G1 screen keeps malfunctioning! - G1 General

Hey again gang,
I bought a used G1 on craigslist for $25 a week ago.
This thing has been dropped a ton of times and a very small crack in the upper right corner of the screen, but the screen works fine. It powers on and operates 100%.
The problem:
The screen randomly goes out and fades to a black screen but is still back-lit.
The rest of the device is still functioning and operates normally. (continues to play music, doesn't lock up, etc).
At times, this happens when I press one of the bottom four buttons but not all the time. I could just be reading a website and not touching any buttons and the screen will 'fizzle out' and not come back.
The ONLY way I can get the screen to respond is to press the red/end button and make sure the bottom buttons are not lit... then wait 5-20 seconds, THEN press menu to wake up the phone again. At this point I stand a 25% chance the phone will activate the screen again. It WILL wake up the rest of the device correctly every time... just not the screen. 50% of the time I have to let the G1 sit for a few minutes in 'standby' mode then try again.
(i am not a novice with Android phones and know this is not a back-light settings/timeout issue.)
At first I thought "This is a simple short somewhere!", but I am not so sure...
When the device stays on I performed the following tests:
* Applied pressure to the screens surface in every direction and can not duplicate the problem.
* Applied pressure to the movement of the screen in every direction and can not duplicate the problem.
* Applied pressure to every button on the device and can not duplicate the problem.
* Applied pressure to the chassis surface (completely) and can not duplicate the problem.
My next thought was "The guy i got this G1 from dropped it in liquid. I need to remove any mineral deposits from the internal parts!"
... I then gave the device an alcohol bath for 1 minute.
(relax... it was 100% alcohol not 70%)
After letting the alcohol dissipate for 2 days I inserted the battery and started the G1. All was going well for about 20 minutes... then the same 'fizzle out' problem happened.
My next thought was "Maybe the battery is damaged?!?!!"... but then I remembered that the rest of the device still continues to function properly. No lock-ups or anything. Just the screen 'fizzles out' and fades to black but is still back-lit.
I will try a friends battery just to rule this out, but I am not optimistic.
This G1 is not my primary phone. If I can't figure this out I will probably just hang on to it and use it to test apps I make, so it is no big deal.
What do you think the issue is?
a) the screen needs to be replaced.
b) the motherboard needs to be replaced.
c) the battery needs to be replaced.
d) the device has lived a good life... don't waste your time and money.

no tips on this problem?

never mind...
in a fit of rage i smashed it with a hammer.
the good news is, i don't have this problem anymore =)
kidding.... i sold it on Craigslist.

Seems it was jus the screen that was jacked up man, maybe the ribbon that connects the screen to the Mboard was damage/worn out

Related

A few buttons on face not working...

Besides dropping my phone a few too many times, I recently got my phone a little wet (on scale of 1 to 10, 10 being submerged, I would say this water contact was 3).
After letting the phone dry overnight and performing a soft reset , I now have lost the use of the left button on face (Above TALK button)and the multi button( a good name for this button escapes me).
So I tried a hard reset and the HTC ROM upgrade hoping some magic would fix this button. No magic. Any ideas?
Michael
Probably should have let your phone dry out a bit longer. Putting it in the oven on it's lowest setting for a few hours works too, if you happen to ever do it again, but I guess that isn't going to help you right now. If that's the only function you lost then I would concider myself lucky, especially since you can use the bottom task bar button to do what you would use that button for most of the time anyway.
sweet jesus, this is horrible :O
good luck with your device...
Remove the battery and sim card. Look at the horizontal strip where the sim card goes... the strip should be white. If it isn't, then the water has damaged your device. A continued "drying out" may restore the circuits.

