Nexus 7 touchscreen dead spots

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solvingchaos

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Jul 17, 2012
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So i've noticed a very strange issue with my Nexus 7. If I wake the tablet up while touching the screen I get some very strange touchscreen behavior. It's almost as if there are dead areas on the touchscreen that don't respond to touch. If I put it back to sleep and wake it up without touching the screen the issue is gone. I've made a youtube video demonstrating the issue but I can't post the link yet since I haven't had 10 posts yet. If someone PMs me I will message them the link so that they can post it to this thread.

Has anybody else experienced this issue?
 
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bso44

Senior Member
Oct 2, 2010
3,405
853
Any specific areas that are less responsive? I wonder if there's a touchscreen calibration app for the Nexus. I know there are for other devices.
 
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solvingchaos

Member
Jul 17, 2012
20
4
clankfu said:
Any specific areas that are less responsive? I wonder if there's a touchscreen calibration app for the Nexus. I know there are for other devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It seems to be towards the center most of the time and the dead zone appears to vary in size. It's possible the dead spot may center around whatever part of the screen was touched when waking the device. I'll have to do some more testing to see if that is the case.
 
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adeelmysore

Member
Apr 16, 2008
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solvingchaos said:
It seems to be towards the center most of the time and the dead zone appears to vary in size. It's possible the dead spot may center around whatever part of the screen was touched when waking the device. I'll have to do some more testing to see if that is the case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Just got mine and it was sitting outside in the heat and the touchscreen was not responding well when I first turned it. After it cooled off and installed the update every thing is working fine.
 
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r4d14n7

Senior Member
Jun 20, 2009
680
115
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Is it possible that the capacitance of the screen is calibrated upon wake or something? Not even sure if possible, but it's a thought.

Edit: a drawing app may allow you to demonstrate a little easier.
 
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grukko

grukko

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
323
58
I don't know if my issue is related but scrolling is totally inconsistent on my n7. Usually when I swipe it'll work correctly but one out of five times a swipe will be registered as a tap. This gets really annoying when you're trying to scroll but end up clicking something instead. Wonder if my n7 is defective.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
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solvingchaos

Member
Jul 17, 2012
20
4
grukko said:
I don't know if my issue is related but scrolling is totally inconsistent on my n7. Usually when I swipe it'll work correctly but one out of five times a swipe will be registered as a tap. This gets really annoying when you're trying to scroll but end up clicking something instead. Wonder if my n7 is defective.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I've also seen this happen on occasion when I trigger the issue. Swipes will sometimes register as clicks...
 
grukko

grukko

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2011
323
58
A good way to confirm the dead spot is to download a drawing program and see if there are breaks when you try to draw a straight line. Even though I can replicate the dead spot when scrolling, everything seems fine in the drawing program.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 
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solvingchaos

Member
Jul 17, 2012
20
4
grukko said:
A good way to confirm the dead spot is to download a drawing program and see if there are breaks when you try to draw a straight line. Even though I can replicate the dead spot when scrolling, everything seems fine in the drawing program.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I tried this out in two drawing apps and got different results. In "Draw Free" when drawing vertical lines my line would stop at the beginning of the "dead" spot and pick up again on the other side of the "dead" spot. I could not replicate the issue when drawing vertical lines in the "Picasso" drawing app.
 
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cwoggon

Senior Member
Feb 2, 2012
107
15
Not seeing this issue on my Nexus 7. Not very helpful in tracking the problem, but I figured it was worth mentioning that this doesn't seem to be global. I'll post again if I manage to replicate the issue.
 
nicatronTg

nicatronTg

Senior Member
Dec 5, 2010
161
21
Aurora
I enabled show touches in developer options when it started happening, and I saw ghost touches nearing the middle left side of the screen when nearing areas with dead spots.

Seems like a grounding issue internally causing the touch driver to short in some places.
 
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solvingchaos

Member
Jul 17, 2012
20
4
nicatronTg said:
I enabled show touches in developer options when it started happening, and I saw ghost touches nearing the middle left side of the screen when nearing areas with dead spots.

