Help S4 touchscreen erratic when texting (caused by Incipio battery case?)

[iploya]

I have the Galaxy S4. I recently purchased an Incipio Offgrid battery case from an airport electronics store. I think -- like 75% sure -- that it's messing up my touchscreen, even after I take it off.

After using the Offgrid for a short while, my touchscreen seems to short circuit, or skip, or throw in a bunch of random characters, particularly when using swiping mode in Swiftkey.

The behavior is similar to when I try to use the phone with the charger plugged in. Probably most of us are familiar with how the touchscreen misbehaves when plugged into the wall.

Except, the erratic behavior on this phone continues even after I remove the case. Yesterday, with the case off, I did a master reset. My phone screen seemed to work fine all day. Then, I figured maybe the case had nothing to do with it, so I slapped the Offgrid back on for awhile. Now, the phone is screwing up again.

 

[hansangb]

could it be so tight that it's messing up a slightly loose connection? Also, if your charger is up to spec, it won't mess up when using the keyboard/touchscreen.

I had that once, ripped off the Zagg screen, only to find out it was my cheapo charger.

 

[Rukbat]

If the Samsung charger and the Samsung cable cause the problem, and the phone is still in warranty, ask for a warranty exchange of all 3, unless they can determine which one is causing it. (I'd suspect a problem in the phone, since you have the problem with the phone not connected to the charger.)

If you also installed a different battery when you installed the case, though, I'd first suspect the battery. Either a flaky battery or a bad charger will cause fluctuations in the phone's power system, which can cause almost anything. (Changing power isn't one of the states devices are designed to work under, unless they're devices that measure changing power. A voltmeter can take varying inputs, a cellphone can't take varying battery. Steadily decreasing battery voltage, yes. Spiky, flaky voltage, no. Which is why cheap, badly filtered chargers cause problems - their output is effectively a series of rounded spikes.)