Has anyone solved front buttons not responding problem?

[spannerj]

Hello, I have had this TYTN I for a long time without any major problems. It was originally with WM5 but then I upgraded to WM6. Lately I had a strange problem whereby the front buttons stop responding intermittently.

The below mentioned buttons stop working:
1. The Internet Explorer button.(Above on the right)
2. The Message button.(Above on the left)
3. The Call buttons. (The call picking and disconnecting button, below left and right) And the 4 keys along it.

During this time I have to resort to the pointer or the side wheel to use the phone, which is very frustrating.

If I press the reset button at the bottom, the keys work again for a few times, then stop to respond again.

I have tried to flash again with both WM5 and WM6 but did not help. I have opened the phone and reseated all connectors but did not help either. Do you think I should try replacing the ribbon cable?

I have searched the forum and found several threads with the same problem, but never a solution.

Your help is much appreciated. Thanks.

[llwhipll]

I have been struggling the last few months with the same exact problem. Sometimes the buttons work other times they don't, and in the last couple of weeks the frequency of button failure has increased (every couple of minutes).

I found a few users yesterday over on the HTC forum who were having the same problem and 1 user who actually reported a fix that worked for him.

Go to Start/Settings/System/Key Lock and select "Do Not Lock Buttons". Exit Key Lock and soft reset your device. You may know return to the Key Lock options and re-select your choice (I used "Lock all buttons except Power button").

Worked for the HTC user and is working for me as I have had no button failure now in the last 24-hours with repeated use of the device.

I hope this works for you because if you are like me I getting very close to trashing the unit.

[jtf]

Hi,
the problem could be the Xilinx chip (a BGA chip) on the pcb underneath the buttons.

As the buttons are pressed the board is flexed and some of the solder pads under the xilinx chip must have become detached from the xilinx chip itself.

I had the white screen problem. An while i got the white screen the front buttons where not working too.
In the whte screen threat i found that it could be the Xilinx chip, and figured out when pressing on this chip the white screen was gone and the buttons where working.
So i resoldered (refloated) the chip with a heatgun and some liquid flux last Sunday and since then i had no problems anymore.

I would suggest disassembling the phone down to the pcb and try starting it on with the ribboncables connected while keep some pressure on the Xilinx chip. And then trying the buttons if they work.

See
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=2382665&postcount=134
in
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163&page=14

Greets
jtf

[aseering]

I have the same problem with the same phone. The instructions above for "key lock" didn't fix it for me. I was assuming that it was hardware; but I just tried installing the Android port for this phone and under Android the buttons work fine.

I know that Android has some good stuff going for it, but I don't think it's awesome enough to circumvent a bad circuit... How exactly do these buttons work? Is there a process that should be running to handle them? Any other pointers?