In iPhone 6, there was a disease known as 'Touch Disease'.

In iPhone 7 and 8, a new disease was

found, and it is known as the 'Loop Disease' which is a term relating to an audio issue. This issue
is caused by a hardware defect that causes certain audio features of the phone to be useless. It
causes the microphone, headphones and loudspeaker not to work correctly. In some cases, it
boots loops on the Apple logo.

This issue is understood to be caused by a bad connection between the audio IV chip. This chip
is located on the main logic board. When the solder paste between the chip and the logic chip has
cracked off, the connection gets affected or cut off. In other words, this issue is caused by the
loosening of the audio chip away from the phone's motherboard.

As the chip's connection continues loosening, the audio problem gets worse. At the final stage of
this problem, the phone may freeze and keep looping when starting up at the stage it displays the
Apple logo. In many cases, people do not realise they are suffering this 'loop disease' because of
the tendency not to power off or restart the phone nowadays. It is common for people to plug
their phone to charge after a day of usage which means the phone is never off. As such, most
people only find out about this problem when they restart their phone or turn on their phone after
their battery is dead.

If you want to out whether your phone is suffering from this issue, here is a simple checklist:

 When you are on a call, check that your loudspeaker function is not greyed out
 Go to your Voice Memo app and check if it shows the error message "recording failed -
no audio devices found"
 Manually test if your headphones are working
 Call any of your friends or family members and ask if they can hear you normally
 Restart your phone and see if it gets stuck on the Apple logo screen

Based on this checklist, you will be able to know whether you are suffering from this disease.
While this issue mostly affects iPhone 7 and 8, it can also affect other models.

The audio IC chip must be replaced to fix this issue permanently. First, the loose chip must be
removed, and the wires under the chip need to be soldered together.
It would be best if you do not attempt to fix it yourself as replacing this chip requires a high level
of precision. It is not a simple process, and it needs experience. Besides that, an additional jump
wire needs to be soldered on to make a good connection as a precaution from preventing the chip
from becoming loose again.

If you encounter any audio issues, use the checklist above to diagnose whether it is an actual
hardware audio issue that needs fixing. If it is, bring your phone to a mobile phone repair shop to
get it professionally repaired.