Help Phone acts goofy while not at home..

Hello Rob, welcome to AF!

I have moved your thread into the Galaxy S2 (Boost) forum for you, hopefully you get the answer you are looking for.

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Do a quick search for the thread about "phantom key presses" and see if that takes care of it for you, I'd give you the direct link, but I can't at the moment.

The phantom key issue, sounds like. If you just got the phone, send it back while it is still under warranty.

Send it back asap. Unfortunately, even though it is very well documented both Boost and Samsung will say there are no issues with the phones what so ever. I went though this with mine and just gave up and bought a new S2 phone...yes i now have two of them... I use the original one as a WiFi i-pod....S-pod is you will... It is great actually. Anyway, here is what is going on. You have an early version which does have some hardware issues. They did not shield the digitizer (touch screen) hardware from the RF signal from the radio. So when in low signal strength areas the S2's radio is cranking out a signal and the strong signal interferes with the digitizers processor and it thinks you are touching the screen when you aren't. No fix for this other then to remap the keys but it does not always work. Mine clicked the two outside keys (search and menu). The second problem you have but haven't realized it is the lOS issue. Loss of service... Basically, over time the phone will become blind to the signal and with you standing in a single spot you will lose bars until you get a no service indication. The fix is to reboot the phone. So this one is not a big deal, just reboot the phone periodically. See if you can send it back, if not either work with it or dump it. It does make a great S-pod...i set mine to airplane, WiFi still works and you can still make 911 calls. Plus you can use a program called groovoip lite (from the play store). It is free and allows you to make/take calls via your google voice account over WiFi. Do you have a black S2E4g? Good luck.

Ok before we send this gentlemen to return his phone, how about just reflashing the stock rom and see if that helps before he goes thru the hassle of returning it..........

If only flashing the stock ROM would help. Those who have this issue would either have to remap their touch screen buttons or return it. Some people who have this issue never hit it because the signal where they use it is very good. I say as long as it is not rooted and under its warranty period, send it BACK. One should not have to put up with a malfunctioning phone they just spent 200 plus dollars on.

Codegerm said:

If only flashing the stock ROM would help. Those who have this issue would either have to remap their touch screen buttons or return it. Some people who have this issue never hit it because the signal where they use it is very good. I say as long as it is not rooted and under its warranty period, send it BACK. One should not have to put up with a malfunctioning phone they just spent 200 plus dollars on.

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I agree, im not saying flash a rooted rom, but a stock rom, it wont help at all . Im just wanting to give him all the options here.....

As rockdoctor1 stated though, it is a hardware issue due to faulty shielding unfortunately. Part of the problem is making the phones so thin. With everything squashed so close together, the slightest fault in design, materials or assembly can lead to issues. I would be willing to bet that if the phone were half again thicker, a shielding issue wouldn't be a problem.

I reflashed mine and it made no difference (rooted, non-routed, oem, non-oem, older versions and so on). Sprint has (verbally) confirmed it is a hardware issue and they do know about it. Plus since both my menu and search keys were affected remapping would not have helped. ...It is a send it back, buy another one or live with it fix... Now in my case i was looking at the F7 but with no LTE in any of my service areas but descent WiMax at home i went back with the S2. Plus Sprint will not allow tethering with an LTE phone. Only 3g and WiMax.. Now somebody has fixed it but he had to solder a resister to a surface mounted chip. I wonder if you buy an S2 with a bad ESN off ebay and just change the digitizer board... Unfortunately, you can get a new S2 for $199 and one with a bad ESN will still cost over $100 might as well get a new one...

one answer..one reason why this is happening...

SKYNET

NosTraDomus said:

one answer..one reason why this is happening...

