apps causing screen lock on Nexus4

A

AC Question

I have a nexus 4 and keep experiencing the same issues with it. Every month or two the centre third of the screen becomes unresponsive. This means that I can't even select 'power off'. I try going to safe mode and it works ok then and I uninstall all the apps and launchers and start again. Even with a new launcher etc sooner or later it begins to play up a bit and I am back to square one.
I run duplicate apps on my nexus 7 and have no problems there the only difference is I have a few games like farm heroes, candy crush, ice age that are only on my phone.
Has anyone had problems similar to mine and is it these apps causing the problems?
Thanks
Ivan