[nitrogen76]

I think I had my last straw with this phone, unless someone else knows something else to try.

Suddenly, the touchscreen went nuts. I touch it in one spot, and it goes crazy. I see "touch spots" (the spots you normally get when you touch the screen) all over the place randomly. It'll be fine for a moment, then goes nuts. I've already done a restart.

I've also cleaned the screen. I've also taken the rocketfish case I got from Best Buy off, no change. Any other ideas, folks?

[mdmogren]

This happens to me sometimes when my phone is plugged in to USB on a computer, but only then and not every time.

[nitrogen76]

Oooh. That might be it. I had it plugged into a 3rd party charger. I can make it happen if its plugged into that charger, but it seems to stop if I remove it. Here's hoping.....

[precrack]

just clean the screen

[nitrogen76]

just clean the screen

Perhaps you missed the part where I said I cleaned the screen?

Judging from your post history, seeing how you're such an intelligent individual, I have a hard time understanding how you could have missed that fact.

[joshewah]

I had something like that once when I rebooted while touching the screen accidentally. I took my hands completely off and rebooted the phone and then waited while it sat on the table and it went back to normal.
I was annoyed at first because I thought the screen was broken. I would try and touch part of the facebook site and it wouldn't register, or it would register in the wrong area.

[stephsieger]

This has been happening to mine for a little over a week. My Pre has "ghost dialed" several people in my contacts list when I am no where near it. I thought at first it was only when on the Touchstone, but then saw it happening while it was sitting out in the open on my desk. You can see the finger press marks on the screen when it starts to go crazy and if it happens to hit an app or a contact it will continue on and place the call or send the message. Not cool to call the president of our company at 10 PM on a Saturday night! (Note: I was asleep at the time and heard the ringing tone as it was dialing him! End call! End Call! End the stupid call!!) I've taken everything out of my quick launch tray and keep the launch pad on the screen with the utilities in it so there is little or nothing it can do to others. I haven't used the USB tether since I first received it 3 weeks ago, so I don't think that's the issue with mine. I am wondering if it is electro-static so will be trying anti-static wipes on it today to see if it helps.

[Dacsoft]

Had that problem with my 3rd party.chargers (2). I ended up getting a palm charger abd no more issues.

[orange_dog]

I just had this happen to me for the first time. The thing went nuts, like a ghost was playing with the touch screen. I power cycled it and it did it again. I don't use a 3rd party charger and it wasn't connected to anything while it was happening. I took the battery out and will put it back in shortly. WTF.

[orange_dog]

Okay it was even worse when I put the battery back in. The touch ripple was appearing all over the screen about 10 times per second. > I have to go to a meeting now but will take a look when I get back to my desk. ARrrrgh.

[whaddupdoe]

Yeah has happened to me a few times but only occurs when I put the phone on the charger, once I hit the on/off switch it goes away. I wonder what it could be.

[orange_dog]

It's worse than ever now. I called Sprint and was told I have to take into a store. I'll post up later.

[Brain_ReCall]

Well, the problem going away on restart is because it probably recalibrates the touchscreen on each boot. Capacitive touchscreens can be really really tricky. Their sensitivity can fluctuate drastically depending on humidity and temperature. Touchscreens only work correctly when they are calibrated in a neutral state, ie nothing touching it. If something is touching it, the neutral point of the touchscreen is thrown completely off. Then, when you remove your finger after the calibration, it causes it to sense a negative capacitance on the screen. Minor fluctuations that under normal circumstances would appear as noise now all of a sudden becomes the dominant signal. This leads to apparently random and unrequested touches.

As to the third-party chargers, they could be improperly grounding the Pre. When the Pre was turned on, it was calibrated with its own ground reference (generally floating, since its battery operated). When connected to the charger, it could pull down the ground to a lower voltage. This would make the touchscreen hypersensitive, so that background noise now becomes the dominant signal.

Edit: Actually, it might be pulling the ground up. I'm not a full-blown electrical engineer specializing in touchscreens, so don't quote me on this.

[orange_dog]

I went to a Sprint store and the resident "Palm Pre Advocate" (as he called himself) hadn't seen this behavior before and had to take it in back to show it to the manager. In any case they're going to replace it when they get more phones in, hopefully tomorrow. This totally sucks though; I can't even use my phone in the meantime because of all the phantom touches.

[Macadoucious]

It is the use of a third party charger or a small change in the voltage received to the device. I have had that happen a couple of times with the heavy usage and it seems like I'm always connected to the plug and I have experienced this numerious times !!

[orange_dog]

My problem has nothing to do with 3rd party chargers because I don't use them, and it was doing it constantly without being connected to anything. On a side note, the phantom touches have lessened today but now the screen stops responding to touch altogether at times. I definitely need to get it replaced. This is upsetting and I hope it doesn't become a common issue.

[amateurhack]

I haven't had what you are describing exactly, but it does seem like there are times when my screen is hypersensitive. The other night I was able to manipulate the screen (selecting buttons and scrolling) while holding my finger 1/4 of an inch away. I could see where, given the right conditions (isolation from ground, and a buildup of static) that the screen ciuld do some really weird stuff. Or perhaps it was just an influx of cosmic rays since we have our first significant solar activity in a couple of years. :lol:

[orange_dog]

The Sprint store replaced my Pre. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

[noaxis2]

I think I had my last straw with this phone, unless someone else knows something else to try.

Suddenly, the touchscreen went nuts. I touch it in one spot, and it goes crazy. I see "touch spots" (the spots you normally get when you touch the screen) all over the place randomly. It'll be fine for a moment, then goes nuts. I've already done a restart.

I've also cleaned the screen. I've also taken the rocketfish case I got from Best Buy off, no change. Any other ideas, folks?

This happened when I used two different non-Palm chargers. Everything was fine once I disconnected the cord.

[stephsieger]

I was at a sprint store on Friday replacing another Pre and talked to them about my own "ghost" issues. They had me run the interactive screen tests to recalibrate it. I've done it a few more times over the weekend too and while I do occasionally still see some points when the touchscreen does it's own thing, it's definitely better. Haven't launched any calls or apps since. To get to the tests go to Device Info, More Info, then click in the upper left on top of preferences. Select Interactive Tests from the drop down menu. then select Touch Sensors. It will run you through a series of touch tests and recalibrate it. There is also a test you can do for Screen which adjusts the proximity sensors.