Home Screen Blanks since ICS 4.0.3

TexasBadger · April 7th, 2012, 08:56 PM

It has been quite some time since I updated to ICS 4.0.3. Prior to the update, my stock TF101 was completely stable. Since the update, my home screen periodically goes blank. The shortcuts and widgets all disappear. Even the new app drawer shortcut goes away. I am left with only the wallpaper (live or not) and the notification bar. So far, the only way I have found to restore the system to normal is a complete reboot. This sometimes happens several times a day, sometimes several times an hour, seemingly at random. Obviously, it is really annoying. Is anyone else having this issue? Has anyone come up with a solution?

Thanks in advance to anyone who responds.

Wedgen · April 10th, 2012, 02:41 PM

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!!! Its driving me nuts. I'm about to do a wipe and start over. It started happening right after ICS. Mine also likes to lockup and reboot then get stuck at the loading screen which in turn kills my battery which also pisses me off.
I can't find any reason for it, sometimes the icons are there sometimes their not. I've tried removing some apps, nothing seems to be working, rebooted several times.

TexasBadger · April 10th, 2012, 08:38 PM

Since very few people (2 or 3, tops) have reported this problem, I finally concluded that it must be some app running in the background that became unstable with ICS. By trial and error, I finally found it. At least on my tablet, the offender turned out to be the weather animation feature in Beautiful Widgets, which is my preferred clock/weather widget. With the animation turned off, the problem seems to be solved. So I'm happy, for now.

TexasBadger · April 10th, 2012, 08:44 PM

Try running the "Auto Airplane Mode" app. It appears to have solved that problem for me.

Wedgen · April 10th, 2012, 11:14 PM

I don't have BW on mine, I guess i'll continue uninstalling stuff till it stops misbehaving.

vulcangrey · April 11th, 2012, 05:21 PM

mine does it but only with a live background.

TexasBadger · April 11th, 2012, 09:51 PM

My solution to the blank home screen failed today. The BW animation apparently wasn't the (sole) problem. So now I have disabled all Beautiful Widgets and replaced with Fancy Widgets. So far, so good.

It's not the live wallpaper. I've also gotten blank home screens with static wallpaper.

mojoworkin · April 20th, 2012, 09:39 PM

Mine is doing the same thing. Also the random reboots. I can confirm that it doesn't seem to matter if I'm using live wallpaper or not. I am running BW.

vosg · April 21st, 2012, 03:52 AM

I had the same issue, but I got rid of it after installing Nova Launcher.

mbob63 · April 21st, 2012, 06:58 AM

I have the same issue but have not found a solution. I think there are many of us with this problem but the main focus has been on the random reboots and stuck loading screens. The only response that has worked for me so far is to reboot.

TexasBadger · April 25th, 2012, 07:31 PM

It has now been two weeks since I uninstalled Beautiful Widgets and switched to Fancy Widgets (see my post above). I have not had even one blank screen episode since then. Before that, it was a daily annoyance. If y'all are running BW, that is your problem. If not, check to see what apps you having running in the background. I can guarantee that at least one of them is incompatible with ICS. In other word, this bug is not with the ICS build, its with an incompatible app.

Hope this helps!

Sodsa · April 26th, 2012, 12:44 AM

Hi, thanks for the BW suggestion. I'll try it now.

For the others who can't find a solution, restarting isn't the only way to get your desktop back. If you tap the top left of your screen the search screen will come back. Now if you press the home button, your desktop well go back to normal.

mbob63 · April 27th, 2012, 07:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sodsa

Hi, thanks for the BW suggestion. I'll try it now.

For the others who can't find a solution, restarting isn't the only way to get your desktop back. If you tap the top left of your screen the search screen will come back. Now if you press the home button, your desktop well go back to normal.

Will try. Thanks for solution.

jezmck · June 9th, 2012, 06:41 PM

I have the same problem, but I think it started earlier.

And the solution above doesn't work

edit: I've just realised that the icons are still there, but invisible! i.e. I can still 'click' them to start apps.

mbob63 · June 9th, 2012, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jezmck

I have the same problem, but I think it started earlier.