8525 White Screen of Death - Is there Hope?

Ok so I have the fabled white screen issue on an 8525. When it first occurred I searched and read all the write ups, decided I had the ribbon cable issue. Took it apart and simply unplugged and replugged the ribbon cable with great results, no more white screen.
I repeated once when it came back after being bumped around, again with positive results...but this last(3rd)time instead of it working I now get white screen 95% of the time. I re-notched the sliders the first time, and last time.
During the 5% it works I noticed the charge light would correspond to it going white.This never happened before...
Example:
When OFF - Connect charger, Red light for 1 second, then nothing=White screen from power on
When OFF - Connect charger, Red light for 1 second, then orange charge indicator = normal startup
When ON and Working - Connect charger, no light, no charge - reboots to white screen
When ON and Working - Connect charger, orange charge indicator, reboots normally.
There is no heat or noticeable pressure on any parts, everything seems to fit normally.
It does boot normally with screen white.
Any ideas? I really don't want to give up on this thing, is there any hope? or just ebay it for parts?
Thanks
-Nick
same problems here, if someone could just tell me what parts to order, cause I have no warranty (ordered over ebay). I tried both the instruction that has chinese fonts on the page , and other from R&R, no luck, white screen all the way..
I had the WSOD and took it apart and reassembled a few time. The 3rd or 4th time the screem came back, but now it is shifter to the right around 1/4" or so. I mean there is just white along the left edge, then the normal screen/color starts and is cut off on the right.
Does anyone know how to correct that, is it related to the same flex cable or is there something else I disturbed?
mine will fade to white.. then i just push the power to put it in standby, then push power again to wake it back up and back to normal.. it rarely does it but still annoying...
If You Ordered From At&t
I had this problem about 2 weeks ago!!!!
I thought it was a fluke!
Anyway, walked over to 43rd and Lexington (NYC FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW THAT MANHATTAN IS THE CENTER OF THE WORLD)
and they gave me the EXCHANGE HOTLINE for at&t.
I called them up, told them my screen is fading to WHITE and the lady sent me a new or referbished phone.. i dont even know.
Just so you know, i ordered my phone on AMAZON with a new activation. its covered under the MANUFACTURERS warentee for a full year from the date of purchase... so is the REPLACEMENT PHONE... but not from the date of replacement, just the date of purchase.
did anyone get deeper into this yet? I got a 8500 (need those without camera) from ebay USA, already with white screen. After reading here, that this is mostly an issue with connectors, I bought it, disassembled it and reassembled it, though still white. Should I give the contacts a treatment with contact-spray? (there's a tuner spray that doesn't leave residues) Or is there something broken within the ribbon cables? Seller said it has been dropped (but he also said, he didn't want to open it, while it clearly has been opened, one screw missing and warranty seal gone). It ssems to boot up normal otherwise, I hear a sound after the boot process, so probably this isn't a software issue?
Edit: another thing I noticed: When I run it without any keyboard connected at all, it's also white. I then connected the dpad again, and I could see a hint of the at&t logo in the lower part of the screen. When I pressed around on the back of the dpad a bit, all LEDs would go on/off... Sound to me like the dpad has gone bad, possible?
Edit II: Got it. Using a 20x eyeloupe I found that the PCB of the DPad is broken under the little chip on it. Now I just gotta find a dpad here in germany, but I assume those Hermes' are all equal...
hello
where can I get manual (if there is one) for disassembling hermes. link in wiki does not work.
thanks
this worked good for me
http://inuchanbt.blog54.fc2.com/blog-entry-100.html
Anyone know if this applies to the 8125 as well? I've got a flickering white screen. I had dropped my phone a few weeks back and cracked the LCD. Replaced it with an OEM LCD - it worked fine for about 2 weeks and then just suddenly went all white. Phone still works, I can still get calls - just can't see who is calling.
I don't recall that the wizard had the same problem... Though from a logical point, it seems that there is an issue behind white screens and the thumbpad being responsible for it, so it may well be the same thing. Perhaps just disassemble the wizard (there should be a howto too) and check if theres a similar connection from mainboard to thumbpad circuit.
Is there a disassembling manual for a imate k-jam that anyone knows about?
Here's a website with a video manual i found useful...
http://viralelectronics.com/category/howto/page/2/
Figured out the problem...
The only reason I figured out the screen goes blank is because the motherboard loses connection with the screen when you slide the keyboard out...try this out and see if the screen comes back...
put the screen on sleep mode (no white screen)...then slide out the keyboard and tilt it a little hard after pressing on the screen and put the power on. if it doesnt work try again it might take some pressure and power to make it work...be careful not to put too much power but as far as I went, it's a very sturdy cell.
alternately, slide out the keyboard in sleep mode, and press all the buttons really hard and then try to press the power button (press more towards the space bar because that helps)...if any of this works and the screen comes back on even just for a second...follow the following
Go back to the person who gave the link to the site with opening the HTC instructions and follow through and clean the whole phone up from dirt around the screen and such...you dont need to put those rubber things or whatever it says to put on the screen...then when you are putting it back together, press hard on the wire connecting the touch screen to the motherboard. I suggest sealing it with a good tape...and then you are good to go! I did it but it had a few glitches...the screens contrast sometimes goes awry but it is still visible and responds to touch. Also, the physical buttons work as well!!
Good Luck and do it at your on risk.
Have any of you tried this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163
hope the best
i tried this and it worked for me. i also pressed alil hard around the d-pad and heard a pop. i think it poped back into place.
thanks
razor rc said:
i tried this and it worked for me. i also pressed alil hard around the d-pad and heard a pop. i think it poped back into place.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i still have this problem.
fixed my wsod
I noticed a few days ago my 8525 screen went white, rebooted and it went away. Today it came back, but would only go away for a few seconds and then back to white. After reading some forums I decided to check the connector. I took the phone apart following this site as a guide. I removed the connector on the board side and cleaned the contacts with a qtip and denatured alcohol. Phone has been perfect for the last few hours, no more white screen of death. I didn't mess with the connector on the LCD side, just the board side. I'm a computer tech and I found it quite annoying to disassemble, but I managed without causing any damage, however, I'd rate the job at about a 8/10 as far as technical ability.
Joey
warped0202 said:
I noticed a few days ago my 8525 screen went white, rebooted and it went away. Today it came back, but would only go away for a few seconds and then back to white. After reading some forums I decided to check the connector. I took the phone apart following this site as a guide. I removed the connector on the board side and cleaned the contacts with a qtip and denatured alcohol. Phone has been perfect for the last few hours, no more white screen of death. I didn't mess with the connector on the LCD side, just the board side. I'm a computer tech and I found it quite annoying to disassemble, but I managed without causing any damage, however, I'd rate the job at about a 8/10 as far as technical ability.
Joey
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree that this is one of the first things to try in curing the white screen issue. Others may find their problem runs a little deeper and the contacts on the d/pad chip are broken. An improvised cure which may not be very permanent is to place a little padding on the surface of the chip as described here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163
If you have appropriate heat gun equipment you can re-flow the solder on the d/pad daughter board - but remember to remove the sticky key pad layer or you'll cook it!!
I regret that I'm closing this thread because we have several "White Screen" threads and the questions and answers are being spread all over the place.
Please use this one for future posts:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163
Mike