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Why is what happening? The phantom click? In an attempt to make the phone as thin as possible they put the radio/antenna too close to the digitizer hardware. The digitizer is the part of the screen that detects you touching the screen. When you are in a strong signal area the phone does not have to produce a strong signal to talk to the tower (because it is close or line of sight) but in a low signal area (long distance or lots of stuff in the way) the phone needs to transmit at a high power to get the tower to receive your signal. The high power signal messes up the digitizer hardware. It thinks the signal is you touching the screen and acts accordingly. The newer phones have shielding around the digitizer chip. If you go back to my post and look at the link you will see more about this. Plus if you search you can find a post by an owner (engineer) that actually took his phone apart and added shielding and a resister as ground. My original boost S2E4G was a black one and a very early model and it was horrible in low signal areas. The only way to stop the phantom click was to turn off the screen and then back on and you had maybe a couple seconds before it started again. My new S2E4G is a new (late model) white unit and it still phantom clicks but is very rare. When your phone is phantom clicking go into settings, click on about device, click on status and look at your signal strength. The higher the dBm number the weaker the signal. When phantom clicking it was not uncommon to see a number of -101dBm or worse...and with no bars but have had it happen with the strength in the -70s and two bars...

robl42 said:

Why does it work fine at home but not while I'm away? It's strange?

-Rob

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You probably have a better signal at home. Read some of the earlier posts..

Go here this will take care of you problem. I had same trouble and this worked for me.

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-...th-ics-jb-phantom-menu-keypress-easy-fix.html

mlcharlestonsc said:

Go here this will take care of you problem. I had same trouble and this worked for me.

http://androidforums.com/galaxy-s2-...th-ics-jb-phantom-menu-keypress-easy-fix.html

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This is what is known as a workaround. It is useful for a device out of warranty. However, remapping your keys will require rooting your device. If the device is still under warranty (ie you just bought it), then don't put up with remapping keys and loosing functionality in your device. Send it back and make them fix it or replace it. When you pay 200 dollars or more for a product, you have every right to expect it to work properly when you get it..

robl42 said:

Why does it work fine at home but not while I'm away? It's strange?

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There is something funky about Boost. I have the same exact use areas with my Boost as i did with my Sprint phone. I find that i now have questionable service in some of my areas when i had a great signal with Sprint. This is by no means a reasonable observation because i used a Touch Pro 2 with Sprint and i have a S2 now and while the S2 is much easier to modify and tinker with imho HTCs are much better phones. So the observed differences may be a service difference between Sprint and Boost or between the S2 and the HTC... I have never roamed so roaming does not add into my observation.

I have asked/posed this before but it is a unanswerable question...i wonder if Sprint gives cell tower priority to those who are post-paid Sprint as opposed to pre-paid Sprint (i.e. VM/BM). We know our data runs though a proxy server no reason they can't limit load access to the towers... Periodically, i can't get a 3g connection but a perfect 4g WiMax connection... Who knows. For the most part everything works fine when it does and when it doesn't...it doesn't.

rockdoctor1 said:

There is something funky about Boost. I have the same exact use areas with my Boost as i did with my Sprint phone. I find that i now have questionable service in some of my areas when i had a great signal with Sprint. This is by no means a reasonable observation because i used a Touch Pro 2 with Sprint and i have a S2 now and while the S2 is much easier to modify and tinker with imho HTCs are much better phones. So the observed differences may be a service difference between Sprint and Boost or between the S2 and the HTC... I have never roamed so roaming does not add into my observation.

I have asked/posed this before but it is a unanswerable question...i wonder if Sprint gives cell tower priority to those who are post-paid Sprint as opposed to pre-paid Sprint (i.e. VM/BM). We know our data runs though a proxy server no reason they can't limit load access to the towers... Periodically, i can't get a 3g connection but a perfect 4g WiMax connection... Who knows. For the most part everything works fine when it does and when it doesn't...it doesn't.

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Sprint's post paid customers get towers covered by agreements Sprint has with other carriers, and Boost only gets Sprint owned towers. As for data speed on 3g I removed the proxy server on the multimedia settings on my device and I see no 3g lag compared to an actual Sprint post paid phone of the same model.

As for comparison between manufactures, you have to go by phone model and not just manufacturer. Each has their great devices and ones that aren't quite so great. My Sister's HTC Thunderbolt was a device with problems, and she ended up getting rid of it.

Codegerm said:

I removed the proxy server

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I forgot about this. It did make a difference.