[Verizon Samsung Galaxy S III] DuoDSG:
4.3 "gremlins"- wifi/data drops on sleep, partial screen responsiveness, black screen

Background:

I went from rooted 4.1.2 (stock TW) to old&slow's 4.3 TW ML1 ROM just a little over two weeks ago (ROM thread found HERE).

-Full data wipe, cache, dalvik, etc

-Reinstalled all apps CLEANLY (didn't use any TiBu backups at all)

-No modem-related problems, etc (I'm still using the MF1 baseband version- I had no connectivity problems when I installed this custom ROM)

-Using Xposed framework (various modules: AndroidTunerFree, Disable Clear Default Diag, DisableBatteryFullAlert, Greenify, SamsungMultiple Widgets, and a few others that are app specific like Snapshare and Keepchat)

Very impressed with the ROM. I plan to keep it.

Problems (these only started happening this past week):

-Almost every time I unlock my phone (using a PIN), it's just a black screen. Every time I have to hit the home button and then it brings me to my home screen. Is there a way to find out what is bringing up this black screen (surely it's an app? Right?)

-All wifi and 3G/4G data signals are dropped as soon as I turn my phone's screen off. I know this is a common problem reported with 4.3, but with the hours and hours of reading I've done, there doesn't seem to be a consensus about what causes it, or a solution.

***RELATED TO THIS MAY BE THAT I INSTALLED the "JellyBean 4.x Airplane Mode Helper 1.0" Xposed module. My phone started being stupid once that was installed. I disabled, uninstalled, reinstalled, etc but to no effect (I find no way to configure the module's behavior itself). And no, wifi-lock apps have had NO effect.

-It's happened semi-regularly that my phone will not register screen touches- on lockscreen, home screen, etc. Not even the capacitive touch buttons. Hardware buttons work, but there's no way for me to make screen selections. The ONLY thing I have found works is that I am for some reason still able to drag down the notification bar and play around with things through there, so I think it's related to NovaLauncher Prime. To that end, I enabled "Aggressive Desktop" in NLP, which has "solved" the problem...but I want to know if there was an underlying problem so I can just solve it once and for all.

-Waze voice guidance only speaks the last syllable of the directions it's giving me. Never had this problem with 4.1.2. I've read some places that it's related to 4.3 specifically--so it's Waze's problem to fix--but I might as well ask about this one too. It makes Waze navigation almost useless, and a safety issue as I drive (since I can't just use the voice- I'd have to look away from the road to look at my phone, which can get me a huge ticket here in Utah).

Some more info on the wifi/data drop issue:

-Telephony services do NOT drop, and all pushes DO go through (Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc) as if the data signal is present. But looking at my system's battery settings, it is obvious that data of any kind is on ONLY when the phone's screen is turned on. It's essentially acting like Mobile Data is turned off unless a push is received, which normally I wouldn't mind (since it means apps aren't using data on their own when my phone is off). Problem is, I don't want things like Skype (which I rely on for work) dropping just because my screen is off. Nor do I want to keep my screen on forever, to preserve battery life.

-I considered that it might be an issue with my router. So I assigned my router to reserve my phone's IP, and locked the IP my phone uses on my home network, so I don't get any of the "signal is unstable" problems. None of these had ANY effect, and it happens with all wifi access points I've used in the past with no problems.

Any and all insights on any of these three issues would be absolutely great.