Help Nexus One Touch Screen Issue Caused By Heat, Experiment Inside!

[SignalMaintainer]

Carrier:AT&T
Country / Language:USA/English
OS: 2.1

Next time your screen starts acting crazy, immediately put the phone in the refrigerator WITHOUT turning off the screen or resetting. Also notice the temp of the phone when you do this...

Wait 3-5 minutes.

Remove phone, and try typing something again... Problem solved! (at least for me), until the phone gets warm again. I just re-created this 10 times in a row.


This would explain why the problem really flares up when plugged into a charger/dock, or when using the phone for a while. Seems the heat from the phone is screwing with the touchscreen.

Try this experiment and post the results!

 

[SignalMaintainer]

It seems like it would be an easy fix for Google. They could redesign whatever heatsinks are in the phone to pull heat away from the touchscreen (or whatever chip or component is being affected by the heat), or simply insulate the sensitive parts from heat.

I'm not sure what the internal layout is like, but I am willing to put good money on the processor being near the bottom left side of the phone since that is where the majority of the touchscreen issues seem to be.

Google needs to recall these phones and fix them! Its obviously a hardware issue with heat. I've had my phone in a stream of cool air for an hour now and not one single problem, but if I use it away from cool air the phone warms up and the screen starts spazzing out.

 

[Eazail70x7]

The Droid and the Moment suffer from this same issue. Whenever my phone is on the charger (regardless of if its hot or not) it has the crazy screen. Its at its worst when my phone is hot and greasy. When my phone is off the charger, I have no issues.

The droid I was playing with in the store, also had the same issue as it was hooked onto the charger and had the crazy screen. I couldn't get any kind of accurate pinch to zoom at some points.

 

[SignalMaintainer]

The Droid and the Moment suffer from this same issue. Whenever my phone is on the charger (regardless of if its hot or not) it has the crazy screen. Its at its worst when my phone is hot and greasy. When my phone is off the charger, I have no issues.

The droid I was playing with in the store, also had the same issue as it was hooked onto the charger and had the crazy screen. I couldn't get any kind of accurate pinch to zoom at some points.

Mine is definitely much worse when plugged in to the charger or dock, but still even has issues unplugged whenever the internal temperature of the phone gets warm. I am outside with it in 90degree weather right now and it is fine, but it seems like whenever there is a temperature difference between the internal and external parts of the phone, it goes haywire. Also, I put a folded up price of aluminum foil between the battery and the back just to see if it would help transfer heat better, and very oddly I noticed a large jump in my 3g signal strength. Not quite sure what to make of that, but the screen issue seems to be solved by cooling down the phone, or using it in hot areas where the temperature difference is not so great. Been using it like this all night without a single issue when it was doing it every 5 minutes before.

 

[lyons238]

hmm bazaar. hopefully they will recall those for you guys and give you replacements or something. and hopefully the evo doesn't have this same problem as well. im hoping the tft screen on the evo handles the heat better.

 

[Thefoodman52]

Well, when I left my Hero in my friends truck while we were moving furniture all day yesterday, my phone overheated. The temp was somewhere around 125.6 F. A *smidge* warm. Well, it never shutoff, though I would THINK at that temp it would for safety reasons. When I tried to tap the power down button after holding the power button, I had to hit it about 5 times, really MASHING it to get it to register. Kind of scared me that I'd screwed the phone over. Good thing I know that it isn't a detrimental problem, and that me leaving in a car in dead heat and direct sunlight isn't going to cause the internals to melt into a pudding of silicon and plastic.

 

[Eazail70x7]

i always wonder what id do without my slide out keyboard and trackpad cause when my phone is charging, those are the only things i can really use reliably with the screen being jerky. Trying to type on type on the on screen keyboard is futile when its charging and trying to long pressing on anything is pure hell. If not for the trackpad or slide out, I couldnt long press accurately nor type. (im hooked to the charger as i type btw lol).

Are you able to long press or text normally when your phone is in crazy screen mode?

 

[eriku16]

I have two N1's and they do not have this issue no matter how hot they are. Sounds like your phone is defective.

 

[SignalMaintainer]

does anyone know the exact touchscreen model and manufacturer on the N1? I am going to do some research on this issue. It is 100% reproduceable and after spending two hours on the phone with HTC today, they were not the least bit interested in my findings.

 

[Ryjabo]

I have two N1's and they do not have this issue no matter how hot they are. Sounds like your phone is defective.

Ditto.

I've never had this problem.

I've never had any problems with the phone.

 

[Teknologic]

I've had the 'crazy screen' issue exactly once. Also when my phone was charging. And However I have noticed that the screen is susceptible to heat.. I don't think it's the only factor. I have noticed that over 37

 

[frizgolf]

I'd be a little leery of the fridge test. It might solve the issue quickly, but wouldn't it introduce unnecessary humidity to the innards of the phone?

 

[Eazail70x7]

My battery has been at 43-45 degrees celcious at many times.

 

[clickwir]

does anyone know the exact touchscreen model and manufacturer on the N1? I am going to do some research on this issue. It is 100% reproduceable and after spending two hours on the phone with HTC today, they were not the least bit interested in my findings.

Nexus One Teardown - iFixit

http://www.isuppli.com/news/pages/google-nexus-one-carries-$17415-materials-cost-isuppli-teardown-reveals.aspx

 

[dougdroid]

I've seen this after it's been in the Car Dock for a period of time. I too believe it is a temp thing and as others have mentioned, the docks turn lots of stuff on and charge at higher currents so heating is inevitable.

 

[crsnwby]

I had this this morning after leaving my phone on charge all night, it eventually rebooted itself then it was fine afterwads.

 

[crsnwby]

Also the same thing after driving to work with the BT enabled and the phone in my pocket in the case, no charher, wifi, GPS, etc connected.

Was hot to touch and the screen would not respond until it cooled down.