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Revamped version of the iPhone 3G with faster processing speeds. Repair of this device is similar to the 3G, and requires simple screwdrivers and prying tools. Model A1303 / 8, 16 or 32 GB capacity / black or white plastic back.

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Water Damage - home button no longer works

A friend fell into a lake while holding an iPhone. Everything works fine except for the home button. I've disassembled it and tested the button mechanism itself and found that it works fine. Resistance across the button's two contacts drops to zero when I press the button. So I suspect that the failure isn't in the button mechanism. I found the contacts where the button connects to the board and tried bridging them to simulate the effect of pressing the button and closing the circuit. This has no effect. I didn't want to tear down any further without more info. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Check the circuit board on the dock connector, and cable #4 for corrosion. If you have another dock connector board, try swapping them around - hopefully the issue hasn't spread to the main logic board.

iPhone 3GS Teardown

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My phone experienced the same problem. My friend turned on the Assistive Touch. Go to Settings-General-Accessibility-then turn on AssistiveTouch. This will give you an image of a home button. This is not a repair to the mechanical button, but keeps the phone working!

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@Jerry - THANK YOU!!! Like you said, it's not a fix, but it allows you to use the phone again!

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I would do a full reset on the phone - if you have not done so.

This did the trick on my phone, when battery consumption was high despite all services being switched off.

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How do you do that? I've shut it down -- doesn't that do a full restar?

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his issue is with the home button circuitry, he never mentions a battery consumption issue...

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nothing to do with battery - more a general comment - lets try it and see!

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I think he means a "full restore" where you re-flash the firmware through iTunes - essentially a clean install of the OS. I have seen this fix many problems and will be the first thing the Genius Bar will instruct you to do so it's worth a try. Make sure you have all of your data backed up first!

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It sounds like you have a damaged dock. I have replaced hundreds of these parts and the home button is very temperamental. I am not sure where you can get home button.

Try silica desiccant.

Water damage is very difficult to diagnose as it can seep into different parts of the phone. you are lucky it has not damaged any of the power management chips.

good luck anyways

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almost same story but i opened the phone and was trying to clean the two prongs and the broke off how can i replace that? im looking at the man and i dont see instructions on that part. thanks

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buy a new one on ebay, you'll have to remove the digitiser to get to the home button. you need to turn the cable to get it out or in so be careful you don't damage the prongs again

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This is what I'm going through right now. The home button works but it's progressively getting worse and now I have to press down hard on it to get it to work.

I was wondering, if I take it in to Apple, would they be able to diagnose the issue without me having to pay for it?

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I have a 3GS that the home button circuitry shorted out on. I was able to determine that the short is somewhere on the motherboard. Rather than pay to get my phone fixed I jail broke my phone and am able to use an app called the activator to use screen gestures to simulate a home button press. This was by far the easiest route for me. I used jailbreakme.com which was very straight forward. Note you'll need to have java enabled for you to be able to use this website. I believe if you haven't updated past OS 4.0.1 then it should work.

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LymanSS will be eternally grateful.
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