Hermes White screen

I have read many threads and forums about the problem of the Hermes becoming white. The soft reset in this case does not help.
I found the explanation in my case and I am not able to fix it quickly, without opening the device to screw the connector.
The problem is only due to the temperature of the device. When the temp is to hot, the screen is white, in my case, it typically happens when it stays in my pocket et I moving too much throug the office ;-)
Solution, simply open the keyboard and gently blow in the thin area between the two parts of the device.. in my case, the screen comes back in 2-3 seconds.
Enjoy !
Eric
Hermes/Schaps 4.31/Orange CH
To be honest, I have this problem on my 838 (wizard) previously.
I have found someone (engineer who I need to pay) help me to check.
It is actually the connection cable between the keyboard and screen start breaking.
This makes the connection poor.
End up, my wizard cannot be repaired and I have borrow my freinds hermes to use in the mean time.
I suggest you pay special attention to it.
I suppecm that you blow it is actually helping the connection of that cable.
huh
are you guys serious in what you're talking about?
blow in between the two parts of the device when it's hot to get the connection of the cable back?
are you sure you are talking about a mobile phone and not about a compressor?
thanks for your feedback. I am convince that in my case, the gentle blow does not move the connecting cable.
Additionaly, the tipical symptom reported in various thread is that the soft reset does not help, while letting it apart for 15 minutes does help. It can confirm that the simple temperature idea is fine.
Again, it works for me, it can help others, and sorry for the others that won't find a solution with mine!
actually, i am neutal to this topic.
But just want to share my experience.
In my case, my cable is aging. Initially, it can help with slide the keyboard open and close.
End up the engineer told me that cannot be repaired deal to no parts. he examined it using a microsope watching the cable.
no need to take it too series.
It is a cable connection issue, it is caused by either dropping or opening and closing the device numerous times. It can be fixed the part cost around $20 kinda hard to find but can be found if you search enought. I can repair the device if your interested either pm me or you can contact me at
[email protected]
nate
when this happened to my hermes last August i found slightly unscrewing the two screws on the back of the screen fixed it & not had a problem since
didnt know what the white screen was 'till i got it right after the external volume crapped out, so tired of tinkering with hermes, going Kaiser
As a science experiment I have bought a number of hermes on ebay- it is a cable connection issue or worn cable in the 4 I have played with - all fixed by cleaning and reinstalling cable/connection or replacing the cable assembly. I cant say this is the only bug but 4 outy of 4 inducates a trend to me
John
Oh my gosh, topic starter, that is the same exact issue that I frequently have with my 8525. I eventually found out that if I leave it in direct sunlight, put it in my pocket for too long, or in anyway expose it to relative heat, then it would turn white.
That's a nice "fix" you have there hahah. As for me, I just let it cool down by placing it in a cool and shaded place, works like a charm after a few minutes.
Anyone with a WHITE screen MUST READ this!!!
To bring credit to what I say below, I haved had tinkering experience with electronics for the past 10 years, not to mention that I am currently a 3rd year electronics engineering student.
I currently have 4 hermes units.
When I first had the white screen prolem on my first hermes about a year ago (may be 8-10 months?) my research on the net revealed that the problem is apparently the connector on the button pad board (part number 50H000380-30M-A). After serious tinkering and tweaking I finally got the (extremely sensitive) connector connected up so that the white screen issue actually dissapeared. However, since the connection was so delicate and so sensitive, I had to fix it in place with a hot glue. Hot glue actually added some thickness to it; given that there isn't much tolerance between the top of the connector and the cover, I needed to scrape away some plastic without putting a hole in it so it can accommodate the extra thickness, this is also required for the sliding function to be smooth.
However, right now I have 4 hermes, and I am faced with the same issue. On two units I have the white screen problem. After some intuitive testing I have found that the problem is not with the flex cable, nor with the connector on the flex cable, nor the connector on the button pad board. The problem is with the actual button pad board itself, as it contains fair bit of circuitry on board.
