Greetings. I decided to make this post because I had this issue, found no solution online, but then accidentally stumbled across it by myself and I think that it might be useful for other people too.
I have been using my HTC One M7 for more than 4 years without any serious problems, but about a month ago it went crazy: I was watching a video on Youtube and it suddenly stopped and chaotic stuff started to happen, it looked like someone was touching the screen. That input was so intensive, it rendered the phone unusable, yet I managed to turn on the screen draw test and saw that it was just a single horizontal line that had been constantly "pressed". I looked up on the web and found that many people had similar issue and that it was called "phantom" or "ghost" touches. It seems that the same problem could be caused by several different reasons: bugged software, failed hardware, static electricity or dirt under the screen. Since I hadn't installed any new apps or changed any system settings for a long time it was clear for me that something goofed in the hardware. I planned to change the screen of the phone, but since I am a cheapskate, I decided to try one thing before buying new screen...
Since the issue could be caused by dirt or grease builduing up under the screen, I decided to try to clean it, so that is what I did:
I took a piece of cotton wool and soaked it in alcohol(96% ethanol) and rubbed the edges of the screen thorougly so that as much alcohol as possible get inbetween the screen and the case. Pure alcohol conducts electricity etreemly badly, that is why it didn't cause any short circuts, but I am not sure if the same apply to more dilute alcohol(especially when it dissolves some componens of dirt). After that I left it for several minutes and then took a hair dryer(1500w) and heated the phone with it for 3-5 minutes. Then I let it cool for half an hour and turned it on. To my surprise the phantom touches were gone and the results have been stable for more than 3 weeks( there was only one short episode of phantom touches on the first day).
So that was my experience with that problem. I assume that similar issues could appear in other phones and in some cases this can be the solution. I am really not sure that my theory about how this works is right and that it is safe, so please keep in mind that this method may damage your phone. I would appreciate any feedback or opinions on this. Also sorry for my bad English.
I have been using my HTC One M7 for more than 4 years without any serious problems, but about a month ago it went crazy: I was watching a video on Youtube and it suddenly stopped and chaotic stuff started to happen, it looked like someone was touching the screen. That input was so intensive, it rendered the phone unusable, yet I managed to turn on the screen draw test and saw that it was just a single horizontal line that had been constantly "pressed". I looked up on the web and found that many people had similar issue and that it was called "phantom" or "ghost" touches. It seems that the same problem could be caused by several different reasons: bugged software, failed hardware, static electricity or dirt under the screen. Since I hadn't installed any new apps or changed any system settings for a long time it was clear for me that something goofed in the hardware. I planned to change the screen of the phone, but since I am a cheapskate, I decided to try one thing before buying new screen...
Since the issue could be caused by dirt or grease builduing up under the screen, I decided to try to clean it, so that is what I did:
I took a piece of cotton wool and soaked it in alcohol(96% ethanol) and rubbed the edges of the screen thorougly so that as much alcohol as possible get inbetween the screen and the case. Pure alcohol conducts electricity etreemly badly, that is why it didn't cause any short circuts, but I am not sure if the same apply to more dilute alcohol(especially when it dissolves some componens of dirt). After that I left it for several minutes and then took a hair dryer(1500w) and heated the phone with it for 3-5 minutes. Then I let it cool for half an hour and turned it on. To my surprise the phantom touches were gone and the results have been stable for more than 3 weeks( there was only one short episode of phantom touches on the first day).
So that was my experience with that problem. I assume that similar issues could appear in other phones and in some cases this can be the solution. I am really not sure that my theory about how this works is right and that it is safe, so please keep in mind that this method may damage your phone. I would appreciate any feedback or opinions on this. Also sorry for my bad English.
