Apple announces repair program for defective iPhone 8 logic boards
There’s been a fair amount of hubbub over Apple’s newest iPhones, the X and XS (pronounced 10 and 10S, respectively). And considering that nearly 395 iPhones are sold every single minute, many Apple devotees have already gotten their hands on these latest models. But those who purchased former iterations and who have yet to upgrade might not experience quite as much excitement. In fact, there is a “select” number of iPhone 8s out there in the world that don’t function as they’re intended, thanks to faulty logic boards.
Apple has finally admitted that a “very small percentage” of iPhone 8 models contain logic boards with a manufacturing defect. Your phone’s logic board is essentially the motherboard — or the primary printed circuit board — found in other types of technology. Board designers use computer-aided design software to construct circuit patterns; these paths are often 0.04 inches or smaller, and this technology only continues to become more precise.
That said, it isn’t perfect. Apple says that these faulty logic boards could cause random phone restarts, screen freezes, and defective startups that prohibit the phone from turning on or off. And while the iPhone 8 Plus and other models aren’t affected, Apple noted that the impacted units were sold between September 2017 and March 2018 in the United States, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Australia, China, Japan, India, and Macau. That’s potentially a lot more than merely a “very small percentage.”
In response, Apple has launched a refurbishment program for iPhone 8 owners to have their devices repaired for free. If your phone is affected by a faulty logic board, you can make an appointment at the Apple store, contact Apple Support for a mail-in repair, or go through an authorized third-party specialist. Apple notes that the company cannot perform this service if your device has other damages (such as a broken screen), so it’s recommended that you fix any other problems prior to submitting your phone for this specific program.
You can determine whether your iPhone 8 is eligible for this program by checking its serial number. You can find this number by opening the Settings app, scrolling down to “General,” and then scrolling down to the serial number. You can enter this number in Apple’s iPhone 8 checker tool, which will assess whether your unit is defective and can be repaired by the recall.
Of course, if your iPhone is acting up and your serial number isn’t on the list, you might be out of luck. In that case, you’ll probably want to save your pennies and see if you can upgrade to the latest model — which has no substantial user issues reported as yet.
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