IssueTracker

The log messages are related to a technique used in Android 4.2 to reduce accidental presses on the main navigation keys while typing.  This "dead zone" should not, however, be active when touching the navigation keys in general, only during a short window after you've interacted with the rest of the screen. And the dead zone does not extend all the way to the bottom of the screen; it's worth trying to touch the navigation keys all the way at the bottom of the visible screen area to see if that still works.

I wonder if you might be having a hardware issue; a defect with your touchscreen that is causing stray motion events elsewhere on the display, invoking this DeadZone feature to prevent touching the navigation buttons. This could potentially be confirmed by turning on Pointer Location (in the Developer settings) and looking for stray touches elsewhere on-screen.

I turned on Pointer Location and I am not seeing stray touches. To me it looks as if the touch indicator cuts off halfway through the bottom buttons as I drag my finger down. I see the touch indicator only on the top half of the button I am touching. It does seem like a hardware defect where only that small portion of the screen is not responding to touches.

Hmm, yeah, that does sound like the touch panel is not responding on that edge of the screen.

I'd be interested to know if you can touch the screen in that area when there's something else there; that is, rotate the phone into upside-down landscape (so that the navigation buttons are up by the earpiece) and see if you can interact with the system (or generate Pointer Location traces) in that area. For that matter, I'd be curious if you can operate the navigation buttons when they're at the other end of the display, too.

i have the same problem, is there any way to fix it?

Sorry for the long response time. I ended up RMAing the device.

Same problem here.  The developer visualisation shows that the bottom 1 cm of the device (in portrait mode) is not accessible to the touch screen.  In landscape mode, the soft buttons are out of this dead area and still work.

Google telephone support had no problem sending a replacement device.

Also, I didn't measure this before factory resetting the device, but I think the dead area has gotten bigger.  Originally ~0.5cm, cutting through the soft buttons, but is now noticeably above them.

Most likely the root cause is hardware.

Hi, here with the same problem, but I don't think is a hardware problem, because when I rotate the phone and tried to use this area of the screen, the touch work perfectly fine, for example, scrolling a webpage.

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Dead area on screen where soft buttons are in portrait mode. When phone is rotated the dead area is the same group of pixels ie when rotated clockwise the dead area is the left edge in landscape. Debugging the touches shows no touch is recorded at all. The touch trace cuts out. Started suddenly after 5 months. Full reset with no restore of preferences did not fix.

so is there a solution to it  ? anyone found a solution ?

Returned device under warranty. Accepted by Google.

Was there a solution to this issue? or I need get a replacement?

My keys stopped working all of sudden. But it doesn't look like a hardware issue since in chrome I can still scroll in that area once I put the phone in landscape mode.

BTW. I work for Qualcomm and I did some work on this phone. So if anyone at Google would like to get the device for debugging than I would be happy to help. I'm also located in Silicon Valley.

Well my soft buttons stopped working too, but I'm in Lebanon, they're not working at all, under any condition. What should I do?

Same Problem here!

Factory reset/wipe as well as flashing the phone with a factory image did not lead to solving the problem .. contacted customer support and am getting a replacement ..

Well any way to solve that? It happens to me today. I'm able to operate my phone because in have cm ROM and pie controls

Same problem here. A technician told me that the problem is the touchscreen, but it doesn't sound right because the edge of the sreen works when the touchkeys are rotated.