yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[HTC Sensation] VisedMonk:
Hi all. Just wanted to report what appears to have solved by touchscreen problem/issue:

On Monday, I factory reset my S4G and wiped/factory reset the S4G from recovery as well. Before I re-flashed stock TMOUS 1.45, I placed tin foil as suggested by the OP and others in this thread. Pain in the ass, but so far, so good. The touchscreen issue/problem seems to have resolved and my screen is uber sensitive. It unlocks on the first attempt, scrolls smoothly between screens, scrolls smoothly in the app drawer, and the carousel-effect even works. Hopefully the problem does not come back.

Also, thanks to the OP and others in the xda community who have spent lots of time isolating the problem and working on fixes for it. I appreciate all your hard and time-consuming work. Cheers!
[HTC Sensation] nugzo:
Did you fo the OTA or is there s ruu somewhere?
[HTC Sensation] VisedMonk:
Here is the link to the stock odexed and de-odexed TMO_US_1.45.531.1 TMO_US OTA base (Android 2.3.4), It is pre-rooted and contains busybox and unsecure boot.img.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1226085

Flashing that file won't update your radio. The link to the latest radio and instructions on flashing are here. You'll have to scroll down a bit, and make sure you grab the 10.56.9035.00U_10.14.9035.01 radio.

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1178143
[HTC Sensation] undercover:
It grounds the phone, but not you. If your carpet is synthetic then I guess you get charged with a lot of static.
[HTC Sensation] zmfl:
Have you tried other fixes in this thread? Not touching the phone while on charge for example? Do you use a body cover on the phone?

It could be that you have an additional issue with the phone... Or you are filled with static, as tinky1 suggested :D

Either way you could simply try swapping it for a new one :\
[HTC Sensation] Tomekks:
This actually helps me. Thanks!
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
Yeah, I tried everything in every post, but this evening my camera started acting up with coloured banding and artifacts again. Shortly after the home screen started going the same way before finally I lost all of the picture except for a strip accross the middle about 1cm tall.

I'll be sending the phone back to Amazon tomorrow, but in the meantime I spotted this thread. Not sure if it'll help anyone, but you might want to take a look: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1184247
[HTC Sensation] zmfl:
So it definitely had another issue... Sorry to hear that. Hope the new one has no problems, or at least, no unfixable ones :)
[HTC Sensation] CzarDestructo:
I took my battery cover off for the first time since owning the phone last night to hard-reset. Put it back on, charged it, went to bed. This morning at some point the touch screen started suffering from the exact same issues noted in this thread.

Speaking from my background in electrical engineering, I'm not sure I entirely agree with the hypothesis stated in this thread. It's a battery powered device so there really isn't a such thing as 'ground'. Also, from a design standpoint, why would the ground contact for the touchscreen, which is on the FRONT of the device, have to go all the way through to the battery cover then back to the battery. It doesn't make any sense to randomly loop a 'ground' connection. It should be as direct and dependable as possible.

Charging via USB or AC plug shouldn't make a difference either accept that USB won't charge as fast and maybe the laptop/PC power is of a higher quality supply. They're both DC floating potentials, just slightly different sources. Nor should charging on a wood table vs a metal surface. The back of the phone is plastic and from what I can gather anodized aluminum. Anodizing is an electrical insulator.

What I can agree with is this is almost certainly related to the back cover, but what specifically about the back cover is the mystery. I'll have to ponder this a bit more but this is REALLY frustrating as this is my second phone with a spring contact issue, first one being the Galaxy S with poor GPS signal.

edit:

