Screen Touching Itself

[Averhoeven]

Over the past couple of days I have had a progressively worsening problem where my screen acts as though it is being touched, but is not. It has become essentially unusable at this point though. I have tried restarting the phone multiple times, I have cleaned the screen. I looked for a recalibration of the touch screen, but that did not seem to exist. I'm worried that this is a sign that the phone is broken, despite the fact that it has been babied and has no signs of wear.
This will be the 2nd Icon I have had break on me since release and I have NEVER had a phone die on me before. I'm annoyed to say the least......
Any ideas on what to look at to fix it?

 

[N_LaRUE]

All phones have issues. You sometimes get unlucky.

In any case. If you're up for it, try the Lumia Recovery Tool. It installs a clean firmware and may help the issues you are having. If not then you know it's a hardware issue. Keep in mind this tool wipes everything off the phone. Be sure to backup.

How can I recover/reset/restore my phone software? - Microsoft - UK

Before doing that, did you install any apps prior to this happening?

 

[Averhoeven]

I was going to try a hard reset/firmware reset, but I was hoping to get my photos and stuff off it first. Unfortunately, my company insists (even though this is a personal phone) that I have a password enabled due to company email. I cannot input this password to enable USB access to the phone.
Any thoughts? Is there any way to enable OneDrive backup remotely?

 

[Averhoeven]

Ok, I managed to get my corporate password input before the screen went bonkers (essentially turn off the screen, turn it back on and tap out the password as fast as possible before the ghost started tapping the screen again....). That meant I could get my pictures, etc off which is nice.

A complete reset of the device seems to have fixed the screen which brings me to the puzzling question of WTF? What would have caused that?

 

[spicypadthai]

Check out this thread from last year. Consensus was the phantom touches occurred mostly when the phone got hot. And BTW, thanks, I now have that Divinyls song stuck in my head...

 

[Averhoeven]

I had suspected that as well because sometimes I had some oddities occur when it got hot (and the initial touches seemed to localize to where the phone got hot), but that didn't seem to hold. The touches became random locations and would occur even after the phone had been off for hours straight.
The fact that a hard reset fixed it also leans me away from a temp issue.

 

[N_LaRUE]

I had suspected that as well because sometimes I had some oddities occur when it got hot (and the initial touches seemed to localize to where the phone got hot), but that didn't seem to hold. The touches became random locations and would occur even after the phone had been off for hours straight.
The fact that a hard reset fixed it also leans me away from a temp issue.

To put it the simplest way. Sometimes phones ship with bugs in the OS. It happens. Bugs stick around. You update. Bugs get worse.

That's why a clean install fixes everything. There's no other explanation.

My L920 simply hated every update and I had to hard reset or use the recovery tool after each update.

 

[Averhoeven]

Well..... it's back. It was good for a little less than 24 hours and now I'm back to where I started. Even a fresh restore didn't fix it this time, I can't even get through the initial setup. Frustrating.... I'm going to work on getting a replacement.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Well..... it's back. It was good for a little less than 24 hours and now I'm back to where I started. I think I just won't restore this time and see what happens. Frustrating.... I also think I'm going to work on getting a replacement.

There are apps out there that will mess up your phone. I was going to suggest that you don't restore. I had issues where I did a restore and it messed the phone up.

You might not need a replacement. Install your apps one at a time and see if one them messes things up. Especially more recent ones.

 

[N_LaRUE]

Check out And BTW, thanks, I now have that Divinyls song stuck in my head...

Same...

[url]www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-34w8kGPM

 

[jrdatrackstar1223]

I had this exact same issue....sorry but you have a bad Icon. I had to get mine warranty replaced by Microsoft. Either you need to get a replacement from Verizon (show them either in person or video of it happening) or send it to Microsoft through warranty repair. My phone would phantom touch, and no matter how many hard resets, software re-installs, etc, it would always happen.

The problem went away when I got a new Icon...

 

[anon(7901790)]

Well..... it's back. It was good for a little less than 24 hours and now I'm back to where I started. Even a fresh restore didn't fix it this time, I can't even get through the initial setup. Frustrating.... I'm going to work on getting a replacement.

Did you restore from back up? If so, try again (yeah, I know that sucks) and don't restore from backup. Then like N_LaRUE says, reinstall your apps one at a time. If it happens again without reinstalling your apps, then it is most likely hardware related and you need to get it replaced; either through warranty, or through Asurion.

Same...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wv-34w8kGPM

You my friend... SSSSSUUUUUUCCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! Because, now Ihave that song in my head.

 

[wpfan86]

Check out this thread from last year. Consensus was the phantom touches occurred mostly when the phone got hot. And BTW, thanks, I now have that Divinyls song stuck in my head...

Ha! I was just going to make a joke about telling your screen to stop touching itself or it will go blind.

 

[whoswhoo]

My first Icon suffered from this. I hard reset and tried multiple things to see if I could isolate the issue. But in the end a warranty swap out solved all my issues. Has not been a problem since. Probably been a year now.

 

[Averhoeven]

A swap using the Verizon warranty service (somehow my nearly one year old line was eligible to "add" that service) did it. The MS service was going to take 7-10 days. I can't do 7-10 days without a phone because it is used constantly for my work.