Seems like a grounding issue internally causing the touch driver to short in some places.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

If it is due to a internal grounding issue I don't think it will be as simple as a software fix :(

I am on the fence on whether I should try and get mine swapped out with a new one at GameStop...At a minimum I am going to try and call google support at some point today and get their take on the situation.
 
P

PsychoTribe

Senior Member
Jun 20, 2008
109
29
Hello to all. I don't have an Nexus 7 but i do have Nexus S and i noticed from some time when i take out the phone from my pocket if i touch the screen and then turn it on the display was not responsive on touch but did not make some tests to see if the touch before turning on the screen was the exact problem. Now i saw this thread and tried the "pointer location" in Developer options and got this:
Turning off the screen.
Put my finger on a chosen spot.
Turn on the screen.
Unlock.
Try to draw a line passing through the exact same place where my finger was when i turned on the screen.
The line get to the point and then make a half circle around the spot or it break the line and then continue after the point where my finger was.
After turning off and on the display again the non responding spot disapear.

Sorry for my bad english :)
 
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bongostl

Senior Member
Apr 28, 2010
1,111
569
I too am having this problem.

I bought one at Sam's because i was sick of waiting on the play store....now I'm trying to decide if i should take delivery in the hopes that the touchscreen bug is only on some...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
 
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    El Daddy
    El Daddy
    Here is a video from the OP. He asked me to post it for him.

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    eeansa
    Fixed my touch screen problems!

    I purchased my Nexus 7 from Staples during business trip to San Francisco. My device started having touch screen issues after few hours. Factory reset did fix it and I liked the device a lot so I didn't return it as I thought touch screen issue was just a SW glitch. Issue came back at the airport :(. Unfortunately I didn't have time to return the device at that point. Issue wasn't manifesting itself all the time, but seemed to come up every time I plugged the device in charger. Symptoms were exactly as in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVkvCXDKU2M and the other one in which multitouch is demonstrated. I suspected different applications as a reason to the problem as well as faulty charger. Then I found this thread and became assured that this must be a HW problem.
    As I'm living in Finland and don't know when my next business trip to USA will take place I decided to try and fix the problem myself. I took off the back cover and touch screen worked perfectly. Initially I suspected grounding problem but pretty soon came to conclusion that it can not be the case. The problem in my case was the "sponge" pushing (what I assume is) display / touch flex. I have marked that in the attached picture. Even a very light touch to sponge caused touch screen to go crazy. As I don't have the luxury of immediate warranty repair I decided to remove the sponge and my Nexus 7 has been working flawlessly ever since. I can even charge and everything works as expected. When I started charging the device I placed my Nexus 7 on the table. It probably caused slightly increased pressure on back cover and therefore to "sponge". After removing the sponge I can't see any of the touch screen problems I was having. Couldn't be happier as I don't have any of the other problems people have found and device is working as it should, at least for now.
    I don't encourage anyone to do what I did, but if you are in the same situation as I was with imported device, you can try to take off back cover and see if the problems are fixed. You should be very careful though not to break the device especially when it's powered on with back cover off. Hope this helps someone.

    EDIT: 22.8.2012. Forgot to mention, that turn of WiFi if using device with back cover off. Turning off NFC and GPS won't hurt, although GPS is receiving only. Reason is that antennas are located on back cover.
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    siksik6
    OK,

    I've found a couple of things

    1) To replicate it, I need to hammer the hardware a bit. 5 minutes on a game that uses the Tegra 3 hardware seems to do it. (Puddle THD Lite in this case)
    2) Using the developer options, it's not even sensing the touch
    3) I've attached a link to a YouTube video of what happens when I try to draw a zig-zag pattern. NOT good! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9A0eg3r_ZA

    definitely sending it back for a replacement.
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    bso44
    El Daddy said:
    Here is a video from the OP. He asked me to post it for him.

    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse



    I don't have my N7 yet so I can't test it out for you but that's definitely weird. Can someone with an N7 try to duplicate the issue?
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    bso44
    Any specific areas that are less responsive? I wonder if there's a touchscreen calibration app for the Nexus. I know there are for other devices.
    View

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