yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] player911:
Sweet. I'm doing this asap. I absolutely love my Nexus 7 but the touchscreen just drives me crazy. Terraria is my favorite game and controls are just insane. I get multiple inputs often. Character is running all over the place, turned the wrong way. I tried to play a FPS a few days ago and that was a complete joke. I've done the touchscreen firmware flashes and reseating the cable connections and both help alot but still doesn't stop the frequent spaz fits.

So you did both steps; added silver trace to the backplate and wrapped the cable in foil...?

I'm assuming the silver trace didn't work since you continued working on it. Do you recommend doing the silver trace or just the foil wrap?

A video would be interesting to just show what connects to what. Video is also easier to make out what is what.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
edit: removed this one too. It seems that there is not any demand for mods like this.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] greeg32:
Just wanted to report that I placed a 2×3 strip of twice folded tinfoil underneath the two cables running down the back inside my nexus. I made sure the left and right edges of the foil were touching the metal bracket before I put the back cover back on. My issues with a dead screen have disappeared. It had been happening more and more over the past 2 months, maybe 10-12 times a day. I was close to getting a new device. Glad I didn't!
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] _delice_doluca_:
But why? Should sharing something be in a racing with other threads? Helping even one person should be good enough.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
I´m glad the shielding did the trick for you ;)

I removed the posts because the Mods require you to not only open the device ( which is easy and can be done without leaving any traces if done the proper way ) but also perform changes which will leave marks behind and void your warranty for sure. If you are a older user who owns the device for 1-2 years ( and doesn´t care about voiding the warranty ), you might want to try them.

But I guess that most people here might be afraid in the end to modify the device like I did. XDA is a platform for software enthusiasts and I´m not sure if hardware-mods really fit here.

But if there really is a demand for fix which require you to do more than just eg. playing with ADB around and flashing other Touchscreen Firmware or simply open the device and pushing a connector ( while wearing gloves so you cannot leave any finger prints on the copper foils ;) ), I can reupload a short description ;)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] _delice_doluca_:
Well, a mod is a mod. Does not matter if software or hardware. A simple warning for warranty risks should be enough. It's not any more dangerous than installing Cyanogenmod or achieving S-off on HTC devices or bacing up DRM keys of our Sony, yet their inventors think giving you the warning on the OP is enough.

For the same angle, it's l logical that you advise people to use gloves, etc.. to hide any evidence of interacting with the device's inside so the warranty remains..

Besides, same rule as rooting still applies; if one is afraid or not know what to do clearly, then one should not do it.

People, like me, who lives in countries where the warranty is not honored properly because most of the tech companies has no honor at all, most likely would prefer a self-made solution rather than trusting the warranty companies -which is not the device maker company but a local one- and waiting for weeks.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] cLeAv0:
Was gonna about to check this out again and try it, but you removed it already :( Hope you will post the shorter guide.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] 220volt:
Please upload the guide again

Skickat från min HTC One_M8
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] _MetalHead_:
Why would you delete your posts?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] ogrewillz:
please re upload the fix
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] schneiderbecket:
I'm very interested in seeing the guide

I just found this today, so I haven't had a chance to see it yet, but the context from the later posts makes it sound very interesting
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] godutch:
but why remove it?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] ipauls:
where is fix?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Snoob25:
Low demand? What kind reason is that?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] rluque35:
can you post a picture? thanks.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] cozkramer:
I agree, its irrelevant how popular any mod is, if it helps even one person it's worth posting!

So, please repost everything! :good:

If your afraid of backlash, just stick the standard, at your own risk, disclaimer on it... Anyone on here should be smart enough to realize, if they screw it up its on them for playing in a bigger sandbox than they should be in. :p
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] greeg32:
Here's the shielding that worked for me. Just like it looks, moth else to it. Been working for a week or so now with no trouble.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] _delice_doluca_:
I didn't get that? Are we isolating something from something? Or is it just for magnetic field?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] greeg32:
I don't know, I just did roughly what the op used to call "shielding" and its working [emoji1]
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] rluque35:
thanks for the pic, i have done as you did, and it has improved a lot, i also have flashed ts09-lock.img which is the best for my setup.

it might not work for everyone, for me it did improve responsiveness, i guess it does not hurt to try.

again thanks a lot for the picture showing your mod.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Hello guys,

I have some personal issues right now and didn´t really have any time to focus on XDA and our beloved Android hobby. I have a lot of stress right now and also have to compensate for a lost relationship, this is why I can barely focus right now.

I will recreate the description and edit the first post again but please be patient.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] cujo6801:
Hey don't worry about Android life comes first bro....

