Touchscreen issues

[icyitscold]

I noticed today that my Nexus 7 suffered from the touchscreen issue referenced at the link below after watching a youtube video.

Video: Nexus 7 touchscreen defect

Is this affecting everyone or is it limited to a few devices? I really don't want to have to return this and wait for a new one but if I must...

 

[effreyj]

I've noticed when I play games sometimes I have similar issues. I'm wondering if it's a software bug though...

 

[icyitscold]

I hope so. I think I might wait on this for a while until it blows up to see if there is a software fix!

 

[keithz]

I noticed it when typing the other day. Keyboard just wasn't picking up inputs.

Very frustrating.

Hoping it's an easily fixable software bug.

 

[Small_law]

Not seeing it, but swiping through home screens feels a bit jitterly, like it's had too much caffeine, especially when I first pick it up. That's due to the Way they've increased touch response. Topolsky at the Verge noted it in his review. Not a big issue.

 

[rubrnek]

yes i am having this issue and turning the screen off and on does fix it, so it seems to be a software bug.

 

[DahakaSand]

It's happened to me too but the quickest way to fix it is to just press the power button and turn it back on without shutting it down. You'll notice that the touch sensitivity comes back perfectly. I think it is a software issue so hopefully google will fix it up.

 

[ShaggyKids]

I think I detected this issue on mine a couple of times. I was using the GO Keyboard so switched back to Swift Key and going to see if that makes a difference. Got to thinking since it's a keyboard issue maybe it's the keyboard app I was using.

 

[berrydroidapple]

O.K. I thought it was just me. Last night I noticed the screen became less responsive and while typing I got all kinds of strange words. Scared the heck out of me.

This morning I did use a microfiber towel I have to clean the screen, and can report no issues.

 

[ShaggyKids]

The problem seems to happen after longer periods of use, and at least for me.

Sent from my AWESOME Nexus 7 via Tapatalk 2

 

[rockyp9]

PCWorld's article on reported screen problems.

 

[Technomancer07]

I am still having this issue as of Sept 2012. I notice that the touchscreen will stop responding as easily after the device is active for a couple of days. A reboot solves the problem. I don't use the Nexus 7 constantly during the day. Any idea how to let Google know this is happening directly?

 

[Wayren]

Huh. I seem to have the opposite problem. After my Nexus 7 has been on for 20+ minutes the top half of the screen in portrait mode starts behaving like someone is rapidly tapping the screen all over. It makes it unusable. I have to power cycle the device to return it to working order. Issue continues after a factory reset. Gonna call support tonight about it.

 

[mmaestro]

There is a long, long troubleshooting thread at XDA here.
And also a thread on Google's codebase for Android here.

The tl;dr version: there seem to be two distinct issues. One is slow storage, which may vary across devices and is compounded by background sync and filling the storage. 2 programs which have a big impact on this are Currents and Play Magazines. If you're having issues, try disabling both of these and see if it helps, also try to keep at least 3GB of storage free on your device. That seems to be the issue which is fixed by a full reboot. My gut feeling is that it's poor implementation of garbage collection on the storage, which should be fixable with a software patch, but that's just gut, I could be way off base.
The second issue is lack of responsiveness which is fixed by turning the screen on and off. I've seen suggestions that this is a hardware defect, a bad ground in the screen and may be something that needs to be warrantied. That seems more speculative, though.

FWIW, my Nexus has both issues, but to a manageable degree so I haven't replaced it, yet.

 

[Blake Longford]

Warren, the exact same thing happens with mine, did you work out how to fix it?