[anynameworks]

I'm sitting there a few nights ago just typing away at a text message and all of a sudden the top of the screen stops being responsive. I hit the home button to get out of the text and proceed to respring my phone just to clear everything up. When it reloads all of a sudden (scary music here) DUN DUN DUN!!!! The Slide to unlock no longer seems to be sliding with my thumb to unlock.. Bah! Long story short, I respring, again and again.. I restore the firmware 3 times (2.01) and WinPwn it. I even go through the process of downgrading to 1.14.. Nothin... I've been hit by the "Lost Bottom Bar"..

Now, I know the simple thing to do is take it to the Genius Bar at Apple and show them what's up. Every thread on every board I've been reading has people doing this and the friendly Apple Store employee replacing the phone. The problem here is that my phone is UNLOCKED and I have a contract with Tmobile. So when I call Apple Care instead of a friendly Apple Care representative treating me as a person I get the Incredibly Hostile And Ready To Treat Me As A Criminal Of Epic Proportions representative. He tells me I can buy an "Out-of-service" (I think, or something like that) Warranty for $199 and send them my phone to have it replaced. Problem is, an extra $199 is pretty steep for me. It felt like giving birth just to spend the $300 on craigslist that I did to buy the thing initially..

After the time I've spent with my phone I could easily say it is worth an extra $199 to get a new one free from defects, I just don't want to. Anyone been in this situation before and found a way around it? Any advice? At this point I would even go for a way to eliminate the bottom bar alltogether (i.e. is there a way to "move" the entire screen up, shrink it to the center, etc.)... Thanks for reading if you've made it this far.

-Robert

[SundayDuffer]

It doesnt sound like its a hardware prob.
Should upgrade to 2.1fw and see if that will help.

[anynameworks]

Thanks for the advice but I still have nothin... I know that missing segments of the touchscreen is a problem alot of people have fallen victim of, I'm just wondering if there's a way to get it fixed without costing me an arm and a leg..

[SundayDuffer]

hmmm...perhaps the digitizer is dead?