Sent from the "DOG" pound
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] kicsrules:
thnx for the pic, will try it tonight.... i was thinking something like this would be necesarry but i didnt know where to start ... thnx again
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] kicsrules:
i did the foil mod, it worked... not 100% but it worked, i'd say around 98%-99%

also fixed something else ... heres what i had

1.-ghost touches where there almost 90% of the time, with this mod i've not seen any ghost touches.. BUT when i connect the tablet to the laptop via usb it goes crazy, ghost touches 100$ of the time (i have enabled "show touches" via developers options )

2.- this is quite weird, the tablet improved visual performance with the foil mod, before i applied this mod, it showed slow animations in the UI, as if the video driver/chip was underpowered+video freezing/stuttering (when playing videos) now it works normal, by normal i mean that it doesnt stutter, animations are smooth and touches are in the correct place, and that 1% error is that sometimes i have to reboot the tablet since it doesnt respond to waking up from stand by..

thnx for the mod.... oh and i forgot i dont remember which ts-lock i have
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] greeg32:
I unlocked ts, and it was fine. I think a44 is the newest?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] graphdarnell:
Do you recollect what the OP said to be done with "silver tracing"? Where should that silver tracing be (on the back cover), and connecting what? Thank you.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
I´ve created a shorter description again, for those who still want to get rid of their warranty too ;) Happy Modding

OP edited, the other posts might be used later for some additional information.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Batavian:
Thanks Gorgtech. Very thorough and detailed instructions.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Trevomader:
Sorry to bother you Gorgtech, but would you know a way to unbrick this: http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=54554265&postcount=30

And i did something like this with my SM-T520, shielded the cables with aluminium since i seem to be cursed and get defective touchscreens on my tablets.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Can you still access your Tablet through ADB ? Did you try to flash a full factory image again ?

Also make sure when shielding a cable that the shield itself really has a ground connection and also make sure that you don´t touch other parts of the PCB with the Aluminum or you might risk a short circuit. This is where adhesive tape can help you out to add some extra insulation and also make sure to keep the shielded cable in position.

Shielding a cable is not a must if your device already works fine but for poorly designed ( and cheap ) devices like a Nexus 7 ( 2013 ), it can help a lot since we´re dealing with a bad and super sensitive Elantech Digitizer :D
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Just out of curiosity, how many guys did apply my Mods and how did they work out for you ? :D
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] webeougher:
I tried the updated one, putting a piece of cardstock beneath the cable and then wrapping it with aluminum foil, but it's actually made my touchscreen significantly less responsive. Any suggestions?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Are you sure that you wrapped the Aluminum foil like I showed you in my pictures ? Did you attach the Touchscreen connector properly ? If the connector is lose, even slightly, the Touchscreen will go mad.

Did you make sure that the Aluminum foil touches the open copper spots of the cable or at least has a contact with the metal frame around the battery ? ( also connected to ground ). Did you also fix the wrapped cable with adhesive tape to make sure that it won´t move and will retain its electrical connections ?

Most important, did you EVER play around with a custom Touchscreen Firmware ? I never touched my device and still use the Firmware Google offers me with each Android update..
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] bmatney:
I did the mod and i have noticed a significant difference.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] webeougher:
Just pulled it back apart and the connector is seated properly and secure, to the point that I had to use a spudger to pop it loose, so I don't think that's the problem.

I followed your instructions exactly, but as I look at the tablet now, the foil is only touching the battery frame on the top side, but yes, I did secure it with strong tape to ensure that it cannot move. I will pull the tape up and re-wrap with foil to touch both sides of the battery frame and report back.

I did test out the modified touchscreen firmwares from another thread here in this forum. If re-wrapping the foil doesn't work, I'll go back to the stock firmware and see if that works. At this point, just re-wrapping the foil is probably going to take less time, so I'll start there. Thanks for the fix, the quick reply, and for being so willing to troubleshoot.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] airmaxx23:
I just wanted to say thank you for this mod. I've had a 2013 N7 since release and have always had grounding/touch screen issues where if I'm not holding the device in my hand the touch screen refuses to work. After doing this mod (somewhat differently) I no longer have any issues.

I used one big, thick piece of aluminum foil under the ribbon cable and another narrow thick piece on top of the cable held down with some Scotch Tape.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] rluque35:
I did the mod and the difference is spectacular, thanks Gorgtech i can finallu use the table again.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] RedGoblinz:
I did this mod on my N7, just like the OP, works great.

One question though, what will happen to wireless charging?

I know it will still work but will the foil gain charge and cause spark or heat up?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Wireless charging will still work and nothing will happen to the foil ;) It is regarded as a extention of the device ground, nothing to induce a voltage into ;)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] KSTwitch:
This mod rocks!! Thank you! Thank you!

I was skeptical at first. But this worked like a charm. Before, if I tried to use it while it was resting on the table it would not respond to any touches. I couldn't use my tablet unless I was holding it in my hand. Now it works like it was intended! Thanks Gorgtech.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] RedGoblinz:
I'm back again haha.

