Shield Tablet (OG) Charging + Touchscreen Issue

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Basically, when unplugged it works perfectly, but when plugged in, the touchscreen becomes really unresponsive, making touches and swipes difficult, if not impossible.  It never used to do this but has started just yesterday.  It is the exact same issue as another one I was able to play with, but it came like that right from the factory.

 

Any ideas?

[DrMacintosh]

Well all charging does is recharge the battery unless the Shield does what MacBooks and Laptops do and run off the external power supply. 

 

My best guess is that there is something wrong with the power delivery system and causes the touchscreen to freak out. Contact Nvidia and see if they can help.  

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It also has become almost impossible to turn on, plugged in or not because it seems to not register the power and/or volume buttons properly

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Just now, DrMacintosh said:

Well all charging does is recharge the battery unless the Shield does what MacBooks and Laptops do and run off the external power supply. 

 

My best guess is that there is something wrong with the power delivery system and causes the touchscreen to freak out. Contact Nvidia and see if they can help.  

No, this definitely just recharges... I know because it can actually drain the battery while plugged in it uses so much power lol there's no way it could run off the charger alone  

 

It's way too old to be under warranty anymore, but I think your'e right about the cause.

[DrMacintosh]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

It also has become almost impossible to turn on,

yeah something is definitely failing inside the logic board if this is the case. 

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Just now, DrMacintosh said:

yeah something is definitely failing inside the logic board if this is the case. 

probably.  I mean, it really doesn't owe me anything I suppose... it was $300 3 years ago and it's worked hard its whole life, plus it made me almost all of that back >_> so I basically paid about $10 / year to own it  

[Mira Yurizaki]

12 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Basically, when unplugged it works perfectly, but when plugged in, the touchscreen becomes really unresponsive, making touches and swipes difficult, if not impossible.  It never used to do this but has started just yesterday.  It is the exact same issue as another one I was able to play with, but it came like that right from the factory.

 

Any ideas?

I had a look into this when I found out my Shield K1 wasn't really charging (turns out I probably messed up the USB plug)

 

People suggested the Prism Display was doing something or updating to Nougat was causing issues.

 

EDIT: Oh this isn't related to plugging it in. But yeah, there have been charging issues.

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1 minute ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I had a look into this when I found out my Shield K1 wasn't really charging (turns out I probably messed up the USB plug)

 

People suggested the Prism Display was doing something or updating to Nougat was causing issues.

omh, you might have saved me... It's too early to call for sure but I just tried turning off the "reduce power consumption" setting for the display and it seems to be working properly 

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

omh, you might have saved me... It's too early to call for sure but I just tried turning off the "reduce power consumption" setting for the display and it seems to be working properly 

Slightly derailing, I'm kind of bummed NVIDIA stopped doing tablets. The Shield was the closest thing to perfection for me.

 

Now all I see in the Android tablet market are cheap throwaway tablets still rocking Lollipop or expensive high-end ones.

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13 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Slightly derailing, I'm kind of bummed NVIDIA stopped doing tablets. The Shield was the closest thing to perfection for me.

 

Now all I see in the Android tablet market are cheap throwaway tablets still rocking Lollipop or expensive high-end ones.

Hm, yeah, that wasn't enough to fix it... but it did seem to be for a fair bit there.  hm...

 

Also, I've noticed there is a bit of a delayed reaction after plugging it in or unplugging it, it takes a few seconds for the behaviour to change.

[Mira Yurizaki]

3 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Hm, yeah, that wasn't enough to fix it... but it did seem to be for a fair bit there.  hm...

 

Also, I've noticed there is a bit of a delayed reaction after plugging it in or unplugging it, it takes a few seconds for the behaviour to change.

Does this happen with any charger or cable, or no?

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Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

Does this happen with any charger or cable, or no?

Oh now this is strange... I've always used the stock cable, and I've used both the stock charger and a good quality Anker one as well, but the problem seems to happen when I use either through my USB extension cable, and go away when I plug directly in.  How could a change in cable length affect the touchscreen!?!? 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Just now, Ryan_Vickers said:

Oh now this is strange... I've always used the stock cable, and I've used both the stock charger and a good quality Anker one as well, but the problem seems to happen when I use either through my USB extension cable, and go away when I plug directly in.  How could a change in cable length affect the touchscreen!?!? 

I know cable length introduces resistance, but this should only cause the voltage to drop.

 

But is this our smoking gun? :3

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6 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I know cable length introduces resistance, but this should only cause the voltage to drop.

 

But is this our smoking gun? :3

I think it is.  Apparently 15 extra ft of perfectly good wire is so much resistance that it causes the touchscreen to stop working, even when powered by a charger that specifically claims to compensate for long or poor cables *facepalm*

I won't pretend to accept that this make any sense at all, but it is the solution.  Thanks a bunch  

 

Edit: Wow, it's even more finicky than I thought.  It works perfectly when plugged into one of the outlets in my room but plug it into my UPS (not even the battery outlets, and it's line interactive which means those are a glorified power strip) and it has issues.  what a piece of shit...

Edited July 20, 2017 by Ryan_Vickers

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46 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I know cable length introduces resistance, but this should only cause the voltage to drop.

 

But is this our smoking gun? :3

Apparently I spoke too soon, it's actually doing it again even on the short cable in the good outlet.  I'm starting to think this is entirely random >_>

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Apparently I spoke too soon, it's actually doing it again even on the short cable in the good outlet.  I'm starting to think this is entirely random >_>

I was going to ask earlier to install Amperage to see what it thinks the tablet is pulling and put a Kill-A-Watt or something on the charger and compare the two numbers.

 

Not sure what that'll tell us.

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Just now, M.Yurizaki said:

I was going to ask earlier to install Amperage to see what it thinks the tablet is pulling and put a Kill-A-Watt or something on the charger and compare the two numbers.

 

Not sure what that'll tell us.

Can the device actually measure its own power draw accurately though?  I'd heard that they can't and those apps are pretty much snake oil

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And for the record, I'm going back to the long cable now since it happens without it anyway.  It's a perfectly good cable and there's no excuse; if it doesn't work with that, it doesn't work, and changing it shouldn't have any effect.

[Mira Yurizaki]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

Can the device actually measure its own power draw accurately though?  I'd heard that they can't and those apps are pretty much snake oil

I think it's more of a sanity check, but I've nothing else to go off of. However it does seem to get good marks so maybe it works more or less as advertised to a point.

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3 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

I think it's more of a sanity check, but I've nothing else to go off of. However it does seem to get good marks so maybe it works more or less as advertised to a point.

I'll give it a try then, maybe it will be interesting.

 

Edit: I take it you meant "Ampere"?  also lol @ that interface... it's the same info arranged in 5 different styles of table  

anyway, it fluctuates between 180 mA and over 700 ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Edited July 21, 2017 by Ryan_Vickers

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It's interesting online there are lots of other people talking about this, but not solutions as far as I can see.  There's also a lot of people claiming it's caused by bad chargers but I know that's not true since a) it happened with the freaking included one  and b) it happens with my brand new Anker one which is also very good.

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It is now working perfectly again, after changing nothing whatsoever.  I am convinced that this issue is entirely random, and await the next failure without cause.