Bottom inch of Galaxy note 4 screen does not react to S-pen

[AC Question]

About 3/4" across the bottom of my note 4 doesn't react to s-pen at all, and also, the back button reacts to the pen touch, but the recent apps button does not. I can't see obvious defects on the surface of the screen, neither is the phone in any case, magnetic or not. I did the Wacom Test on the phone and when the diagonal was drawn, the bottom corner tiles did not change color, nor did any line register and the phone returned a big red "FAIL". The whole screen, however, works perfectly with capacitive finger touch. I've done quite a bit of research online, and have found that problems with parts of unresponsive screen actually were caused by magnetic interference with a case. But mine has no case, and the problematic area is quite uniform across the bottom. Does this indicate a problematic phone, or is there a quick fix? Thanks to anyone who can shed some light.

 

[Javier P]

Mod note. Moved to the Note 4 forum for more visibility.

 

[MrMELTDOWN]

My wife had a similar problem where as the s pen wouldn't write half way down on the far right side about 1" in x 1" or so down. Verizon support helped her. It was a glitch with a coloring / art app that was causing it. She uninstalled the app and no more issues.

 

[Turkeybean]

Thanks, MrMeltDown! I'm the OP - just opened an account to post.
I got in touch with Samsung and they used Smart Tutor to look at the phone remotely but couldn't find a fix. I also have uninstalled all apps I installed, which were only Opera and Phone Info. There's a bunch of AT&T bloatware which I disabled, but I doubt they would have contributed anyway. Here's a screenshot from the phone where you can see the pen doesn't go down: Here's the Wacom Test:
The phone works fine otherwise and I'm getting good battery life, so I'd like to keep it if this is not indicative of hardware issue and has an easy fix (like unistalling an app).

 

[Turkeybean]

Clarification: the last pic above includes thicker blue lines which were done by my finger to show contrast.

 

[nahoku]

Have you tried starting the phone in Safe mode?

 

[Turkeybean]

Have you tried starting the phone in Safe mode?

Yes. In fact, Samsung gave me the instructions to start in Safe mode. When that didn't work, they tried to find a fix by remoting into my phone via Smart Tutor. I think at this point the only thing I haven't tried is a factory reset. Honestly, because that "unresponsive" area is so uniform across the bottom (you could probably draw a straight line across), I'm more inclined to think that it's some sort of app or software glitch, but...what do I know!

 

[nahoku]

Well, its a big pain in the you know where, but the only way to find out is to factory reset. Back up all your data first... as you probably know.

Personally, I think the wacom layer might have gone bad. Of course, if you factory reset the phone, that'll be easy enough to verify.

What diagnosis did Samsung give you? Hardware? Software?

 

[Turkeybean]

Yeah, you're probably right about the wacom layer.
It IS a big pain especially when I'd click a soft button down there and the phone doesn't react and I need to switch to use my hand! The Samsung agent said he opened a ticket for repair but I haven't spoken with a "technician" yet, so there's really no diagnosis at this point. I'm going to try a hard reset next.

 

[nahoku]

Well good luck with the factory reset. I actually hope your phone works after it so the pain is easier to bear! I hate FR's myself!

 

[Turkeybean]

Thought I'd update this in case anyone is having similar issues.

After trying pretty much everything except a hard reset and didn't find a fix, I finally did a factory reset. And *that* actually did solve the screen problem, so it appears not to be a hardware issue. Now the pen can be detected across the screen. The only problem that this did not solve is the "recent apps" soft key still not reacting to the pen. The back key works, but the apps key only works with my finger. I'm tempted to think that an OS update might solve this (and potentially cause other issues), but AT&T has not pushed MM updates to my phone, and seeing that others are having so many problems with MM, I don't know if I want to update....

 

[Andrew Lapinski]

I'm having the same issue you having with the pen not working on the recent apps soft key. Except on my phone, it's the other way around. Have you discovered a fix for the problem?

 

[Turkeybean]

I'm having the same issue you having with the pen not working on the recent apps soft key. Except on my phone, it's the other way around. Have you discovered a fix for the problem?

No, I wish I did. Is your back key not working then? Did it happen after an update or installing an app?

 

[Andrew Lapinski]

It could be either. It is the back button the pen won't work on. I honestly didn't notice it till the other day when I went to use the pen on it.