iPhone 3GS white screen - hardware or software?

[cheeseball]

I wanted to skip a song on Jango Thursday night, pressed the home key and got the white screen. At first I thought it was the app causing a problem, then did a search and found that the white screen happens a lot. The phone has not been dropped and it is not jailbroken. I've tried the home key, volume up and power which works for a while and then doesn't. I've seen where people tried restoring and updating the phone but still got the white screen. I've seen several fixes that say it's hardware and to change the LCD, but if I change Auto Lock to 'never', it doesn't go white, so how could that be hardware?

This phone has a 05.16.05 baseband and is still on 5.0.1. I've only been able to use this phone for a month and after all the trials & tribulations I went through to get it unlocked from AT&T, I didn't want to do anything that might jeopardize wifi or any of the other number of horrors I've read about when updating to 6.0.1 (now 6.1.6), so I let it be. I did a chat with a super nice Apple rep yesterday who, as I thought he would, suggested restoring and updating to fix any and all bugs. I'm in Central America right now, so heading over to an Apple Store is not an option. I don't want to be forced to update, but if it's the only option, then of course, I will. The only reviews I've found for 6.1.6 relate to jailbreaking; any suggestions?

 

[RawR]

Hello,
You may try and restore/update. If that doesn't work it is most likely a hardware problem. (or it could be something in the software the Apple just neglected to fix)
Updating/restoring won't lose your unlock if you got it unlocked through ATT. I had a 3GS on 6.1.3 and I never experienced the problems you are describing.
But, you can order a new lcd online and that might fix it.

Although, a better option may just be to buy a new (new to you) iPhone. I don't know about your area but around me you can usually find a iPhone 4 for around 50-75 with a cracked screen. Then if you feel comfortably with it you can replace the screen yourself. It will cost around $20-$30 and take maybe an hour or so. Another option would be have someone else fix it. It would be around $50 to fix cracked iPhone 4/4S screen.

Hope this helps.