HTC Rezound Softkeys (Navigation Bar) Hardware Fix

[Hankster]

A little over 2 years ago I upgraded my HTC Rezound to the HTC One.  The HTC Rezound was relegated to my mothball fleet of phones along with its older brother the HTC Incredible.   During the past 2+ years I've frequently powered up these old cell phones and connected to my Wi-Fi checked for system updates and maintained a minimal charge on their batteries.  This routine was interrupted this past week when the HTC Rezound wouldn't let me back out of the Settings menu after checking for any System updates.  Neither the Back key nor the Home key would respond to any key press. 

After several restarts I went searching on the internet for anyone else who might have had this problem.  Boy was I surprised at the huge number of reports and dozens of pages here in the Verizon community forums, of an apparent hardware failure on the HTC Rezound.  What was even more surprising was the total disregard of this problem by both Verizon and HTC when someone doesn't want to 1) Acknowledge a class problem exists or 2) Admit liability for resolving the problem. 

Normally my research would stop there but it has been over 3 years since the first report of a problem, and I wanted to know if anything had ever been resolved.  I called Verizon tech support to see if anything was noted in their system on this HTC Rezound Softkey issue, and was told they had nothing on this particular problem.  Since the phone was now out of warranty so was their desire to help me.  I then called HTC and asked the same question.  The HTC customer service rep had me run a special diagnostic test on the phone to confirm that the Softkeys weren't responding which I did.  Their feedback to me was this could fixed by sending it to them for repair which would cost around $130 plus shipping.

Now to summarize what I've learned from all this.  The digitizer screen apparently has failed on the HTC Rezounds with the softkey problem and needs replacing.  Prices for replacement (parts alone) range from $7.64 for the digitizer itself shipped from China to $40 for a new LCD & Digitizer shipped from the US, internet seller of your choice.  Of course this doesn't include installation, but I'm encourage to learn that YouTube has this task online to view.  Hope this helps and good luck.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hankster,

We know how important it is to have a device that will last years. Sorry to hear that this is not occurring with the HTC Rezound. Thanks for the hard work in an effort to resolve your issues. The manufacturer holds the warranty to the device and would provide the best resolution. Are you having issues with your current cellphone?

Thanks,
PamelaFF_VZW
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