Nexus 5: screen not responding

[BigBug]

Hi everyone:

I have a 2014 Nexus 5 and somewhat out of the blue the screen has totally stopped responding: literally no response at all as I move my finger across the screen.

I reboot the phone and the phone is still completely non-responsive to moving my finger on the screen (I have cleaned the screen and nothing; also the phone was not dropped the best of my knowledge--definitely no cracks or chip; did not get put in water except sweat from my face; I have no screen protector and have taken it out of its case; all side buttons like power and volume work normally)

I assume this means the digitizer is shot. But what is strange is if when I hit the power off button on the right, I can hit the power off pop-up on my screen and it turns off (I can also long hit it and get it to reboot to safe mode, which I have tried and still the same no response)! Yet hitting that exact same spot when it is on the lock screen does nothing.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I can give more infos if that would help of course.

small addition:
I should have added that the phone is responsive in the sense that the lockscreen updates when no activity occurs (phone calls, emails, etc)

 

[Paddy Landau]

Two things come to mind.

First, does it respond when someone calls you (so you can answer)?

Second, do you have an app that creates an invisible overlay? The second is very unlikely if it still happens when you start in Safe Mode, but only if your phone has never been rooted.

A worst-case scenario might be that you have to do a factory-level reset. Sorry that I can't be of more help.

 

[BigBug]

Thanks for the quick response! And when I get a call the phone rings but I cannot respond (same with a text).

I do not think I have anything with an invisible overlay (and my phone is not rooted)

 

[Paddy Landau]

Sorry to hear. I know what Google Support would say: do a factory-level restore. Unless someone here comes up with a smart plan, it might be your only option.

A nicer option might be to wipe your cache partition. You can do this even though your screen does not respond, and it won't delete your data.

http://www.solvemix.com/index.php/a...us-5-how-to-wipe-cache-partition-instructions

 

[BigBug]

Thanks Paddy. Wiped the cache: it worked for like one second and then back to no responsiveness

Any other suggestions?

 

[BigBug]

I got in for a few minutes: worked until the screen blanked and now screen is unresponsive just like before.

It seemed like most things were fine except:
- could not get the notifications at the top to pull down and view (so that would be like a list of messages on the top left or changing the settings like putting it in airplace mode)
- all of my widgets were invisible but seem to be still there (if I try to add the same widgets back I get a message saying that only one widget allowed).

Completely mystified.

 

[Paddy Landau]

That's actually a good sign; it means that it's almost certainly a software problem, not hardware.

But, sorry, the only remaining suggestion from me is a factory-level restore.

There must be another way, but I wouldn't know how.

 

[BigBug]

OK thanks Paddy -- I did a quick update to my post since I got in again briefly.

Any other suggestions of course most welcome!