Touch Screen dead zone

Pretty much every user who has reported this problem on the forums has wound up needing to have their iPhones replaced. I would go to the Apple store or call Apple at 1-800-MY-iPHONE sooner rather than later.

I experienced this issue and a full software restore cleared it up.

I also have a dead zone in my keypad. Somehow, I don't think it's the screen, I think it's in the keypad software itself. The bottom row of the keyboad is not accessible, meaning it doesn't recognize the space bar, return, or the ?123 keys. Instead, it triggers the key above the bottom row. So depending on where I press on the space bar key, it'll sense X, C, V, B, N, or M. And this is in every app that requires the keyboard.

This would not be that big of an issue if I was in Dallas (there are tons of Apple stores). I am currently travelling in Africa until October. I can't take it anywhere to get it repaired or replaced here. I have to wait until I get back but I think that will be too late to get it replaced by the Apple store since it'll be 3 months since i bought it.

I have tried reset, restore, hard restart and all options listed in these forums to no avail. The 1.02 software update didn't work either.

As stated, I don't think it's the screen, otherwise, that whole row would be dead and inaccessible in all apps, including the "home" screen and the "slide to unlock" screen. The dead area is located precisely where the slider is.

So what are my options here? Since text messaging is the only "affordable" means of communicating while travelling with the iphone, the keypad failure is really a nuisance and a headache to get around.

When text messages come in, I can't hit the "reply" button. So what I do instead is scroll up in the chat window, hit the "Contact Info" button, which takes me to the person's address book entry, where I tap "text message", then it'll give me the keypad. But my replies don't have spaces in the words so I have to use initial caps for every word.

It's freakin' annoying. Please help!