[Q] Erratic/Jumpy Multi-touch

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JayBomb999

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2010
70
13
Update: Star this Android issue if affected: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=58401

I'm noticing intermittent bouts of erratic multi-touch on the Nexus 7 (2013) 16GB. I exchanged one device already hoping that it was a HW defect, but my second device behaves in exactly the same way.

Chrome, Dolphin, web-view, maps (especially maps) will often jump all over the place during pinch-to-zoom. Sometimes it works fine, but too often, it jumps zoom levels erratically. Edit: This also manifests as double taps and/or "ghost taps" when using the keyboard.

I've installed YAMTT (Yet Another Multitouch test) and I've observed the touch points disappear, change direction and even suddenly register a 3rd touch. None of my other devices do this.

I'm reluctant to exchange the device yet again, but I haven't read about anyone else who's witnessed this. Am I alone in observing this behaviour?

Edit: Here is a terrible video attempting to highlight what I'm seeing in YAMTT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZRiMiNzs0U

And another video in Google Earth (fixed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14cPiiM3Pwg

Someone else experiencing the issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpl26UgcuSs

FINAL UPDATE: I exchanged the device again and the issue is gone (so far). My advice: if you're experiencing this issue, return it. If it continues to happen, return it again until it works. :)

As a side note, for those experiencing the mushy/hard to press power button, that issue was fixed for me as well.

Final Update Part 2: I am sad to say the issue is still present after all. I'll admit that it is less prevalent than with my first two N7s and the "jumps" are less severe. However, it's still there and I'm not prepared to live with it. Therefore, I am returning the device to get my money back. I'll keep up to date with this issue, and I'll likely buy it down the road when a clear resolution presents itself. I know it would be a great tablet without this problem.

To recap my experience:

First N7 had erratic multi-touch, stiff power button, keyboard and other touch screen issues. Exchanged.

Second N7 had a good power button, but the erratic multi-touch and keyboard issues were still present. Exchanged.

Third N7 had a perfect power button and no keyboard issues, but the erratic pinch to zoom was still present (though less severe). Returned.
 
Last edited:

mi7chy

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2008
1,260
301
Does the issue go away if you actually held it with the other hand (going by video)? Sounds like the behavior of the 1st gen N7.
 

JayBomb999

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2010
70
13
Does the issue go away if you actually held it with the other hand (going by video)? Sounds like the behavior of the 1st gen N7.

I'll try that, thanks. I have the original Nexus 7 as well and never noticed this issue. Could you elaborate a little? Was the issue eventually resolved?
 

mi7chy

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2008
1,260
301
I'll try that, thanks. I have the original Nexus 7 as well and never noticed this issue. Could you elaborate a little? Was the issue eventually resolved?

It's designed to be used on a grounded surface either held in hand or on a grounded surface. It's an electrical behavior so I doubt software would change that. Please try held in hand and report back.
 

jxr94

Senior Member
Jun 15, 2010
1,499
233
I'm noticing intermittent bouts of erratic multi-touch on the Nexus 7 (2013) 16GB. I exchanged one device already hoping that it was a HW defect, but my second device behaves in exactly the same way.

Chrome, Dolphin, web-view, maps (especially maps) will often jump all over the place during pinch-to-zoom. Sometimes it works fine, but too often, it jumps zoom levels erratically.

I've installed YAMTT (Yet Another Multitouch test) and I've observed the touch points disappear, change direction and even suddenly register a 3rd touch. None of my other devices do this.

I'm reluctant to exchange the device yet again, but I haven't read about anyone else who's witnessed this. Am I alone in observing this behaviour?

Edit: Here is a terrible video attempting to highlight what I'm seeing in YAMTT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZRiMiNzs0U

And another video in Google Earth: http://youtu.be/14cPiiM3Pwg

I've got this a little bit, glad I'm not the only one with the problem, mine only does it when I hold it above me and use it lol. Everything else is fine with mine so I'm keeping it.
 

samnoon

Member
Jan 3, 2012
35
6
Are you sure this is a software issue?

I remember back when I had an HTC Desire, it had multitouch issues but the fault lay with the digitizer and no update could fix it.
 

JayBomb999

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2010
70
13
It's designed to be used on a grounded surface either held in hand or on a grounded surface. It's an electrical behavior so I doubt software would change that. Please try held in hand and report back.

I've tried gripping in both hands, from the bottom bezel, on the table and on the couch. Still, I see this behavior. It's not constant, but it's prevalent enough that I don't know if I'm going to keep it.

It sucks because otherwise I really love it.
 

player911

Inactive Recognized Developer
Sep 8, 2006
7,952
1,205
Cincinnati
www.SnapSiteAdmins.com
I dunno. I'm seeing weird anomalies with mine. Moving 2 fingers around, a random 3rd pops up.

Hopefully just software woes. The Galaxy Nexus did this, N7 did this, and now the new N7. Its rare. Haven't had a problem.

Sent from Nexus 7 FHD from XDA Premium HD
 

Brenex

Member
Feb 19, 2012
47
4
Davie
I just ran the same tests you did using YAMTT and did not have any of the same problems. I haven't noticed any mutlitouch issues either.
 

justThisGuyHere

New member
Jul 28, 2013
1
0
...
And another video in Google Earth (fixed): ...

