Phone issues: Unstable phone, or just an unstable rooting? - Fascinate Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hey all,
My Samsung Fascinate has an issue where the following have been happening (mostly in spurts, where it gets really bad);
There are what you could call "Phantom" button presses, I'll be doing something on it, surfing the web, reading something, and it'll just start acting up as if random buttons are being pressed. This'll go on for about 10-30 seconds, or until I use kill a bunch of background running apps. I originally thought it was due to having a screen protector over the hot keys, so I took that off the hot key area. that took care of it for a while, until I rooted my phone and started using custom ROMs (right now, I had a debloated ED01 ROM). After that, it began acting up again. I'm gonna try derooting it and doing the official updates to see if that helps. Any other directions for me to look in to fix this? Now it also has been eating up battery power like crazy (it almost dies when I was at work today, and I pretty much only use it as a time piece when there).
I also now have the problem where it wakes back up after I put it to sleep. If you just want to answer this in the thread already for this problem, then no problem, I'll follow that thread as well as this one.
Thanks for your help on this.
BW
EDIT: Another symptom for consideration: When the phone acts up, it'll also snap screenshots when I try to power it off. Usually I can stop this by killing most of the running apps or swiping my finger across the hotkey area..

Sounds like something is up with your digitizer (the part of the screen that registers touch/gestures). If you flash back to bone stock ED01 and it's still acting up, take it in and get it swapped/fixed.

ElStormChaser said:
Hey all,
My Samsung Fascinate has an issue where the following have been happening (mostly in spurts, where it gets really bad);
There are what you could call "Phantom" button presses, I'll be doing something on it, surfing the web, reading something, and it'll just start acting up as if random buttons are being pressed. This'll go on for about 10-30 seconds, or until I use kill a bunch of background running apps. I originally thought it was due to having a screen protector over the hot keys, so I took that off the hot key area. that took care of it for a while, until I rooted my phone and started using custom ROMs (right now, I had a debloated ED01 ROM). After that, it began acting up again. I'm gonna try derooting it and doing the official updates to see if that helps. Any other directions for me to look in to fix this? Now it also has been eating up battery power like crazy (it almost dies when I was at work today, and I pretty much only use it as a time piece when there).
I also now have the problem where it wakes back up after I put it to sleep. If you just want to answer this in the thread already for this problem, then no problem, I'll follow that thread as well as this one.
Thanks for your help on this.
BW
EDIT: Another symptom for consideration: When the phone acts up, it'll also snap screenshots when I try to power it off. Usually I can stop this by killing most of the running apps or swiping my finger across the hotkey area..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would say you need to do a real good cleaning of your screen. The screen protectors for the Fascinate were not designed to be placed over the capacative keys (hot keys) and the slight adhesive on the screen protector probably left a residue on the capacitive keys. The screenshot when pressing the power button is a big clue. Screenshots are taken when you hold down the back capacative key and press the power button. This problem has almost always been cleared up by thoroughly cleaning the capacitive (soft) keys.

Cool, thanks guys for the help. I'll try the cleaning thing first; I'm guessing that alcohol wipes would work just fine for this?
Also, on the screen cap thing, that does make sense considering the major thing that happens is my phone will act as if the back button is pressed (with it occasionally phantom pressing the home button and bringing up the task manager box). Would it maybe be a good idea to completely remove the screen protector (it's a ZAGG, ie: Heavy duty). I've talked to a couple of people who say it shouldn't be a huge necessity to have one on.
If this doesn't work, I'll go through and flash the stock ED01.
If anyone else has a possible answer/ solution, feel free to chime in, as I'm hoping to get an idea of all the possible reasons for this.
Thanks again.

Just fyi, you can disable the screen capture service by freezing it through a variety of apps (a lot of people use titanium backup pro).
Sent from my Froyo'd Evil Fascinate full of PB&J

artvandelay440 said:
Just fyi, you can disable the screen capture service by freezing it through a variety of apps (a lot of people use titanium backup pro).
Sent from my Froyo'd Evil Fascinate full of PB&J
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How would I do that, I've looked through TiB and don't see an obvious setting that would take care of this.