At first I thought this mod fixed everything for me, which I think it did 98%, it works on my wooden table, tile floor and maybe even in my books.

But then I realised on my bed, the top portion of the N7 becomes unresponsive, (eg trying to press the battery icon in notification shade) .

I made sure I followed the instructions and everything is grounded, what else can I do to fix this?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Dulanic:
Thanks! So easy and fixed mine so far.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] pjmarkert:
I took some aluminum foil tape and cut a piece 3/4 inch wide and the length of the battery and stuck it down on top of that cable and it seems to have resolved my screen issues. I did not remove the flat cable. I think the capacitive coupling to the battery case was enough to shield it without a direct connection.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] squeeish:
Thanks OP for re-posting the guide.

You start to question Asus' QA and design process when simple aluminium foil solves this problem.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Batavian:
I did this and my nexus 7 2013 is working better now than the day I bought it. Flawless. I had no idea how bad the touch screen was prior to this fix. Thanks!
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] player911:
I haven't used my N7 2013 in some time because of the touchscreen annoyances. I am trying to do this method and running into a problem.

Every time I wrap the cable with foil, it doesn't want to boot. Take off the foil, and boots. So I just want to clarify a few things.

The GOAL here is to essentially use the foil to touch the "ground" metal slicks on the back of the cable, and give those some more contact with the battery and battery housing?

Also, does the back case need to be one before it will boot up?

UPDATE:

I don't know what the hell the problem is. I eventually did the "Sandwich" method while the unit was on. I didn't disconnect the cable at all. I just folded the foil into a couple pieces to form a square the size of the battery. I slid this "foil square" behind the touchscreen cable. It lays over top the other cable and the battery. All you can see is the square foil and the 1 touchscreen cable. Then I took another piece of foil and folded it several times until it was the size of the actual cable itself. I laid it over the cable, covering the grounding metal areas. Then I just taped the big square to the smaller cable foil.

I did everything while the tablet was on so I could test as I went.

I think the issue was just me. Perhaps with a connection problem on the cable. I couldn't get it to "boot" or "turn on", but I noticed that after a few minutes of trying, my PC was recognizing ADB and chirping from finding the new device. I could do ADB commands and it was responding. But the screen was fully off.

I kinda tugged at the bottom part of the cable and fiddled with the top when I got the display to come on, prior to me doing the above while it was on. I dunno.

I would recommend doing it this way so you don't have to disconnect anything and risk harming your tablet. Just simply slid foil behind the cable, and lay a piece on top and tape together.

I haven't tested to see if it makes anything better. I typically don't have problems in my office but I do at home in my house.

TouchScreen Update:

Seems to be more responsive. Still have some issues. I do have a custom firmware flashed which could be causing "issues". I played a First Person Shooter and was fairly accurate. 1 or both of the virtual thumb sticks would get caught or be non-responsive occasionally. Before it would get stuck pointing at the sky or the ground. I still couldn't make it out of round 1 but at least had a chance of survival. I also played about an hour of Terraria and it seemed fine. Before my left nav stick would get stuck and cause my character to walk in a direction until all buttons were released. No issues thus far. It still feels quirky but better.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] crazyjimbo:
THANK YOU so much for this tutorial... this helped solve the biggest problem I was having with my N7 and it's perfect now!
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
According to the posts, only a few people actually did the MODs :D I guess some people are still scared or are their devices too new ? My device was bought a few days after the release and would have lost its warranty in a few months anyway :p

Btw, still no problems and no more need to open the device again :angel:
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] player911:
After using for a few days, I still have frequent problems where parts of the touchscreen are unresponsive when only using it with 1 hand (with the tablet on a bed or couch arm).

I don't think there will ever be a "100%" fix.

In fact I gave up a few months ago and bought a LG G Pad 7" for $75. It has an IR blaster, GSM SIM, and MicroSD card slot... plus a SnapDragon 400, which is newer gen then the N7 2013. Threw CM12.1 on there and am happy.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
The G Pad is a nice device too but I didn´t want to miss out the Nexus experience :D In hindsight, some devices are better ( but also their prices are a lot more expensive ).

I´m still happy with my Nexus 7 ( 2013 ). It is usable now, no sticky keys, no ghost touches. One thing is for sure, I´ll never ever touch another Asus Tablet PC again...
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] blackhand1001:
Snapdragon 400 is slower than the nexus's SOC. In reality the nexus 7 has a snapdragon 600. Even the model number and type of ram are more similar to the 600 than the older s4 pro.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] player911:
No I know. Performance feels the same though. We'll see. I use both back and forth.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] avn128:
I used the sandwich method and it worked great for me. I made sure to touch the metal of the battery housing also.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Now the next question, would you ever buy another Nexus device built by Asus again ? I think I won´t and also skip computer components ( eg. mainboards ). I had to replace several broken Asus mainboards. Lower and cheaper brands like eg. Abit never ever showed any trouble at all :o
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] quickdraw86:
While to date I've had no issues with mine, the likelihood of eventual eMMC failure due to crappy Asus components has me looking elsewhere. They are well aware of the issue and cause, but will remain silent about it I'm sure. Best bet is just top take future business elsewhere.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] jinyung2:
Repair worked!

