iPhone XsMax Ghost Touch

[jtara]

One would think this horse would have been beaten senseless, but I see the most recent "ghost touch" posts was in November. And about the iPhone X, not XsMax. So, time to revive the subject...

My iPhone XsMax has recently begun to exhibit symptoms of "ghost touch". The screen/touch will suddenly start acting erratically. Specifically, it seems it will initially act as if somebody is trying to swipe to change screens, but it doesn't quite change. That is, the screen will "wobble" left/right as if to swipe. It is quite erratic.

But then it might open an app and start doing random things. Call me crazy ("OK, Crazy!") but it seems to try in particular to do destructive things - uninstall app, turn notifications off, etc. That is, should it happen to be (or navigate to), say, a column of "switches" it will proceed to randomly "operate" the switches.

All of the articles I have seen about this are clear as mud. None point to a specific problem. Lots of articles suggesting full reboot, recover OS, wipe and recover, etc. etc. There doesn't seem to be any clarify as to whether it is a software problem or a hardware problem, and many seem to report it goes away after reloading OS or wipe/reload. I've seen it attributed to: software, failed digitizer, "bad/third-party charging cable".

There is a replacement program, but only 3 years from purchase, and NOT available for XsMax. So, apparently, the XsMax is not "supposed" to have this problem.

The absolute terror is when it starts entering random numbers for the lock code, and you wind up locked-out for 1 minute, then 5 minutes, then 15, and ultimately fully locked-out. (I've now changed my lock code to a long alphanumeric code to try to avoid this - debating no lock code.)

I called Apple support, and was not helpful. Said XsMax does not qualify for replacement program.

When I first noticed this happening, there seemed to be some correlation with sunlight. The first few times, I was outdoors, walking, carrying phone in back pocket, and pulled the phone out in bright sun. Could be sun, could be heat. Or dirty/greasy fingers. (Been working on a closet storage project minor car issues like topping-up oil.) But then it started doing it indoors and after carefully cleaning screen. And then I thought it might have something to do with sound, as it seemed at times to be responding to loud sounds, or the flat-box people talking on BoomerBerg (Bloomberg).

(Sunlight, you say! Why, that's absolutely nuts! Well, tell that to the hapless operators at the Wayne State University Computing Center, where I worked as a Student Assistant in the 1970s. Every afternoon - but at different times every day - the 9-track tape drives would "rewind themselves" or do other crazy things. Somebody finally noticed that the time progressed or regressed daily. It was the sun shining in at a certain angle. The fix was to brick-up the windows...)

Well, I did do a wipe and the DFU'd and restored from backup with iMazing. And it seemed OK for a half a day, then started coming back. What is odd is I got through all the usual setup with no problems.

I'd been meaning to upgrade to an iPhone 12 Pro Plus, but I delayed and now the timing is awkward (with new models coming soon). But AT&T is offering $700 trade-in credit, and they have them in stock at nearby store. (Online and 611 is worthless, yet ATT Store in person has always been super...). Too bad I don't have something older (back to iPhone 6) that qualifies, it only has to have a $95 "value" to qualify for trade-in deal. Store guy suggested as long as it will come up to Welcome and exhibits no obvious problems it should qualify. Was told various things about required condition, and suggested that say even cracked screen would qualify, but not through online questionnaire, because it doesn't even ask that. Danger is that after 3 months when the old phone finally gets into test they would reject it.

I guess I am going to try this, I will wipe the phone again and try to trade it in.

I am a developer, and I'd been planning on keeping the phone as a test device, as I've been trading-in and now the newest test phone I have is iPhone 5S. But I can get a smaller recent-but-not-latest (better for test to have a variety of sizes anyway) for way less than $700! So, now I guess I'll skip next model or perhaps two which sounds like will be fairly blah anyway.

My Apple Watch saved the day, BTW. Most recent watch I finally decided to get Cellular and activate the service - great for walking and not having to carry phone. Took me a while to figure out that "hey, I am wearing a watch with cellular service, that get me out of one Catch-22..."

 

[BugeyeSTI]

Sounds like the display/driver assembly.. I'd say if you can get $700 on trade in to put towards a new 12 ProMax I'd go that route. Screen replacement through Apple is $329 and if it was 100% guaranteed to fix the issue, the XS Max is still a great phone but then you have to think the battery may need replacement in a year or maybe the problem is on the logic board and only happens when it gets to a certain temperature. Too many variables to consider to take the chance of repairing the device IMO

 

[jtara]

Yea, I saw the outrageous cost on the screen I guess because OLED. I see third-party repair companies are actually putting in LCDs and some will do it for like $100. I guess LCD from some other model fits and works?

I think I will try to trade it in, I have to assume they have to send me back the device if they reject it, right?

I'm betting they won't they want a happy customer paying for an expensive phone plan (I have the highest tier, that comes with HBOMax as a perk...). Was nice not making the phone payment for a while!

If they send the phone back to me, OK, I have to pay the full freight. But I have one of the shady places put in an LCD for $100 and keep it as a developer test device.

But you're right, no telling what the problem really is.

I have a LOT of apps installed! Because I am a developer, I check a lot of things out, then I never delete them LOL. The console is a chatty mess, and frankly none of it means anything to me, even though I am a dev. Because they are no MY messages!

I want to play with the Lidar anyway. (Rationalization...)

Just checked, the Liquid Contact Indicator (in SIM slot) is NOT activated.

 

[jtara]

So, I walked down to the ATT store in downtown San Diego and traded the XSMax in for a 12 Pro Max.

As always, the in-store experience was quick and pleasant - a total 180 vs. dealing with them on 611 or 1-800-ATT or through the website.

I prepped the phone before I left the house - turned off Find My, logged-out of iTunes, unpaired from Watch, wiped the phone. But was unprepared for the fact that un-pairing from my watch left me with no means to make a phone call (other than 911). Apple still has blind-spot edge cases. And I have to say the Apple documentation on this is clear as mud.

I decided I wanted to start "from scratch" so just did the most basic setup in the store, and I am not going to restore with iMazing from my XsMax backup with the 250 apps installed! I will re-install apps as needed. And I have any local data files that aren't in iCloud in my iMazing backup.

Bit of a glitch of 2FA, but was expecting that. I brought an old 5S that I put on the ATT WiFi, but I'd already missed the opportunity to authenticate from popup, and it didn't do it again. It offered to authenticate using a Mac password, but darned if I have "finger memory", and actually didn't know the upper/lower case letters, I ONLY know that password from memory when typing on a physical keyboard!

Dude in the store was pretty confident that they would accept the trade-in, he had nothing negative to say about physical condition, and the screen acted fine at "Hello", which was what I had expected as it was fine before when I reset it and tried to re-load from backup. It was only after all the apps were loaded that it had started acting wonky again.

The paperwork shows a "trade in value" of $295, with a promo value of $700. It needs to have at least a $95 trade in value to qualify for the promo.

The fine print seems to say that actually when you turn-in at an AT&T retail store, the in-store determination is final. I dunno, if you read it carefully, I might have had to have explicitly asked for a determination.

I'm guessing they have to replace the screen in refurb anyway, the fine print says they can NOT return the phone, so they'd have to dock the promo value and they can only do that if they were to determine it is worth less than $95, which I guess technically it would be if you use the retail cost of screen replacement.

Thinking that AT&T just wouldn't want to go there and make a customer unhappy.

 

[BugeyeSTI]

I think your decision was the right one and yes, once they except the phone at the store it's a done deal. I always recommend doing trade-in in person because once they except the device your done. I'm sure you'll love your new phone!