First, you must have the pro version. Go to backup/restore tab at the top and find the screen capture service (it's in red text). Tap it and select freeze. This will disable, but not uninstall it, so you can restore it later. PM me if you need a screen shot.
Sent from my Froyo'd Evil Fascinate full of PB&J

Ok, got it. Now if I could get it to stop turning back on when I sleep it, it's been doing that a lot more of late. Going back to the capacitive keys issue; Is there a mod that can adjust the sensitivity of those keys, to make it so they don't get 'pressed' if theres any junk on them?
BW

Related

[Q] Freezing HD2 after lock

I know there are hundreds of threads and articles posted about HD2s freezing with the lock screen but this issue seems different to me. My problem is that whenever I lock the phone the touch screen will freeze entirely. I thought a work around may be to install a different lock screen. After installing that I can get past the lock screen but the touch screen still is not responsive. I have no idea what to do. I already did a hard reset and it still does it. I would like to add that it is completely consistent. It happens every time without fail. In order to even use the phone I have to pull the battery and I get one use out of it before it locks and I have to pull the battery again. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would really appreciate it..
Update: I flashed the original ROM to my phone and the freezing problem still exists.. I have no idea what to do at this point.
Update 2: Narrowed down the problem to being the physical "power/end/lock" button. If I slightly press it but not fully it will go to the honeycomb style menu with all the apps. If I press it fully the screen will go out like normal but then if I restore it, the entire screen is locked up. Nothing will work after that until I pull the battery.
I've directly linked the issue with the power button. I dont know why all of a sudden the power button would have a different function. The work around I found is while the phone is locked and the screen is off I can press the green button to unlock the phone and the touch screen will then function. If I use the power button it will remain frozen. Any ideas what happened?
Hello,
I got some bad news for you, this issue is actually related to the digitizer (hardware) not software. What i would recommend is called HTC for a repair and send it in, it is covered by warranty, hopefully you have warranty.
A lot of people are having this issue, no-one yet has been able to pinpoint the cause, but here is the link a thread with similar problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=854165
Luckych
Thanks for the reply. I do not think I have a warranty on this phone considering I bought it privately. Ill talk to Tmo and HTC and see what I can do. Just a theory, I may be wrong. But I live in PA and its been getting below 20 here lately. I noticed today that my work around didnt work when I was outside working on my car. Then I went inside and used a blow dryer to heat up the phone and it started working again. The end button didn't function properly but I could unlock the phone with the green send button. Perhaps the cold weather is shorting out people's digitizers? I don't really know how they work so that's why i said its only a theory. I bought this phone in the spring and didnt have an issue until now when it started getting really cold.

Request/Suggestion - Home/search/back/menu backlight

I'm currently using the Telus version of this phone (SGH-959D) and i'm finding it rather annoying that the home key backlight turns off very very quickly. Can anyone suggest an app (maybe make one?) that would keep the backligh on when the screen is active (adjustable brightness?)
I'm currently running 2.2 and have rooted the phone.
some people told me that the DISPLAY activates the buttons to light up, and messing with the screen it-self is very dangerous and most people wouldn't do it, but idk if theres a app/program to do this yet i'd love it as well. its making me go blind at night when im reading a book on my phone lol
xriderx66 said:
some people told me that the DISPLAY activates the buttons to light up, and messing with the screen it-self is very dangerous and most people wouldn't do it, but idk if theres a app/program to do this yet i'd love it as well. its making me go blind at night when im reading a book on my phone lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm mostly having problems when using the navigate in the car at night, the screen stays on, but the buttons go right out, so it's guess work on wether you are hitting the home button or the menu button. I could see similar problems when using other apps that leave the screen on for an extended period of time.