This is how I came to the conclusion. Since the white screen can be fixed with sensitive alignment of the connecor on the board, I wondered if it will display anything with that D-pad (button pad board) disconnected. On trial, it didn't display anything on both a functional unit and a unit with a white screen issue. From this I made the assumtion that the LCD initialisation sequence is contained on the button pad board (part number 50H000380-30M-A).
Having made this assumption, I thought since the symptoms of having it disconnected on a functional unit is the same with a unit that has the white screen symptom, I wondered if it will fix the white screen problem if I changed over the button pad board. On trial, I found that the white screen problem was a thing of the past. So, I don't know what on the button pad board actually causes the white screen, but it is DEFINITELY the board it self and not the connector.
PS: I don't know the proper names of the components but by the button pad board I am talking about is the board that lies under the front buttons of the unit that has the call, end call, start, ok...etc buttons.
uengin, u totally had make ur homework regarding the white-screen-issue.
Anyway, for me, I face the exact problem too. And my way is much simpler. When ever I face the white-screen problem (this cause by the high temperature, coz I notice it only happen when I put my 838 on my pocket while walking during sunny day), I simply turn off the screen for a while (by lightly pressing the power button), like 3-5 second, then turn on the screen back. And, voila~ it back to normal.
i get a white screen when i press on the plastic casing on the lower right side of the screen, above the right bar button. no temperature involved here. sending the hermes to sleep and waking it up restores the normal screen.
pcpc said:
i get a white screen when i press on the plastic casing on the lower right side of the screen, above the right bar button. no temperature involved here. sending the hermes to sleep and waking it up restores the normal screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's actually a BGA chip in that vicinity on the button pad circuit board. It may or may not be that chip thats causing the issues, but I find it higly likely it is...
uengin said:
There's actually a BGA chip in that vicinity on the button pad circuit board. It may or may not be that chip thats causing the issues, but I find it higly likely it is...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if it is the chip, then this would be a loose soldering point?
would you recommend to handle the hermes with great care? eg. not putting it in my trouser pocket because oft the pressure?
pcpc said:
if it is the chip, then this would be a loose soldering point?
would you recommend to handle the hermes with great care? eg. not putting it in my trouser pocket because oft the pressure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I doubt its a "loose" solder joint. It could be a dry joint. But then again you never know. However, the symptoms with the heating and cooling mentioned in the thread it could be one of the several devices on the button pad board failing due to heat.
As a general rule of thumb, definitely electronic devices of this calibre should be dealt with a level of care indeed.
nohanz said:
uengin, u totally had make ur homework regarding the white-screen-issue.
Anyway, for me, I face the exact problem too. And my way is much simpler. When ever I face the white-screen problem (this cause by the high temperature, coz I notice it only happen when I put my 838 on my pocket while walking during sunny day), I simply turn off the screen for a while (by lightly pressing the power button), like 3-5 second, then turn on the screen back. And, voila~ it back to normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same for me which seems software issue but how to solve it
I'm having white screen problem too. I highly doubt it has anything to do with a cable because:
1) I almost never use keyboard, aka don't slide open the phone
2) lately white screen often happens when I touch a screen.
3) several times white screen got fixed by holding the phone next to aircondition outlet.
4) white screen recently started at the same time I've noticed that the battery started dying, it doesn't last as long as before. Before this battery I had another one, similar, and also never had white screen while that battery was new.
To conclude all this, at least in my case is more likely it's a battery issue and/or overheat. Tomorrow I'll use the original battery (I've replaced it with 3k mAh 2 years ago) this should proof me right or wrong.
My white screen issues started after a waist-high drop onto concrete, accompanied by the D-Pad and the surrounding buttons not working. In order to get the white screen to go away and the buttons to work again, I have a simple 2-step process:
Put the Hermes to sleep
Press hard right above the D-Pad/below the screen
When I wake the device up, it works just fine!
Interesting Find......
I just noticed something about my white screens.
IF the poweron led does NOT turn on then I get white screen when turning on my hermes.
If the poweron led turns ON(lights up) when turning my phone on then it won't white screen on me.