I found this thread looking for someone else who was having the problem I was - my device was doing exactly the same thing in Google Earth. Thanks for posting it!

Oddly enough now that I've found this thread, the device isn't doing that anymore. It's tracking perfectly in Earth and also in YAMTT.

It tracks fine when being held in one hand, on a grounded or not surface, when touched with one hand or two.

Very odd.
 

GreenXSniper

Senior Member
Mar 11, 2011
593
86
Detroit
I had this issue with my 1st n7 2nd gen (which i bought yesterday). I returned it to bestbuy and got a new one which seems to be fine.
 

adamhlj

Senior Member
Apr 24, 2010
632
61
Salt Lake City, UT
I had a similar issue with google earth on my 1st gen N7. I can't test it anymore, tho, because its sitting at the bottom of a lake. But it would randomly zoom out or in like crazy or jump halfway across the world.
 

nba1341

Senior Member
Feb 13, 2011
1,155
166
34
San Bernardino, California
I have this issue extremely annoying. My keyboard double presses letters at times, zooming I have ttrthe problem, trying to long press a link I also get it unregistering touch

I hope this. Is. Software I don't waqmt to return this. Otherwise perfect device. You can see it happoening as I try to type
 

carfreak715

Senior Member
Mar 7, 2011
157
8
This actually happened to me for the first time about an hour ago. As said before, I hope this is a simple software bug, and not some serious hardware issue. Quite frankly, I have a feeling that going through a return is going to be messy, as I've bought mine from my local Gamestop.

From a GNex
 

JayBomb999

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2010
70
13
This actually happened to me for the first time about an hour ago. As said before, I hope this is a simple software bug, and not some serious hardware issue. Quite frankly, I have a feeling that going through a return is going to be messy, as I've bought mine from my local Gamestop.

From a GNex

The gentlemen that posted the following video said he exchanged his device and the problem went away: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpl26UgcuSs

I know it's only one person, but this leads me to believe it might be a hardware/quality issue. I have exchanged mine once for this issue already (Best Buy) and it was extremely easy. I am going to exchange one more time and will report back my findings.
 

JayBomb999

Senior Member
Jan 10, 2010
70
13
I have this issue extremely annoying. My keyboard double presses letters at times, zooming I have ttrthe problem, trying to long press a link I also get it unregistering touch

I hope this. Is. Software I don't waqmt to return this. Otherwise perfect device. You can see it happoening as I try to type

I didn't mention the keyboard issue. I too am seeing ghost taps when typing.
 

player911

Inactive Recognized Developer
Sep 8, 2006
7,952
1,205
Cincinnati
www.SnapSiteAdmins.com
Hmmm. No ghost taps here. I've been on xda a lot since I got this.

Not good though. Could just be a bad batch. Seems like the dead spots would be caused by a hardware issue... Bad connections or something.



Sent from Nexus 7 FHD from XDA Premium HD
 

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  • 8
    It's obviously repairable via software because the issues only arise after applying the software update right out of the box.

    Except for all the people in this thread who say they have the issue even before the update. I've read and followed this whole thread and the general feeling is that if you don't have the problem at all before the update, you won't have it after. If you have it before the update (even if it's very very minor), you'll have it worse after the update... but the problem was there from the start.

    People are going back and forth on whether it's hardware or software, talking about grounding and voltages and drivers and everything... but none of us are Asus engineers and we can really only speculate and make guesses (although sometimes educated guesses, from people who have background in these areas). The fact that some tablets are perfectly fine makes it seem like the hardware in others. It reminds me of the Galaxy Nexus volume button issue... which was at its root a hardware problem, but was able to be fixed through software. Maybe the software currently isn't tolerant enough of varying hardware, or maybe the hardware is broken in many. We just don't know.

    The reality is that until Google or Asus make any sort of official statement, all we're doing is throwing out ideas, reporting our experiences, collecting information, and sharing our misery. All of that most definitely serves a purpose, and could lead ROM developers to coming up with their own fix, but nobody here works for Asus or Google QA, nobody here that I've seen is replacing digitizers or other related hardware, nobody is debugging drivers or recompiling them with potential fixes.

    I say all this only because statements such as "obviously repairable via software" are misleading and "the issues only arise after applying the software update" is just plain incorrect.
    6
    Update: Star this Android issue if affected: http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=58401

    I'm noticing intermittent bouts of erratic multi-touch on the Nexus 7 (2013) 16GB. I exchanged one device already hoping that it was a HW defect, but my second device behaves in exactly the same way.

    Chrome, Dolphin, web-view, maps (especially maps) will often jump all over the place during pinch-to-zoom. Sometimes it works fine, but too often, it jumps zoom levels erratically. Edit: This also manifests as double taps and/or "ghost taps" when using the keyboard.

    I've installed YAMTT (Yet Another Multitouch test) and I've observed the touch points disappear, change direction and even suddenly register a 3rd touch. None of my other devices do this.

