Database Develop

HOW TO: fix Droid/Milestone touchscreen lack of responsiveness and Ghost Touch issues

NOTE: THIS SOLUTION IS POTENTIALLY DAMAGING AND MAY NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE
PROBLEM: touch screen acts erratic, notification bar keeps opening, screen appears to be touched by someone else continuously (Ghost Touch), and parts of the screen DO NOT RESPOND TO TOUCH.
MY OWN SPECIFIC CASE: I had the Ghost Touch issue for 3 days suddenly without intro, which often used to go away after a reboot or two, then phone worked normally after I removed the battery and left it in a dry area (in a closed drawer between books, no air entering, very dry atmosphere), however the RIGHT SIDE of the screen (Search button, rightmost letters [L and Delete and sometimes ENTER] do not work. If the phone is in normal landscape, you cannot open the notification bar by dragging it normally.
DIAGNOSIS: for some people, the problem is more severe. The Digitiser itself could be malfunctioning and has to be fixed, while for others it could be a true problem with the screen itself. However, for MANY OF US, it is a problem of HUMIDITY. The humidity sensors are causing the phone to act like that. Some say part of this problem happens because the way the keypad affects the phone internally as you open and close it a lot.
SOLUTIONS:
1- To be safe: send the phone to the shop. Ask them to open the phone and apply an extra layer of insulation, in case the digitiser and the screen are okay.
2- If something is faulty, replace it at the shop.
3- MY OWN SOLUTION: based on something I read many times, the solution was to apply DRY HEAT for at least 45 mins. What I did, based on averaging out many experiences I read online, was to remove the SD Card and SIM, remove battery, I heated up a toaster oven for 10 minutes, waited until the temperature was at about 60-70 degrees Celsius, SHUT DOWN THE HEAT, put the phone on its screen on a plate, screen facing down and covered by a cloth to protect it from direct contact with metal, then all inside the oven. The oven is a relatively big one, so phone was AWAY FROM A SOURCE OF DIRECT HEAT. I closed the lid, then every while 15 minutes I would heat the oven for 40 seconds to maintain the temp. This is LIKE (ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION) leaving your phone in the glove compartment of your car while its parked in a sunny spot, to find it really hot in the morning and tough to touch for a while. TO CONTINUE, after the phone was out of the oven (I can't believe I am saying this), I left the phone overnight in a dry area for 8 hours (could need less time). Then, I put everything back in, plugged it, and THE PHONE IS WORKING PERFECTLY NOW!
NOTE that solution number 3 could affect your keyboard buttons if heat is too much. It may cause the glue holding the keys to melt a bit. Be delicate with your keyboard after you restore your phone.
Again, I only did this YESTERDAY. With the exception of some keypad stickiness, the phone is working perfectly now.
I hope this was useful
B.
EDIT: Today is the First of May, phone is still working without a glitch
N.B. Press the Thank you button if you wanna congratulate me on daring to toast my milestone in the name of scientific inquiry
SECOND EDIT: Phone did it again for 2 days. Applied the same method, and it worked again. I think partially it happened because I was in a very humid location.

That didn't work for me, I had no option but to replace the touchscreen/gorila glass.

I love the idea of toasting a milestone
Thought with all my aggression against Moto, I think I just might leave it in there
Luckily I dont have these problems so I wont get tempted

AirLancer said:
I love the idea of toasting a milestone
Thought with all my aggression against Moto, I think I just might leave it in there
Luckily I dont have these problems so I wont get tempted
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have to admit, I cared litte whether or not this actually worked. I just wanted to toast it But it did work, so

Pretty tempted to try this out, I think I will when I have free time.
My phone had the dead zone problem for 2 months now, but in some very rare cases, like when it's a very hot day, the screen will work normally for a minute or something. Then it goes back to dead part. I assume this would fix it?

Lesiroth said:
Pretty tempted to try this out, I think I will when I have free time.
My phone had the dead zone problem for 2 months now, but in some very rare cases, like when it's a very hot day, the screen will work normally for a minute or something. Then it goes back to dead part. I assume this would fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If it DOES indeed work on hot days, then it means the phone is not entirely dead. But I would suggest you do something less drastic first, such as the Glove Compartment method. No responsibility though

If you're trying to remove moisture, you could also try putting it in a baggie of crystaline cat litter (NOT the clay kind!) - this stuff is sold at a MUCH higher price as a way to save a phone from water damage, but it's the exact same substance. Does a great job removing moisture. It's the same sort of silica gel that's in those packets in medicine/vitamins that says "Dessicant - do not eat".

