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Most bizarre issue ever! Ghost in the machine?

So I've been having an issue with my Droid X which is completely bizarre. If other people hadn't witnessed it, and I didn't have proof, I would think I was imagining it.

At night, while the phone is plugged in and I'm asleep, it does things. All by itself. Random things. It inserts events into my calendar with random characters. It emails random characters to various email addresses, mostly random character ones which results in deliver failure returns emails, but sometimes to my own email addresses. Or it will read random texts from my inbox out loud. That last one scared the bejeezus out of me and my boyfriend, because it woke us up.

What. The. H***???

Since this only happens when the phone is plugged up, I wonder if it's even possible that a short in the charger could cause this??

Comments

unknown

Whoa! I'm not sure whether to help troubleshoot your phone or give you the number to a local exorcist. I'll keep the number handy in case troubleshooting doesn't work. Here's what I think is going on. 1) A bad app is giving random commands to your phone which makes it go haywire. 2) There's a problem with the touch screen, and it acts in the same manner as being pressed. Ensure that your screen is clean and if you have a case on your device, try removing it to see if that resolves the problem.

Here's what you can do: Try removing the battery. Leave it out for 30 seconds, place it back in, and see if it happens again. If it does, then we can attempt a master reset. If the master reset doesn't resolve things, it's likely a touchscreen problem, and the device will need to be replaced. You can DM me, and I'll look at replacement options for you, or you can call 866-406-5154 (Warranty Center/Tech Support).

Let us know how it all works out, and post any updates you have on the issue.

Regards,

MikeS_VZW

boobdole

Sorry, I know this is a late reply but I wanted to respond to this in case someone else has issues like this.

Using a non Verizon USB cable/charger can cause a number of problems (I haven't had a chance to find out if it's because they wire things differently or what the main difference is . . .). This is usually why they always recommend using the USB cable that came with the phone.

When I use a cheapo phone charger, it usually disables my touchscreen altogether (I'm not sure if it has a floating ground or something along those lines, like I said, I haven't checked out the issues) but lately, I've been having similar problems where it acts as if something is pressing all kinds of keys. Usually, I have to lock my screen pretty quickly to avoid it doing anything too stupid (though I have seen it unlock itself, which is unfortunate).

So yeah, easiest solution, don't use cheapo chargers or USB cables, use the ones provided by Verizon. For now, I need to find out the difference between the cables cuz clearly, something is different. Good luck!

unknown

it kind of sounds like a bad digitizer to me

boobdole

Can you elaborate a bit as to what you mean? I doubt there are any electronics in a USB cable and it seems to have more to do with the cable itself than the port its plugged into. Can you explain a bit more?

unknown

well 1 if you are using a charger that is not made for your phone the diffrence in amperage can cause all kinds of problems. and 2 a digitizer is the screen which is really more than a screen on android phones. its more like a keyboard and mouse and display for your computer. and they all interact with eachother and communicate with the pcb(printed circuit board)inside your phone. when they start to go bad. it will think you are touching your phone when you really arent. hence your ghost issue. i have an original droid that has the same problem, and have seen it on many other phones

boobdole

Hmm, that's really interesting, actually. Do you know what the difference in cable is? I know the cables pull less than 500mA of current and I'm sure all cables are rated at that (it's standard for USB devices). Technically, the phone should pull the necessary current, I can't imagine a cable getting in the way of that. There has to be some physical difference between a "Verizon USB Cable" and a standard USB cable. Any idea what that difference might be or what to look for when buying a USB cable? I doubt I can switch out the digitizer . . .

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