Ghost texting, won't power down, & gets hot

[jeeperPhil]

Hi AC Community!

I'm new here, lurked for a while & learned a lot (thank you!). I picked up the S7 back in July (AT&T) and it's been a great phone overall, but I've recently noticed several odd things. The biggest one started this morning: ghost texting. I turned on the phone to write and send a text, made a typo, and hit the delete button. But instead of deleting, random letters were being added. Home button didn't work, recent apps button didn't work, and the gibberish just continued. At this point, I watched as my Contacts app was opened and seemingly random people selected to start a new draft of a text...all without any input from me. I tried powering it down, but hitting the 'Power off' button seemed to only pause the ghost texts as it went right back to typing gibberish. I was finally able to get the phone to restart, and upon reopening Messages, found that it had drafted 12 gibberish texts to different people (luckily, none sent). All seemed okay until 20 minutes later when the phone started it up again. Another restart, seemed good, but that only lasted about an hour. This time, I watched it open Chrome then open the Play Store, somehow find a Mahjongg game, then ask me if I wanted to download it...again, I'm not touching the phone at all. Forced a restart (Power + Volume Down) & cleared cache. It's been acting normal now for the last few hours.

I've had other recent issues with texts where the last-typed key will stick, but it's never commandeered the phone like this. Also, I've noticed the phone gets pretty warm, well hot. More often than not, I'm just holding the phone or notice the heat after picking it up (i.e. sitting unused for a while).

Any thoughts as to why any of this might be happening? Recommendations on what to do? Thank you!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Was the phone plugged in and charging at the time? Does the phone have a screen protector on?

 

[jeeperPhil]

Thanks!

Nope, not charging at the time. It does have a glass screen protector, but I don't see any cracks/creases/dings in it that might cause screen presses. Interestingly, since forcing that last reboot yesterday (Power button + Volume down), it's been acting normal, which is to say without issues.

Maybe I'll just wait and see if it does it again. But, then what? Maybe try removing the screen protector to see if the phantom screen presses continue? [*Note: I had the phone off silent, so it was pretty freaky listening to it 'click' while typing out a message on its own!] Or, try to boot into Safe Mode & hunt around? The phone is pretty much as-is out-of-the-box, including apps.

 

[NiffiIsenguard]

Okay so MAYBE NOT useful when I had my s6 I worked in a oil and gas shop had a glass screen protector. I discovered if I had some grime on my hands when I typed I would occasionally get the phantom press. Or even some liquid.

It got scratched up so I switched to my OtterBox screen protector till I could get a new one. But the ghosting seemed to stop. I dunno why but that is my personal experience with the ghosting

 

[B. Diddy]

From what I've read in other threads about ghost touches, I would definitely try it without the screen protector, if it happens again.

 

[jeeperPhil]

Well, problems again, but different this time. Last week, I unlocked the screen to find the display shaking back and forth (left & right) very quickly. The phone itself wasn't vibrating and no messages were received at that time, so no [plausible] reason for the screen motion, though I understand that's stretching any plausibility and it simply shouldn't happen. Apps still opened and the phone functioned as normal, but the screen was losing it. So, I removed the glass screen protector and forced another reboot. Fast forward to today and the Flipboard brief is back (it was disabled) and one of my home screens is completely gone (i.e. I had 3, now have 2 + Flipboard).

Is this thing just fubar'd? I'm guessing my next step is a visit to the store (...unless anybody else has any thoughts? Thanks!)

 

[B. Diddy]

Did the screen shaking go away after removing the screen protector? I can imagine that the jitteriness could have been due to more ghost touches (i.e, the homescreen swiping back and forth minimally).

Was anything on the lost homescreen? Are you able to add the 3rd homescreen back and place app shortcuts and widgets on it?

 

[jeeperPhil]

Thanks, B. Diddy. Unfortunately, I don't know if the jitteriness would've continued sans screen protector because I didn't remove it until after rebooting the phone. At that point, everything was back to normal.

The lost home screen only had app links on it. The apps are still in the Drawer, so nothing was really lost. And I can add the home screen back plus drag apps onto it. Overall, just odd.