[Q] Hardware or Driver Issue? Screen Hangs and Locks

My Vibrant is currently running stock KB5.
About every two days or so, I will be using the phone, and the colors on the screen will suddenly wash out, screen goes to max brightness, whatever is on the screen at the time stays up, and there will be two or three horizontal thin lines on the screen. The Menu, Home, Back, and Search keys all light up. The touchscreen and all buttons, including the power button, become unresponsive. Screen will not timeout. Only way to get out of it is to remove the battery and reinsert. If I am in the middle of a phone call, I am still able to continue speaking on the phone.....but can't hang up, adjust volume, etc.
I haven't tried any other ROMs since KB5 was released, so hard to say if another ROM would solve the issue. Don't flame me for sticking with KB5. I don't need my phone to do a lot....really just use it for calls, music player, Sirius, Google Maps/GPS, light web browsing. I'm not really opposed to running another ROM, I just found it to be a pain in the butt to be constantly switching ROMs as they are updated.
Anyone else experience this problem? Hardware or driver problem? If anyone else did have this problem, did switching to another ROM solve it for you?
Pig Vomit said:
My Vibrant is currently running stock KB5.
About every two days or so, I will be using the phone, and the colors on the screen will suddenly wash out, screen goes to max brightness, whatever is on the screen at the time stays up, and there will be two or three horizontal thin lines on the screen. The Menu, Home, Back, and Search keys all light up. The touchscreen and all buttons, including the power button, become unresponsive. Screen will not timeout. Only way to get out of it is to remove the battery and reinsert. If I am in the middle of a phone call, I am still able to continue speaking on the phone.....but can't hang up, adjust volume, etc.
I haven't tried any other ROMs since KB5 was released, so hard to say if another ROM would solve the issue. Don't flame me for sticking with KB5. I don't need my phone to do a lot....really just use it for calls, music player, Sirius, Google Maps/GPS, light web browsing. I'm not really opposed to running another ROM, I just found it to be a pain in the butt to be constantly switching ROMs as they are updated.
Anyone else experience this problem? Hardware or driver problem? If anyone else did have this problem, did switching to another ROM solve it for you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats usually what happens when I OC too high or dont have enough voltage =3 is it just plain KB5, no mods right?? if so it shouldnt be doing that =/
ECOTOX said:
thats usually what happens when I OC too high or dont have enough voltage =3 is it just plain KB5, no mods right?? if so it shouldnt be doing that =/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No mods whatsoever. Completely stock, not rooted.

[Q] Should I contact Samsung for warranty?

So here are some problems I have with my phone but I'm not sure if they make my phone valid for a replacement...
touch screen isn't sensitive enough - it doesn't respond sometimes unless my finger is perfectly perpendicular to the screen. And when I'm scrolling, it sometimes flicks all the way down by itself
Sometimes, I only press the home button once but leads to voice
The battery usually only lasts for 8-10 hours with normal usage. This includes texting, checking e-mail and facebook. I also have pretty much everything turned off and brightness dimmed halfway.
The phone freezes up from time to time. The screen goes lack and none of the buttons work, not even the power button. I have to remove the battery and put it back in to get it working again.
The battery can also get unusually hot, some times for no reason at all
I get quite a few of these issues too, not sure if they're valid for a warranty claim though. As far as I can tell, a lot of users have been getting lots of these issues also. I'd start by clearing out any apps that you don't need/use (probably easiest way is to back them all up with titanium backup, delete them all and then only install the ones you need immediately, then install others as you need them) as there could be one/some causing you some issues. As for the touch screen sensitivity, there's a few threads on here that address that (with apps) but also some kernels include a fix. I'm on slow-ass internet atm so I won't include links but just do a quick search and you'll find what you're after.
As for only pressing the home button once and getting voice, if you use the "JKAY mod" theme, there's an option to disable home button double click (very useful). As for why it happens, I'd say it's an error with switch debouncing but who knows, just get jkay and disable it.
Also, as I said in another thread, I've had very good experiences with using the void #echo kernel, so give that a try and see if it fixes any of your problems.
Try updating the firmware and also calibrate sensors to avoid further sensor problems.
I would update the firmware, but I actually want to get this traded in for warranty since I did drop my phone, leaving the chrome slightly scratched. So I guess none of my reasons would qualify for warranty then? How about the part where my phone goes completely unresponsive that I have to remove the battery before anything works again? Could that be a valid reason because the couple times it happened, I almost had a panic attack.
If you want to stay on stock and have a warranty then tell them it reboots twice a day so probably has firmware problems and they will send it away.
apollero said:
So here are some problems I have with my phone but I'm not sure if they make my phone valid for a replacement...
touch screen isn't sensitive enough - it doesn't respond sometimes unless my finger is perfectly perpendicular to the screen. And when I'm scrolling, it sometimes flicks all the way down by itself
Sometimes, I only press the home button once but leads to voice
The battery usually only lasts for 8-10 hours with normal usage. This includes texting, checking e-mail and facebook. I also have pretty much everything turned off and brightness dimmed halfway.
The phone freezes up from time to time. The screen goes lack and none of the buttons work, not even the power button. I have to remove the battery and put it back in to get it working again.
The battery can also get unusually hot, some times for no reason at all
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try but all they will do is a factory reset first .
You can do that before returning under warranty .
jje

