Develop Bugs

[Q] Advice on unlock/digitiser issue

Hi
I upgraded to my new DHD less than 3 weeks ago. It is not rooted and I did the recent OTA update over Christmas.
Over the last couple of days I have started to experience difficulty unlocking the device on the slide-to-unlock screen. The problem seems intermittent - somethimes it will unlock fine, and other times the slider just seems to "get stuck" at the bottom of the screen.
At first I thought this a bug or something, but after some investigation I am concerned there is a problem with the digitiser. I opened a picture and zoomed in to fill the screen and tested the touchscreen in different places by sliding the picture around. What I found was that the bottom 1cm of the screen above the keys does not respond properly to Up and Down swipes. It is fine however with side-to-side and also individual taps. This is obviously a problem when trying to move the unlock slider!
I've had a screen protector on for about a week - I don't imagine this has caused the issue but haven't removed it to test as yet as I don't have a spare. Aside from this, the device has been very well looked after, definitely no bumps etc and kept in an HTC leather pouch.
Any ideas? Should I return it to CW?
Thanks

OK, I seem to have resolved this for the time being but expect the problem to return.
I downloaded a screen test app that allows you to draw on the screen and got some very strange results. A 1cm band of screen about 1cm up from the bottom was completely unresponsive. Trying to draw a horizontal line within this band would result in lines being drawn either above or below it, or strange vertical lines "jumping" around. The rest of the screen was fine. I realised this is why I have been struggling to close the keyboard - the button is placed within this band and trying to press it would result in on of the buttons above or below being pressed. Also have had problems with the sapce bar.
I did a restart (not fast) and this has resolved the issue, however I expect it may return as I did a restart only yesterday.
At least it is obviously software and not the digitiser....

Hi again. As expected, the issue returned after a couple of hours. This time however, restarting is not making a difference.
I resorted to a hard rest, which has not changed anything either.
Any help/ideas would really be appreciated...

Best to return it for repairs or exchange. Seems like the digitiser is faulty.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App

olivierlee said:
Best to return it for repairs or exchange. Seems like the digitiser is faulty.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, this definitely sounds like a hardware problem.

Screen died?

Last night I was out and during the night I pulled my desire z out of my pocket to find that the screen was dead, the soft touch buttons were still lit up and working but no display. I pulled the battery and tried to reboot and no luck, you can hear it booting and even unlock/receive calls and txts etc once it has booted up just the screen stays blank the whole time so have to do everything on feel.
Essentially does this just mean my screen has a hardware fault? is it worth trying to fix? I assume the only option would be to purchase a replacement screen and dissemble and reassemble it?
(warranty is not worth it as I live in New Zealand and would have to send my phone back to the UK where I bought it from, also I have dropped it quite a few times so probably voided anyway...)
Thanks in advance for any input

Does it never display anything? So not even a flash during boot or something?
Because then it is probably a hardware problem.
Since the soft touch buttons do still work I think there might be a little crack or something in the flat cable that connects the bottom half with the top.
Maybe you could check whether you can see if the cable is broken or not?
The best thing to do then is to look for a replacement and try to fix it yourself or bring it to a shop where they can do it for you.

No it never displays anything, completely dead the whole time. The touch input is still working though as I answered a phone call this morning on it by making the usual gesture just without being able to see anything. Doesnt seem to be anything wrong with the cable itself as far as I can see. Yea might have to get someone to have a look at it.

My phone is acting the same. I dropped my phone in the pond before, but pulled battery out on time and had it in rice for a day. My phone was still working for about two weeks after that incident. I dropped it and had one little crack at the top of the screen and about a week after that it died when I had a water balloon fight with the phone in my pocket. D;
Do any of you know if the replacement lcd screen/digitizer for the Desire Z would work for the G2?

I had the same thing happening to my G2 screen, only it was intermittently working for a little while, then just completely died and wouldn't work. It was doing this crazy flickering thing then the back light wouldn't go on at all. If I held the phone at a certain angle in the sun, I could see that the pixels were indeed working on the display, but there was no backlight to make them normally visible.
So I purchased a replacement screen from ebay and carefully followed the directions on a youtube video for a G2 take apart. Its not a hard task to take apart and get down to the screen itself. It was rather easy. After putting it back together the screen still didn't work! Sounds work, i can also receive calls etc. But the screen still doesn't work!
Is there any way that this could be a software issue?

Oh and PS, I believe the LCD replacement would work for both the desire Z and the G2. They are identical phones after all right? I'd say its a safe bet. The screen I bought was only 35 bucks. Didn't think that was a bad deal.

