as Apple’s position on the matter may change over time. At the time of writing, it appears Apple is intending to offer a reduced-rate repair or replacement at $149 for US customers. (This may vary in the UK and EU).

Industry experts have, however, established the following caveats…

• Apple doesn’t appear to guarantee they’ll actually repair the board in your phone. It’s quite possible you may receive a refurb unit, in which case you should back up your data first in case you lose it. (Apple themselves recommend this).
• There’s no guarantee these refurbs won’t also have been subject to the same drop/twist stresses, which would increase their chance of developing touch disease.
• The iPhone design hasn’t been improved in the replacement units, so the potential for the problem is still there.
• Any other damage to your phone automatically disqualifies it from being repaired at the “offer” price. You’ll have to pay the standard cost of a refurbished replacement (i.e. exactly as is the case at present).
• Any “repair”- or replacement- will only carry a 90 day warranty.

Our Service

If you decide to have your phone fixed with us, rest assured that you’ll receive a repair from a company established for over fifteen years, with more advanced equipment than most of the local competition, and with far more experience too.

Since it’s known that a quick “reflow” isn’t reliable in this situation- due to oxidation on the contacts preventing the remelted solder from connecting as well as it might- we remove the old chips, clean the connections, and replace them with new chips with all-new solder points. These stand a much better chance of working in the long term.

You’ve paid good money for your iPhone- don’t risk it on a quick, second-rate repair from a cut-price store. Trust Mac Repair at Disc Depot stores in Dundee and St Andrews.

Images of Repair Process

These are the two Touch IC chips that need repaired.

This is what things look like after the chip has been removed.

It can be seen that the chips are very small- and hence difficult to work on!

Another company’s “handiwork” featuring a chip that’s lifted at one corner, and has missing pads underneath.

The previous guys left this owner with a cracked chip and two missing caps. You can see what we mean about a botched repair making things worse.

A rival makes a complete mess of it- note missing pads and stray solder between the caps at the top.

Different view of the same botched repair. Note how the solder balls have been flattened.

This repair took around four times longer(!) than it would have otherwise- before starting the repair proper, we needed to remove eleven caps to clean off the mess of solder the previous “experts” had left.