My Problem
Just after a year the home button on my iphone 4 started to become non-responsive. It worked, but not well. Single taps were registered as triple taps and double taps became elusive. I switched to using my lock/power button to turn on the device from sleeping instead of the home button in an attempt to prolong the life of my home button. After 4 months of increased use of the lock/power button it failed over course of 2 days, changing from a clicky well-behaved button to something that at first functioned but had no click to something that didn't function at all. I had to fix this device.
My Fix
The repair went fine but I had to use an amalgam of 2 guides, the home button installation and the power/lock button installation. If you are doing both of these jobs, start with the home button installation as it grants greater access to the power/lock button.
After reading several reviews of power/lock button replacement and due to the nature of this button failure I realized that a spacer sitting in between the button and the sensor was missing. I found this spacer stuck in the back of the phone when I removed the back cover. I permanently affixed it to the button with super glue and now everything works.
My Advice
I found the clip holding the forward facing camera difficult to remove. It has three prongs on it and one is fairly difficult to access. For connector removals I purchased the spudger and the blue plastic opening tools. The opening tools arrived broken but might have made the removal of this clip an easier task.
Written on February 17, 2012