Pocophone F1 touchscreen and app access problem

[pjtwyman]

I have a Pocophone F1 (MIUI 12.03) that I purchased in 2019. Other than keeping it updated and charged I have not really used it much. Now that I am retiring my Redmi Note 5 I set up the Pocophone as my everyday phone.

I have found several problems the most concerning of which are:

After starting the phone up (that is powering it on) I have difficulty accessing apps. On tapping on an app the screen goes white and remains so for a long time. I cannot exit the white screen unless I use the gesture control, flicking upwards from the base of the screen. This takes me back to the home screen. Sometimes I get through to the Applock screen and apply my fingerprint and find myself with the white screen again.

Other times I will tap several times on an app without it responding. And sometimes the whole screen goes black and will not respond to gesture controls. If this is the case I have to use the Quickball/ Home screen command (the Quickball is visible to the side of the black screen) to return to the Home Screen.

Eventually these problems become less noticeable and I can use the phone normally. I am not sure if the problems are restricted to particular apps but the white screen has occurred with Yahoo, Whatsapp, Viber and the nonresponsiveness with the music players and at least one newspaper app. However they do not occur everytime with the same apps.

I have reset the phone completely (twice - once when setting it up and once yesterday) and also disabled the screenshot gesture. I also uninstalled updates to the Poco Launcher which meant I had reassemble the Home Screen and wallpaper. This achieved nothing.

Grateful for any advice

 

[Madd62]

Not sure. Try Settings - About Phone - All Specs - then find Kernel Version and tap seven/several times, then go through the hardware tests on the CIT screen.
I have an F2 Pro and a Mi 10 Lite (same age).
It could be a hardware or screen problem.

Also might as well open the Security APP and run the clean up on 3 or 4 main boxes in red there.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Does this also happen in Safe Mode? https://www.getdroidtips.com/boot-poco-f1-safe-mode/

 

[pjtwyman]

thanks

Before trying Safe Mode I powered up the phone to see the range of apps affected by these problems. It turns out some Google and Xiaomi also have the problem, though sometimes the logo appears but just hangs there.
It also seems that this white screen is simply the app taking a very, very long time to respond. In some cases I attempted to open an app, got the white screen and exited it for another app. While on the second app the the previous app would suddenly open up. But this delay is several minutes long.

I got into Safe Mode and confirmed that the white screen occurred with some of the Google and Xiaomi apps. The black screen also occurred once in Safe Mode.

I also did the CIT tests for Display, Vibration and Touchscreen. The first 2 tests were OK but the I am not sure what to make of the Touchscreen test. I ran my fingers all over the screen but some parts did not turn blue. A screenshot is below.

Once again I would appreciate any advice.

 

[B. Diddy]

Hard to say -- it might be impending hardware failure. Since you already tried a factory reset, and since it also occurs in Safe Mode, I can only suggest looking into reflashing the firmware, but I'm not familiar with how to do that on Poco phones. You could look on the forums at XDA-Developers.com for more information.

 

[Madd62]

If you've turned off the adverts through several settings, and Google Play System is fairly up to date, there are feedback settings (where they can diagnose over the air or from diagnostic information it takes (I THINK) if you explain the problem there.

Settings - Services and Feedback - start Logs and open Feedback.

Also I would try their forums through the Xiaomi Community app and search there. I found it difficult to navigate but another member here has better experience.

ADDED : it now sounds like software or something is slowing the system down. BTW there are extra tests such as touch sensor drawing in the CIT overflow menu, although your screenshot seemed OK. If you are seeing it differently then IDK something wrong with the graphics. Sorry I can't be more helpful.
I wouldn't worry about being out of warranty in sending feedback logs.

 

[pjtwyman]

I have submitted my problem to Xiaomi Community but have not received any comments. Their Community site is definitely difficult to navigate.

Regarding flashing new firmware I don't think my skills are up to it. Most of the info on the web and YouTube centres on using a Windows computer. Also the file editing looks a bit tricky. Anyway I will see how this problem progresses.
Thanks for your help.

 

[pjtwyman]

An update on this problem.

As a last resort I decided to try the phone without the SD card. To my surprise everything seemed to work fine. I then reinserted the card, mounted it properly, formatted the card (thereby erasing the data) and then reloaded my photos, music etc from a USB stick. The problem has not reoccurred.

I have usually inserted/extract SD cards without enabling mounting/unmounting and have not noticed any problems before. This has been a bit of an education.