[froschy]

@ tcarlyle - I don't think it's cold temperature as my touchscreen started playing up towards the end of summer, although maybe temperature extremes exacerbate the problem.

Given my experience it is definitely a hardware issue, prior to sending the phone off for repair it was practically unusable and very frustrating. Since I received it back from repair the touchscreen has worked flawlessly. I don't know if it was a manufacturing defect (this wouldn't surprise me given the other issues the N97 has like the self-harming camera lens, poorly shielded GPS antennae, squeaky back cover, etc...) or from carrying the phone in my pocket but regardless I now always carry the phone in a leather pouch (the Sena ultraslim pouch) and with the screen facing outwards if in my trouser pocket.

I would recommend sending your phone off for repair as I would be surprised if this didn't fix the problem.

Hope this helps! 

P.S. One other thing that I noticed after the repair was the lock/unlock slider seemed a lot more secure. I did suspect that there were actually two problems with one of them caused by this slider. I still don't know but certainly something to consider. 

Message Edited by froschy on 21-Dec-2009 08:46 AM

[Necros87]

i got my fone back from repair, 48 hours after i sent it in there, not a bad waiting time (as much as it should not have failed in that time...) but they just replaced the fone and yes, the unlock slider does seem alot more sturdy (i did note when i got the first one that it seemed flimsy) and... everything is fixed

but i must say, i like the general interfacing of the new firmware, alot more user friendly

[babsoginni]

Hmmmmmmm....going through this posts gives me more fear about the N97 than hope.

As at now, my touch screen no longer responds at all and it's a nightmare using the phone without the screen working (can't answer or end calls are just the basic issues that go along with that).

Received a call Friday night and the first attempt to use the phone Saturday morning resulted in some funny behaviour from the screen (the right side of the screen didn't respond at all, while the left side activated the applications/instructions on the right side). I switched off and on; since then, the touch screen has not responded. I've been 'studying' this forum since Saturday and applied all possible solutions:

1. Removed battery and replaced.
2. Hard reset
3. Deactivated and even removed all alarms
4. Uninstalled any application that didn't come with the phone
5. Left the phone idle for periods of time both with the battery and without it

I'm however still frustrated, none of them have been touch screens but none of my earlier N-Series phones (N73 & N95) has given so much joy & pain as the N97. Had it since August 09 and must confess it was a lovely phone to have till this past Saturday (Jan 9).

Any response from Nokia on this? Any real workable solution in sight?

[n9tyseven]

My N97 was experiencing similar problems with the touch screen as many of described above. And it got worse over time. Often when I touched the screen the familiar blue circle would come up elsewhere on the screen. Also, when restarting the phone it often took several attempts to get it beyond the logo screen. At some point I was so annoyed by missed calls and odd behavior that I went to my local Nokia Service Center.

They told me that it could have been caused by the recent 2.0 upgrade or it could be a mechanical fault. Apparently they had had many complaints about odd behavior and longer than usual startup times since the 2.0 upgrade. I handed mine in and got it back an hour later with a new front cover and touch screen, and reinstalled with a clean 2.0. All under the warranty.

That was a week ago. Ever since my N97 touch screen has been working fine so it looks like it definitely was the faulty hardware.

Just saw that my firmware revision has changed since the repair. It was 20.0.019.251.01 but now says 20.0.019.C01.01

No idea what has changed with this new fw rev. 

Message Edited by n9tyseven on 11-Jan-2010 04:20 PM

[zipper71]

I've had my phone since the release date in Australia. It started this screen problem last week. It's been driving me nuts. I'd tried the hard reset and reinstalled the firmware with no success. 

Happy I found this thread. Now I won't bother stuffing around any longer. Straight to the care centre!

[Thorby]

hey all,

i was just having the same problem last night, first time after three months of owning the phone, i recently bought a new screen protector, when i went to use my phone this morning the touch would not work, i tried everything like all you did, reset everything, even called optus and they weren't much help, just gave me a number for insurance, so i tried reinstalling everything again, no luck, then took the screen protector off.... problem solved, im thinking it was on too tight it was pushing down on the whole screen...try that if your willing to take off the protector or get the official nokia one.

cheerio lads and lass'

thorby

[aalonsoc73]

I have this problem and a lot more. This phone really drive me crazy, several times i can't answer phone calls because the screen is freeze. Please tell me what can i do to fix this. 

[zipper71]

I got the phone back a couple of days ago. It looks like they replaced the whole screen module. The touch screen now works perfectly.

