HTC Thunderbolt: Screen dead spot, random restarts.

[cowless]

Hello I'm a fellow Android phone user and I've been very happy with my purchase of my HTC Thunderbolt for quite some time now or at least until weird things started happening on my phone. one day, about a month shy of when i purchased the phone. My phone developed a sort of dead zone that was in the middle of my screen. It was as if someone divided my screen into 2 parts via a horizontal line and the area where the line would be doesn't respond at all. Then after a few days (perhaps a week) my Thunderbolt started doing this sort of "touch screen freak out" as i like to call it where it would click right where my big clock and weather widget was (you know the one that takes up half of the screen but is quite useful). It was the point of the dead spot and it would click there quite erratically almost as if a person had somehow hacked into my phone and was messing with me. After a lot of fiddling the random touching in that area stopped and just like that the dead spot was gone. Very mysterious I know but I was just glad it was gone and i went on about my merry way with my favorite phone. About 2 weeks ago the erratic touching happened in the same spot again but went away and then a couple of days after the dead spot returned with a vengeance! This time it has not left my phone and also my phone has been randomly restarting itself as well. Can't seem to understand why this is happening. Is my phone a sort of lemon or is this something fixable? Either way all i have is the 1 year warranty issued with the phone so i have time for the worst case scenario. Should I go talk to the Verizon people about this?

 

[cowless]

does nobody have a fix for this issue?

 

[dark juggalo]

I've had mine freeze but this is the first I've heard of this kind of erratic behavior..If it were me,I would hightail it to verizon and have them check it.

 

[cowless]

I think the new update fixed it.

 

[dark juggalo]

thats good to hear

 

[surfluvr8]

I have this exact same problem. It's been going on for a little over a month. I am running all the latest versions and nothing seems to be helping. I thought that maybe since I received this phone from Asurion, it was some crappy refurb. Please please let me know if there is anyway to fix it. I use my phone for work related things too and it's killing me not being able to use it half the time!

 

[glennj]

Same Here...

Mine didn't start acting up UNTIL AFTER the last update. I notice when I wake it from sleeping or change the battery, the dead spot just left of center is there. If I leave it on, the screen goes nuts, as if it had a mind of its own, rearranging screens, activating programs, and it won't let me scroll back and forth. Sometimes turning it on and off several times in succession helps but most often not. I can turn it off and come back to it and it seems normal. But other than changing out the battery (I have a back-up), there's no predicting when it will do this. I'm stock, BTW.

This phone is truly going beyond frustrating.:angry:

 

[nashmax]

I found this thread via a Google search on "HTC Thunderbolt Touch Screen Faulty" and it appears I am in the right place, so I registered to post this.

I've had my TB since it made its debut March 2011. It is not rooted and is running Gingerbread. Love it, but ever since Dec 2011 it has developed the quivering "freak out" as described above. When this happens, which can be inside any application (camera, texts, twitter, home screen, browser, etc), the phone is rendered useless. The ONLY solution is to put the phone to sleep & reawaken it, but even that is no guarantee. Removing the case & screen protector, to include cleaning the screen and/or my hands, does not seem to help. It is so frustrating, I have contemplated the merits of throwing the damn thing up against a brick wall.

Right about the time I want to take it to VZW or file an insurance claim, it starts behaving. These erratic / intermittent issues are the most annoying thing ever.

 

[veryshinything]

Might help

Hey,

I may have a solution to the dead spots, it just worked for me. I have a thunderbolt which hadn't been dropped or abused but somehow parts of the screen stopped registering. I couldn't type well or use it for much and was offered a referb again, as defective, but declined because i've had more than one issue with this phone. Anyways, after being told that I could get my update moved I got a new phone but wanted to see if i could fix this one. I watched this youtube video [video=youtube;zdPiT82gWKw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdPiT82gWKw[/video] and got the idea that it might just need the 3 ribbon cables between the screen and motherboard reseated. I took it apart to right before the complex part that you need to unglue anything and put it back together. Problem solved.

I find this unfortunate that they don't keep techs in the store to perform this kind of easy fix...

Still getting something else (htc rezound) but now i have an extra or can sell this for some of the price difference in the upgrade.

 

[nashmax]

Thanks for the suggestion. Glad it worked for you. I understand your aversion to refurbs, which tend to have their own set of issues. I will post here again once I give it a shot.

 

[Laur3nNewm4n]

Sometimes the erratic freakout behavior can be the result of using a different charger than the official HTC one. I know with the Droids it would tweak out if you started using it with third party chargers.