Or you could just put it in a sealed bowl with raw rice for a couple of days... this is the best and cheapest way (and then you have the silicon "grains", the ones that you find in shoe boxes or computer parts boxes).
Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

CybeRNerO said:
Or you could just put it in a sealed bowl with raw rice for a couple of days... this is the best and cheapest way (and then you have the silicon "grains", the ones that you find in shoe boxes or computer parts boxes).
Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure that rice doesn't do anything, I don't know how that started as a suggestion, but its not better than anything else; its not known to be absorbant, but the silicon is.

I've tried the method but the right segment of the digitizer still doesn't work.

My biggest issue with regards to "lack of responsiveness" are the 4 capacitive buttons. Pressing the Home key is always hit and miss. I know I hit it all the time because I can feel the vibration feedback but it only goes to homescreen 50% of the time.

Will also be testing this out as soon as I have the spare time. My screen started acting up after I accidentally put my milestone in a small beer spill at a party Hopefully this will work out for me too!

Abazel said:
I've tried the method but the right segment of the digitizer still doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Luckily for me, I was still under warranty, heh. Cause I had insurance. This is my second Droid this has happened to. Hopefully my replacement won't do the same thing.

How many times did you reheat the oven? I tried just once and it didn't help. My phone has been having this problem since January.

decon89 said:
How many times did you reheat the oven? I tried just once and it didn't help. My phone has been having this problem since January.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I feel I am on a cooking show
Well, depends on your over. Mainly I was trying to maintain a temp varying between 50-60 c. Mostly 50, but sometimes 60 to up the ante a bit and make sure things stay warm. 30 minutes at least. However, I have to say that I did this twice in 6 weeks, and after that the phone just died again, and I found my warranty card and sent it there to be fixed, and they fixed it, but ruined something else.
If you have the warranty card, take your phone and send it to them Someone told me the method worked and the phone has been good for quite a while, but most of us seem to re-experience the issue after a while.

I've been having these issues for a few days now too, and I think I know why. I've been using this Milestone for 4 months now, and I never had this problem until a few days ago. What I noticed yesterday was that after some acting up, the phone started working properly again. So I ran Touch Test. And I noticed that if I pressed really hard on the top side of the phone(where the logo and the ear piece are located) it started acting up again. My first impression was that the glue holding down the gorilla glass was loose. So I left the phone as usual on my night stand and then I tried the same thing with the pressing on the same area. Guess what? It didn't happen again. Now there seems to be no problem. So I tried to remember what happened yesterday before the screen started acting up, and I remember talking to my wife for a while when I was in my car. Yesterday was a pretty hot day and I was a little sweaty when I talked to her. Now since only that specific part with the earpiece was causing this issue(I tried pressing equally hard on other areas without any problem my guess is that the insulation between the earpiece and the touchscreen has been breached. Maybe because of all the sweat that went in there in time. You know the salt and acids in the swear are known to melt things, and poor quality glue is among them.
How to fix this? I do not know yet, but I do have a good idea that I'd like to share. I want to buy a screen protector foil, and put just a little band around the ear piece. That would probably lower my in-call volume, but since the Milestone is very loud anyway I hope it the quality of the calls won't be too much affected. After that I'll use it in normal conditions again and see if the ghosting happens again.

try completely formatting your SD CARD/PARTITION.
& then reinstalling using (FAT 32/EXT 2, 3, or 4)
sometimes traces from the previous ROM might interfare with touch codecs (maybe)
just trying to help. had similar issue & this is what i did.

