Usually I can Google any problem, and find a solution online. I have been stymied, though, for the past couple of months. Little by little, my iPhone has become increasingly frozen. It has gone from occasionally not responding to my keypad touches, to not responding at all.

I tried several tactics over the months: I removed the small metal plate attached to the iPhone case, which grabbed onto the magnet on our car’s dashboard; I changed the iPhone case. I did numerous “hard resets” on the iPhone. Finally, I reset the iPhone completely. The freezing only got worse.

Yesterday I had had it. I told my wife that we had to stop at the Apple Store to visit the Apple Genius Bar. Since we were just a few days away from Christmas, I expected the wait to be several hours. I was amazed when I was called to meet my Genius after only a 35-minute wait. A few pokes and turns and probes later, and my Genius said, “We’ll get you a new display screen. It will be ready for pickup in one hour.”

My reaction: “You mean you have seen this problem before?” His answer: “Yes. Quite often.” Duh.

How come I couldn’t find any Google mention of variations on when your screen freezes up more and more, it’s time to get a new display screen. The only mention I saw of need-to-change-display- screen, was when the screen was cracked. There were many guesses as what to do with frozen screens. Either they did not work for me or they were so intimidating – like taking apart the whole iPhone – that I passed on those.

Coincidentally (my wife says there are no coincidences), when I Googled How do I delete my WAZE (GPS driving system) routes from my iPhone? I read several answers that did not work on my iPhone. It wasn’t until I kept playing with the WAZE app that I realized I could delete the routes by swiping to the left, and choosing the Delete icon that appeared. I realized, too, that all those Googlings were old, and were referring to past versions of WAZE.

So, I have learned something important here. Googling is not all it is cracked up to be. I mean, one has to first try all the things he can think of and then, not wait, but run to the Apple Genius Bar, or any other relevant genius. Googling may no longer be my god, but it sure helps on many occasions. Thank Googling!

Mr. Ebsen may be contacted at robertebsen@hotmail.com