[Q] Desire HD - Random screen behaviour

Has anyone else found that occasionally the screen starts going mad? I will unlock the phone and suddenly it starts going into various menu options, brings up a browser or brings up widget settings. It's as if there is an invisible finger using the screen, although it's so fast it's as if there is a buffer of actions.
I'm not sure what causes it, but a colleague has a Samsung Galaxy and reckons he gets it when moisture gets on the screen. My screen has never been wet or near anything wet.
Additionally, I've noticed it was happening just now when I was charging the phone via USB. When I unplugged it the behaviour stopped.
Anyone else?
Yao
Never had that before , maybe a application you installed that is acting wierd?
I had a application installed that just drained my batt like hell.
I also reboot the phone after heavy duty, meaning using the explorer , games, ....
me too!
I'm getting the same problem at the moment. It takes me about 5 attempts to unlock the screen. Once I'm in, sometimes it responds to my touch, sometimes it doesn't, other times it just does random stuff. It's making the phone totally unusable .
I got the phone on Monday (3 days ago) this is the first time it happened. I'm sat in a cafe atm and it's quite humid in here; if it's a problem with moisture could the humidity explain it?
I once had a similar problem with an ipod touch after it had been in a bag with a leaking water bottle. It went OK by itself after a few hours.
Anybody else got any thoughts?
Thanks
Damian.
The thing that I had to get used to was gripping the phone properly. The lower right quarter of my right hand is a bit chubby, so when I gripped the phone my palm ended up wrapping around the phone and resting on the screen somewhat. This would result in the screen not always unlocking right, sometimes selecting widgets and icons on my homescreen, restricting scrolling in the browser and random text entry.
Since I've altered my grip I don't get those problems any more.
My tattoo does this all the time....
Looks like exposing the phone to extreme conditions like heat or humidity makes this...
I used to keep my phone next to my Burning furnace i7 HP laptop and there is an LCD leak now on the screen :-(...since i noticed the leak, the phone started behaving more cranky....
update ...
Just to give an update, my phone is OK again now. By the time I got home a few hours later it had sorted itself out.
It's a HTC Desire HD, btw.
Damian
I had the same problem when I used a non-HTC charger.
Same problem here happens when charging with the original charger, when tyring another HTC charger with the same model number the problem is gone.
My guess is the charger that came with the phone is defective.
A workaround: I'm using a case for my DHD, when this problem happens I can get the screen to act normal by keeping the phones body (metal part) in direct contact with my hand.