Phone on/off button causing phone to reboot

Everytime I go to use the on/of button for anything, I barely press it and sometimes it doesn't work, other times I quickly press it and it thinks I held it for the menu to come up to reboot or power down. But most of the time... It just reboots on its own if I use the switch. Any way to by pass it? The switch itself I think is just super sensitive, I barely have to even touch it. I've taken phone apart and cleaned around the switch. I'm trying to hold out till the Galaxy S 4 comes out... Hopefully soon!!
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
Although I can't offer a fix... The galaxy s4 goes for preorder for at&t on the 16th of this month for $250 I believe. And T-Mobile is releasing it for $99 on may 1. I think that is all that is currently known about any galaxy s4 release dates. Hope I kinda helped in any roundabout way.
Galaxy S3 T999 rooted and flashed more than daily.
Brand new off contract nexus 4. 250 dollars. If you can deal with the limited internal sd card space and don't have to have your entire music collection with you at all times like some people here lol.
Free Apps to Help
I have the same issue, can't touch the power button. I smack the button a few times to get it to behave. I have installed the following two free apps so I do not have to touch the power button again.
Auto Screen On.
Button Savior(Root)
I am not allowed to post links to the apps, but they can both be found on Google Play.
You have to have root and you have to read the instructions for each app.:good:
Thanks to everyone, I am rooted and running CM9, so that shouldn't be an issue and I'll check into those apps. Just need to make til I can upgrade to the GS4. Thanks for the dates cuz now I have an idea of how long and I'll go order it that day. If that's the preorder, then when is the release date I wonder?
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
I tried and am using "auto screen on" works prefect!! Using the proximity sensor instead of on off button. Thanks again guys, always seem to find help on XDA!
Sent from my SGH-I777 using xda app-developers app
I think it's absolutely fascinating how we both seemed to develop the problem at the same time. Could be that many others will soon suffer the same problem. Although I'm definitely going to look into those apps now, I found a temporary fix myself (and it could just be coincidental anyway). I pulled the battery out, pressed my power button repeatedly about 100 times, and now I'm able to use the power button again without it sticking and causing this problem.
The weird part is, that physically, the external button wasn't stuck at all. I could still click the button as many times as I wanted even while "stuck" symptoms appeared on my phone, like the power menu coming up, or a reboot. My guess is that the hardware problem lies somewhere between the physical button and the electronic circuitry within, but I haven't actually stripped down the phone and looked inside. But perhaps jamming the button a hundred times helped decrease the chance of the internal "signal relayer" getting stuck.
I had a similar issue with some keys on my laptop after a little kid played with it and got my keys messed up. Outside button was ok, something beyond that was not (so pressing "s" once would lead to 40 s's appearing on my document). Repeatedly pressing ended up helping out quite a lot.
Nonetheless, this may end up being a very useful thread for others later on.
My GF i777 was having the same issue reported here. I just sent it into mobiletechvideos.com and had the power button on the mother board replaced for 40-50 bucks and it works perfectly now. I would suggest using them if you want to keep your i777 working
bhatbhai said:
I think it's absolutely fascinating how we both seemed to develop the problem at the same time. Could be that many others will soon suffer the same problem. Although I'm definitely going to look into those apps now, I found a temporary fix myself (and it could just be coincidental anyway). I pulled the battery out, pressed my power button repeatedly about 100 times, and now I'm able to use the power button again without it sticking and causing this problem.
The weird part is, that physically, the external button wasn't stuck at all. I could still click the button as many times as I wanted even while "stuck" symptoms appeared on my phone, like the power menu coming up, or a reboot. My guess is that the hardware problem lies somewhere between the physical button and the electronic circuitry within, but I haven't actually stripped down the phone and looked inside. But perhaps jamming the button a hundred times helped decrease the chance of the internal "signal relayer" getting stuck.
I had a similar issue with some keys on my laptop after a little kid played with it and got my keys messed up. Outside button was ok, something beyond that was not (so pressing "s" once would lead to 40 s's appearing on my document). Repeatedly pressing ended up helping out quite a lot.
