[Q] G2 trackpad spontaneously triggering by itself. Anyone else have this problem? - G2 and Desire Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

(I posted this first in the Desire Z forum. I didn't realize there was a separate G2 forum. I even looked for it.)
I've had my G2 since the 9/29 and on several occasions I've noticed the trackpad triggering itself when my finger is no where near it.
Once, I was in the market looking at a list of apps. Normally, when you swipe on the trackpad in there it selects an application and highlights it orange. This randomly happened all by itself. If I touch the screen the selection goes away, but then it would suddenly appear again a few seconds later.
In Subsonic it even jumped around between a few controls.
Another time I was playing Wordfeud and it spontaneously highlighted the Pass button. This time I grabbed my old G1 to shoot video of it happening. I must have shot at least 10 minutes of video and it happened twice more, as I recall.
Update: Here's a video of it happening on the home screen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9-Yu4DSimw
Anyone else have this problem? I can't reproduce it at will. It seems to happen randomly while I'm holding the phone.

naw, but i've noticed my trackpad will occasionally bring my display back to life when it's timed out - will not do it predictably, but 2-3 times out of 10 tries, it will
have no idea what's going on, but would love to be able to use it to wake the phone up - much easier than using the power button

Hmmm, I have my phone plugged in via USB right now. I have debugging turned on, and "keep screen on" enabled. So it sits there dimly lit after 2 minutes. I was going to leave it alone and see if the trackpad spontaneously moves when I'm not holding the phone.
So far it has not, but just now the screen lit back up to full brightness all by itself. This normally happens when you touch the screen, a button, or the trackpad.
In all previous cases of my bug, I was holding the phone. I heard that the trackpad is capacitive, just like the screen, so maybe holding the phone a certain way can mess with it, but sitting on a desk it won't. If I let the phone sit here long enough, maybe I can refute that idea. If a home screen icon suddenly becomes selected, I'll know that it can happen even when I'm not touching the phone.
In any case, I can't explain why my screen woke back up from being dim.

Yea the touch stuff is set off by heat so maybe it felt some heat from somewhere and thought that you touched it. Thats about all i can think of on that one.

I'm pretty sure it's triggered by electrical capacitance, not by heat. It's either optical or by capacitance (and I heard it's not optical). I don't think any sensors like this use a heat detection mechanism.
To test this, you should be able to hold something cold with a similar capacitance as your skin, like a cold hot dog, and operate the trackpad using it.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitive_sensing

Yes , I noticed mine doing the same thing. If my finger were to hover anywhere near the trackpad it would flash and move around. It doesnt happen all the time but it has happened. I also have had some issues with the sim card and memory card not being read. The memory card I had to put it on my pc transfer all the data, re format and scan the card then reinstall my data to the card. Which has fixed the issue. I suspect a download from the market may have corrupted my memory card.
G2 running stock 2.2
My_touch Slide
rooted
2.2 Cyanogen 6.0 kanged

As promised, here's a video of it happening: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9-Yu4DSimw
So, at first I thought the trackpad was optical, but someone on reddit assertively said, "no, it's capacitive." So I believed him. But now I think he's wrong.
I believe that if the trackpad is capacitive like the touchscreen, then anything that can interact with the trackpad can also interact with the touchscreen. I used a piece of cloth to interact with the touchpad and it did not interact with the touchscreen.
Here's a video I just made: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYaSzwZGlvY
(Shot with my G1) The cloth easily moves the trackpad around, but it's impossible to get it to register a touch on the screen.
Also, the trackpad is perfectly usable even when your finger is completely covering it. Try it with your thumb even. You can completely cover it then still move around your thumb and your selection will move around. I do not believe a capacitive device would detect the difference between full contact on one place on your thumb and full contact on a different part of your thumb, and especially not the direction of change as you move it. Capacitive touch screens rely on moving the point of skin contact, which never happens if you're touching the whole thing at once. An optical sensor on the other hand would be seeing your fingerprint move.
Thirdly, when you look at the trackpad in direct light, it looks like dark, transparent, purple plastic. I believe it's transparent yet purple because the wavelength of light it emits can go through the plastic, but is not visible light. Infrared maybe? Ultraviolet? I think it's very similar to the "black" CDs for the original Playsation gaming console. They were actually very, very dark purple but that was completely transparent to the CD player.
See a photo: http://i.imgur.com/SpIIZ.jpg
Fourth, I can't get this bug to happen if I hold the phone perfectly still. It only seems to happen when I move it around in my hand. I think the sensor is "seeing" movement when I do that.
And here's the proverbial nail in the coffin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOQukQxwajg
Electrical tape doesn't stop a capacitive touch screen, but it renders the trackpad useless.