And the solution above doesn't work

edit: I've just realised that the icons are still there, but invisible! i.e. I can still 'click' them to start apps.

I have the same problem with identical symptoms. Happens daily. Rebooting is only full solution.

MacFett · June 10th, 2012, 09:17 AM

Restarting the launcher has no effect?

jezmck · June 10th, 2012, 09:35 AM

Not sure, but I don't know why I should have to do that...

MacFett · June 10th, 2012, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jezmck

Not sure, but I don't know why I should have to do that...

Okay, I guess keep rebooting the entire tablet then, I'm sure it is quicker and easier.

jezmck · June 10th, 2012, 10:37 AM

Ooh, sarcasm, brilliant.

Doit2it · June 10th, 2012, 12:57 PM

That's strange cause I've had BW on my TF101 home screen since day one, and thru the ICS update. I've never had the disappearing issue y'all are discussing. Also, I always update BW when there is one. Maybe it's a combo of two apps that BW is a part of. But hey, if the solution works, stick with it!

helpifIcan · June 10th, 2012, 02:41 PM

If you are not on the .24 version that may help.

ianargent · June 11th, 2012, 08:22 AM

I rarely have the home screen go blank on me, but when I do, force closing it fixes. I use Home Manager to do this as it sis I the notification area, which is still accessible

XcomBob · July 26th, 2012, 08:06 AM

Initially seen after dropping some icons in the top area to Remove them. Happened again after something else.

The Infinity is running ICS.

I did have some widgets in use (an Equalizer) but can't say for sure if this issue happened before I installed that or only after.

In the mean time, I removed the Equalizer widget and will keep an eye on what all is running and let you all know.

Joshfm · September 3rd, 2012, 07:09 PM

Similar to ianargent. Haven't found a solution but a better fix than a full restart.

Tap on clock in notification bar. Open settings. Go to apps. Running apps. Show cached processes. Launcher. Stop this.

Then go back home. My home screens all loaded again as normal.

B A Doe · December 8th, 2012, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshfm

Similar to ianargent. Haven't found a solution but a better fix than a full restart.

Tap on clock in notification bar. Open settings. Go to apps. Running apps. Show cached processes. Launcher. Stop this.

Then go back home. My home screens all loaded again as normal.

Thanks Joshfm. This issue keeps getting worse and worse for me, but at least Joshfm's quick fix saves me from having to re-boot several times a day. Unfortunately, sometimes as soon as the fix is applied, and all of the Home Screen Icons re-populate, the screen goes blank again.

Anyone find a permanent fix for this issue yet?

AutobahnSHO · December 9th, 2012, 10:59 AM

delete some apps??

This hasn't been an issue for me. I've been through every automatic update ASUS has offered, but a couple weeks ago rooted so I can tether..

Stuntman · December 13th, 2012, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joshfm

Similar to ianargent. Haven't found a solution but a better fix than a full restart.

Tap on clock in notification bar. Open settings. Go to apps. Running apps. Show cached processes. Launcher. Stop this.

Then go back home. My home screens all loaded again as normal.

This seems to work sometimes, but I find that I have to do a full restart to get it working again.

This started happening a lot in October/November. So far this month, I haven't had this happen. I think I remove some stuff from my home screen last month.

B A Doe · December 16th, 2012, 04:26 PM

I'm still struggling with this issue several times a day. I've been deleting apps, but haven't identified the one that may be causing the issue.

When the screen does go blank, does it make sense to suspect one of the "Running Services" or "Running Cached Processes" in the settings area? If so, I'll concentrate on deleting those one by one until the issue disappears.

AutobahnSHO · December 18th, 2012, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by B A Doe

When the screen does go blank, does it make sense to suspect one of the "Running Services" or "Running Cached Processes" in the settings area? If so, I'll concentrate on deleting those one by one until the issue disappears.

Yes.
I would suspect launchers, keyboards, widgets first. They all can do weird things to the core operation. But all apps are suspect.