Weird touchscreen/display problem on my SP3, anyone else?

[david90531]

Hi all! I've been a happy SP3 owner since April, and still absolutely loving this device. But ever since a few months in I've been having this weird touchscreen slash display problem where one corner of the screen would keep detecting touch/swipe motion even though my fingers are not on it and nothing is touching the trackpad either, it happens usually after the SP3 is idle for awhile or after charging.

Of course when this is happening, the tablet is virtually unusable because it would close or move my tabs and I can't type properly. Rebooting always fixes the issue, so I never really bothered with it thinking maybe a firmware update would fix it. But it's still happening every other day till this day....

I've included some videos to show the problem. Anyone else has this issue? What should I do about it? I believe my SP3 would be still under warranty?

In the 2nd video you can see the cursor keeps going back to that corner and makes it impossible to work

 

[prosimian]

Yes! I've had that exact same phantom touch happening since I bought the SP3 at launch. Initially, it would require a reboot once a week or so to get rid of it, so I didn't care. For the last couple of weeks, I've had to reboot multiple times a day to address it. Took my SP3 to the MS store last night and had just a completely disinterested, almost annoyed employee do nothing. He wiped the screen then stood there staring at it with me, waiting for the problem to start happening. Shockingly, a transient issue didn't appear on demand so his only offer was to take the SP3 for diagnostics. That would take 4 weeks. Didn't care that I purchased MS Complete, the guy was just annoyed I was there.

So basically, looks like I'll live with the issue until the device has had an accident that completely destroys it and I get it replaced under MS Complete. Particularly annoying when my experience tells me how Apple would have handled this.

Edit - When I say exact same problem, I mean it. Same location, same pattern of phantom touch events. Sometimes a single touch, sometimes the up/down swipe.

 

[david90531]

Yikes! That sounds like a bad experience indeed. I think my plan is to wait till the phantom touch is happening and go to MS Store right away, with the two videos that I can show them the problem, and see if they would offer a better fix or replacement unit.

Good to know that I'm not alone on this though, it's weird that it's located at the same place too... must be some mass production flaw

 

[prosimian]

If I think about it I'll capture a video for comparison. This is the first I've seen this same complaint, too. Over on the MS support forums I found plenty of phantom touch mentions, but it looked much different than this from what I saw. If I come up with any resolution - other than the just throwing the thing across the room and getting it replaced - I'll let you know.

 

[prosimian]

Hey david - not sure this is *the* fix, but I'd seen some reports online that the phantom touches could be bluetooth or Pen related. So last time the touches started, I just shut off bluetooth altogether. It's only been a day, but I've been phantom touch free so far. As a reminder, I'd been having to reboot because of this multiple times a day recently.

Today I'm going to re-enable bluetooth and take the batteries out of my pen and see what happens.

 

[anon(7901790)]

Hey david - not sure this is *the* fix, but I'd seen some reports online that the phantom touches could be bluetooth or Pen related. So last time the touches started, I just shut off bluetooth altogether. It's only been a day, but I've been phantom touch free so far. As a reminder, I'd been having to reboot because of this multiple times a day recently.

Today I'm going to re-enable bluetooth and take the batteries out of my pen and see what happens.

If it is pen related, then delete the pen from your devices and see if you still get the phantom touch problem. If it goes away re-pair and see what happens. It may just be a corrupted pairing with the pen.

 

[david90531]

Thanks guys, I'll take a look at my pen and try to re-pair it as well. Other than that I use bluetooth speakers and bluetooth mouse, I wonder if those have anything to do with it..

 

[prosimian]

My phantom touches are 100% Bluetooth related. With Bluetooth turned off, I have zero problems with my SP3. With it on, phantom touches happen regularly and only go away with a reboot or if I can get Bluetooth disabled. I tried with Bluetooth on and nothing paired, got phantom touches. Bluetooth on and just my mouse paired (top batteries out of the pen, even), phantom touches.

So it's definitely narrowed down to a Bluetooth issue on mine. Looks like I'll have to work with online support since my local MS store has been uncooperative on this. Ridiculous that I can't just deal with the local store.

 

[MojoDoj0]

I have the same problem with mine and waiting for UPS as I write to come and get it. I had a problem with the display also, the most frustrating thing is that this is my secong unit. The first one had the same problem with the display, there where a gap between the display and the screen so the light were mich stronger in this areas, ms replaced it and gave me a new one with the same problem AND phantom touches.

But unlike prosimian, I had a good experiance with the ms support here in Sweden. The guy were very understanding and put up a service appointment directly.

 

[prosimian]

MoJo - I think part of the reason this experience with MS has been so frustrating is that usually they've been fantastic. I haven't used support much, but back when the Xbox 360 had problems, they sent me a new one right away without much hassle. My SP3 power cord started fraying, I walked in the store and they replaced without a single question. Then, for the only piece of electronics I've ever bought an extended warranty on in my life, they're being really difficult. Doesn't help that the MS store employee I had to deal with was terrible, too.

Anyway, to a more productive topic I tried working with online support last night, and their first recommendation was to factory reset the thing. Considering how long it takes to re-apply all the firmware updates, security patches, etc, I wasn't too interested. But there was one thing I hadn't done that gernerttl recommended - delete existing Bluetooth pairings. The pairing with my pen had been deleted, but not my mouse. So I enabled Bluetooth, saw the phantom touches, then went and deleted my mouse pairing but left Bluetooth on. Touches disappeared. Re-paired my mouse, and so far haven't seen the touches again, all is good.

So it looks like I may have gotten rid of them, for now with a simple solution - delete all Bluetooth pairings and re-pair.

Hope one of the MS employees on these boards notes this and gets it fed to their support group. Might save them losing another customer in the future.

 

[MojoDoj0]

I had to send mine in for the display issue. It's the second time tough with the same problem. Do you have the same problem with your display?

 

[prosimian]

No, I don't have any build issues as far as I've noticed. No screen gap. And I don't want to look for any - willful ignorance can be nice sometimes The phantom touches have been my only significant problem. Well, that and the type cover regularly acting like it's not connected until I disconnect/reconnect it.

 

[Ayushmaan Walia]

Hi David,

It seems your problem is similar to the one mentioned in this post:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...3/db94f98e-34ea-482b-91c1-c2f37336e36f?page=1

It looks like there is a pretty solid resolution available using the tool mentioned in the post. Go through it and see if this resolves your problem. I will also try this tonight for my SP3, which is also having an exact similar problem, just a lot worse.

Regards,
Ayushmaan