It's probably a simple IR LED and photodiode operating in much the same way an optical mouse operates. One way you could check is to point an old camcorder at the trackpad. Old camcorders tend to have weak or no IR filters.

jashsu said:
It's probably a simple IR LED and photodiode operating in much the same way an optical mouse operates. One way you could check is to point an old camcorder at the trackpad. Old camcorders tend to have weak or no IR filters.
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Click to collapse
My old G1's camera has no problem seeing the IR from my TV's remote, but it detects nothing coming from the trackpad. However, the remote is designed to reach a lot further than the trackpad, so maybe the trackpad's LED is just very dim.
I don't have anything else to test it with.

yes, i have had this problem!!...it did it on my home screen, just starts switch home screens left and right...this was like two days ago...it hasn't done it since,still debating if i should get a new phone

The trackpad is optical/IR. It responds to infrared. If you go out on a sunny day, your trackpad will go wild. The new blackberrys have the same problem. I really do not think there is a fix, and it's pretty annoying. I've owned a Blackberry 9700 since January and I never could find a way around this, no matter what sensitivity setting I had it on or how much I updated the OS.
I've noticed the same thing with the G2.. in sunlight, the cursor goes crazy.

If there were ever any sun in Rochester, NY I would test this. I assume It's only a problem if the phone itself is in direct sunlight. Is the the case? So, if I shield it with my own shadow I'd be ok?
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

I just noticed this with my G2, kind of annoying, ha. So I experimented and found that nothing happens while holding the phone still or while it sits on the desk, or with the room's light off. But, if I tilt it around with the light on, it acts up.
I think it's detecting the light behind me.

i think its kinda cool. doesnt bother me cuz it makes my phone feel.... alive in a sense. but it is very light sensitive. im freaking loving this phone. not a single complaint

