Help Phone has mind of its own (possible faulty digitizer)

[AliasMangler]

Falconey, was wondering how your phone swap worked out? Also, is Sprint replacing it under the HTC warranty or your Spring maint/repair insurance?

Thanks.

 

[falconey]

Falconey, was wondering how your phone swap worked out? Also, is Sprint replacing it under the HTC warranty or your Spring maint/repair insurance?

Thanks.

I got the swap, but it had dead spots in the touch screen so I'm waiting on another swap, lol. It's a swap under the HTC warranty although I do have insurance.

 

[AliasMangler]

I went last week and they determined that mine couldn't be repaired and ordered me a new replacement. It finally came in yesterday and I went and picked it up with no issues. Hopefully this one will last longer..

AliasMangler

 

[Doomstang]

Just noticed this thread...I had the problem about a month ago. I took it to a Sprint repair location and just under an hour later got my phone back with a new touch screen.
I lost my screen protector but oh well...all it had done in the past was protect a screen that needed eventual replacement anyway lol.
No problems since then.

 

[bhaktasa]

The left side of my screen acts wacko. Sometimes, it doesn't let me click anything on about 1.5cm of the left side of my screen. Other times it will be as if someone was mad touching the left side of my screen clicking random things and making random phone calls. Basically a big mess.

I took my phone to the Sprint store and they told me I needed to go to a service center. I took it to the service center and they told me that I have to pay $35 to replace my screen. I don't want to pay a dime since my phone is under warranty but the Sprint rep said it would be faster and cost effective to get it fixed from the Sprint store instead of sending it to HTC.

So here's what's bothering me. When I had my HTC Hero, the Sprint store gladly changed out my Hero for anything that went wrong with it within the 1 year warranty. And now they won't. Does anyone know if they actually stopped doing that or was the Sprint store just giving me a hard time. It kind of makes me upset and not want to be with Sprint if they stop doing that.

 

[PyroSporker]

I took my phone to the Sprint store and they told me I needed to go to a service center. I took it to the service center and they told me that I have to pay $35 to replace my screen. I don't want to pay a dime since my phone is under warranty but the Sprint rep said it would be faster and cost effective to get it fixed from the Sprint store instead of sending it to HTC.

So here's what's bothering me. When I had my HTC Hero, the Sprint store gladly changed out my Hero for anything that went wrong with it within the 1 year warranty. And now they won't. Does anyone know if they actually stopped doing that or was the Sprint store just giving me a hard time. It kind of makes me upset and not want to be with Sprint if they stop doing that.

Your 1 year warranty is technically through HTC. Sprint has been deferring people back to HTC and letting people deal with them directly. Cutting out the middle man like they should. Sprint was extremely nice to handle a HTC warranty problem for you in the past. (they must have stopped that after the Hero with the increased volume of Evo issues)

I gladly paid the $35 after a freak occurance cracked my digitizer. It was much faster and way more convenient dealing with Sprint, and a really good deal if you think about it. If you paid for monthly insurance you would have paid $96 dollars for a phone swap (probably to a refurbished phone?)(8$/mo. for 12 months so far - rounding up a month - there may even be a deductible I can't remember). Where as you pay $35 for a full front housing replacement. Well worth it to me. - if your front bezel is dinged up or scratched you will end up with a fresh entire front. Practically makes the phone new again.

Sending your phone off to HTC I have read is a real hassle. You have to wait for shipping and wait for them to process you and replace the parts, and then ship back. Meanwhile you have to revert to an old phone.
Some people have gotten brand new replacements instead of repaired or refurbed phones when directly dealing with HTC. Others have gotten back refurbs that are in rougher shape than the phone they wanted fixed. Results may vary.

Sprint didn't even ask questions or verify my problems, they just acted. The Sprint tech did an awesome job replacing my screen and even moved my screen protector to the new screen. It was seamless, however after placing a few calls I noticed the earpiece speaker was blown out and rattling during calls and the 2 middle capacitive buttons were dimmer than the 2 outer ones. Great service, bad parts. I had 30 days to decide whether or not I could live with that phone.