Another dead screen or something else?
Few days ago my phone fell of the couch onto a rug - no big deal, so far it has survived much worse, but when I picked it up, the colors were all messed up - overly green and red. Tried restarting - no luck. Everything worked fine, except the colors, but then the screen turned of completely. I could hear notifications, phonecalls, but the screen was dead. After some tapping on the screen, it turned on again - with ****ed up colors. Then started flickering and was gone again. Few more times I could turn it on by tapping before it was dead for good.
Figured, after all these drops it survived, maybe the screen connector is a bit loose. I mean, I could sometime get a contact when tapping it, so I dissasambled it completely, secured all the connection, put it all back tougether and fired up - same thing: dead screen, phone working.
Has anyone had such problem before? Is it screen that is dead, or connector or... I have no clue... I would like try to fix it on my own, with some replacement parts I could get on ebay - but, what gave?

Touch screen non-responsive in the middle

My Desire Z had a fall, and has developed two problems
1 - The hardware keypad has started to take hard-press and sometimes prints double characters on single press. I think the alignment is out or something... any other guess ?
2 - The touch screen sometimes stops working from an inch up from the bottom and continues to half an inch. Before and after that patch, the touch always works fine . Mostly, the whole touch screen works fine. But when the patch gets non-responsive, I have observed that by turning the screen off and on a couple of times makes it work again. I am not very sure what the problem is. Any clues ?
Thanks

I'm also experiencing a similar issue - for me it's usually an area that corresponds to the top row of the
on-screen keypad (for unlocking) or the top of the area for unlock patterns (portrait orientation).
Mine is a 2 year old DZ w. Cyanogenmod 7.1
No HW key problems & no droppage.
Liberal application of isopropyl alcohol and a microfiber cloth - especially around the edges of the screen
seem to help a little bit but not often enough to be better than random.
Switching the screen off and on occasionally helps but most often I get annoyed and use the HW keys to
unlock.
I have noticed that, after powering on the device, the SIM-lock keypad works just fine but the (different)
screen-unlock keypad fails. This leads me to believe it to be a software issue.
/b

I have had this experience on my G2
No fix for me but his my experience check out the url!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=31264095
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

Thread moved to Q & A section.

So i am going for Digitizer replacement will post the result when the phone is back.
And what about the Keypad taking hardpresses ? what can be the issue there ?

so my desire z is in the shop for repairs. lets see what problem is diagnosed.

I have read in another thread in this forum that the hardware keyboard (need to press hard on some buttons) issue can happen when the phone falls.
Apparently, the flat cable that connects the keyboard to the rest of the phone gets loose and causes such trouble.
Since your phone is in for repair, I'm sure this will get sorted when U get it back.

ok so my phone got back from repairs, the guy couldnt fix the touch-screen rather made it worse. Now the touchscreen doesnt work at all. So i cant unlock the phone and cannot test the Keyboard problem. The guy said the touch problem is related to the ribbon cable and not the touchscreen itself.
Note 1: He says he tried replacing the touch panel altogether but it didnt work.
Note 2: I still think the ribbon is fine (call it intuition)
Note 3: I am giving my phone for repairs again, but this time to HTC service center which would probably cost me a lot more than third-party repairs but at least it will get fixed.
I will update when I my phone back from HTC service center.

Could you not unlock the phone by opening the keyboard ?
It does smell to be an issue with flat (ribbon) cable to me as well. As if there was some loose contact before (caused by you dropping it), and after the repair guy took the phone apart, he probably made even bigger mess by ruining the flat cable completely.
From my experience (and I've claimed warranty 3x for the broken digitizer (touch panel)), if it's broken, an area of the screen (or the whole screen) will be permanently dead. It would not come back to life every now and then.
btw, mine always started being unresponsive in the very middle of the screen, a bar of height around 1 cm (somewhat less than 1/2 inch). Each time they replaced the digitizer.
If it;s the flat cable, you shouldn't end up being charged too much - those thingies are very cheap (in China) and the labour will probably be the majority of the price. Fingers crossed.

So I got my phone back again... The HTC repair center was not located in my city so I went to another (better known) repair shop. The guy said, "your phone hasnt been opened at all from the touchscreen side, any *repair guy* who claims he has opened it and tried this and that but couldnt fix is simply lying. This said, he opened up my desire z replaced its Touch Panel and voilah! my desire z is sensing again in 15 mins

What's the status for the keypad and need to press it hard to work ?

nope... I had it cleaned using alcohol / thinner. now it works fine.

