Digital Trends reports: “Apple may be facing a hardware issue with its much-vaunted iPhone: it seems some iPhone owners are finding portions of the devices’ touch screens are going “dead,” making some controls and features difficult or impossible to access.”

“At this point, evidence is scattered and hearsay—limited to postings in online forums and comments from industry analysts claiming to have a handle on the situation. The most common symptoms seem to be a strip about a half inch wide in the lower half of the iPhone screen (as held vertically) ceasing to respond to user taps and drags, but some users report the entire bottom quarter, third, or half of the screen giving up on them. Some users report similar problems on the upper portion of the touch screens, and others report inconsistent dead spots: sometimes the screen works fine, sometimes it doesn’t. Resetting the phone or installing Apple’s recent iPhone software update doesn’t resolve the problem.”

“I love the phone,” wrote one user of Apple’s online support forums, “but find that I cannot at times use the bottom of the screen. I have tried to reset it several times, no-go.”

“Apple offers loaner iPhones for $29 in the event a phone has to be sent back to Apple for repair or replacement. Some users with dead screen problems have reported some success having this fee waived; others have reported no such luck.”