Dundee’s iPhone 6 “Touch Disease” Repair Centre

Bad news- it’s likely that your iPhone 6 has what’s known as “touch disease”.^* Despite what you might think, this isn’t a fault with the screen or digitizer itself- the cause is actually the Touch IC^** chips inside your phone. When your phone bends, the board inside does too, which strains and then breaks the soldered connections to the Touch IC chips.

We’ve had an increasing number of people coming in to our repair centre in Union Street, Dundee from all over eastern Scotland, asking why the touch on their iPhone 6 has become unreliable, and if it’s got anything to do with that flickering grey line at the top of the screen.

Now here’s the good news. Disc Depot can repair it for you. Simply bring it to our repair centre in Dundee city centre. We’re conveniently located for all your iPhone 6 repairs.

Don’t be fooled by temporary quick fixes (described below) or cheap but unreliable reflow repairs. We have the skills and equipment to carry out your repair properly.

You don’t need to read further if you’re not interested in all the details- simply click here to arrange to have your iPhone 6 or 6 Plus repaired or bring it to us in our Dundee shop!

^* Don’t blame us for the terrible name, we didn’t invent it!
^** Touch IC (meaning “integrated circuit” or “microchip”) should not be confused with the entirely unrelated Touch ID feature

Causes

It Started with “Bendgate”

As we said above, it’s important to remember that (despite appearances) touch disease isn’t caused by a fault with the screen or digitizer itself, and replacing them won’t fix the problem.

The problem is related to the Touch ICs- the two chips inside your iPhone 6 that process all your prods and swipes. (These are called “Meson” and “Cumulus”). When the solder connections between them and the circuit board get damaged or broken, touch processing stops working properly.

This happens because your phone bends, straining- then breaking- the connections between your phone’s board and the Touch IC chips. Remember the “Bendgate” fiasco where the iPhone 6 was getting bent in people’s pockets? Apple sort of fixed that, but it remained more flexible than its predecessors.

Lack of Support Exacerbates Problem

Worse, Apple made some other design changes with the iPhone 6. In earlier models, Apple used to “underfill” the gaps between the solder balls/connections with a liquid that became rock-hard upon curing, supporting the rigidity of the connection. This was left out on the iPhone 5S with no obvious problems- possibly because the 5S wasn’t prone to bending and straining the connection in the first place. Unfortunately, the consequences became more obvious with the flexible iPhone 6 series.

In addition, older iPhones used a rigid EMI shield for the Touch ICs. While this was obviously meant to cut down on electromagnetic interference (“EMI”), it also had the side-effect of improving rigidity. With the iPhone 6 series, this was replaced with a non-rigid sticker shield.

All these factors explain why the flickering grey bars and non-responding touchscreen of “touch disease” suddenly became a problem with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The Temporary “Solution” That Isn’t

Many users report that the problem is intermittent, or that it works temporarily after the phone has been twisted or handled. (Don’t try this at home as a “quick fix” as you’re liable to damage your phone).

This is because the bending alters the position of the contacts, allowing them to form a contact with the board. However, since the solder is still broken, it’s liable to stop working again if- or rather, when- the phone is bent another way.

Worse, because the connection is broken, the surface of the contact is likely to oxidise, degrading the connection further and reducing the reliability of the screen more over time.

The Real Solution

Don’t Believe Apple- iPhone “Touch Disease” Exists and We Can Fix It

When we first wrote this article, Apple had still not acknowledged the existence of touch disease– or anything resembling it- despite the significant body of evidence that had circulated for months within the repair industry. (This also appeared to include removal of posts covering solutions to the issue on their support communities, with some users even having been banned for it). Many out-of-warranty owners reported that the only “solution” offered to them by Apple staff was to purchase either a refurbished or brand-new replacement.

(Ironically, the day after we posted the original version of this article, Apple finally did finally concede that “touch disease” was a problem! (Or at least with the iPhone 6 Plus at any rate). However, the situation with respect to liability and the repair/replacement program being offered isn’t as clear cut as we might have expected. You can read about it in more detail in our article “Apple Finally Acknowledges Touch Disease… Sort Of”.)

Either way, if you’re in that boat and your iPhone is out of warranty^*– don’t worry. We can fix your iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus for a lot less than the cost of a new iPhone, and if you’d like to discuss the merits of our approach versus Apple’s, we’re happy to do so.

^*If your iPhone 6 Plus is still within its warranty period, our recommendation is always that you consider Apple’s official warranty repair service first.

How We Do It – A Repair, Not a Reflow

We’ll remove and replace both the Touch IC chips with entirely new ones (including brand new solder balls for the best connection to the motherboard). Once these are in place, your broken iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus should be as good as new, and the grey lines and loss of touch sensitivity will have disappeared.

Don’t be fooled by other repair centres offering the quicker and cheaper solution of “reflowing” the soldered connections. (Essentially, heating them up in a controlled manner until the solder melts and rejoins). Experience has shown that this is nowhere near as reliable or long-lasting as proper replacement of the chips. Oxidation on the broken solder connection means it’s less likely to rejoin properly when melted, which reduces the strength and longevity of the connection.

Removing the old chips is necessary so the oxidation can be cleaned off and a reliable connection formed. Don’t take short-cuts with your iPhone 6 touch disease repair. Trust Disc Depot Dundee- digital repair experts since 2001.

Examples

Here you can see examples of touch disease repairs carried out by ourselves- and botched jobs by other repair centres we’ve been given to sort out. A bad repair can often make an otherwise fixable problem irreversible. In many cases we’re able to reverse the damage done- albeit usually with an increase in the time and cost associated with the repair- but not always. Why risk it? Bring it straight to us.

These two chips are replaced during the repair process.

After the faulty Touch IC chips are removed.

Here we can see how small the Touch IC chips are- not easy to work on!

Fixed badly elsewhere- chip lifted at one edge and three pads were missing. We managed to fix it!

Another bad repair by a rival store. The chip is cracked and two capacitors are missing.

More rivals’ work! They only replaced one of the two chips, and four pads were missing. Solder blobs between caps at top.

Another view of the same job. Note how the solder balls have been squashed.

We had to remove eleven capacitors to clean solder they’d left all over. As a result, it took around four times longer to fix.

This video demonstrates the iPhone as it came in to the store. Note the grey “touch disease” bar at the top of the screen.

After the successful repair by us.

The iPhone is now in fully working order.