[Q] Anyone else have touchscreen problems

My phone last week wasn't receiving texts so I restarted it and when it came back on the touchscreen no longer worked. The little white light would go on when I touched it so it knew where my finger was but any movement would not unlock the phone so I couldn't actually do anything with it. Sure enough a factory reset fixed the problem but I am still waiting for them to get me a new one in case the problem happens again to me. Anyone else have this happen to them or just a freak occurrence for me?
My son has gotten a hold of my s4 twice now since I have owned it. Both times I couldn't get the phone unlocked even though the touch screen was recognizing my touch. Restarting fixed it both times for me. Not sure if this is the same problem you are talking about, just thought I would share.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2
Happened to me a few times. Both screen swipes and the capacitive button presses werent registering. Happened on lock screen, call logs (swiping to call wasnt working), and swipe to answer. Pressing the home button and going back to the app fixed it. Very random but annoying nonetheless especially when not able to answer a call
Seems like buggy software to me. I've had a different issue, my phone says I have data, but I don't, I've had to restart the phone to properly pick up a data signal. This has happened twice now. Seems to be like Samsung's touchwhiz is quite buggy...
Yeah restarting it did nothing for me, tried many times, took the battery out put it back in all that stuff. The same thing happened with my data, I had a connection that entire time that I was not receiving texts but none of them actually went through which is when the problem began.
sam2c said:
Happened to me a few times. Both screen swipes and the capacitive button presses werent registering. Happened on lock screen, call logs (swiping to call wasnt working), and swipe to answer. Pressing the home button and going back to the app fixed it. Very random but annoying nonetheless especially when not able to answer a call
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What app were you able to get in to to fix it? Would like to know in case the problem happens again when they get me a new one.
This happened to me last night, about had a major freak out.
First I have a couple questions for all of you who had this issue, so maybe we can pinpoint the actual cause:
1. Did you get any type of moisture (even just a little condensation) anywhere on or around the phone? Mine started acting up after I accidentally put my phone on the coffee table where some condensation had formed from a drink being there previously.
2. Any of you drop your phone at all? Even just a minor drop...as the day before I had a little drop (maybe from a foot off the ground), but I do have a case.
The reason I ask is because I started having this issue immediately after the phone was put on the condensation. Don't know if that was the cause, though, because I'm not sure exactly which of the steps below actually fixed it.
First I had to identify the exact problem...which I found by turning on "show touches" in Developer Options within the settings menu. This brings up a little white dot on the screen any time it registers a touch. Sure enough, I was getting "ghost touches" on the top left corner of my screen every 30 seconds or so - and it would generally last for 10-30 seconds or until I turned my screen on and off (that would fix it temporarily). The ghost touch was causing my drop down menu to pull down slightly every once in awhile, as well as not registering any of my other touches (including capacitive buttons). I knew the screen itself wasn't broken, because any addition touches were registering via the white dot - they just weren't interacting with the UI.
After doing some research online, apparently there are a couple main reasons that this ghost touching could occur:.
1. Faulty digitizer. Obviously this would Suck, and I really hoped it wasn't the cause. To repair would mean replacing the entire screen, as apparently the digitizer is attached to the screen and would be very difficult to replace by itself.
2. Any kind of moisture, whether water, skin oil, etc, getting in the cracks of the phone and staying under the screen, causing the pressure to indicate a false touch. Possible repair options included putting the phone near a WARM (but not too hot) surface for a period of time to hopefully cause the moisture to evaporate. Also some people said it just evaporated on its own after a few days (again, I hoped I wouldn't have to resort to this as I'm impatient and don't want to be without my phone for that long lol).
3. Software issue. Possible fix includes toggling HW overlays and/or GPU rendering.
Here's what I did:
Took the phone apart completely, made sure there was no visible moisture anywhere (there wasn't). Intermittently blew the phone (from the back and front, while it was disassembled) with warm air from a blow dryer. Left it alone, disassembled, for about 30 minutes.
Put the phone back together, booted up, immediately went to developer Options and (a) disabled HW overlays and (b) DISABLED "Force GPU rendering" (I actually already had it enabled).
BOOM - problem was gone!
So like I said, I'm not sure which of those did the trick - or which problem I had to begin with - but I'd be interested to know if anyone else had similar issues and/or fixes?
sam2c said:
Happened to me a few times. Both screen swipes and the capacitive button presses werent registering. Happened on lock screen, call logs (swiping to call wasnt working), and swipe to answer. Pressing the home button and going back to the app fixed it. Very random but annoying nonetheless especially when not able to answer a call
