Alcatel Idol 4S W10 - Touch screen not working sometimes... FIXED???

[Muse]

This has been going on maybe 2 weeks, I guess. It's getting worse and worse. Occasionally the touch screen responds to touches and sometimes it doesn't. I can be keying in my 5 digit pin to unlock the phone and it might accept the first couple touches and then no response, so I can't sign in. The phone has a fingerprint reader, so I can still unlock it but then (like right now) the touch screen acts completely dead. Sometimes it will work for a while and then it starts happening again. It seems random. I did not drop the phone, it gets treated great, looks brand new, I keep it in an Incipio case.

The touch screen response is best described as sporadic, in a word.

I called Microsoft yesterday, from whom I bought the phone from their online store this last January 2018, and got a guy who had me call Alcatel. I got Alcatel support and with the guy on the phone (not the smartphone, but my landline) and the Alcatel phone started responding (quite by accident) and he had me dial a special number with it that allowed me to run a test on the touch screen. Except for one row on the screen (the top) that I had to try twice before it responded, the other rows responded fine and the guy concluded that I was lucky and the device appears to be OK, hardware wise, I guess.

He said he thinks the phone might have a virus or there might be an app that's causing the problem but there's no way to test for these things and he wanted me to do a reset. There's options when you reset (Settings/About, etc.):
- - - -
WARNING!

Resetting your device will erase all content and restore to company settings. Do you want to continue?

[ ] Also erase SD card

[ ] Also remove provisional content from my workplace

[Yes] [No]
- - - -
I don't want to erase the SD card, certainly not without backing it up. I don't comprehend the second option about the workplace.

I said to him I thought I should back up the phone before resetting and he agreed. He said if resetting fixed the phone but restoring the backup screwed it up again I'd know more. And if a reset without restoring backup had the phone still dodgy I could initiate an RMA, I imagine.

So, here's what I'm wondering: I backed up the phone maybe 6 weeks ago, I'm guessing, to my Microsoft Account, online (Onedrive). What if I restore from that? Can I make a 2nd backup now and have my choice of backups to restore? Also, can I backup locally, i.e. to my server? If I can have a choice of backups to restore, that would be way better than taking a chance on restoring a backup I make today. AFAIK, 6 weeks ago I didn't have this problem and the backup I made then might fix the phone if restored now.

Maybe I should just reset now without backing up and then restore from my last backup. I haven't done much with the phone in the meantime, can't remember any significant app download or change. I'm having major problems accessing the phone's functionality and even initiating a current backup might be difficult. It is possible to reset the phone entirely using the hardware keys (no touch screen actions needed), I have the instructions in my data.

Does anyone else have experience with anything like this? Thanks for help!!!

 

[Muse]

Update.

Called Alcatel tech support again yesterday (my birthday), and spent 1/2 the day trying to get the phone working or RMA set up. Got RMA set up after resetting the phone didn't appear to stop the erratic behavior. But mysteriously, after the reset, restoring the automatic backup that happened on 07/26/2018 seems to have stopped the touch screen problem. May have been a hiccup or two since, but today, so far so good.

I've got to believe, therefore, that smartphones are susceptible to the same problem that plagues other computers -- the need to freshly install the OS from time to time.

 

[Muse]

Nope, not fixed! Back to its old ways, GDMFSOB! Guess I have to send it to Alcatel, and hopefully a fix. Last night and this AM it doesn't respond to touch screen a whole lot of the time. What makes it take a nap and what wakes it up I can't begin to guess. The worst technical problems to solve are those seemingly random, sporadic un-reproducible ones, and I have one now!

It may have to do with some app or combination of apps I have. Don't know how to deal with that. I have a feeling Alcatel will (or won't) replace the screen and raster reader (or whatever it's called), send it back to me and it won't change a thing.