Brought it back and they ordered me a replacement phone since they did not have any more screen parts and they were back ordered from HTC. The replacement (refurb) came a few days later however I could tell straight away by the condition the phone was not up to snuff. I kindly asked them to order another one because the screen raised up out of the bezel and the earpiece grill was full of visible dirt. The haptic feedback was weak and rattling as well. Overall a bad refurb.
They very nicely ordered another replacement while I used the poor refurb. I got dust under the screen in less than 3 days! The new one came in and is a really nice refurb and almost seems brand new.

Overall, they did an awesome job handling me and provided great customer service. I feel quite satisfied really. They may have changed a slight policy regarding manufacturer warranties (or HTC) but Sprint is still top notch in my book. $35 was a bargain compared to monthly insurance plans or buying a new phone at full price. And it is certainly not worth changing carriers over a warranty policy change in my opinion.

 

[bhaktasa]

Your 1 year warranty is technically through HTC. Sprint has been deferring people back to HTC and letting people deal with them directly. Cutting out the middle man like they should. Sprint was extremely nice to handle a HTC warranty problem for you in the past. (they must have stopped that after the Hero with the increased volume of Evo issues)

I gladly paid the $35 after a freak occurance cracked my digitizer. It was much faster and way more convenient dealing with Sprint, and a really good deal if you think about it. If you paid for monthly insurance you would have paid $96 dollars for a phone swap (probably to a refurbished phone?)(8$/mo. for 12 months so far - rounding up a month - there may even be a deductible I can't remember). Where as you pay $35 for a full front housing replacement. Well worth it to me. - if your front bezel is dinged up or scratched you will end up with a fresh entire front. Practically makes the phone new again.

Sending your phone off to HTC I have read is a real hassle. You have to wait for shipping and wait for them to process you and replace the parts, and then ship back. Meanwhile you have to revert to an old phone.
Some people have gotten brand new replacements instead of repaired or refurbed phones when directly dealing with HTC. Others have gotten back refurbs that are in rougher shape than the phone they wanted fixed. Results may vary.

Sprint didn't even ask questions or verify my problems, they just acted. The Sprint tech did an awesome job replacing my screen and even moved my screen protector to the new screen. It was seamless, however after placing a few calls I noticed the earpiece speaker was blown out and rattling during calls and the 2 middle capacitive buttons were dimmer than the 2 outer ones. Great service, bad parts. I had 30 days to decide whether or not I could live with that phone.

Brought it back and they ordered me a replacement phone since they did not have any more screen parts and they were back ordered from HTC. The replacement (refurb) came a few days later however I could tell straight away by the condition the phone was not up to snuff. I kindly asked them to order another one because the screen raised up out of the bezel and the earpiece grill was full of visible dirt. The haptic feedback was weak and rattling as well. Overall a bad refurb.
They very nicely ordered another replacement while I used the poor refurb. I got dust under the screen in less than 3 days! The new one came in and is a really nice refurb and almost seems brand new.

Overall, they did an awesome job handling me and provided great customer service. I feel quite satisfied really. They may have changed a slight policy regarding manufacturer warranties (or HTC) but Sprint is still top notch in my book. $35 was a bargain compared to monthly insurance plans or buying a new phone at full price. And it is certainly not worth changing carriers over a warranty policy change in my opinion.

Thanks for the awesome response. I'm going to get it fixed by paying the $35. This helped so much.

 

[aroldan2539]

I have been dealing with this for awhile now. I'll try to describe the problem the best I can.

Sometimes when I first turn on the screen it will freeze after I unlock it. I am not using a password just the normal slide to unlock. I then have to turn the screen off and back on for it to respond. Sometimes that will happen a few times before the screen works normally.

Besides the freezing it sometimes selects things by itself when I am not touching the screen. For example, I will unlock it, hit phone, then it will randomly do three things in a row without me touching the screen. Like selecting a name in my phone book and calling them! Then it won't let me end the call and I have to pull the battery! Sometimes it will suddenly open an app or switch to the camera. It is like I am touching the screen to select something but I am not touching the screen.

