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Comment by misnome | Hacker News Reader

This doesn't exactly seem useful. I was expecting a guide to repairing/identifying issues. The one problem I had on my old iPhone 4 - the Home button not responding (a problem a lot of people seem to have), the end of the flow was "Determine if the issue is caused by accidental damage.", and mostly consisted of instructions on wiping the phone.

I'm assuming this is a store "Genius" guide, and not for actual technicians.

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The home button problem is fairly common and it is usually due to gunk/corrosion hampering the underlying connections.

There's an easy, tool-free fix: Liberally spray the home button with some Deoxit [which can be found at a RadioShack or on Amazon]. Then press the home button several times to ensure that the solution fully saturates the underlying connection. Wipe off the excess and let your phone sit for a while. Your home button should work wonderfully after that.

My 2 week old iPhone 5 had the same problem - home button never worked properly from day one. As this was my first Apple purchase it took me that long to validate that this wasn't normal behaviour after comparing with other iPhone 5s. At the Apple store they just replaced it without any questions.

A little bit OT but if you have an iPad you can enable additional gestures in the settings. This allows you to switch from one app to another app by swiping with four fingers across the screen and it allows you to go back to the home screen by pinching five fingers together. This allows you to still use the iPad even with a broken home button.

If your're curious about the power button on your old iPhone, here is an image of the flex cable: http://phonedoctors.com/wp-content/uploads/IMG_5133.jpg

The top left piece is what is pressed by the external power button. The small black dot is raised, and wears down over time, eventually failing to make contact with the external button. The cable just needs to be replaced and can be found online for ~$5.

FYI, the Apple Store Geniuses are actual technicians and do most repairs in-store.

I have yet to meet one worthy of the moniker.

Never! I have had 2 problems with my Ipad, 3 with Iphone - 3 times they just couldn't help and rang someone else for advice and on the other 2 times, they just replaced the device on the spot. (backlight flickering Ipad and I can't remember what was wrong now with Iphone, but IMHO, easily repairable with the right parts).

Swapping a broken device for one that's already been repaired is far more efficient, isn't it? Except for some cosmetic wear and tear, they're all identical.

You don't have to wait, they don't have to worry about giving you back "your" specific device after it's been repaired. They can just wipe the data and put it on the pile of refurbs.

I had also have a slightly unresponsive home button, on an iPhone 4.

Try running the Apple Calc app, then hold the power button until the 'slide to power off' prompt appears and then let go and hold the home button gently until the calculator app force-closes.

A previous reddit thread advised that procedure, apparently to trigger some 'recalibration'. It's possible it's placebo effect, but it appears to have slightly helped for my home button. http://www.redmondpie.com/how-to-recalibrate-iphone-home-but...

I can attest that using denatured alcohol, which I use for cleaning lenses and scanners, will destroy your ipod.

It works even better if you do it while hanging upside down and while your spouse or significant other sacrifices a live chicken.

Seriously, it's a physical switch. There's no "calibration". "Recalibrate" a physical switch by doing some magic ritual in the Calculator app? If you believe that worked, I have some really high-quality HDMI and SATA cables you might be interested in purchasing, for very reasonable prices.

Here is a theory. Switches, specially push buttons, need debouncing in software. If a switch has problems then the characteristics of the debounce might change. Which could possibly be fixed by recalibrating.

(Not by holding a switch down of course, you would need to push and release the switch many times to see a debouncing change)

Poor debouncing could conceivably cause a single push to register as two, or vice versa, but it's not going to cause a push to fail to register at all, which is part of every complaint I've heard so far.

I also see no reason that debouncing would require calibration. Basic debouncing just ignores any additional events that occur within a set period. That would just be set at the factory. There's a huge gulf between the timeframe of multiple events occurring due to switch mechanicals and the timeframe of legitimate ones.

Finally, the idea that somehow the Calculator app triggers a secret magic calibration step is just absurd. Even if you can somehow swallow the idea of software calibration of a simple mechanical switch, that detail makes it clear that this is nonsense.

Ha - I agree that that procedure seems preposterous. I have seen it listed in several forums, and only considered it after several others had reported success. I figured it didn't cost much to empirically give it a go. I present weak evidence that it appears it may have helped for me.

For what its worth, I am doubtful. There did appear to be some subjective improvement in responsiveness, but I didn't benchmark it. It is not the Calculator app in itself that functions as this, I had originally read any stock Apple app would do it.

Software reset does fix this for some, so I don't think that some button state polling problem relating to software is inconceivable. Possible, but unlikely.

More info here - they acknowledge it is likely bs. http://lifehacker.com/5909709/recalibrate-your-idevice-home-...

There are also some Apple's video tutorials leaked by Sonny Dickson for iPhone 4 Repair; http://cydiaism.com/watch-leaked-official-iphone-4-repair-vi...

Welcome to the assembly-line disposable products world.

Just like the previous complex organic disposable system world.

The bit in the middle where we make things out of a few dozen pieces of human sized metal is the aberration.

Go on...

Are you talking about pack animals and the like...? I think your parent was talking about recent-ish times wherein tools and things were made custom, serviced and maintained by the owners or the local smithy or carpenter.

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