Related

Phone turns off about once a week

The subject heading pretty much says it all. I think about once a week I'm coming to my phone, pressing the power button to wake up the screen, and I'm finding that the phone was totally off.
Just the other day it happened twice. Never happened before, and it may be a one off.
But am I just accidentally taping power off (which I'm pretty sure I am) or am I going towards making sure my backups are current and getting a replacement (no doubt referbished) Desire?
Perhaps it's a 3rd party application causing the issue?
I'd suggest you do a hard reset and see if the problem comes back.
It's pretty difficult to accidentally power off your device. You still have to go through 2 screen taps to power off after you long-press the stand-by key.
Get it exchanged if you've ruled out any 3rd party applications.
This happened to me for the first time yesterday. Left my phone in the glove box of my car, came back and it was turned off. It would turn back on either, I tried for ages in a mild panic!
When I got home I removed the battery for a bit and then it suddenly worked.
All been OK since.
ohyeahar said:
Perhaps it's a 3rd party application causing the issue?
I'd suggest you do a hard reset and see if the problem comes back.
It's pretty difficult to accidentally power off your device. You still have to go through 2 screen taps to power off after you long-press the stand-by key.
Get it exchanged if you've ruled out any 3rd party applications.
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Click to collapse
I was thinking about 3rd party applications, but haven't started investigating. Probably because of the frequency it occurs and the amount of apps I have. Though I think I only have pretty popular apps.
I did a post a while ago that I had dropped the phone in a very minor way that would not have broken a Jacobs Cream Cracker (if you don't live in UK, they are very fragile, brittle, biscuit type things). But on each of the two times, one of them being a very cushioned landing, when I picked up the phone, it was off. I was thinking that this must have been what happened. But I'm now thinking it was either a separate issue or coincidence because I don't drop the phone and it still is sometimes off. And I think this occured before even the minor falls.
Hmmmm.....
I just did a test and dropped it from exactly 3cm flat onto my desk and it was instant off. I should add that I have a silicone/gel tight case on my Desire.
Like I said before I don't think this is the main problem, I think this is a secondary issue. And as I've said before, I think the phone going off from this sort of a drop/shock is too sensitive and delicate. Maybe sometime is not quite as tight as it could be in other people's phones.
Perhaps the body of your device is a bit warped such that the battery is a bit loose. That would explain why your device would power off from shock. The battery contacts may have shifted.
Try this. Take off your battery cover. The battery contacts should be on the left (the side without the volume rocker). Try to leverage the right side (the side with the volume rocker) of the battery so that the battery remains in contact with the device. I would try to slip thin strips of paper on the right so that it pushes the battery to the left.
Then try your 3cm drop test again. See if it improves.
If it improves, you can choose to continue using this method (despite how ghetto it is). Or you can see if you can get it replaced under warranty. Don't mention that you dropped the device, of course!
Other issues (like the glovebox fellow) could be related to heat, too. If it's too warm, I wouldn't be surprised if it turns off and doesn't turn back on until it's cooled down.
The phone has never yet failed to turn on the instance I've pressed the power button.
Looking into said ghetto method....
Nope. Contacts on the phone are all sprunt and sticking out nicely to meet the contacts on the battery, which will then compress the sprung contacs. So I doubt pushing any of the contact out further will help.
Is there any sound meant to come from the phone when you shake it? I don't mean furiously shake it, but just a milding shaking by your ear.
I have always heard a small movement but had assumed it was the vibrating mechanism.
Cleargrey said:
Is there any sound meant to come from the phone when you shake it? I don't mean furiously shake it, but just a milding shaking by your ear.
I have always heard a small movement but had assumed it was the vibrating mechanism.
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Its the camera lens (internal focus part). Its like this on all HTC devices due to the lens they use.