I had the ghost touch issue, using the yet another multitouch app on the paint test selection with my finger on one spot, the touch inputs would go nuts and input 1st and 2nd touch inputs very rapidly. after wrapping the touch screen ribbon cable with foil the problems have disappeared. I guess I'd have to wait a bit and test it out again to be sure but so far so great. Thanks Gorgtech!

One question, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to electronics (luckily your repair was easy enough for me to do it and the device was made easy enough for me to open it and fiddle around with it :p) could you explain why wrapping the cable in foil fixes this issue? what causes the problem and why does this solution fix the problem? I'm really curious to know.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
I´m glad the fix worked out for you too ;) Basically all the Aluminum foil does is to prevent interferences between the data sent through the cable and other parasitic frequencies but this is a simplified explanation.

Shielding a cable can ensure a reliable data transfer, have a look at this too : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shielded_cable

Without a shield you might experience transfer errors ( where eg. a low signal might be interpreted as a high signal and the other way round ).
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] jinyung2:
T~T I spoke too soon... the issue happened, it seems the frequency and duration of it has dropped very noticeably but it definitely skipped once. It worked fine for a good hour or so after I did it then the firmware update message came up and after doing the firmware update I tried out the multitouch test app and saw it bug out a bit. I thought maybe it was because I just installed new stuff so I went back to playing my game and then the skip happened.

I saw some stuff on the forum about t10 t20 t30? are those methods a potential fix too?

edit: also what is the reason for the piece of paper that goes underneath the ribbon cable? it said optional so I didn't do it but if it makes a difference i probably should do it.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
The extra piece of paper simply adds some extra insulation against the battery but the cable also gains a tighter fit. Did you make sure that the shield touches eg. the battery border and has a ground connection ?

Which OS do you have right now ? I would not play with the extra Firmware since all they do is to lower the sensivity of the Touchscreen and require a lot of "try and error".

I never changed my Firmware, I only accepted what I got from Google with every Android Update.

Did you also flash the latest Bootloader ?
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] pjmarkert:
Update: 3\4 inch piece of aluminum foil tape stuck down over that cable still working great, even with no electrical connection to the tape. Worked with 5.1 and now 5.1.1
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] jinyung2:
I read up on stuff about bootloader didn't really know nor want to try that so I didn't. doing some tests now I think the skipping I got after the foil method is actually fault of the stylus. its working really well right now with a rubber tip one but I guess the microfiber tip one had some issues. Also before the fix even finger presses would register phantom touches and random 2nd touches even though there was only 1 input being held but now all those issues are gone. seems like my stylus was to blame, and yes the foil was definitely touching the battery I wrapped it around like 6~7 times and I'm not sure what having a ground connection means...

and uh it just updated to 5.1.1
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Every electrical circuit has a "ground" ( also known to some as - or 0 Volt connection ) plane. In order for a shield to work, it needs to be connected to ground ( in this case if we have a look at the cable again, by touching the open spots and / or the metal frame around the battery ). :)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] pjmarkert:
Not necessarily, If the metal foil is close (ie, thickness of foil tape adhesive) it is capacitively coupled and in effect AC grounded. Mine just has a 3/4 inch wide strip of foil tape stuck down over the cable, just equal to the length of the battery and I have no more touch problems. I will post a pic next time I open the tablet.
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] jinyung2:
hmm I think I sorta get how you have yours set up, so instead of wrapping you just put the foil over the cable like a blanket and taped it onto the battery? and so far there haven't been any noticeable ghost touching issues! fix seems to be a success :)
[Nexus 7 (2013) General] Gorgtech:
Like I said before, the "open spots" on the Touchscreen cable are connected to ground, if you wrap the foil around the cable and even have the weakest contact possible ( but still touch at least one of the open spots ), the shield is grounded too.

It doesn´t matter if you hit one spot or more and if you have a extra connection through the battery border ( which is connected to ground too ).

If you don´t believe me, get yourself a multimeter and measure if you have a connection to ground when you measure from the Aluminum foil attached around the cable to any other ground spot on the PCB.

At least this is how I did it, I made sure that the ground connection remains by also fixing the shield with tape in order to prevent it from moving :D

My tablet is great, no ghost touches, no sticky keys or other glitches. I hope to not find another reason to open it again :good: