Author Topic: The Importance Of Screen Cleanliness  (Read 1475 times)

gidds

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The Importance Of Screen Cleanliness
« on: April 22, 2023, 05:15:52 pm »
On a few occasions, my Astro has started behaving strangely, leading me to wonder about the hardware or firmware. For example:
  • With the physical keyboard open, my text editor started popping up the ‘Choose input method’ dialog a couple of times a minute, for no apparent reason. And if I tapped on the screen to move the cursor, the onscreen keyboard would pop up too.
  • Another time, it didn't always respond to taps on the right-hand quarter of the screen, and drags would become erratic and sometimes got ‘dropped’ almost at random.
  • Another time, drags or taps would sometimes cause enlargement/reduction or rotation.
However, in each case, after giving the screen a really good wipe (with a microfibre cloth impregnated with cleaning solution), the problem vanished, and everything behaved normally again. So the cause must have simply been dirt on the screen. 

So if your Astro starts behaving strangely, give its screen a good clean before starting to worry!

Now, I generally keep my Astro's screen pretty clean anyway, with no visible/tactile dirt or smears. So, surprisingly, all the problems above must have been caused by dirt that was too small/thin to be seen while the screen was on.

How common is this sort of thing? I haven't used any other smartphones, so I can't compare. (I don't recall seeing this sort of issue with the Gemini, but of course its screen was better protected.) Does anyone know whether the Astro is particularly susceptible to this sort of problem, and whether I might have done anything to encourage it, and/or anything can be done to avoid it?
   Andy/
Psion 3a → Psion 5 → Psion 5mx → Gemini → Astro

ZimbiX

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Re: The Importance Of Screen Cleanliness
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2023, 06:52:18 pm »
I've encountered similar issues with the touch screen several times. Mostly when trying to enter my unlock pattern. It'd lose the touch part way through - like there were dead spots in the touch screen. But it's always been fixed by a reboot. Wiping the already-clean screen with my shirt didn't help.