Nonetheless, this may end up being a very useful thread for others later on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am having this same problem. I started a different thread a few days ago about power button issues that at the time I attributed to the recent software update. But it was apparently just very coincidental, and after some tinkering I was able to get the button working using similar methods described in this thread already. After I got it working again, I rooted and successfully installed AOKP 4.2.2, but now when I manage to get the power button to send a signal it pulls up the shut down options screen and then restarts about ten seconds after that. I assume it is still the same hardware issue, but since the restarts only began occurring after flashing the custom rom I can't entirely rule out the possibility that it is some how related.
jmeas said:
I am having this same problem. I started a different thread a few days ago about power button issues that at the time I attributed to the recent software update. But it was apparently just very coincidental, and after some tinkering I was able to get the button working using similar methods described in this thread already. After I got it working again, I rooted and successfully installed AOKP 4.2.2, but now when I manage to get the power button to send a signal it pulls up the shut down options screen and then restarts about ten seconds after that. I assume it is still the same hardware issue, but since the restarts only began occurring after flashing the custom rom I can't entirely rule out the possibility that it is some how related.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you flash back to stock and you still have the button problem, then it is almost certainly hardware. Did you do that yet?
I actually just flashed AOKP a few days ago. Instead of using one of the applications above, which either drained my battery (auto screen on) or wasn't entirely convenient (button savior), I've got a different set up.
In rom control, activate "volume rocker to wake." It's not a hundred percent, oddly, but it gets the job done. This will help with screen on.
For screen off and power menu, I added a navbar with the second smallest height (30 dpi?), with the power button on it. Now I permanently have a the ability to turn off my screen, from whatever I'm doing, with just one click. Long pressing it gets you the power menu.
As a side note, I added screenshot to the power menu so I wouldn't have to hold my power button for that either. But no, I haven't tried using the nav bar power button with volume down for screenshot, because I'm an idiot and just thought of that now.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
creepyncrawly said:
If you flash back to stock and you still have the button problem, then it is almost certainly hardware. Did you do that yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had the opportunity to do that yet. The restart issues may have begun when I flashed the Siyah 4.3.3 kernel before installing the rom, but I probably won't have the chance to tinker with it until the weekend.
Edit: I have also noticed that I can only reliably use the volume buttons to wake my phone up from sleep when it is plugged in.
Weird, I just started getting this problem today, too. Kinda weird how this all happened to us in the same month
Add me to the list of those whose power button suddenly and mysteriously died. Opened up an email Sunday 4/14, the phone rebooted on its own, and when it restarted the power button no longer worked. My suspicious is it's somehow software/rom related. I'm running Task's AOKP 4.2.2 (4.1.13), for what its worth. If everyone with the issue posts their experience maybe we can figure out what's going on...
Mine started doing the same back in March. Pressing the power button would cause it to reboot and sometimes bring up the power menu, as if I was long pressing it. Then the power button didn't want to work at all, sometimes. I tried everything I could think of, even reverting back to stock, but the problem persisted. Then I finally found that pulling the battery and pressing the power button a few times fixed the problem, for a while anyways. If I don't do it every 2-3 days, it starts happening again. I've actually seen something similar happen with notebooks before. A charge manages to build in the motherboard and the system won't power on. Removing the power supply, pulling the battery, and holding the power button for 30 seconds to allow the charge to dissipate actually fixed the notebooks. That's where I got the idea to do it with my phone. Just wish I didn't have to do it every couple days.
My power button stopped working a couple of days ago and I tried this solution http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1193057&page=2 post #17. Just take the phone apart, spray the power button with the electrical cleaner, and continuously pushing the button for a while (2 or 3 min). Keep the button wet while pushing it. Let it dry, put the phone back together, and start it back up. You should be able to tell whether it worked because when you put the battery back in it will not immediately start back up.

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