Basically the screen does something strange every third time or so that I use the phone. Usually turning the screen on and off gets it working again but not every time. Other times I can play Angry Birds for a half hour and it works perfectly.



I've done a factory reset twice already, please help.

 

[Rush]

A factory reset is usually the best solution for this type of issues. However, if you reinstall the same "rogue" application that is causing the problem _ then you'll always be having this issue.

After doing yet another "hard reset" (this time do it like this →##768# then tap menu and reset) only install applications that you use on a regular basis. The least applications you have on the device - the easier it is to narrow down and eradicate the problem.

 

[DonB]

Also, if you decide to do a FR, I would not load any apps at first and see how your phone reacts, then instead of installing the apps from your phone through the market, try doing the reverse, login to the play store from your PC, and then from there choose your apps that you want, and before you choose to install it will tell you if they are compatible with your phone. I would run the phone for a few days without the apps to see first.

 

[marctronixx]

@ aroldan2539,

if you have done a proper factory reset and you still have issues, it sounds likea faulty digitizer.

i have merged your question here because you symptoms sound like a physical issue rather than software.

some questions to answer:

are you rooted?
are you on sprint?
how long has this issue been going on?
did you install or uninstall anything prior to this issue?
is this a refurb phone or are you the only owner?
do you use a case?

at the very least, i would take it into a repair facility in your area that specializes in HTC handsets. if you are on sprint, take it to a corp. sprint store.

a phone of this caliber, you should have insurance...

 

[adfrick]

I've experienced the same issue. I've also experienced a problem where the entire screen goes unresponsive. If I hit the power button and turn it back on, it works fine. I've also experienced times when only the bottom 1" of the screen goes unresponsive. I've also experienced the problem where the phone goes haywire and tries to unlock itself and button move around at random. The bottom of the screen going unresponsive has been going on for 6 months. At this point I just want it to last until my contract runs out in a couple of months. I've never rooted the phone.



are you on sprint? - Y
is this a refurb phone or are you the only owner? - Y
when did this start happening? - It's been going on for a couple of months
did you drop the phone? - I've dropped it, but it works normally for most other applications.
expose it to water/humidity? - Not really

 

[marctronixx]

adfrick,

moved your post here as it seems you may suffer from digitizer issues...

one clarification from the above question. it was not worded properly to get an accurate response and i apologize:

is your phone a refurb? or did you purchase new and not a refurb? OR is it second hand (ebay, craigslist, etc etc and so forth...)?

 

[adfrick]

adfrick,

moved your post here as it seems you may suffer from digitizer issues...

one clarification from the above question. it was not worded properly to get an accurate response and i apologize:

is your phone a refurb? or did you purchase new and not a refurb? OR is it second hand (ebay, craigslist, etc etc and so forth...)?

I bought it new.

And occasionally if I reboot the phone it will hang on the Sprint screen for minutes at a time.

 

[falconey]

I bought it new.

And occasionally if I reboot the phone it will hang on the Sprint screen for minutes at a time.

Sounds just like my digitizer issue. You'll need to take it to a Sprint repair center.

 

[Haris]

Finally convinced sprint my digitizer was bad... Just got the replacement phone today, now to get all my settings and apps set on the new phone...

Can't wait for a restock on the 32gb Samsung S3... I'm so over HTC.

 

[AliasMangler]

Sooooo, I picked up my replacement refurb since my digitizer failed. It started exhibiting digitizer failure symptoms in 2 days. Then it seemed ok after that except cell connectivity/reception was crap compared to my previous units so it was constantly "searching" or showing no signal. That of course meant crappy battery life so I was constantly charging it. Within about a week the digitizer went full bore wacko. It would wake up sitting on my desk at work and the unlock ring would bounce itself for 20-30 minutes at a time, it would even unlock and start navigating. This or course lead to other issues, it would open my contacts and start dialing #'s or if i had the text app up it would dial the person I was texting. All the while it would be sitting happily on my desk. I even left it charging while I went to get a drink and when I came back it had unlocked itself and dialed my wife who I could hear saying "hello, hello...are you there?" when I sat down. I couldn't end the ghost calls it made when I saw it making them except by powering off the phone, and then it got to the point where I couldn't even power cycle since the confirmation button couldn't be pressed. So I took it back to the same Sprint tech who after confirming it was screwed up again ordered me another one.