bandroid842 said:
NOTE: THIS SOLUTION IS POTENTIALLY DAMAGING AND MAY NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE
PROBLEM: touch screen acts erratic, notification bar keeps opening, screen appears to be touched by someone else continuously (Ghost Touch), and parts of the screen DO NOT RESPOND TO TOUCH.
MY OWN SPECIFIC CASE: I had the Ghost Touch issue for 3 days suddenly without intro, which often used to go away after a reboot or two, then phone worked normally after I removed the battery and left it in a dry area (in a closed drawer between books, no air entering, very dry atmosphere), however the RIGHT SIDE of the screen (Search button, rightmost letters [L and Delete and sometimes ENTER] do not work. If the phone is in normal landscape, you cannot open the notification bar by dragging it normally.
DIAGNOSIS: for some people, the problem is more severe. The Digitiser itself could be malfunctioning and has to be fixed, while for others it could be a true problem with the screen itself. However, for MANY OF US, it is a problem of HUMIDITY. The humidity sensors are causing the phone to act like that. Some say part of this problem happens because the way the keypad affects the phone internally as you open and close it a lot.
SOLUTIONS:
1- To be safe: send the phone to the shop. Ask them to open the phone and apply an extra layer of insulation, in case the digitiser and the screen are okay.
2- If something is faulty, replace it at the shop.
3- MY OWN SOLUTION: based on something I read many times, the solution was to apply DRY HEAT for at least 45 mins. What I did, based on averaging out many experiences I read online, was to remove the SD Card and SIM, remove battery, I heated up a toaster oven for 10 minutes, waited until the temperature was at about 60-70 degrees Celsius, SHUT DOWN THE HEAT, put the phone on its screen on a plate, screen facing down and covered by a cloth to protect it from direct contact with metal, then all inside the oven. The oven is a relatively big one, so phone was AWAY FROM A SOURCE OF DIRECT HEAT. I closed the lid, then every while 15 minutes I would heat the oven for 40 seconds to maintain the temp. This is LIKE (ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION) leaving your phone in the glove compartment of your car while its parked in a sunny spot, to find it really hot in the morning and tough to touch for a while. TO CONTINUE, after the phone was out of the oven (I can't believe I am saying this), I left the phone overnight in a dry area for 8 hours (could need less time). Then, I put everything back in, plugged it, and THE PHONE IS WORKING PERFECTLY NOW!
NOTE that solution number 3 could affect your keyboard buttons if heat is too much. It may cause the glue holding the keys to melt a bit. Be delicate with your keyboard after you restore your phone.
Again, I only did this YESTERDAY. With the exception of some keypad stickiness, the phone is working perfectly now.
I hope this was useful
B.
EDIT: Today is the First of May, phone is still working without a glitch
N.B. Press the Thank you button if you wanna congratulate me on daring to toast my milestone in the name of scientific inquiry
SECOND EDIT: Phone did it again for 2 days. Applied the same method, and it worked again. I think partially it happened because I was in a very humid location.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for that Solution.
It fixed the Issue of my friends MS without other problems

I'll have to try and the oven methode again. My phone has started to really act up again.
I've tried to install new roms, wipe ect. and it doesn't help with the screen.
Have anyone tried to replace the digiziter? They are pretty cheap on ebay

My milestone started freaking out just an hour ago. No more warranty here but I'm not brave enough to do the oven method. Had anybody tried the Rice alternative?

search button glich

Hey all, recently my search button randomly presses itself. No, I dont see the color flash or what ever you see when you press a button but at least 2 or 3 times a minuet it will act as if I have pressed the button and search will come up... Some sort of new glich? or is my phone going defective? What do you think?
ROM firefly 3.0 that i have been using since it came out, so like a month with NO problems what so ever. Reinstalled FF, still did it, will try a new flash, if that doesnt work will go to stock. and if that doesnt fix it I will get it warranty replaced.... but Im hoping its not hardware...
???

This happened to me! Try reflashing the kernel, or using a different one. Might help

I noticed that when my cappy has a fingerprint or smudge on the search key, it magically will press itself. I also had to modify my invisi-shield to not cover the touch buttons. It happens less now that its not on them, but it still happens.
It was happening over and over and I looked at it and theres a smudge, wipe it clean and viola! This was quite annoying when I was using a rom with the camera mod that redirects it to the search key. The camera was constantly opening, had to run the "fix" to revert it back.
Hope its just as easy as that for you, I was able to duplicate the problem on 3 cappys so far.

this could be a moisture issue. yank the battery and drop the phone in a bag of rice for a day see if that helps. if it still happens flash to stock if it still does it after that its a hardware issue and you should get a warranty replacement if thats an option.
a search would've answered this as i personally have answered this question a few times, also this is a question, for future knowledge those are posted in the Q&A section.

by that do you mean put it in a bad ontop of rice or literally stick it into a pile of rice ( wouldnt that get into the phone)? sorry for such a noob question.

Put the phone in the rice. None if it is small enough to get into the inner workings of the phone but it is AMAZING at soaking up all little bits of moisture.

