IPad – How to restore unresponsive ipad

It sounds like the home button still works, which is the only button you need to have iTunes recover the iPod for you. Note that recovering the iPod will wipe all of its data completely.

I tried this with an iPhone which I believe was in much worse shape than this and it worked. In my case my phone never got past the Apple logo and would shut down shortly after. Even a hard-drive restoration company wasn't able to access the data, yet the recovery through iTunes did work, so there is hope.

Apple calls this recovery mode.

All you need to do is press and hold the home button on the iPod while connecting it to the PC. iTunes should detect an iPod in recovery mode and allow you to recover the device (again, this wipes out all data completely).

Take it to the Apple store. They will not only help you be sure it's hardware but explain how they would get you an equivalent device for a known cost with Apple's warranty on the "repaired" iPad part. They might even be able to speculate if the case shows damage that might make a determination if it's more/less likely that you have a wiring or glass/digitizer issue.

Then you can decide if you want to buy a used iPad and try to scavenge parts or buy a new digitizer and roll the dice to guess if it's the screen or the connector or the chipset on the main board that turns the raw signals into a touch event.

Once you know your "official cost to replace" you can decide if you want a DIY project or perhaps pay someone that repairs iPads professionally to offer a repair that might be cheaper than Apple's but have less of a warranty than getting something factory made or factory refurbished.