[Q] Wife Claims Ghost Buttons During Calls

So whenever I talk to my wife she always ends up hitting buttons on the screen. (mute, speaker, etc) I told her that the screen should automatically turn off and that maybe something was wrong with her device. As soon as I got home I tested it and it worked just fine. I couldn't get it to happen, light sensor was very responsive.
Somehow she manages to hit buttons and I have no idea how. I covered up the light sensor and tried hitting every button/screen area and nothing happened.
Has anyone else experienced this before? Is there something I can settings/mods wise to help?
DanBergundy said:
So whenever I talk to my wife she always ends up hitting buttons on the screen. (mute, speaker, etc) I told her that the screen should automatically turn off and that maybe something was wrong with her device. As soon as I got home I tested it and it worked just fine. I couldn't get it to happen, light sensor was very responsive.
Somehow she manages to hit buttons and I have no idea how. I covered up the light sensor and tried hitting every button/screen area and nothing happened.
Has anyone else experienced this before? Is there something I can settings/mods wise to help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Woman + X = No longer functioning properly
illogic6 said:
Woman + X = No longer functioning properly
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Click to collapse
:X
Another funny thing is she said her boss at work has the same problem (female) and her husband has no issue.... Ha! I don't think they have Evos though.
my wife was having the same problem and we narrowed it down to her hair causing interference with the screen sensing that her face was against it. dont know if that makes sense but seemed logical to us and now that she tries to be aware of it and move her hair out of the way the problem doesnt seem to exist. hope this helps.
freaknjoe said:
my wife was having the same problem and we narrowed it down to her hair causing interference with the screen sensing that her face was against it. dont know if that makes sense but seemed logical to us and now that she tries to be aware of it and move her hair out of the way the problem doesnt seem to exist. hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weird! Does the screen actually turn on then? I should watch the screen next time she makes a call on it.
yeah the screen was turning on while she was using it. i think whenever she would basically readjust the phone against her head it would happen if the hair would cause interference...again i'm not claiming this is some scientific answer but its what we found seemed to be causing issues for her
freaknjoe said:
yeah the screen was turning on while she was using it. i think whenever she would basically readjust the phone against her head it would happen if the hair would cause interference...again i'm not claiming this is some scientific answer but its what we found seemed to be causing issues for her
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Click to collapse
I see, thanks.
My wife had the same issue...earrings.
Yep, Yep. My wife has the same issue but I've never had a problem. I'm going to show her this thread so that at least she knows it's not just her. lol.
Lappie2010 said:
My wife had the same issue...earrings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How would the earrings affect it?
I think it's actually the proximity sensor being highly in tune to how close it needs to be to the ear/face. It takes very little movement of the phone during a call to trigger the sensor and turn the screen back on. They probably don't even realize they're moving the phone as much as they are.
Crotchety said:
I think it's actually the proximity sensor being highly in tune to how close it needs to be to the ear/face. It takes very little movement of the phone during a call to trigger the sensor and turn the screen back on. They probably don't even realize they're moving the phone as much as they are.
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Click to collapse
During a call, I pulled the phone away, moved it around, etc and watched for screen to come one. It did not come on easily. I don't get it.
I need to watch her during a call and test some things.
My sis has the same issues with the moment, and I tried it out and it was fine. She does seem to use it outside her hair and does have a lot of earrings. Though this is the Moment, it still runs android and has the sensors. I'll let her know and see if she'll enjoy her phone again lol.
ReFLeX135 said:
My sis has the same issues with the moment, and I tried it out and it was fine. She does seem to use it outside her hair and does have a lot of earrings. Though this is the Moment, it still runs android and has the sensors. I'll let her know and see if she'll enjoy her phone again lol.
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Click to collapse
Still not sure what the issue/solution even is.
She picked up my phone last night and accidentally hung up on the person during the call! I didn't get a chance to see what happened...
She's starting to hate these phones. I need a solution.
Not a joke...but are these ladies blonds? At start of thread I was thinking hair color or earrings too. But earrings shouldn't impact the sensor as it is up top of phone and earrings would be down toward the screen.
But...if their hair was very light color...and they had phone only loosely pressed to head, I could 'guess' that the hair had enough light reflecting through it to set off the sensor.
Another thing to check on the earring side....what part of phone contacts first...do earrings hit the screen before head covers up the sensor?
My wife had dark brown hair :x
My wife too. Dark brown hair. With and without earrings. Swapped out one device, same problem. She even made it happen on mine.
I have seen it get in a mode where the proximity sensor seems to get reversed. Near head, screen on, away from head screen off. A button gets pushed at some point and then when the screen is on you can't un-mute, un-speaker, or answer a returned call from the one she just hung up on.
I think we are going to have to get her a different phone
I have the same issue but it only seems to come up with AOSP ROM's (Cyanogen & UD)
If I call Sprint and hit the prompts followed by putting the phone to my ear it presses other numbers. I think there is a delay in the proximity sensor that's causing this. I don't have long hair and my face is clean shaved so it's not that.
If I go to show someone that when everything works perfect. It's like when you call tech support for Dell, Netgear, etc. It works when you're on the phone with them and when you get off it doesn't.
I've noticed this in the past. If you are talking on the phone and you cant it just a little bit away from your ear, towards your face, you can see the backlight come back on. Also, hair can carry a static charge. So if your ladies cant the phone and the screen turns on, their hair could trigger a button press.

Need help from an expert

So my phones earpiece began to cut in and out, which I found to be a chafed and broken flex cable. No biggie, I ordered a replacement piece and waited for it to show. As I waited the phone began to get worse, I lost the earpiece entirely, the leds stopped working as well as the sleep button. The screen, now only able to be woken by sliding, would not come on when slid out, but only once it returned..also the screen would shut off when I would slide it out again.
I have seen disassembled the phone again and installed the new cable and all is well, with one exception. The slide function of the screen no longer works, period. It will not wake, it will not rotate, and the keyboard doesnt illuminate unless I press a key. I have been through this phone 4 more times now and I simply cannot pin down exactly what tells the phone that it has been slid. I have heard talk of magnets, but found no sensor or magnet, I saw small contacts..that are all functioning properly. There is no cable or connection to the screen portion that connects to any sort of switch that I can see.
Does anyone know what triggers the slide?!
Sorry mate, im not an expert but I thought this may help.
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/oetcf/eas...e=N&application_id=259614&fcc_id='NM8RHOD300'
The link is to the FCC website showing links to internal photos of the phone, SAR values, micellaneous stuff, etc.
Maybe a different perspective of the phone might help.
Hope this helps you

bottom buttons (light)