    I'm reluctant to exchange the device yet again, but I haven't read about anyone else who's witnessed this. Am I alone in observing this behaviour?

    Edit: Here is a terrible video attempting to highlight what I'm seeing in YAMTT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZRiMiNzs0U

    And another video in Google Earth (fixed): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14cPiiM3Pwg

    Someone else experiencing the issue: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpl26UgcuSs

    FINAL UPDATE: I exchanged the device again and the issue is gone (so far). My advice: if you're experiencing this issue, return it. If it continues to happen, return it again until it works. :)

    As a side note, for those experiencing the mushy/hard to press power button, that issue was fixed for me as well.

    Final Update Part 2: I am sad to say the issue is still present after all. I'll admit that it is less prevalent than with my first two N7s and the "jumps" are less severe. However, it's still there and I'm not prepared to live with it. Therefore, I am returning the device to get my money back. I'll keep up to date with this issue, and I'll likely buy it down the road when a clear resolution presents itself. I know it would be a great tablet without this problem.

    To recap my experience:

    First N7 had erratic multi-touch, stiff power button, keyboard and other touch screen issues. Exchanged.

    Second N7 had a good power button, but the erratic multi-touch and keyboard issues were still present. Exchanged.

    Third N7 had a perfect power button and no keyboard issues, but the erratic pinch to zoom was still present (though less severe). Returned.
    6
    True. But with people reporting varying degrees of this same problem, from impossible to use to not experiencing it at all, it's sign that the build quality was not constant. A lack if information is a hindrance though. I am not familiar how ASUS works. Does it build from many different plants? Were there different batches made? Really hoping this works it self out quickly.
    The build quality is inconsistent, even not accounting for the multi-touch.

    For the multi-touch issue, though, I will guess it is voltage related.

    For the current unit I'm testing, I've noticed that when fully charged there really aren't any noticeable multi-touch issues in regular usage. When the battery gets lower, I start noticing dead spots and occasional multi-touch issues.

    I know from past experience if you start varying voltage things can behave very funny and inconsistent. Electronics are designed to operate with certain voltage ranges and once you go outside those ranges, the variance in their performance can be quite high.

    I have a couple of Tivo's which had bulging capacitors in the power supply. One unit would boot loop all the time. One unit would flicker the svideo and component outputs. A 3rd unit could not initialize the 2nd CableCARD (leading to recordings that were cut short, only for shows assigned to the 2nd tuner). Now if it came out of the factory with the bad power supplies, based on the end results I could say the range of issues is great and the build quality is poor, but in reality the core issue was just one, and the range of behaviors I was seeing was just the expected variance to the out-of-spec voltage.

    I had a slingbox with a voltage regulator going bad. For the first few months, the network was real choppy (which coincidentally happened right after a firmware upgrade). Next it stopped working with a gigabit switch, but if I plugged it into a 100mbit hub it would work. Then I got an error message in the player software that this unit wasn't made in the US. Eventually the unit just wouldn't boot. This was all the reaction to the voltage regulator failing and dropping voltage from 3.3v to 1.8v over time.

    BTW all these problems were fixed with under $5 in parts to replace the failing caps and voltage regulators.

    The reason I keep looking at voltage is because the way these capacitative screens work, they have a transparent metallic conductive coating and a voltage field is generated over the conductive layer. When your finger touches it draws a small amount of current causing a voltage drop, which is then detected and translated into a position by analyzing the current flow from each corner. The fact that this problem happens when you cross the lines (ie your fingers line up) means the voltage is dropping even lower on that axis since more current is being drawn.

    People keep saying this is a grounding issue, but what is there to ground? It isn't like this is designed to attach to a 3-prong plug all the time with true ground. It runs on batteries. I am sure it is connected to the internal ground plane (relative to battery terminal) or things would work even worse. I am not a EE so maybe I just don't understand how it is supposed to work or what people are referring to with the grounding issue.

    Anyway, my guess is someone attempted to lower the voltage to tweak some battery life out of this thing and that is causing some of the issues or maybe even a wide range of issues.

    Multi-touch, random reboots, GPS system dropping out, screen flicker, corrupted /system causing OTA install to fail, units stuck on X could all THEORETICALLY be explained by voltage issues. Of course they could be something unrelated as well.
    3
    im also getting the same issue...it has to be software related
    3
    Damn! I was hoping this would only relate to 2013.06, but I guess not. Best Buy demo however did not seem to have this issue and it was running JSS15J build, however I was only able to verify that with maps pinch to zoom as I could not download YAMTT because of 497 error. God damn so many issues! Is this google or is this ASUS? I thinking its ASSUS!!!

    ---------- Post added at 05:00 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:58 AM ----------



    what if try to put all 8 fingers on the device screen, does it still work? Four fingers on one side and four on the other

    ---------- Post added at 05:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 05:00 AM ----------

    I'm still confused whether its a hardware issue or not. I have until 08/15 to return mine...will wait, maybe a patch shows up. Awesome table otherwise

    Mine is a 6/13, I'm not rooted and I'm updated to the latest build and don't have this issue

    Sent from my SPH-L720 using Tapatalk 4