Touch screen suddenly inaccurate; goes crazy

[TigerFX]

Hey,

Got my Droid on Friday. Today suddenly I notice it's extremely inaccurate (touching the center activates a button at the top or bottom, for instance). I downloaded the free "Draw" application which confirms this: dragging left-to-right across the center creates what looks like a heart monitor, with spikes way to the top and bottom of the screen.

I thought perhaps it was the plastic case on front or the protective sheet film I bought which has been on since the unboxing, but lo and behold no, same problems without those on.

Unforuntately it isn't consistent. It will work fine for a few minutes then go crazy again. I guess I'll have to take it into a Verizon store to see if they'll give me a replacement, anything else you think I should try? (I've already power cycled the phone several times). The phone has never been dropped, I've been taking good care of it.

Other ideas (like recalibration methods?) you can think of? I should expect Verizon to fix/replace this for free, right?

Thanks

[JoeyNWZ]

I have not found a way to recal, but I've noticed things get whacky if you have alot of widgets running with say an app like open home. Download one of the free task lister/killer apps and see if you can free up some memory and if it goes away.

Another thing to check is if you downloaded any apps from the store they may not be 2.0 compatible and can potentially give you some odd behavior. Try uninstall anything you might have installed one by one and check if it goes away.

[cereal killer]

Try deleting that draw app then reboot. See if that fixes your issue

[wallstreet123456]

Was it plugged in for charging when you try the screen? I have a charger plugged in and when I try to enter the security pattern it never selects what I touch, when I unplug it it works fine

[sir]

I think Tiger downloaded the draw app post-issue to attempt to confirm the problem, so I don't think removing the Draw app would solve it.

Also, it was noted in a sticky that you don't have to kill processes to free up a ton of memory since, like linux, an app can be running but taking up 0M of memory until it needs to do something.

Now if you have a ton of open apps that are running and doing crazy stuff, sure you could try to kill them and see what happens.

I haven't seen a way to calibrate the touchscreen anywhere.

[andjarnic]

Only one app can run at one time.. the Android platform allows multiple apps to run at once.. BUT they aren't running, they are suspended while the front app that a user is using is running. All apps go thru various states.. if you are running a game, hit the HOME key and run another app, the game *might* still be running but Android sent it a message saying "Yo.. going to run a different app right now, you are going to be pasued for a bit.. save anything you want incase I have to shut you down later, and I'll resume you when this user switches back to you". Essentially, services can run in the background, and one foreground app can run. The rest of the apps are suspended until the user switches back to them. For apps that have a user interface AND seem to get notifications, as far as I know those are background services running. I am still very new to Android development tho, I am not sure if when you switch from one foreground app to the next, if the other apps that are suspended can still receive notifications or not. I think only the foreground app can receive notifications of any sort and other apps (that are not services) are suspended until the user switches back to one of them. I believe that is correct.. if another android developer knows for sure, please correct me if I am wrong.

[JoeyNWZ]

Yes that is true, an application goes into a suspended state unless it has a service counterpart. But I don't think people realize how many apps install themselves as service, and that every widget is an individual service.

Go to menu -> settings -> manage applications -> running services

[andjarnic]

Joey, kewl..I am glad I retained something I read about this . So.. an app like the Alarm Clock, which I "kill" with ATK. A minute later it is back. I assume that that one little app must have a service AND the user interface installed. Thus, the service must run all the time and I am guessing it basically checks if Alarm Clock is running, if not, start it but ONLY if there is an alarm set. I would guess if no alarm was set, the service would not start it up.

IF that is true, another question comes to mind.. why not allow the UI of the Alarm Clock just for changing settings, but then the service portion does the actualy duties of activating when the alarm time is reached? Why keep on starting the Alarm Clock app? My guess was that the Alarm Clock app that we see run ALSO has the code in it to check the time, compare it to any alarm clocks set, and sound the alarm if one is met. I would think this type of logic would make better sense in the always running service and allow the User interface piece just to make changes to settings, thus avoiding having to run the alarm clock UI portion all the time.

[djstar2k2]

i notice that my droid will do that when chargin with anfter market charger but not when hook to my pc or wall jack threw the usb

[Rodfather]

I'm having the same issue as well. It happens when I plug the Droid into the USB port of my computer. I'm using the cable that came with it. I haven't tried plugging it into the wall charger to see if it happens then.

update:
When I plug into any port of my netbook, it has the issue. When I unplug my netbook, it works fine. I'm using an aftermarket charger for my netbook.

When I plug it into my work laptop, it works fine.

I posted another thread here: http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=1591620

From the response, it could be that there's no enough power running through the USB port.