I just took the battery cover off and tested it. If you take the cover off and hold it upright looking at the inside, the bottom two contacts are for all intensive purposes shorted. I assume this is the cellular antenna and the second contact is for redundancy since its so important. The other three contacts I have to assume are for bluetooth, Wifi and GPS. I might put electrical tape on them and test them later to verify, currently letting my phone sit with the battery out to see if it helps.
[HTC Sensation] undercover:
No need to test. Pins on the upper part are for WiFi and Bluetooth, bottom is for network antenna. Silver pin goes to the aluminum part of back cover.
[HTC Sensation] hautbois:
thanks. not a problem
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
Out of interest, are there many people out there who have returned a phone because of a touchscreen problem, and who have been perfectly happy with their replacement for an extended period of time?
[HTC Sensation] nugzo:
nobody that i know of. on my 6th sensation. :(
[HTC Sensation] nugzo:
following your replies. Nice to have someone with an EE background to help with this. What has worked flawless for me is changing batteries every time i needed instead of charging. Never had an issue after that that wasn't on purpose, to test theories in this thread. Always cleared up with overnight battery pull. Maybe constantly removing the cover to change battery has something to do with it? I know for a fact that if i charge this on any charger and mess with it while charging (sometimes not mess with it) the problem will come back.
[HTC Sensation] daheufster:
Question, are you saying that the death touchscreen problem could be related to the pin(s) on the back which makes contact with the batterycover?. Having simular problems, only with a hd2, after repair. A hd2 has 2 simular pins which might needs to contact the batterycover aswell, but one is 'bent' so it can't touch the cover..... This might be interesting...
[HTC Sensation] gregman26:
I post my test:

With Custom rom, i have the problem on touchscreen, unlock it's impossible !

With Rom stock and Recovery 5.0.1.0, i have this problem !!

But with stock rom from RUU 1.45.402.1, without recovery, i haven't the problem on touchscreen !

Unlock is more easy !!

the recovery is the origin for the touchscreen lag !!!!????
[HTC Sensation] maschenazi:
Same experience here, but I'm all stock, no S-off, root or anything else. After flashing 1.45 RUU, I got back to stock Sensation charger, been playing with the phone while charging every day, but I can't get the problem to reappear. After almost two weeks with a perfect phone I guess I can safely say that my problem is now gone. :D

PS: At least in my case, no grounding issue but software problem. I always had the phone in a case (TPU and recently Kutoo DuoColour Case) with screen protector (Zagg) and my phone always charges sitting on a wooden table.
[HTC Sensation] Caspertje19:
What worked for me:

Send it back to HTC.

The repaired the phone, they did replace a part, don't know what part, because that was not specified by the reparation, it only mentioned that a part has been replaced.

Before the reparation it took about 3 or 4 days before the issues started to appear. It's now 8 days ago I received the repaired phone and is functionally perfectly.

So everybody who has this issue, should get it repaired by HTC.

My status went from investigating to waiting for parts within 4 minutes, so it is very clear to me that they already knew about the problem and wich part to he replaced....
[HTC Sensation] Curious!:
I am repeatingly getting static electric discharge from the back cover to my hand while it is charging via USB or AC adapter. There is definitely a significant problem. It might be an unwanted place (metal plates, metal/dielectric parts, weak contacts etc.) acting like a capacitor or a current leakage in some part of the device.

Of course, I have unresponsive touchscreen issue, too.
[HTC Sensation] abrown0809:
Aww, I was afraid another EE guy would come to debunk my theory. I also had the Galaxy S vibrant, did you do the hardware fix on it too? I agree, very frustrating, I got rid of the vibrant because of the broken GPS, then the sensation has a whole new problem of its own. You just can't win.

If the silver contact isn't meant to ground the phone, then what is its purpose and why does lifting it or putting foil there improve the situation for some people? Since I've kept foil there my phone hasn't given my problems since.
[HTC Sensation] Curious!:
Has anyone patched the kernel to report touchscreen IRQ status or the position of the touches in order to understand whether the kernel registers the touches or not. We need to be sure...
[HTC Sensation] WarlockW:
Ok Weird ..

So .. I have had a few screen problems ..

I solved 99% of it with the aluminum foil trick ..

However yesterday was cleaning out my drawer and found

the stock HTC plug-in charger .. Well I needed to charge fast

was leaving in a few .. so i used it ..

Well Guess what ? Right after charging with the HTC Charger

I couldn't un-lock the screen!

I have been charging it with the computer usb and not had this problem

since i used the "fix" ..