I picked up the 2nd replacement on Jun 8th and it seemed fine. It had great reception, battery life, and touch had no issues. Then on the 13th I was sitting outside watching the kids play in the yard and picked the phone up off the table and it wouldn't wake up. Pushing the button did nothing so thinking the battery was dead I plugged it into the way charger and it still wouldn't power on. It still wouldn't power on after 10 minutes on the charger so I pulled the battery and it then booted with the abnormal restart message. It was fine after that and battery life was still good. Then June 17 we were outside at my folks pool and I left my phone under a shelter on a table so it wouldn't get wet and 2 hours later when we went in it again wouldn't turn on. I pulled the battery and it booted, error message again, and showed 80% battery level. Then Monday afternoon it rebooted itself automagically and took about 15 minutes before it successfully came up, error message again. Yesterday on the drive home it froze while I was listening to a voicemail and then it started boot looping. I continued to do that for 30 minutes while I picked up my daughter and drove to the Sprint store again. It was still boot looping while waiting there for almost an hour. The tech pulled the battery and it wouldn't come up, only boot looped again. After pulling the batter again it finally came up after about 10 minutes. He told me the unexplained shutdowns were probably due to heat and that once a phone started doing that it usually didn't stop.

Sooooooooooooo, he ordered me another phone and I'll pick it up next week and start all over again.......

Sorry for the long rant and play by play but figured some folks might benefit from it.

Alias.....

 

[Lyvewire]

I experienced the same thing. My phone was making ghost calls and acting if there was an invisible thumb pressing the screen. I received a refurbished in 3-5 days thru Sprint. It started doing the same thing except for on a different part of the screen. I thought there was no way in the world they could of sent me another faulty phone. Started thinking it was 1 of my chargers messing my phones up. They ordered another and no problems since. Good to know it wasnt my imagination...It sucks when your trying to prove the phone is doing this bs and of course it doesnt do it when the techs are troubleshooting. Hopefully 3's a charm for you as well. No issues sense my last phone received

 

[adfrick]

To the users who got replacements? Did you have insurance coverage?

 

[Lyvewire]

To the users who got replacements? Did you have insurance coverage?

I do have insurance.

 

[labunjef]

Took my phone in yesterday. Phone has been acting glitchy for about a week and keeps getting worse. They confirmed it was the digitizer going out and are going to replace the phone. I do have the insurance. They said the replacement was on backorder and should have it on Monday. Guess we shall see how that phone is.

 

[zach06496]

My Evo 3D has been acting really strange for the past week. It will start clicking objects on its own and sometimes wont let me type certain keys or it will type on its own. It does things that I don't tell it to do and will vibrate on its own. I've uninstalled almost all my apps and nothing seems to work.Does anyone know whats going on?

So far I have come to notice that it may have been my battery causeing the exact same problem that has been described, as I just got the EVO 4g extended battery and it fixed the problem so far. Call me a liar but its working for me u might want to consider spending the 5 bucks on ebay for the extension battery haha.

 

[zach06496]

Please keep in mind that I did in fact try to replace the digistizer as well, which as you can probably see wasn't the fix lol I'm just glad I finally figured it out

 

[AliasMangler]

As an update, I picked up my 4th replacement 3VO on Monday. So far the digitizer is fine and it has yet to shut down due to heat. HOWEVER, the display won't sleep at any set interval and will remain on forever until you manually suspend it. I guess I'll deal with that for now as everything else seems to be ok.

 

[nothingbutaGthingbaby]

Happening to my evo 3d now, never have heard of this happening on other phones. Last time i ever buy an HTC product again and I`ll warn others to stay away as well.