dead spots and ghost touches on nexus 4

[Muhammad Sani]

My nexus 4 has dead spots and sometimes ghost touches too. Why is this happening? Anyone else has this problem? Someone help please!!!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Have you tried clearing the system cache partition, which won't erase personal data? This can sometimes help various problems. Reset: Google Nexus 4 | T-Mobile Support

If that doesn't work, you may want to consider a full factory data reset, which will erase your personal data. If the problem still persists, then it is more likely hardware-related, and you may have to look into sending it in for repair.

 

[zorak950]

I've found that things like that can be environmental. For example, in cool, humid air my N4 has a real tendency to get jittery. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because the humidity registers as touches to the capacitive layer in the cooler air. In those situations, I find that turning off my screen and wiping it down with whatever's handy (usually the loose end of my shirt) tends to help temporarily, but the only "fix" is to go inside/shut the window or wait a bit until conditions change. Not sure if it's the same as your problem or not, but worth noting.

 

[B. Diddy]

That's a very interesting point. I've also wondered if the touchscreen problems that were brought up about the 2013 Nexus 7 might have been related to something similar--but in this case, the opposite problem, where the fingertip might have picked up some kind of residue from the environment which then acted like an insulator, thus preventing the screen from registering a touch. Maybe there was something about the N7 screen finish that made it more likely for this to happen.

 

[sypher770]

Welcome to Android Central! Have you tried clearing the system cache partition, which won't erase personal data? This can sometimes help various problems. Reset: Google Nexus 4 | T-Mobile Support

If that doesn't work, you may want to consider a full factory data reset, which will erase your personal data. If the problem still persists, then it is more likely hardware-related, and you may have to look into sending it in for repair.

Thanks!! Maybe its a hardware issue then because I have reset my phone more than a couple of times even flashed new ROMs but the dead spots won't go away.

 

[sypher770]

I've found that things like that can be environmental. For example, in cool, humid air my N4 has a real tendency to get jittery. If I had to guess, I'd say it's because the humidity registers as touches to the capacitive layer in the cooler air. In those situations, I find that turning off my screen and wiping it down with whatever's handy (usually the loose rend of my shirt) tends to help temporarily, but the only "fix" is to go inside/shut the window or wait a bit until conditions change. Not sure if it's the same as your problem or not, but worth noting.

Sometimes I just turn the screen off and turn it back on again and the ghost touches will stop for a while. Maybe its environmental thing but The dead spot is more annoying though, its making interaction with the screen really hard even typing. Thanks anyway.

 

[zorak950]

Sometimes I just turn the screen off and turn it back on again and the ghost touches will stop for a while. Maybe its environmental thing but The dead spot is more annoying though, its making interaction with the screen really hard even typing. Thanks anyway.

Are the dead spots always there and always in the same place? Because if they are, I'd have to guess that it's a faulty capacitive layer, and there's nothing you're going to do to the firmware that will help. If they seem intermittent, though, you might have a chance that it's firmware or environmental.

 

[sypher770]

Are the dead spots always there and always in the same place? Because if they are, I'd have to guess that it's a faulty capacitive layer, and there's nothing you're going to do to the firmware that will help. If they seem intermittent, though, you might have a chance that it's firmware or environmental.

I cleaned the screen of the phone with a soft fabric soaked in clean water and seems like the dead spots are gone, I can interact with every part of the screen now, seems like its no hardware issue afterall .. Soo happy right now. Thanks soo much man!!!.

UPDATE!! . so looks like the fix earlier was just temporary, dead spots are back after 5 hours .. Looks like my search for fix is not yet over

 

[B. Diddy]

Hmm, I wonder if there's some odd residue on the screen that was temporarily helped by wiping it. This might be out of left field, but maybe try a screen protector--I wonder if that might actually help restore the capacitance to the parts of the screen that are acting faulty.