So it seems the HTC Stock charger DOES Make the screen unresponsive!
[HTC Sensation] undercover:
So, even with the foil stock charger still messed it up for you?

I haven't seen anyone report back with positive results, iirc.

With due respect to your EE background, it looks that you don't know exactly how touch screen works. i'll try to find a link for you.
[HTC Sensation] WarlockW:
yea .. right after charging it with the stock HTC charger ..

Screen problems Came Back with all its glory!

And Yes Still have the foil in place like always :(
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
I find this post quite interesting. I guess that most people are hitting this problem within a few days of purchasing the phone and are opting to send their phone back for exchange/refund rather than for repair after such a short time.

The first and only time I've ever sent a phone for repair was my HTC Desire HD a couple of weeks or so ago. When I spoke to HTC though, they were VERY specific about not sending any accessories whatsoever. They told me to remove the battery, remove the battery cover as well as the cover for the SIM card compartment etc. They wanted absolutely nothing but the main body of the phone. Were HTC as specific as that when you sent your sensation to them? Did they specifically request that you include anything perhaps?
[HTC Sensation] Caspertje19:
I only had to send the body, but because I followed this thread, I also send my back cover to them....I think(but this is just speculating, because I'm not 100% sure) they replaced the lcd, because I had one bright dead pixel and now it is gone....but I am not absolute sure, because it is not specified on the repair ticket, just showing that a part is replaced. The back cover is absolute the same, made a picture of it before I send it back to them.

First time I send it in by the retailer, got it back, with no reparation done, because they did not find the problem. At this point, it would be a DOA(death on arrival)

After a week, the problem came back. This time i contacted HTC directly. Unfortunately, the DOA period was expired, so they booked it in as a repair. I specified the problem very specific(removing battery helped, hard reset did not helped). Sending it back to HTC in the Netherlands directly, it came into another repairing company than by the retailer.

The rest of the story is in my previous post, within 4 minutes the status changed to:waiting for parts)

Now after 1.5 weeks my Sensation still works flawless.

I really think people should stop finding the problem, because if it is not gone after a hard reset(in my case), it's a faulty device wich HTC has to repair.
[HTC Sensation] jabbawalkee:
So, I'm on my SECOND Sensation and still have the unresponsiveness issues. I noticed the unresponsiveness issues within 2-3 days of purchasing the phone (returned my first one hoping the second would be better, but nope). I've also tried the tinfoil fix but that didn't do anything. I will try pulling the pin out and, if that fails, then I'll give the other possible OP fix a go.

This is by far the most frustrating issue I've ever run into...ugh!

Oh and my Evo 3D FLIES and is BUTTERY smooth in comparison to the Sensation (because the device is unresponsive to quick touches/swipes/presses).
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
Well, I'm really pleased that you phone is working for you now - that's the most important thing!

When I returned my Sensation to Amazon a few days ago, I accidentally chose the 'refund' option instead of 'replacement', therefore I have to place a new order with them to get a replacement phone. I tried to do that today, but Amazon (DE) have temporarily stopped selling the device with the notice "People have informed us that the item they received doesn't match the item description. We hope to have a solution soon". I can't say that I saw anything wrong with the description, but I did see that Amazon.de had 29 returned Sensations for sale via Amazon Warehouse Deals earlier today. Something must have been wrong somewhere to have so many returned phones for sale!
[HTC Sensation] CzarDestructo:
Despite the fact I think I have a decent grasp on the technology I'd be happy to be proven wrong. I enjoy learning new things!

I've been pondering a bit this weekend while sitting by the campfire and I've got some thoughts. While I don't necessarily understand why they decided to ground the aluminum backing of the phone, I can certainly speculate. First thing that comes to mind is they're worried about ESD jumping from the aluminum to fragile components on the back of the phone. This seems like overkill though since the aluminum is anodized and isn't a fantastic conductor to begin with. Furthermore the SIM and SDcard are caged in a grounded chassis to protect them. There is also the possibility they're worried about the relative permittivity of the aluminum interacting with the fringe of the touch screen and causing false readings. This also seems unlikely as the order of magnititude different of the premittivity of aluminum relative to human skin is huge, there is also a fairly sufficient gap. Maybe they needed the aluminum to act as an EMI shield to past regulatory testing. Who knows?!

