ghost finger takes over my Ipad!

[Thom14940]

my Ipad 2 started having random "taps" like a "ghost finger" it does it all opens safari starts typing, changes settings, srinks and expands pages, you name it, it does it. I did find that when it opens a key pad I can type a "N" by passing my finger over the letter. it does not do it all the time. turning it off and on repeatedly will sometimes fix for awhile. I have removed all the apps., updated the os, reset the settings. at this point it seems like a hardware rather than software. any thoughts

 

[mrsterrijane]

i dont have a useful suggestion, but it sounds possesed to me. maybe you need an exorsist?

 

[twerppoet]

If you haven't, you should try a reset.

After that you are left with a restore, and if that does not fix it then you are right, it is probably hardware. Hopefully you are still under warrantee.



Restart: Hold down the power button until the power off slider appears. Slide it off. When the iPad finishes shutting down, hold down the power button again until the Apple logo appears.

and then a reset if that does not work.

Reset: Hold down the power and home buttons until the Apple logo appears. The iPad will reboot. This usually takes a bit longer than a restart.

 

[adam_chicago]

Make sure your screen is super-clean. I believe there are proximity sensors in addition to the magnets used by the smart cover that "wake up" the screen for touch input and can also glitch if left on..

 

[Thom14940]

update

sorry forgot to thank everone and update you. In case someone else has this problem. tried all your suggestions, no go, Is under warranty, back to the store I went.
Drove a little over an hour to store.(Closest that had one at the time.) the retailer was limited help, " We don't have a way to repair and you are passed our store policy for return/exchange time". The "Geck" (thats what they are called!) did direct me to "closest" apple store with a " genius bar", an additional 45 minutes! Now two hours from home, I had to make an appointment to talk to "a Genius", two hour wait. cruised the mall. finally got to see somone. Service was great! He had never seen an ipad do this before. Said it must be hardware, got me a new one, help to move my "stuff", reload and reset everything. Was on my way. From what I was told and over heard next to me it seems If you ever need repair out of warranty, it starts at 345 dollars no matter what apple product you have. Maybe others have found diff. but that was the price that day. My warranty did not start over either, I have 100 odd days left. Does that seem fair? maybe the industry standard. When I said something, It was suggested that I add the extended warranty. Sorry to bore you but maybe for anyone that needs repair someday my exp. will help.

 

[idave23]

sorry forgot to thank everone and update you. In case someone else has this problem. tried all your suggestions, no go, Is under warranty, back to the store I went.
Drove a little over an hour to store.(Closest that had one at the time.) the retailer was limited help, " We don't have a way to repair and you are passed our store policy for return/exchange time". The "Geck" (thats what they are called!) did direct me to "closest" apple store with a " genius bar", an additional 45 minutes! Now two hours from home, I had to make an appointment to talk to "a Genius", two hour wait. cruised the mall. finally got to see somone. Service was great! He had never seen an ipad do this before. Said it must be hardware, got me a new one, help to move my "stuff", reload and reset everything. Was on my way. From what I was told and over heard next to me it seems If you ever need repair out of warranty, it starts at 345 dollars no matter what apple product you have. Maybe others have found diff. but that was the price that day. My warranty did not start over either, I have 100 odd days left. Does that seem fair? maybe the industry standard. When I said something, It was suggested that I add the extended warranty. Sorry to bore you but maybe for anyone that needs repair someday my exp. will help.

Updates are always good. Thanks

 

[w1ngman]

From my general consumer experience, the fact that your 'replaced' iPad wil *retain* your remaining 100 days of warranty coverage from the initial purchase seems more than fair to me. Replacement of other electronics have, in my experience, *been* the coverage of the original warranty...and while you walk away with a new replacement, that new replacement has zero warranty (unless an extended one is purchased). Good for you!

 

[Kaykaykay]

From my general consumer experience, the fact that your 'replaced' iPad wil *retain* your remaining 100 days of warranty coverage from the initial purchase seems more than fair to me. Replacement of other electronics have, in my experience, *been* the coverage of the original warranty...and while you walk away with a new replacement, that new replacement has zero warranty (unless an extended one is purchased). Good for you!

Yes, seems perfectly reasonable to me, too.

 

[clothesfee]

in iTunes, after you restore the system, do not restore any backups, set it as a new device.

 

[locoman]

I remember something thing like that happening to my work computer when the IT guys needed to fix a problem on my computer and they were working from a different part of the building. It was real spooky.

 

[dMog]

I would think that the "new" device should have a brand spanking new full warranty... that should be the industry standard..what if you had 1 day left on your warranty on the broken device...would you expect to have a brand new device with 24 hours of warranty... after all it is a NEW device and it was warranty problem not an accident or casued by user negligence

 

[happyalligator]

I have been stumped by this problem too for the last 2 weeks and only just worked it out!

Out of the blue, it started randomly typing anywhere on the iPad's screen and it would type on the keyboard, click links, swipe and change screens, change settings, etc. The iPad was completely unusable and it never stopped happening, not even for 2 seconds

The iPad has been meticulously looked after and although it has been fallen while in its case more than half a year ago from a low bed height, it has never had any sign of issues. It looks perfectly brand new, no nicks or scratches, even at the dock connector area!