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CPA Poke said:
This happened to me last night, about had a major freak out.
First I have a couple questions for all of you who had this issue, so maybe we can pinpoint the actual cause:
1. Did you get any type of moisture (even just a little condensation) anywhere on or around the phone? Mine started acting up after I accidentally put my phone on the coffee table where some condensation had formed from a drink being there previously.
2. Any of you drop your phone at all? Even just a minor drop...as the day before I had a little drop (maybe from a foot off the ground), but I do have a case.
The reason I ask is because I started having this issue immediately after the phone was put on the condensation. Don't know if that was the cause, though, because I'm not sure exactly which of the steps below actually fixed it.
First I had to identify the exact problem...which I found by turning on "show touches" in Developer Options within the settings menu. This brings up a little white dot on the screen any time it registers a touch. Sure enough, I was getting "ghost touches" on the top left corner of my screen every 30 seconds or so - and it would generally last for 10-30 seconds or until I turned my screen on and off (that would fix it temporarily). The ghost touch was causing my drop down menu to pull down slightly every once in awhile, as well as not registering any of my other touches (including capacitive buttons). I knew the screen itself wasn't broken, because any addition touches were registering via the white dot - they just weren't interacting with the UI.
After doing some research online, apparently there are a couple main reasons that this ghost touching could occur:.
1. Faulty digitizer. Obviously this would Suck, and I really hoped it wasn't the cause. To repair would mean replacing the entire screen, as apparently the digitizer is attached to the screen and would be very difficult to replace by itself.
2. Any kind of moisture, whether water, skin oil, etc, getting in the cracks of the phone and staying under the screen, causing the pressure to indicate a false touch. Possible repair options included putting the phone near a WARM (but not too hot) surface for a period of time to hopefully cause the moisture to evaporate. Also some people said it just evaporated on its own after a few days (again, I hoped I wouldn't have to resort to this as I'm impatient and don't want to be without my phone for that long lol).
3. Software issue. Possible fix includes toggling HW overlays and/or GPU rendering.
Here's what I did:
Took the phone apart completely, made sure there was no visible moisture anywhere (there wasn't). Intermittently blew the phone (from the back and front, while it was disassembled) with warm air from a blow dryer. Left it alone, disassembled, for about 30 minutes.
Put the phone back together, booted up, immediately went to developer Options and (a) disabled HW overlays and (b) DISABLED "Force GPU rendering" (I actually already had it enabled).
BOOM - problem was gone!
So like I said, I'm not sure which of those did the trick - or which problem I had to begin with - but I'd be interested to know if anyone else had similar issues and/or fixes?
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I should not have had any condensation at all on my screen when it began. I was using the phone playing with WatchOn and setting it up for my TV, I was messing with it for quite a while and realized after a period I hadn't received texts in a long time (I normally get at least 1 every 10 minutes, I was going on a hour and a half with 0) which I thought was weird so I restarted the phone.
When the phone came back online I did not notice the white dot pressing itself anywhere, but anytime I touched the screen it would immediately know where my finger was and follow it around, but not actually press anything. When I held the power button and the little Shutdown and Restart options came up, if I sat there and just pressed either one of them constantly they would eventually recognize that I pressed something and do that action.
I was also able to get into the homescreen by getting the talk option to come up and backing out of it (The buttons on the bottom of the screen all worked fine) but once in the homescreen I couldn't actually press any buttons regularly so gave up on it.
The guy at the ATT store said he hadn't seen any other complaints about it so I did a factory reset while there (I had already backed up everything with Kies) and when it came back on there seemed to be no problems.
Like I said though I am waiting for a new one anyway, they are backordered at my local store (Should have got a new batch in Friday, not sure where my phone is now) so hopefully the new one I get doesn't have this problem nor the lag problem a lot of people have been getting.
bmroczka said:
Yeah restarting it did nothing for me, tried many times, took the battery out put it back in all that stuff. The same thing happened with my data, I had a connection that entire time that I was not receiving texts but none of them actually went through which is when the problem began.
What app were you able to get in to to fix it? Would like to know in case the problem happens again when they get me a new one.
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Just the stock Phone app. My problem seemed like a software problem more than anything else.
But if you have to restart the phone in order for the digitizer to respond, thats a different story. A swap should fix your issue, since it seems so uncommon.

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