Whatever their reasoning I'm under the impression that they choose a poor contact setup (i.e. the square exposed piece of aluminum and tinned spring contact) and the capacitive build up in the aluminum (already discussed at length in this thread) is having the opposite affect than what they anticipated. Now whether this phantom charge build up is from static, the higher than battery (3.7V) potential from the charger (5V) or random acts of god is a mystery. Since trying to make a poor design work is difficult without physical modification I'm choosing the easy road, I put a piece of electrical tape over the contact and I'm going to see how that goes.

Now I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. My reasoning is I feel sufficiently comfortable with the variables on the table to take the risk. Also I've only had the phone for a week so if it breaks I'll just return it and ***** :)

I've had it installed for a few hours and it works great so far, I'll keep you all posted.
[HTC Sensation] undercover:
Nice. So you are trying to isolate back cover from the phone. Worth a try,but so far opposite has worked for people. Also, I believe that if it is static, its building up NOT in the cover but in some part of the phone body. If it was in the back plate, removing it or touching silver pin should fix issues IMMEDIATELY. Still looking for the link. ;) Appreciate your input, quite interesting thoughts.
[HTC Sensation] undercover:
http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=914609

Interesting read
[HTC Sensation] usual_suspect:
Just a thought...

Has anyone developed this problem with one of the Bigger Anker batteries, who didnt have the problem before?

I'm thinking with the battery being slightly thicker and the contact problem on the back case, ....maybe it will make that problem worse, by making it out of line slightly? ...Or maybe I'm thinking too much :D
[HTC Sensation] JanitorNed:
XDA Noob here, registered specifically to add to this discussion.

I'm in Canada and have a Sensation with Bell, sadly we do not seem to have as current firmware as the T-Mobile service (mine only has Android 2.3.3 rather than 2.3.4 and does not find a new version when I prompt it to check, stating that my phone is up to date)

For the first month my phone was just fine until one day I dropped it while outside. From a waist height fall onto pavement my front digitizer shattered, however the touch screen function was unchanged.

Unwilling to shell out the $150 HTC was expecting me to pay, rather than just being understanding that people make mistakes, I decided to buy the part needed and replace it myself.

After getting the new digitizer in (which was a very annoying process) I have had this exact same lock screen issue as the rest of you. I assumed I caused it from dismantling the phone, but the testimonies in this thread have me thinking otherwise.

So to describe my issue exactly my lock screen struggles to open and can take me anywhere from 2-10 attempts. Once open there's a period of time where the screen remains completely unresponsive or registers swipes as taps. I've found that spamming my thumb across the four menu buttons seems to "warm it up" but this is obviously no fix.

So far I've tried the tin foil trick as mentioned in the thread by I haven't seen any improvement at all. I'll be trying the discharge/full charge trick next.

There's been a few mentions of flashing this and that, resulting in better batter life and such. How does one do this?

I appreciate this thread VERY much and apologize for this long explanation, but I wanted to be thorough.

Any reason why the tin foil might not be working for me? Am I doing it wrong?

It's been beyond frustrating to have a brand new phone cause me so much grief :(
[HTC Sensation] abrown0809:
Very interesting indeed. Could it be that the HTC sensation is more prone to having a bad reaction from the things mentioned in that thread?
[HTC Sensation] k.aalai:
To save you reading 120 pages :

The main issue is that NO ONE knows with %100 certainty the cause of the problem, and therefore how to solve it.

HTC arent much help either.

General concensus and practical observation seem to point out to an earthing issue, which seems to be compounded by the stock charger, with bit of software (ROM) variance thrown in for good meausre.

So adding all the unknowns (uncertains) together, its a mess!

If its any hope to you, mine sorted itself out after 10 days or so, using my desire chargers, so there might be light at the end of the tunnel.
[HTC Sensation] Caspertje19:
Not true, if you read the last few pages, you would know I send mine back to HTC for repair for the touch screen issues, the replaced a part(don't know what part, it is not mentioned, just a part).

