HOW TO: fix Droid/Milestone touchscreen lack of responsiveness and Ghost Touch issues

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bandroid842

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2010
302
34
NOTE: THIS SOLUTION IS POTENTIALLY DAMAGING AND MAY NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE

PROBLEM: touch screen acts erratic, notification bar keeps opening, screen appears to be touched by someone else continuously (Ghost Touch), and parts of the screen DO NOT RESPOND TO TOUCH.

MY OWN SPECIFIC CASE: I had the Ghost Touch issue for 3 days suddenly without intro, which often used to go away after a reboot or two, then phone worked normally after I removed the battery and left it in a dry area (in a closed drawer between books, no air entering, very dry atmosphere), however the RIGHT SIDE of the screen (Search button, rightmost letters [L and Delete and sometimes ENTER] do not work. If the phone is in normal landscape, you cannot open the notification bar by dragging it normally.

DIAGNOSIS: for some people, the problem is more severe. The Digitiser itself could be malfunctioning and has to be fixed, while for others it could be a true problem with the screen itself. However, for MANY OF US, it is a problem of HUMIDITY. The humidity sensors are causing the phone to act like that. Some say part of this problem happens because the way the keypad affects the phone internally as you open and close it a lot.

SOLUTIONS:

1- To be safe: send the phone to the shop. Ask them to open the phone and apply an extra layer of insulation, in case the digitiser and the screen are okay.

2- If something is faulty, replace it at the shop.

3- MY OWN SOLUTION: based on something I read many times, the solution was to apply DRY HEAT for at least 45 mins. What I did, based on averaging out many experiences I read online, was to remove the SD Card and SIM, remove battery, I heated up a toaster oven for 10 minutes, waited until the temperature was at about 60-70 degrees Celsius, SHUT DOWN THE HEAT, put the phone on its screen on a plate, screen facing down and covered by a cloth to protect it from direct contact with metal, then all inside the oven. The oven is a relatively big one, so phone was AWAY FROM A SOURCE OF DIRECT HEAT. I closed the lid, then every while 15 minutes I would heat the oven for 40 seconds to maintain the temp. This is LIKE (ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION) leaving your phone in the glove compartment of your car while its parked in a sunny spot, to find it really hot in the morning and tough to touch for a while. TO CONTINUE, after the phone was out of the oven (I can't believe I am saying this), I left the phone overnight in a dry area for 8 hours (could need less time). Then, I put everything back in, plugged it, and THE PHONE IS WORKING PERFECTLY NOW!

NOTE that solution number 3 could affect your keyboard buttons if heat is too much. It may cause the glue holding the keys to melt a bit. Be delicate with your keyboard after you restore your phone.

Again, I only did this YESTERDAY. With the exception of some keypad stickiness, the phone is working perfectly now.

I hope this was useful :)

B.

EDIT: Today is the First of May, phone is still working without a glitch :)

N.B. Press the Thank you button if you wanna congratulate me on daring to toast my milestone in the name of scientific inquiry :)

SECOND EDIT: Phone did it again for 2 days. Applied the same method, and it worked again. I think partially it happened because I was in a very humid location.
 
Last edited:

AirLancer

Member
Aug 10, 2010
48
5
München
I love the idea of toasting a milestone :D
Thought with all my aggression against Moto, I think I just might leave it in there ;)
Luckily I dont have these problems so I wont get tempted :)
 

bandroid842

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2010
302
34
I love the idea of toasting a milestone :D
Thought with all my aggression against Moto, I think I just might leave it in there ;)
Luckily I dont have these problems so I wont get tempted :)

I have to admit, I cared litte whether or not this actually worked. I just wanted to toast it :) But it did work, so :)
 

Lesiroth

Senior Member
Apr 25, 2010
162
3
Pretty tempted to try this out, I think I will when I have free time.

My phone had the dead zone problem for 2 months now, but in some very rare cases, like when it's a very hot day, the screen will work normally for a minute or something. Then it goes back to dead part. I assume this would fix it?
 

bandroid842

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2010
302
34
Pretty tempted to try this out, I think I will when I have free time.

My phone had the dead zone problem for 2 months now, but in some very rare cases, like when it's a very hot day, the screen will work normally for a minute or something. Then it goes back to dead part. I assume this would fix it?

If it DOES indeed work on hot days, then it means the phone is not entirely dead. But I would suggest you do something less drastic first, such as the Glove Compartment method. No responsibility though :)
 

chadness

Senior Member
Mar 29, 2011
268
83
If you're trying to remove moisture, you could also try putting it in a baggie of crystaline cat litter (NOT the clay kind!) - this stuff is sold at a MUCH higher price as a way to save a phone from water damage, but it's the exact same substance. Does a great job removing moisture. It's the same sort of silica gel that's in those packets in medicine/vitamins that says "Dessicant - do not eat".
 

CybeRNerO

New member
Jun 12, 2010
1
0
Or you could just put it in a sealed bowl with raw rice for a couple of days... this is the best and cheapest way (and then you have the silicon "grains", the ones that you find in shoe boxes or computer parts boxes).

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk
 

Dratini

Senior Member
Jul 21, 2010
181
17
Or you could just put it in a sealed bowl with raw rice for a couple of days... this is the best and cheapest way (and then you have the silicon "grains", the ones that you find in shoe boxes or computer parts boxes).

Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

Pretty sure that rice doesn't do anything, I don't know how that started as a suggestion, but its not better than anything else; its not known to be absorbant, but the silicon is.
 

BoyBawang2

Senior Member
Nov 25, 2008
637
22
My biggest issue with regards to "lack of responsiveness" are the 4 capacitive buttons. Pressing the Home key is always hit and miss. I know I hit it all the time because I can feel the vibration feedback but it only goes to homescreen 50% of the time.
 

decon89

Member
Nov 15, 2010
26
0
Will also be testing this out as soon as I have the spare time. My screen started acting up after I accidentally put my milestone in a small beer spill at a party :( Hopefully this will work out for me too!
 

decon89

Member
Nov 15, 2010
26
0
How many times did you reheat the oven? I tried just once and it didn't help. My phone has been having this problem since January.
 

bandroid842

Senior Member
Aug 15, 2010
302
34
How many times did you reheat the oven? I tried just once and it didn't help. My phone has been having this problem since January.

I feel I am on a cooking show :)

Well, depends on your over. Mainly I was trying to maintain a temp varying between 50-60 c. Mostly 50, but sometimes 60 to up the ante a bit and make sure things stay warm. 30 minutes at least. However, I have to say that I did this twice in 6 weeks, and after that the phone just died again, and I found my warranty card and sent it there to be fixed, and they fixed it, but ruined something else.

If you have the warranty card, take your phone and send it to them :( Someone told me the method worked and the phone has been good for quite a while, but most of us seem to re-experience the issue after a while.
 

javachris

Member
Mar 3, 2011
22
2
Craiova
I've been having these issues for a few days now too, and I think I know why. I've been using this Milestone for 4 months now, and I never had this problem until a few days ago. What I noticed yesterday was that after some acting up, the phone started working properly again. So I ran Touch Test. And I noticed that if I pressed really hard on the top side of the phone(where the logo and the ear piece are located) it started acting up again. My first impression was that the glue holding down the gorilla glass was loose. So I left the phone as usual on my night stand and then I tried the same thing with the pressing on the same area. Guess what? It didn't happen again. Now there seems to be no problem. So I tried to remember what happened yesterday before the screen started acting up, and I remember talking to my wife for a while when I was in my car. Yesterday was a pretty hot day and I was a little sweaty when I talked to her. Now since only that specific part with the earpiece was causing this issue(I tried pressing equally hard on other areas without any problem my guess is that the insulation between the earpiece and the touchscreen has been breached. Maybe because of all the sweat that went in there in time. You know the salt and acids in the swear are known to melt things, and poor quality glue is among them.

How to fix this? I do not know yet, but I do have a good idea that I'd like to share. I want to buy a screen protector foil, and put just a little band around the ear piece. That would probably lower my in-call volume, but since the Milestone is very loud anyway I hope it the quality of the calls won't be too much affected. After that I'll use it in normal conditions again and see if the ghosting happens again.
 
Dec 3, 2010
26
2
New Delhi
try completely formatting your SD CARD/PARTITION.
& then reinstalling using (FAT 32/EXT 2, 3, or 4)

sometimes traces from the previous ROM might interfare with touch codecs (maybe)

just trying to help. had similar issue & this is what i did.
 