Would be willing to bet it is a moisture issue. I have the same problem no mayer what rom I am using
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Mine does this quite a lot as well. Most often when the phone is warm while charging. I've noticed holding it in a different position helps diffuse the problem as well. Must be a hardware defect. :-\

so are the chances good that the rice will take care of it? Strange, I never shower or use my phone in wet area's.....
I have squaretrade... do they swap it out or what is the precedure for getting a new phone from them if it doesnt work if you know by chance, if not, Ill just google it on the website

Auto power-on driving me nuts

Whenever I leave the house, I unplug my Note to take it along but every time, before I stick it in my shirt pocket I have to turn it off first. That's because it on by itself just because I removed the charging cable. At first I thought this would just be a minor annoyance, but by the time I've needlessly turned off the thing a few hundred times the damn thing really starts to annoy me. And it's even worse when I try to charge it in my car because every time I turn the key one way or another I have to turn the phone off yet again. It's a bit more difficult because I have one of those silicon rubber protector things so it takes a little longer to find the off button. But I like the protection that this cover provides. I suppose I could just wait for the timeout (which I like at 5 minutes), but that would waste some battery power that I may need later. Plus it just annoys me if it is on when I'm not using it. (Actually it is the same problem when I plug it in to the charger as well!). So who decided on this ridiculous behavior? If it is an Android thing - shame on Google. If it is a Samsung thing - shame on them. (If so I might even switch phones ... although I haven't heard of another phone that can compete with the Note). Or is it just a quirk of my ROM? (I only used GB for an hour or so, and didn't have time to observe this behavior or not - then I flashed PA which I have been using ever since.) I love this ROM although I would switch in an instant if I could get rid of my only real annoyance with this phone.
~Paul

pmennen said:
Whenever I leave the house, I unplug my Note to take it along but every time, before I stick it in my shirt pocket I have to turn it off first. That's because it on by itself just because I removed the charging cable. At first I thought this would just be a minor annoyance, but by the time I've needlessly turned off the thing a few hundred times the damn thing really starts to annoy me. And it's even worse when I try to charge it in my car because every time I turn the key one way or another I have to turn the phone off yet again. It's a bit more difficult because I have one of those silicon rubber protector things so it takes a little longer to find the off button. But I like the protection that this cover provides. I suppose I could just wait for the timeout (which I like at 5 minutes), but that would waste some battery power that I may need later. Plus it just annoys me if it is on when I'm not using it. (Actually it is the same problem when I plug it in to the charger as well!). So who decided on this ridiculous behavior? If it is an Android thing - shame on Google. If it is a Samsung thing - shame on them. (If so I might even switch phones ... although I haven't heard of another phone that can compete with the Note). Or is it just a quirk of my ROM? (I only used GB for an hour or so, and didn't have time to observe this behavior or not - then I flashed PA which I have been using ever since.) I love this ROM although I would switch in an instant if I could get rid of my only real annoyance with this phone.
~Paul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First the silicon protector that you put in your phone because it cover also the power when put it in your pocket it keeps triggering it, its like a hair trigger.
Of course when you plug the charger it will trigger the screen to on.
Why dont you just adjust the screen time out to one minute.

I dont have this problem but anyway, a quick fix would be to use Tasker which lets you easily automate everything in your phone

jonpaslim said:
Why dont you just adjust the screen time out to one minute.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would result in about as many needless and annoying presses of the power button as it turned off when I didn't want it to.
hotelier1984 said:
I dont have this problem but anyway, a quick fix would be to use Tasker which lets you easily automate everything in your phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be great if Tasker could turn it off again for me when it was turned on automatically. I took a quick look at the hardware events that tasker can act on such as:
Display: Off/On/Unlocked
File: File Closed/Deleted/Modified/Moved/Opened/Attributes Changed
Hardware: Camera Button, Search Button Long-Press, Card Mounted/Removed/Unmounted
Misc: Gesture, Shake
Phone: Missed Call, Phone Idle/Offhook/Ringing, Received Text, SMS Send Success/Failure
Power: Battery Changed/Full/Low/Overheating
System: Device Boot, Device Shutdown, Device Storage Low, Locale Changed, New/Removed/Updated Package, Wallpaper Changed
However being plugged in or out is not in this list. So how can it be done?
~Paul

I'd like to know too.
I can understand "screen on when charging cable plugged in". But its annoying as hell to have the screen on when charging cable is removed. Since 95% of the time it's going right into my pocket.

press the power button and screen will go of...

baz77 said:
press the power button and screen will go of...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sad to see such an ignorant reply. Or perhaps he just has a dry sense of humor. Hard to tell which.
~Paul