My phone is perfectly working for two weeks now.

So HTC does know how to repair(at least in the Netherlands)
[HTC Sensation] undercover:
Could you email HTC with your ticket number and ask them what part has been changed please?

Again, no problems with mine for a long time. Last time I had it was when i s-oddest as I was messing with it while connected via usb. After it cleared, I cannot reproduce problem, no matter how hard I try.
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
Just wanted to let you know...

I now know someone else that has sent his sensation to HTC for repair after getting fed up of exchanging his phone. Apparently he has had no trouble whatsoever in the 10 days since getting it back.

I wonder if HTC have a modification for the phone and that they're hoping for all the problematic units to filter back to them? Either way, it sounds like a hardware issue to me at this point.

Craig.
[HTC Sensation] CzarDestructo:
No dice on covering the contact. I must admit it's a significant improvement but it started acting up late last night when the battery was getting low. It only happened twice.

What I did notice though is if you squeeze the phone by pressing your thumbs into the LCD while supporting the back the problem goes away immediately.

This is really irritating but I love the phone...
[HTC Sensation] CzarDestructo:
Question, HTC makes you give up your phone while getting it repairs? That seems odd. They don't send you a new one and you swap the bodies and send the old one back? How long did you have to wait?
[HTC Sensation] Caspertje19:
Read a few pages back, all your answers are there in a previous post of me. Already mentioned it two or three times, won't repeat it again
[HTC Sensation] CzarDestructo:
You mentioned you shipped the phone and back plate back, I'm forced to assume this was before they sent you a replacement implying you had to give up your phone without a replacement? No time lines on how long this process took are in your posts, just how long it took for the problem to show up and how long you've had the new phone problem free.

Considering your sparkling personality I feel as though I'd have better luck just contacting HTC myself...
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
From my own experience, yes. You send the phone to them, they repair it and send it back fixed (hopefully). They don't give you a replacement in advance, so you're stuck without a phone for a few days I'm afraid.

I know that companies like apple do offer such a service, but it's not free. They also insist on reserving the whole value of the phone on your card/account in advance - just in case they don't get one of the phones back from you.

Craig.
[HTC Sensation] Caspertje19:
You don't get a replacement.

I think the timeline is different for each country, they said two or three weeks, it lasted five weeks.

Don't see why I am that sparkling, I just think some users of this forum should do more research, if you click on my username, you can go and watch every single post I did in this thread, wich will give you a timeline.

But I still think you can not compare reparations in different country's, because It's all done by different company's
[HTC Sensation] craigspc:
Sent a message to HTC asking if they had any news on a fix. They claim to have no knowledge of it. This is a copy/paste of their reply:

"Thank you for contacting HTC regarding your feedback.

HTC is not aware of this being a known issue.

HTC is a forward thinking company and appreciates any feedback received from its customers; your comments have been passed to the appropriate department for consideration.

Should you have any further feedback, please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Thank you for contacting HTC Support"
[HTC Sensation] guitargod:
I have sent mine back too. That was a week ago. I don't know how long it will take. :-(

I tried to find out, where my phone is now and what's gone happen, but the support doesn't know...it's maybe somewhere in Czech for repair (i am from Austria and have sent it to mobiletouch AG in Vienna), that's all i know.

After I filled out some very bad formulas about the support, i got 3 calls from the support. A very friendly woman told me, they don't know anything about an touchscreen-related issue. Also the support-people with whom I've chatted before (must be 3 different people) don't know anything about a problem with the touchscreen. She said she will report everything to her bosses. She also said, that HTC is reading in Forums and on Facebook and so on.

Well, whatever they do...they don't want to admit that something is terribly wrong with the sensation.

I have the feeling that I will get mine returned without being repaired. That's what most of people in forums report. I will send it to them again and again, until it will work or until I get an other phone. That's my (our) only chance. Very sad :-(
[HTC Sensation] CzarDestructo:
5 weeks is absolutely ridiculous, I better return the phone before my time expires...