I also mentioned how bad the GPS was at obtaining and holding a fix. The repair notes don't mention the GPS at all but it is far better than it was. It gets a fix much faster and shows a much stronger signal strength is being received.

[froschy]

Glad to hear that the hardware fix has resolved this problem.

[my_immortal]

Well, being a girl and all, I tend to want to keep my phone crystal clean.

So I use a screen protector and I sometimes wipe the screen with a piece of cloth to keep it clear.

BUT this one time, I wiped it a little too much and the screen became totally unresponsive.

I didn't know what to do, I restarted the phone a thousand times, I removed the battery and let it out for hours, then re-inserted it, but still nothing.

So, it dawned on me: I removed the screen protector and everything went back to normal.

I think it has to do with static or something, so maybe that is the case for some of the users facing this problem.

[eltopo]

Here you have my experience.

Having N97 since its very release, it worked fine till last week.

10 days ago I updated to 2.1 FW. The phone was better than ever. But about a week later or so, the screen started to fail. Nothing strange happened before the problems started: I usually carry the phone in my front trousers pocket, inside a little pouch to avoid scratches, and have no trouble until then.

Mainly the problem was around the right bottom corner. But from time to time affected all the bottom portion, the center and even the whole screen was frozen. Sometimes the phone interpreted that I touched in a different place than the actual one, or in several places (like in a wiping movement) instead of a single touch... I tried everything. One night I left the battery out and next morning all was fine... For about 20 minutes; then the problems reappeared.

Yesterday I was giving out and preparing the phone (and myself...) to send it to a repair center, when I gave it a last opportunity. I peel off almost completely the cheap screen protector (bought via eBay), as I did several times before, and nothing happened: the screen still was irresponsive. But when I put the protector down again, some dust particles was trapped between it and the screen. So I took an old dust cloth (from my not longer used Palm III) and wiped the very screen, and... voilà! All is magically resolved (except the dust particles that remains there... I have to change the screen protector now, and happy about it!). I did not even wiped all the screen, or too meticulously. It's very strange, but passed 24 hours and no bad news yet...

I think on two possible explanations: some kind of static (the cloth is anti-static or something like that) or humidity condensation (we are suffering very hot days here), maybe related with the proximity sensor (that is covered by the screen protector).

So, try to clean your screens and let me (us) know what's happened...

[sajjid]

well i dont think nokia gives a damn about this fault as i had the same issue and sent the phone in for repairs three times and every time i told them what the problem is and i have already done the hard reset and reinstalled the firmware by updating.

All three times phone came back with same as it went all they did was reinstalled the software now i am so fedup i just dont wanna send it again i really dont have time.

i went out and bought a sony ericsson but i guess another cutomer lost for nokia.

[babsoginni]

I guess it's just 'too grave' an issue for Nokia. However, changinig my touchscreen resolved the problem for me.

There should even be just an acknowledgment of the issue and a proferred solution from Nokia, that's what's called Customer Service. Still love Nokia but not sure I'll buy another one.

[St3ph3n]

fail hardware =)

[Lukasch]

@eltopo - I observe the same problems with touch screen. Right down corner become unresponsive after few days from V21 firmware reinstallation. Browsing web I click in the middle of the screen and the link at the top is opened! It's so annoying!

With earlier version of firmware I haven't notice that issues. I'm living in the area of quite cold weather and dry air, touchscreen is clean etc. I thin it's firmware issue...

My temp. solution is to reinstall firmware every few days.

/lukasz

[coopere]

here is my two cents. remember when clamshell or flip phones had this problem of screens going blank (not too sure if problem still exists) the flex cable was the problem. they use to break. i noticed that the n97 has three flex cables. a big one leading to the main screen and two smaller ones lying underneath. this could very well be the problem. i have not come across any phones of similar sliding mechanism eg the n900 with these cables.

[AQUA_CH]

Okay so I finally got my phone back after a month of repair...Everything is fixed but the sad part is, I'm having the same touch screen problem that everyone else has. I turned my phone in to the Nokia Care Center regarding to touch screen issues & I get it back with different touch screen issues (the first time it was completely unresponsive unless I actually take the battery out) I was thinking if it was my screen protector affecting the touchscreen (like some people have mentioned) but then the actual buttons sometimes don't work either...& now I'm debating if I should get it sent back in to get it fixed or just live with this issue...It gets really annoying though...I haven't even had this phone for a month yet & I already encountered problems. The Nokia Care Center had it longer than I ever had it!

[jrff]

Hi guys!