Has anyone else noticed that the bottom lights on the phone only stay on for 5 seconds and then turn off even when screen is active? Its annoying as hell.
Most (if not all) phones with capacitive backlit buttons do this, to conserve battery life and reduce the amount of needless ambient light when doing things like reading and watching videos. There are only three of them and they're in the same place on every Windows phone handset, so it shouldn't be that hard to get used to, especially compared to an Android device.
Very true, but when a screen is turned sideways when watching said movie or reading, it takes a bit to discover what direction to turn the phone because you can't see the buttons. This is especially true when you have a case on the phone and the physical buttons aren't viewable. Just a comment and was curious if anyone knew how to keep them on while the screen was on. Obviously this is a windows thing but we curious. Like the phone otherwise.
Well actually it's a Nokia thing. My Surround lights always stayed on. They thought it would be good for the battery. Took a few days but I am used to it now.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express
jimski said:
Well actually it's a Nokia thing. My Surround lights always stayed on. They thought it would be good for the battery. Took a few days but I am used to it now.
Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express
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Click to collapse
Correction, its actually a Lumia 900 thing. My lumia 800's lights always lit up when the screen was on (as long as it was in auto mode)
Ok, so mixed reviews. Is it driving anyone else mad? It sounds like my previous comment about it being windows was incorrect. It appears to be a firmware issue.
I have noticed they don't stay on very long. It is sometimes annoying. If they could just have them lit up for a little while longer it would be very helpful.
I don't need them on constantly.
Also, I had a Lumia 800 for a while and those buttons would stay lit for a lot longer until Nokia pushed out an update and one of the things they changed was a shorter time for those buttons to stay lit and I couldn't figure out why because it was so much better before that.
Drives me crazy too. Might as well not have the lights at all - forever missing the spot and hitting the screen multiple times to register. At least make the dead space around the back arrow register as "light up"!
Ok, at least in not the only one. I am probably going to contact Nokia about it. But obviously that will do nothing. ohwell, I guess it's something I will have to deal with.
If anyone would like to vote for this change, you can go here.
http://windowsphone.uservoice.com/f...ption-to-have-button-backlights-on-while-scre
Drives me nuts too. And I hated it on the Captivate, but a little Root action fixed that. I'm so used to having physical buttons on my Desire, which didnt matter if they lit up or not, I could still feel them.
Only thing I don't like about physical buttons is in very circumstantial situations it is unDesireable (see what I did there?) to apply the required pressure to press the buttons (like whin in a gooseneck car mount for instance)

LED Flash heats up to unconfortable levels!

Hey Folks,
I was using an app today called "instant heart rate", and i noticed that my LED flash get's uncomfortably warm when i touch it! I have used this app many times before with my older galaxy phones, and i never had any issues with a hot led, i could keep my finger on it as long as i wanted and it never got hot, only slightly warm. However with the optimus G, i noticed that within seconds the the LED get's scorching hot to the touch!
Has anyone else noticed this on your devices? If you turn on your camera flash, and you touch it with your finger firmly in place, does it get too hot to hold comfortably in place for more then 10 - 20 seconds?
I'm wondering if the glass design of the back is acting as a heatsink for the LED and what i'm feeling is the instant heat transfer from the LED, wheras with a plastic device like a galaxy phone, the heat is confined to the PCB and is not directly transmitted to the back cover.
Can you guy's check and report back. You can use any app, like torch, or camera. I only mentioned instant heart rate because the app requires you to touch the camera and flash for it to work.
Tried it, it is getting hot... to hot to hold it.
But then, It is a light...!
My one is ok. I mean it gets hot, but still i can touch it.
Mine gets pretty hot, but I can still touch it.
I accidentally left it running once for a few hours and nothing happened, it was still fine so looks like there's no need to worry.

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