The iPad 2 16gb is only about a year and a half old and it was a birthday gift. So to have this happen was very very disappointing as I have been using Apple products for 20 odd years and even the old Mac desktops are still working!

Hoping Apple could do a reasonable price for a repair, I took it to the nearest Apple store. Because it was half a year out of warranty, the best they could do was swap the iPad 2 for the equivalent for $270 Aussie dollars.. Considering that to buy a new iPad 2 is only $395 this was ridiculous!! They also would not do it for anything other than the same model, which was not understanding at all, and I swore I would never buy another Apple product again. All they did other than that was to update the firmware which did nothing as they expected and was more for show than genuine desire to get it fixed

Which brings me to this. I have spent the last 2 weeks googling for this and finally found what I needed. It is an industry wide problem affecting tablets, phones, etc anything with a touchscreen. I found my answer in an android forum, after searching through all the iPad and iPhone ones.

The answer that worked for me was to use a hair dryer on hot for 20 minutes until the iPad glass and aluminium back was burning hot, and it now works fine again!

Full post that helped me is below, hope this helps you and saves you time!

hey guys / gals, first post and i can chime in on what causes this problem.

I personally have the first gen Moto Droid and it's done wonders for some time. wasn't until recently (more or less the last few months) that i have had this crack smoking screen issue... but i have found the cause!

it's caused by the following factors:
A - Temp (if phone is at or below 50 degrees F, EI - hot summer day, you go to bed, keep your window open and your phone is within the breezing air coming in and the night gets to or below 50-55 degreese F, it will cause condensation to happen inside the phone. moisture = bad for micro-electronics on an astronomical scale.
FIX - warm up the phone. best way to do it is keep it in a pocket closest to your core body temp. even better fix, hold it in your arm-pit (i hope to god it doesn't smell like onions when you do...). and last, don't keep it anywhere in or near an area that's 50 degrees F and colder on it's on for longer than 15 minutes or in a room of your home that's going to be colder than that over night.

B - Moisture (covered in A as it's the only real time you'll have moisture unless you drop your phone in a poddle of water of some sort.)

C - Electronically conductive substances (this is anything other than water. don't use your phone if you've JUST RECENTLY put lotion on, sun screen on, worked with engine grease *like i do on a daily basis* or anything of the sort that may be goopy and able to squeeze it's self into the small cracks and into the circuitry.)
FIX - disassembly of phone, lots of rubber alcohol and cleaning whipes. don't screw your phone up this way... it's a pain.


in all reality though, 95% of these issues will come from problem A as we all generally will have that exact senario come about and is exactly the cause of why mine has acted up. every time i've opened my window during the hot summer for a good cool breeze at night, i've woken up to a phone that i simply want to bash with a sledge hammer until only dust remains. if you want a phone that will tolerate those conditions, use that newer rugged military droid from verizon (no i'm not a verizon rep, just a suggestion) as it actually is shock proof, water proof, dust proof and scratch proof. my cousin's got one of those things, not the fastest as it uses the first gen processor but it's the newer OS version and works great. infact the other day he came home with a burnt hand because he droped it into this water boiling system that keeps food hot at his work. he freaked out, totally forgot about it being water proof and he rushed to grab it out and burnt the hell out of is hand... and then by his own "genius" realised there was a pair of tongs right there next to him had he just stoped and remember his phone was water proof...

Thanks jbljay, you saved me $600 getting a new tablet, restored my confidence in Apple (a bit) and made my sister feel a lot better now that the iPad she gave to me as a present wasn't a lemon. I gave her one too so I feel better about that one too.

A bit of a long post but it has been a long 2 weeks, thanks for reading this to the end.

 

[AdmiralAdama]

The owners and staff of iPF can not verify the outcome of the "fix" described in the above post.

Should you choose to attempt this fix, you do so at your own risk. This forum can not be held responsible for the results, including possible damage to your iOS device.

AdmiralAdama
iPF Moderator Team Member

Sent from my iPhone using iPF

 

[happyalligator]

Yes, only do this if you are left with no warranty option and you are prepared to toss out the iPad if it doesnt work anyway. You do this at your own risk. You should definitely not do this if your iPad is under warranty or if the problem was only happening only intermittently (ie still useable , even if only some of the time). Apple has already deleted the hairdryer tip from their forums.. As for me, My one and a half year old iPad 2 (30th birthday present) is still back to normal for my 2 year old to play with and no longer sitting in its original box destined for the bin. Also with the hair drying, dont over do it! As for me I really didnt care anymore whether I wrecked it, and I stopped as hairdrying (while it was still on) as soon as it I saw it workig again (about 10-20 min). If anyone is interested, let me know and I will post another update in a couple of weeks.

 

[kenshuu]

I had the same ghost problem, press a letter and it would repeat the letter 10 times, jump around open safari and then close it. Anyway the fault was caused by the aluminum case being slightly bent putting a compression tension on the screen, this ipad had 2 screens and the case had been dented slightly when dropped. I fixed the problem by carefully bending the aluminum back away from the glass, you have to be patient doing this and not too much pressure but it works. I have read this solution on another website - good luck.