Soxes

Member
May 20, 2011
42
2
Juechen
NOTE: THIS SOLUTION IS POTENTIALLY DAMAGING AND MAY NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE

PROBLEM: touch screen acts erratic, notification bar keeps opening, screen appears to be touched by someone else continuously (Ghost Touch), and parts of the screen DO NOT RESPOND TO TOUCH.

MY OWN SPECIFIC CASE: I had the Ghost Touch issue for 3 days suddenly without intro, which often used to go away after a reboot or two, then phone worked normally after I removed the battery and left it in a dry area (in a closed drawer between books, no air entering, very dry atmosphere), however the RIGHT SIDE of the screen (Search button, rightmost letters [L and Delete and sometimes ENTER] do not work. If the phone is in normal landscape, you cannot open the notification bar by dragging it normally.

DIAGNOSIS: for some people, the problem is more severe. The Digitiser itself could be malfunctioning and has to be fixed, while for others it could be a true problem with the screen itself. However, for MANY OF US, it is a problem of HUMIDITY. The humidity sensors are causing the phone to act like that. Some say part of this problem happens because the way the keypad affects the phone internally as you open and close it a lot.

SOLUTIONS:

1- To be safe: send the phone to the shop. Ask them to open the phone and apply an extra layer of insulation, in case the digitiser and the screen are okay.

2- If something is faulty, replace it at the shop.

3- MY OWN SOLUTION: based on something I read many times, the solution was to apply DRY HEAT for at least 45 mins. What I did, based on averaging out many experiences I read online, was to remove the SD Card and SIM, remove battery, I heated up a toaster oven for 10 minutes, waited until the temperature was at about 60-70 degrees Celsius, SHUT DOWN THE HEAT, put the phone on its screen on a plate, screen facing down and covered by a cloth to protect it from direct contact with metal, then all inside the oven. The oven is a relatively big one, so phone was AWAY FROM A SOURCE OF DIRECT HEAT. I closed the lid, then every while 15 minutes I would heat the oven for 40 seconds to maintain the temp. This is LIKE (ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION) leaving your phone in the glove compartment of your car while its parked in a sunny spot, to find it really hot in the morning and tough to touch for a while. TO CONTINUE, after the phone was out of the oven (I can't believe I am saying this), I left the phone overnight in a dry area for 8 hours (could need less time). Then, I put everything back in, plugged it, and THE PHONE IS WORKING PERFECTLY NOW!

NOTE that solution number 3 could affect your keyboard buttons if heat is too much. It may cause the glue holding the keys to melt a bit. Be delicate with your keyboard after you restore your phone.

Again, I only did this YESTERDAY. With the exception of some keypad stickiness, the phone is working perfectly now.

I hope this was useful :)

B.

EDIT: Today is the First of May, phone is still working without a glitch :)

N.B. Press the Thank you button if you wanna congratulate me on daring to toast my milestone in the name of scientific inquiry :)

SECOND EDIT: Phone did it again for 2 days. Applied the same method, and it worked again. I think partially it happened because I was in a very humid location.

Thank you for that Solution.
It fixed the Issue of my friends MS without other problems ;)
 

decon89

Member
Nov 15, 2010
26
0
I'll have to try and the oven methode again. My phone has started to really act up again.

I've tried to install new roms, wipe ect. and it doesn't help with the screen.

Have anyone tried to replace the digiziter? They are pretty cheap on ebay
 

BoyBawang2

Senior Member
Nov 25, 2008
637
22
My milestone started freaking out just an hour ago. No more warranty here but I'm not brave enough to do the oven method. Had anybody tried the Rice alternative?
 

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  • 6
    NOTE: THIS SOLUTION IS POTENTIALLY DAMAGING AND MAY NOT WORK FOR EVERYONE

    PROBLEM: touch screen acts erratic, notification bar keeps opening, screen appears to be touched by someone else continuously (Ghost Touch), and parts of the screen DO NOT RESPOND TO TOUCH.

    MY OWN SPECIFIC CASE: I had the Ghost Touch issue for 3 days suddenly without intro, which often used to go away after a reboot or two, then phone worked normally after I removed the battery and left it in a dry area (in a closed drawer between books, no air entering, very dry atmosphere), however the RIGHT SIDE of the screen (Search button, rightmost letters [L and Delete and sometimes ENTER] do not work. If the phone is in normal landscape, you cannot open the notification bar by dragging it normally.

    DIAGNOSIS: for some people, the problem is more severe. The Digitiser itself could be malfunctioning and has to be fixed, while for others it could be a true problem with the screen itself. However, for MANY OF US, it is a problem of HUMIDITY. The humidity sensors are causing the phone to act like that. Some say part of this problem happens because the way the keypad affects the phone internally as you open and close it a lot.

    SOLUTIONS:

    1- To be safe: send the phone to the shop. Ask them to open the phone and apply an extra layer of insulation, in case the digitiser and the screen are okay.

    2- If something is faulty, replace it at the shop.

    3- MY OWN SOLUTION: based on something I read many times, the solution was to apply DRY HEAT for at least 45 mins. What I did, based on averaging out many experiences I read online, was to remove the SD Card and SIM, remove battery, I heated up a toaster oven for 10 minutes, waited until the temperature was at about 60-70 degrees Celsius, SHUT DOWN THE HEAT, put the phone on its screen on a plate, screen facing down and covered by a cloth to protect it from direct contact with metal, then all inside the oven. The oven is a relatively big one, so phone was AWAY FROM A SOURCE OF DIRECT HEAT. I closed the lid, then every while 15 minutes I would heat the oven for 40 seconds to maintain the temp. This is LIKE (ALTERNATIVE SOLUTION) leaving your phone in the glove compartment of your car while its parked in a sunny spot, to find it really hot in the morning and tough to touch for a while. TO CONTINUE, after the phone was out of the oven (I can't believe I am saying this), I left the phone overnight in a dry area for 8 hours (could need less time). Then, I put everything back in, plugged it, and THE PHONE IS WORKING PERFECTLY NOW!

    NOTE that solution number 3 could affect your keyboard buttons if heat is too much. It may cause the glue holding the keys to melt a bit. Be delicate with your keyboard after you restore your phone.

    Again, I only did this YESTERDAY. With the exception of some keypad stickiness, the phone is working perfectly now.

    I hope this was useful :)

    B.

    EDIT: Today is the First of May, phone is still working without a glitch :)

    N.B. Press the Thank you button if you wanna congratulate me on daring to toast my milestone in the name of scientific inquiry :)

    SECOND EDIT: Phone did it again for 2 days. Applied the same method, and it worked again. I think partially it happened because I was in a very humid location.
    1
    a quick note,
    I found my milestone, from the boxes, where i placed as being defective. i guess it was early on i saw this erractic behaviour..

    anyways,
    i did not use the owen to fix it, but i can confirm i tried this out with a hair dryer and it works.. my erratic screen suddenly works fine when i placed the air of a heated hair dryer on the display for some time..
    with a hair dryer the effect is actually seen disappear, when the screen acts erratic and you give it some heat. and it suddenly back to normal..

    thanks after a long time, my milestone became alive, although im not gonna use it, its working again..
    1
    Another fix

    This is the craziest phone issue, I've had it with 3 phones (1 Droid, 2 Droid 2's) and had tried lots of things before getting a Verizon support tech who suggested something weird that seems to have worked.

    Try taking out your SD card, see if the phone stops ghosting and acting possessed. With the SD card out, the phone worked perfectly. So I did the next steps in the fix, copy all data from SD card to PC, then format SD card using PC. Then stick SD card into the phone and unmount it, then format the SD card using the phone. Pop out SD card and copy all data back onto the SD card using the PC. Put SD card back in and that's the fix. Not sure if this will work for everyone and it just seems wrong, like why would THIS work? Still once the SD card is gone, the behavior stops like it was never happening...seems like it's worth a try if you've tried everything else.

    Previous tries:
    Using Motorola charger instead of 3rd party
    Changing Screen
    Exchanging for a re-furbished phone (twice)
    1
    There's reports of CM9 causing the touch screen to behave strangely when gapps are missing - did you install them?


    If the problem is not related to any rom it's most likely hardware-wise.
    Often caused by moisture in the screen/digitizer assembly.

    Some have managed to fix it by various means of drying.
    Daring ones put it in the oven - I'd suggest placing it in a airtight box full of rice or silica gel - anything that absorbs moisture.