Deleted

let's understand this better:
Your phone is off and turns on upon disconnected from the charger, or it is already on, but you don't want the screen to lighten up when you disconnect?
If it's the first case, that's weird...mine never auto initiates...If the second case, really don't know what you could do.
If it's the first scenario, maybe a factory reset? But beware of the brick bug and flash a safe kernel first.
Enviado de meu GT-N7000 usando o Tapatalk 2

pmennen said:
Whenever I leave the house, I unplug my Note to take it along but every time, before I stick it in my shirt pocket I have to turn it off first. That's because it on by itself just because I removed the charging cable. At first I thought this would just be a minor annoyance, but by the time I've needlessly turned off the thing a few hundred times the damn thing really starts to annoy me. And it's even worse when I try to charge it in my car because every time I turn the key one way or another I have to turn the phone off yet again. It's a bit more difficult because I have one of those silicon rubber protector things so it takes a little longer to find the off button. But I like the protection that this cover provides. I suppose I could just wait for the timeout (which I like at 5 minutes), but that would waste some battery power that I may need later. Plus it just annoys me if it is on when I'm not using it. (Actually it is the same problem when I plug it in to the charger as well!). So who decided on this ridiculous behavior? If it is an Android thing - shame on Google. If it is a Samsung thing - shame on them. (If so I might even switch phones ... although I haven't heard of another phone that can compete with the Note). Or is it just a quirk of my ROM? (I only used GB for an hour or so, and didn't have time to observe this behavior or not - then I flashed PA which I have been using ever since.) I love this ROM although I would switch in an instant if I could get rid of my only real annoyance with this phone.
~Paul
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey there Paul,
Man, that is one hell of an issue you have.
Anyway, I don't have much to advice you as I'm not using PA rom on my Note(for the moment ), but hey.. you said it for yourself that you were not able to test it thoroughly your Note before in GB right? only about an hour before flashing to PA?..hmm... logical advice I guess on my end would be to try to flash it back to GB again and observe it for 1 complete day to see if the same issue still occurs.
By the way.. you have a very sensitive Note there bud.
Again, going back to GB is the only way(if you we're to ask me), to confirm if the 'sensitivity' is still there or not anymore.
P.S. I might suggest to you to take out that screen rubber protector in the meantime also. Just use it 'naked' for a day on stock GB.
See how it goes after.
Cheers!

mtdelnero said:
let's understand this better:
Your phone is off and turns on upon disconnected from the charger, or it is already on, but you don't want the screen to lighten up when you disconnect?
If it's the first case, that's weird...mine never auto initiates...
Enviado de meu GT-N7000 usando o Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the 1st case. My phone is off and charging. I remove the charging cord and the screen just turns on despite the fact that I have not hit the power button - or any button for that matter.
I think it is more weird that you don't have this problem than the fact that I do. I've googled this and found many people complaining about it, but no explanations anywhere why it works this crazy way or how to fix it. And "Noodled24" who responded to my post above is yet one more person who is annoyed by this problem. I suspect there are thousands more (maybe even millions?), most of whom don't vocalize their annoyance.
BTW I'm being pretty glib with my use of the word "off". I'm really just referring to "screen off" - i.e. what happens when you briefly press the power button. I'm aware that this is not really off in the more conventional sense. If I power down using the power button long press, then no ... I don't have any problem with it turning on all by itself. So if this is part of the confusion, sorry about that. In fact, like most phone users, I almost never do a reboot (true power off) unless something goes wrong with the phone.
And recently I've found some people complaining about this problem regarding other Android devices, so I no longer think that this is a problem just with the Note, or just with the particular rom that I am using. Although I still don't know how wide spread the problem is.
letters_to_cleo said:
By the way.. you have a very sensitive Note there bud.
Again, going back to GB is the only way(if you we're to ask me), to confirm if the 'sensitivity' is still there or not anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think my Note is "sensitive". I've very carefully removed the power cord many times (even without the rubber cover) to be sure that I am not touching the screen or any button whatsoever. And BTW the problem does not happen 90% or 99% or even 99.9% of the time. No - as far as I can tell the problem occurs 100% of the time!. So I wouldn't call my device "sensitive". I would just say that it has been improperly programmed to work in this bizarre fashion. Usually such programming mistakes can be fixed, which of course is why I have posted to this forum.
I don't think going back to GB will solve the problem. I think the same problem happened, although I can't be sure since as I mentioned before I didn't use GB for long before flashing to ICS (PA). However even if it did solve the problem, IMO going that far backwards wouldn't be a very attractive solution.
~Paul

So you don't have to go back to GB......screen turns on when unplugging my stock rooted GB. I think that is the normal behavior.
I agree, unplugging shouldn't turn on the screen, but Google does lots of things that don't make sense in real life usage.
kraz
Sent from my Beautiful, White GT-N7000 using xda premium

[Q] Droid 4 possessed / erratic touchscreen behaviour

Since the last few days I've been getting some strange issues with my touchscreen. Sometimes parts of the screen (or the full screen) do not respond, and even the softbuttons are affected. When I take the phone out of my pocket, it either responds normally (I use pattern lock) or tries to use the emergency dialer or emergency contacts, and sometimes even tries to call a number from the emergency dialer (number 2 and luckily not 112..)
When in the launcher, it sometimes opens an app (like my calendar) and slowly scrolls either sideways or vertically. Turning the screen off and on again once or twice usually solves it for a (short) while.
I've already read some threads about it and ruled out the following causes:
The phone is not connected to any charger when this happens.
It still happens after cleaning the screen (just with a cloth, no liquids)
It still happens after disabling CPU Tuner. I didn't overlock the system, but used some custom power settings and different governors which apparently can also affect this behaviour.
The battery is still original since nowadays I prefer to use external chargers instead of buying a big battery for every new phone
The only things that changed recently are:
I installed the OwnCloud app, but that doesn't seem related.
We moved to another office building, in which the carpet generates more static electricity.
I gained some weight which may put a bit more pressure in my pant pockets than before
It started happening a few days ago, after using the .215 ICS leak for a few weeks without issue. I seem to get the problem less at home than I do at work, which makes me think it's either the static electricity or CPU governor (since battery percentage is lower by the time I get home again, so it might use a different governor). However, I've been using CPU Tuner for quite some time before this issue started, and the issue persists after disabling it.
So I am guessing it's any of the following causes:
Static electricity
Keeping the phone in my pant pockets which may put some pressure on the screen
A problem with the battery or screen somehow (moisture?)
Some other hardware issue
Some software issue
Does anybody have any tips or other ideas about this? Thanks in advance.
Edit: I enabled some development options to show touch pointer location (white dot) and trails. Screenshot added. Phantom touches seem to be focused in the bottom center part of the phone, which is probably around where I grap it when I take it out of my pocket. Trails usually disappear the next time you touch the screen, but in this case the trails kept growing / adding. I made some real swipes (upper half of the screen) and they 'stuck' without the phone responding to them (the application did not scroll) due to the parallel phantom touches in the bottom. In this case the phantom touches blocked my real input, in other cases they cause some behaviour (scrolling etc.). However, sometimes when the screen is not responding, there are no phantom touches visible in this display mode.
Edit 2:The no-touch input problem seems to be 'triggered' most of the time I open the keyboard. Sometimes this is followed by the phantom touches, but usually they start occuring in the portrait mode lock screen.

Sjaakbanaan said:
Since the last few days I've been getting some strange issues with my touchscreen. Sometimes parts of the screen (or the full screen) do not respond, and even the softbuttons are affected. When I take the phone out of my pocket, it either responds normally (I use pattern lock) or tries to use the emergency dialer or emergency contacts, and sometimes even tries to call a number from the emergency dialer (number 2 and luckily not 112..)
When in the launcher, it sometimes opens an app (like my calendar) and slowly scrolls either sideways or vertically. Turning the screen off and on again once or twice usually solves it for a (short) while.
I've already read some threads about it and ruled out the following causes:
The phone is not connected to any charger when this happens.
It still happens after cleaning the screen (just with a cloth, no liquids)
It still happens after disabling CPU Tuner. I didn't overlock the system, but used some custom power settings and different governors which apparently can also affect this behaviour.
The battery is still original since nowadays I prefer to use external chargers instead of buying a big battery for every new phone
The only things that changed recently are:
I installed the OwnCloud app, but that doesn't seem related.
We moved to another office building, in which the carpet generates more static electricity.
I gained some weight which may put a bit more pressure in my pant pockets than before
It started happening a few days ago, after using the .215 ICS leak for a few weeks without issue. I seem to get the problem less at home than I do at work, which makes me think it's either the static electricity or CPU governor (since battery percentage is lower by the time I get home again, so it might use a different governor). However, I've been using CPU Tuner for quite some time before this issue started, and the issue persists after disabling it.
So I am guessing it's any of the following causes:
Static electricity
Keeping the phone in my pant pockets which may put some pressure on the screen
A problem with the battery or screen somehow (moisture?)
Some other hardware issue
Some software issue
Does anybody have any tips or other ideas about this? Thanks in advance.
Edit: I enabled some development options to show touch pointer location (white dot) and trails. Screenshot added. Phantom touches seem to be focused in the bottom center part of the phone, which is probably around where I grap it when I take it out of my pocket. Trails usually disappear the next time you touch the screen, but in this case the trails kept growing / adding. I made some real swipes (upper half of the screen) and they 'stuck' without the phone responding to them (the application did not scroll) due to the parallel phantom touches in the bottom. In this case the phantom touches blocked my real input, in other cases they cause some behaviour (scrolling etc.). However, sometimes when the screen is not responding, there are no phantom touches visible in this display mode.
Edit 2:The no-touch input problem seems to be 'triggered' most of the time I open the keyboard. Sometimes this is followed by the phantom touches, but usually they start occuring in the portrait mode lock screen.
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Click to collapse
clean you phone with an air duster than a alcohol swab make sure you dry it quickly and use 72% not 90%. make sure you get the corners... get a screen protector and apply that as well. then sbf to 217... and wipe data,,,, that should work.
if not it could be the ribbon cable,,, it may be frayed...
how to fix
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1584260
where to get the part
http://cellphone-repair-shop.com/motorola-droid-4-lcd-screen/

myfishbear said:
clean you phone with an air duster than a alcohol swab make sure you dry it quickly and use 72% not 90%. make sure you get the corners... get a screen protector and apply that as well. then sbf to 217... and wipe data,,,, that should work.
if not it could be the ribbon cable,,, it may be frayed...
how to fix
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1584260
where to get the part
http://cellphone-repair-shop.com/motorola-droid-4-lcd-screen/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you, let me try that. Couldn't find the right alcohol pct. so I'd have to use some generic screen cleaning liquid, would that be okay as well?

My screen was having issues too. So I turned the dot thing on from the dev part as well. The dot seems to freeze as I'm opening my keyboard. And the dot stays frozen in place until I close the scree again. Any ideas on how to fix it? Also if the screen is open and I touch a spot nothing happens, but then when I close the screen it will sense correctly where I touched while it was open.

Sounds like the same problem, so I'm getting the feeling it might be due to the connectors rather than the screen digitizer itself. After cleaning it, I didn't have any issues for a while, but they started occurring again now.
The replacement part is not available right now, a bit expensive, and excludes the price for the required tools which I don't have yet. Warranty may be tricky as I didn't get my phone from Verizon directly. So if it turns out to be a connector issue I will say goodbye to the Droid family and just get another non-QWERTY phone.. at least until Motorola starts selling them (as 'Milestone' since 'Droid' is a Verizon brand) in Europe again. The Droid 4 is the best phone I ever had, this is potentially making it unusable for me though. Glad I didn't order a Lapdock yet!

Motorola will repair your phone for 168... out of warranty and all... I found this cheaper and easier then fixing it myself and guaranteed done right in 5-7 days..
Sent from my DROID4 using xda app-developers app

Mine is still within the one year warranty. So I want to send it in. But I'm afraid they will check for the root stuff and they will consider voiding my warranty because I was rooted. I unrooted and did a factory reset to see if it would fix the issue. So this is my only chance left. I heard clearing the data wouldn't remove the qe process they use to know that I'm rooted. So I'm not sure if its worth the chance.

Flash SBF restores everything to my knowledge. No way to see what happened before the SBF flash.

I read in the original post for the DROID 4 ICS root tool that a sbf will not remove the part that says you were rooted at one point. I checked that first. An sbf flash is really easy. I was really hoping that it would work.

they dont take the time to check that stuff... if you sbf they wont know a thing...
bty found what u need on the cheap
Motorola DROID 4 XT894 Flex Cable Ribbon 27$
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Motorola-DROID-4-XT894-Flex-Cable-Ribbon-/150849219594

If they don't check it then why should I even bother? Does an sbf change something a factory reset doesn't? I've already reset it. I'll look into the fix though. It will depend on if I have the tools to do it or not.

SBF/fastboot will revert rom changes.
About that ribbon cable how would that work as the lcd is fused to the cable?

