Chosen Solution
I have a purchased a used iPhone SE that I just recently noticed goes through periods where the touchscreen doesn’t respond at all. These are intermittent and there doesn’t appear to be any fixed period of re-occurrence. There are no visible signs of damage to the screen either in cracks or dead pixels. At first I attempted force restarts to clear the problem and generally anywhere from 3-7 force restarts will cause the screen to respond again. I’ve also reset the phone and restored from an iCloud back up, but still experienced the same issue. Recently I’ve notice shaking the phone, a bit more vigorously than you would to use the shake to undo feature, will also clear it. Is this a software issue or am I looking at a screen replacement?
This is not a software issue but a hardware one. You will need to determine if the problem is related to the screen or the logic board. Because this is a used device, you don’t really know what’s it been through. The first thing to try re-seating the screen connectors. I doubt this is the issue but you have to start somewhere and this one is free :>). The next step is to try a good quality (preferably known-good) replacement screen. You can check out this guide for instructions on how to replace one. It also includes a link to the iFixit replacement screen. If that doesn’t solve your problem, then you are probably looking at a logic board issue. This could be damaged connectors or simply a damaged logic board. This is potentially repairable but will require the expertise of a micro-soldering tech.
