Scarrsport

I have posted this here because you guys helped me root my Hero with Villain ROM 12, and I wondered if there was a connection...

Since rooting the phone has worked fine for 2+ months, however I now have a MAJOR problem, in that the touch screen is behaving very erratically.

It started with the lower menu bar (All programs, phone and + ) not responding. Now if I touch any icon the phone button goes green, or the phone screen comes up, however I cannot enter any numbers! Sometimes I get a random icon flashing round the screen and I can steer it with my finger, but not activate it!

My concern is that if a have to do a re-set or reinstall, I may not be able to do a backup first, as the relevant keys wont respond.

Does anybody have any ideas? Might a re-install of the ROM help?

Thanks!

bzzzzz

I'm getting this a bit myself.

It got very annoying when I was running 2.2 Elelinux. It's still there on 2.1 but it doesn't seem as bad.

I think it's probably got something to do with the touchscreen sensors degenerating with time.

What works for me sometimes is to turn the screen off for a couple of seconds and then back on again.

I also have a suspicion that in my case it could be due to some water moisture, so I tried putting the phone over the radiator for an evening (it seemed to be a bit better the next day).

Any further help on this would be much appreciated by myself as well.

darkmast3r

I had this problem myself, but my hero would also start randomly cycling through when I was writing a txt message. I had to turn off my phone and switch it back on.
In the end I sent it back to HTC and it had a new touch screen fitted, that cured the problem.

Scarrsport

darkmast3r, are you in the UK? If so where did you send it to?

Was yours replaced under warranty or did you pay for it? If the latter, what did they charge?

bzzzzz

Does rooting my phone affect whether they will fix the touchscreen. Will they even check?

Scarrsport

Are there any experts out there who would like to comment on my findings below?....

After a bit of Googling I can see that there is a part available called the touch screen digitizer - is this what's failed? ( Google: htc hero touch screen digitizer replacement). There are new ones available for £30-40 and a video of how to replace it!

I also got a quote from a mobile phone repair company to fix the problem for £60.

bzzzzz

I'd rather send it straight back to htc, but I'd like to be reassured that if I send it back, they'll be able to do the work and won't get all precious about me running a custom rom.

Scarrsport

I don't have that option.

I bought mine second-hand and so don't have any original invoice, plus I am sure it's over a year old anyway!

bzzzzz

Shouldn't be a problem.

I remember I had an old Nokia that I bought second hand. When the screen broke they repaired it and sent it back. I think it's guaranteed by the manufacturer for 3 years, but it may be 2.

Worst case scenario is they should send it back.

darkmast3r

Sorry for the delayed reply,

I called HTC UK on the following number : 0845 8900079. I explained the problem. They arranged a courier to collect my phone and return it to the service center.

My phone was rooted but I reflashed to original orange software before returning it.

I did not pay any costs, it was all handled under warrantee, the only thing they mentioned that if the phone had been dropped or damaged by myself I would have been charged.

It takes roughly 1 week to get it sorted, from being collected to having it returned,

HTC provided a very good service...but... I would recommend that they note that you have upgraded the firmware before contacting them because the first thing they did was upgrade the firmware and send it back saying it was fixed....but they were wrong, they replaced the screen second time around.

darkmast3r

....And yes, it is the Digitizer. I have replaced them on iphone 3g's and Samsung tocco, but yet to do one on a HTC handset

bzzzzz

Ok this is very useful, as my phone was originally with orange, but i got it unlocked and rooted it.

I can probably do a nandroid restore to get back to original rom.

What can I do to turn it into an unrooted phone (or doesn't that matter)

Also re upgrading firmware does this mean I'll end up rewinding to 1.5 then updating to 2.1 and then having go through the whole process of rooting my phone again when i get it back.

Thanks again for all the help

darkmast3r

I did have to downgrade to orange original firmware before I sent it off.

I used version .66 and it had the same version on when it was returned so i downgraded then rooted it.

I have recently unlocked my phone and was on froyo 2.2 and everytime I switched my phone on it was asking for the network key.

I got around this by flashing back to orange .66 firmware, then entering the key and letting it boot up fully, then I downgraded and re-rooted, then flashed back to froyo 2.2. Now my phone is fully unlocked with no problems.

Last edited by darkmast3r; November 22nd, 2010 at 04:24 AM.

Xyro

Did you flash a radio by any chance? That was a common problem caused by 2.X radios designed for unbranded phones being used on orange branded phones.

The official firmware RUUs flash radios, so that would explain why flashing .66 again fixed it.

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darkmast3r

I don't recall flashing a radio but I may have done, I know this caused a problem.
I've tried so many different rom's it's hard to remember what I've done tbh.