I´d been using the N97 NAM version since july/09. Using many free applications from OVI and Getjar and things were ok till a couple of months. From time to time I had error flags, some crashings, irresponsive touchscreen and even qwerty keyboard problems.

So I spent some time reading in N97 forums and decide to install the latest firmware. i did a backup and installed the newest software. There were some noticeable improvements in scrolling, response, etc. But after few weeks the touscreen turned less responsive, or nothing responsive at all, till the point to decide to hard reset the device.

Some bugs were fix (red flags, creashing, etc) but problems with the touchscreen were still there. I decided to do most of the thing here suggested like format massive memory format, reinstalling firmware, loading only contacs from my backup, the SIM removal for turning on/off the phone, the USB connect-disconnect during this process and so on. In some cases the touchscreen seemed to improve, but did´n last long, so I was almost decided to change the device (hating all related with nokia brand).  

I started to believe it was a  hardware problem (touch screen) but I bought the NAM device (made in China) through a Internet Distributor in México (sorry for my english)  so sending the N97 to the Nokia Service or Care Center (not available in Mx) was not an option. The problem remained with device working almost normally during small periods of time and after that, times where was almost unusable.

I must say that during the times were the phone worked as it´s supposed to do it, the experience was great. Phone working fast, without any problems with scrolling an selecting areas of the touchscreen, but after a while...again the problem. 

Then I read about the theory of the hand heating the device during 1-2 minuts, the peel off of the plastic cover, the pressing on two points of the screen at the same time in certain pattern to get a better response, etc.

I had nothing to lose, so when the phone was not responding (touchscreen) I put my hand for about 2 minutes on the screen (no pressing to much) and I noticed an almost inmediate improvement in responsiveness. I also read the static and environmental humidity theory so I went to heat the device with a hair dryier during 2 or 3 minuts.

I know it´s been a short time since the described heating, but the phone right now works well, the erratic scrolling is not present and I´m starting to see light at the end of the tunnel...

So now I believe that could be a problem with humidity in the touscreen. Obviously, if this is the case, the replacement of the touscscreen would solve the problem.

I would suggest to the people with the same problem:

1) Make a backup of your information 

2) To format the massive memory

3) To reinstall latest firmware

4) Reload your data and important information (all this to fix any previous bug) and after this

5) Try heating the device aiming to eliminate moisture or humidity (I even remove battery and apply soft heating inside the device for a couple on minuts). 

6) If you have a better response from the touch screen, reload your usual applications.

7) If not, send the device to the Nokia Service Center for repair.

Hope this could be helpfull for people with the same problems.

Regards!

[Ninetou]

Hey,

I'm having exact the same problem which my N97's screen. It is constantly selecting some place on the screen and shows as it is pressed all the time, when it happens none of buttons respond.

This is make me shame when I have to take my mobile out of my pocket near my friends and being frustrated that it is not working as it should. The worst thing is that I'm securing my mobile with code and when It happens I can't type it.

I tried the solution with locking/unlocking it multiple times but after few of them phone is getting mad and it frozes constantly vibrating.

Do you think that Nokia will take care of it when it is on warranty? I got few scraches on back of phone, will it affect their decision in any way?

Cheers

[benbird7]

Wrote a whole thing out here, about my handset, thought oh I'll try the spell check, didn't work, got an error and lost the whole lot. Their website is about as much f%^&ing good as their fu&k1ng phones! **bleep**!

In essence I was saying I had developed same fault, but after being left on my bedside cabinet over nite, it doesn't respond when the alarm goes off leaving me with louder and louder music I cant snooze, I did make a joke at this point stating perhaps this is a new innovative way of nokia making sure you wake up, but really we all know the biggest joke is nokia, their phones and this annoying website.

NOKIA DON'T PUT SPELL CHECKS ON FORUMS THAT DON'T SAVE PREVIOUS PAGE DATA IF IT CAUSES AN ERROR.

My phone has already been back twice the the repair centre both for camera issues, the repair centre for me is 25miles away, so have had to do 100miles round trip just for this issues. The phone would of been better without a camera cover, like the mini.

So I am loathed to have to go their again to get the front screen replaced, I am going to try reinstalling the firmware later on and see how I get on, but if the problem continues it will be going back.

Nokia as per a number of other manufacturers announce a phone release and release it whether it is ready or not, thinking about the £ rather than the poor end user who has to get around these problems.

Mr Average Joe wouldn't mind so much, but I like things to do what they are designed too and so far scratches on the camera lense after a month and now the touch screen not working takes the **bleep** as far as I'm concerned on a £500 "flagship" model.