Fixing Ghost Touch In The OnePlus One

The OnePlus One is the flagship phone killer for 2014, available only by invite, and thus extremely cool. So far it’s a limited production run and there will, of course, be problems with the first few thousand units. When [vantt1] got his One, he noticed a few issues with the touch screen. Some touches wouldn’t be registered, typing was unpredictable, and generally, the touchscreen was unusable. [vantt] had seen this before, though, so with a complete teardown and a quick fix he was able to turn this phone into something great.

[vantt] realized the symptoms of a crappy touchscreen were extremely similar to an iPad mini that had recently had its digitizer replace. From the Foxconn plant, the digitizer in the iPad mini is well insulated from the aluminium enclosure. When the screen and digitizer are replaced, the cable connecting it to the rest of the iPad can come in contact with the case. This leads to the same symptoms – missed touches, and unpredictable typing.

Figuring the same cure will fix the same symptoms, [vantt] tore apart his OnePlus One and carefully taped off the digitizer flex cable. Reassembling the phone, everything worked beautifully, and without any extra screws in the reassembly process. You can’t do better than that.

24 thoughts on “Fixing Ghost Touch In The OnePlus One

      1. Put your screws into jar caps, and use multiple jar caps for different parts/layers. Keep your jar caps on sight to see exactly what screws you got left.
        This is best way I find so far and it can be extremely efficient when you end up with a shitload of screws (>60)
        Also, mind to disassemble on a clean and spaced desk and in a stress-less place.

        1. Folks I use daily pill holders from the dollar tree. They also have the sewing/first aid kits that have different shaped compartments. On the lid I use painters tape and label (front back inside etc). Use what works for you. I found that 5 simultaneous projects are/were my maximum of “where the hell does that screw go” until this past month. Gettin old lol.

      2. I do phone repair from time to time, and to keep the different sizes separate I use a small tin lid, line the backside with magnets, and put a piece of paper on the inside with segments drawn with measurements of screws in the particular device. This way, I can just drop the screw into the designated segment, and if I sneeze or bump the lid screws don’t go flying everywhere or get mixed up. ;)

  1. Wow, nice phone and fix. Feeling a little buyers remorse with my Note 4, but the extremely fast charging feature is almost worth it being double the price. Wait, is it?!?! Well I happen to love the S-Pen, sooooo….

  2. nice fix. it seems like a good thing to keep in mind should any other capacitive touch-screen behave erratically like that.

    ..been trying to get one of those phones myself– I don’t suppose anybody here would have a spare invite maybe?

  3. WOW WHAT AN AMAZING HACK. a guy disassembled a phone and repaired it. REALLY?!??? why is this even here? this is done everyday buy thousands of people since cell phones existed. and a flex cable problem?! really? the most common problem. really slow day at hackaday office

    1. Oh wow, you know what, I’ve got an idea! How about you go find a “hackaday worthy” entry, or actually write one up yourself, and submit it to them! Crazy idea!

      Oh, I guess that doesn’t work though, because then you’d have to put more effort into it than just complaining.

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