The Old One said:
SBF/fastboot will revert rom changes.
About that ribbon cable how would that work as the lcd is fused to the cable?
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Cant be... it is glued in place and has connectors... how else could he sell you the cable by itself... http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Droid-4-Teardown/7759/1

Just to weigh in on the whole root checking thing, SBFing or fastbooting back to stock DOES NOT remove evidence of root. qe still picks it up somehow in stock recovery.
That being said, they cannot void your hardware warranty for software modifications, it's the law (in the U.S.)
Of course, if you somehow softbrick your phone, they have no obligation to help you.
Edit: Just to clarify, I tried this myself just this morning. Full SBF back to stock + a factory reset, and qe shows 0/1, which indicates currently unrooted but previously rooted. No idea how their security works, but it does.

podspi said:
Just to weigh in on the whole root checking thing, SBFing or fastbooting back to stock DOES NOT remove evidence of root. qe still picks it up somehow in stock recovery.
That being said, they cannot void your hardware warranty for software modifications, it's the law (in the U.S.)
Of course, if you somehow softbrick your phone, they have no obligation to help you.
Edit: Just to clarify, I tried this myself just this morning. Full SBF back to stock + a factory reset, and qe shows 0/1, which indicates currently unrooted but previously rooted. No idea how their security works, but it does.
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your right but most ppl dont inspect the phone that hardcore... it takes time, and time is money

Yes
Sent from my DROID4 using xda premium

myfishbear said:
your right but most ppl dont inspect the phone that hardcore... it takes time, and time is money
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Click to collapse
I agree it's probably not anything most people need to worry about... I still plan on sending my D4 in before the warranty is up, I've been having terrible wifi + 4G drops, even on stock (that's why I fastbooted in the first place)
I am a bit nervous though, because I've heard horror stories about Moto replacements. That being said, if Ops phone is under warranty, I'd send it in rather than trying to repair it. If it isn't under warranty, then I'd go for the flex cable, the Moto phones are built well and reasonably easy to work on.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

I probably have some kind of warranty with the seller, not with Moto directly as I have no way of obtaining a QWERTY phone from them (they don't sell those in Europe for some reason). But I really can't miss my phone for an extended period of time, so I'd either need to switch to an old one while I'm waiting, or get a new one.
Since I don't have the tools available to open the phone properly and I don't want to spend any more money on this thing, I'll probably sit it out until it breaks. For now, switching the screen on and off one or two times seems to 'solve' it.

Sjaakbanaan said:
I probably have some kind of warranty with the seller, not with Moto directly as I have no way of obtaining a QWERTY phone from them (they don't sell those in Europe for some reason). But I really can't miss my phone for an extended period of time, so I'd either need to switch to an old one while I'm waiting, or get a new one.
Since I don't have the tools available to open the phone properly and I don't want to spend any more money on this thing, I'll probably sit it out until it breaks. For now, switching the screen on and off one or two times seems to 'solve' it.
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Click to collapse
all u need is a $0.60 guitar pic and a t5 screwdriver(can find at home improvement store). none of those silly tools they try to sell you help that much

myfishbear said:
all u need is a $0.60 guitar pic and a t5 screwdriver(can find at home improvement store). none of those silly tools they try to sell you help that much
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Click to collapse
I still have tons of guitar picks so I just ordered a Torx set for this and future problems.. hope that pushing the connector around a bit can solve it already.

[Q] Ok there goes the Digitizer

Hey guys,
I have a samsung Galaxy Ace and I have been really happy using it. It is the best budget phone out there till date and it's a completely satisfying experience. However I hit a major bump past week when I accidentally dropped my phone and the screen (digitizer) just cracked like a thin ice. The touch sensitivity of the phone was still as smooth as it was before the crash.
I promptly went to my mobile repair expert and got the digitizer changed. The buttons and screens seemed to work with a little resistance which wasn't a deal breaker. However I found a couple of more disturbing niggles on the phone.
1) The touch seems to have a mind of its own. Especially so when I have to use messaging or whatsapp. The keys, are not accurate. "How are you today?" comes up like "Hpw are ypu tpday?". The spacebar and backspace buttons are hyperactive. One touch and the phone keeps adding spaces crazy number of times or just deletes the whole sentence. That's really annoying.
2) Whenever I place a call, the display goes blank (which happens when you place the phone near your ear, anyway). But the display doesn't come up even after it's kept away from my ears. So technically I stare at a blank screen and pretty much can't do anything if I have to cut the call or put the phone on the loudspeaker.
For an android lover, especially an ace lover, this problem can be pretty disturbing. I am thinking of going back to the expert and have him check it. But I want to know if this is a problem with the digitizer or a hardware of the phone has given up. Here's a shout out to all the Android Gurus to shed some light into my predicament.
regards,
Vivek

Check out this section somebody already reported the digitizer problem and how to simulate that
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1553042
Sent from my GT-S5830 using xda app-developers app