So, I updated to CM 7.2 last night but the touchscreen problems are still there.
Updated using CWM and deleted data & cache whilst doing so.
I really hate the prospect of getting a new phone as the current models available
in DK are all without physical keyboards

Weird touch screen.

Its been some days, I'm experiencing this weird touch screen problem.
My DZ touch screen doesn't respond properly.
For example:
If i see an image and slide just one finger up and down then it would zoom in and out. And then the whole screen becomes unresponsive.
It seems as if, its touched by itself. Even the softkeys would go numb. Only the haptic feedback of my search button works at that moment.
But the trackpad works perfectly.
But, If i lock and unlock the screen using power buttons, it would work properly for some few moment and then again the problem repeats.
At present I'm repeating this process of locking and unlocking screen to use my phone.
One even worst weird thing is that, if the device is connected to a charger and kept on the table or floor. This problem doesn't occur.
I have done system format, restored my nandroids and even changed Roms. The problem still exists.
Please note, i don't use any Casing or covers that would press the device hard for malfunctioning of screen. I have even removed and replaced my screen guard.
I'm sure, its not a software issue.
And even i dont think its a strip issue, because i dont use my physical keyboard always.
Can anyone say what hardware issue it might be..?
Or what i need to do? I'm really out of options.
Do i have to replace my whole screen or the digitizer..?
Thanks...

Thats no fun,
As you stated it's more than likely a hardware fault, the two most likely culprits would be the digitizer or the main flex cable
Which would be this and this
both relatively easy to replace depending on your experience
in 4.x and up ROMs check the developers setting to show touch or use apps like
z device test
or
yet another multitouch test
these wont help you fix the issue but may show you where the bad points are on the screen
best of luck

I know the problematic spot. Its near Search softkey. Even Yet another multi-touch test would stuck at that spot....
As you can see in the image, that i'm not holding anywhere, still it shows that somewhere around Search softkey its touched by itself.
In second image, If i move my fingers around, it would show the other touch responds, but if i slide near search, it would go and stuck there itself.
So, i guess i would first go with the flex cable.

In actuality I'm leaning toward the digitizer in your case, but its possible to be either.
And if you have a spare phone it may be worth disassembling even without buying anything. On a G1 I once fixed a similar issue just taking out the digitizer and cleaning the contacts on the ribbon and the edges of it as well, when I put it back it worked like new. I think some dust may have gotten into the edges but it may be worth a shot before buying anything... But could make matters worse so if you don't have a spare, buy parts first
Best of luck
Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I guess i should try disassembling and clean it first. If it still persists then i would go for digitizer.
And thanks for giving a hope.
Thanks...

Optimus G goes crazy

Hi guys!
My optimus g is hitting buttons that im not touching, it enters applications that i didn't want ,sometimes the touchscreen doesnt work and i tryed to factory reset it but it did not work
Any help?

Might be a hardware problem

tony12345677 said:
Hi guys!
My optimus g is hitting buttons that im not touching, it enters applications that i didn't want ,sometimes the touchscreen doesnt work and i tryed to factory reset it but it did not work
Any help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem before and I think it has come back to haunt me. Its not software, your digitizers seems to be faulty and it will only get worse. If you turn on the "show touches" options in the developers section (phone menu) you can see where your screen is affected. I tried everything and the only way I could resolve my issue was to replace the digitizer and LCD. Fortunately you can buy them at reasonable prices online and there quite easy to replace if you follow guides (Youtube have plenty) on how to do so. I replaced my own screen a couple of months ago and it worked perfectly until now. There seems to be something about the winter weather that destroys screen and i've seen people on other forums with different phones say similar.

had the same problem too
kayotic321 said:
I had the same problem before and I think it has come back to haunt me. Its not software, your digitizers seems to be faulty and it will only get worse. If you turn on the "show touches" options in the developers section (phone menu) you can see where your screen is affected. I tried everything and the only way I could resolve my issue was to replace the digitizer and LCD. Fortunately you can buy them at reasonable prices online and there quite easy to replace if you follow guides (Youtube have plenty) on how to do so. I replaced my own screen a couple of months ago and it worked perfectly until now. There seems to be something about the winter weather that destroys screen and i've seen people on other forums with different phones say similar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same problem sometimes, but every time i had, it was the screen needing a clean. Sometimes a drop of water can simulate a touch or something else that adhere to the screen. So all i did to solve it was a clean.