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Help Screen proximity sensor glitch

F

freagul

Newbie
I got my S3 on Saturday and since then I've had cause to call a few different customer service numbers, the type where you have to press "1" for this, and "2" for that, and enter your account number followed by the pound sign, etc etc. I've noticed a weird glitch where I will take the phone away from my face to hit whatever number I need to, and the screen will pop on once away from my face, but as soon as my finger gets close to press the number, it shuts back off. I pull my finger away, it pops back on, I try to press the number again, it shuts off again, until I can manage to do it faster than the phone can detect me.

It only happens intermittently, and the weird thing is that I have Direct Call on and so far the proximity sensor hasn't triggered it while I text someone. It only happens when I'm in a call. Anyone else having this problem?
 
The prox sensor ONLY works while you are on a phone call. That's why you never have a problem while texting.

The prox sensor is one of the two 'lenses' to the right of the earpiece. How is it the lighting where you are placing the call? If you are casting a shadow over the prox sensor with your hand, it might activate. Although that sounds like the prox is too sensitive.

Try holding the phone with a light source coming from the top of the phone, where you won't cast a shadow. Does the screen still blank?

If no one else has the issue, you may thing about returning the phone. You just might have an overly sensitive proximity sensor.
 
I've also had this happen to me. You have to be lightning fast to tap the key to beat the screen shutting off.
 
Definitively sounds weird, i am in a dark room and just called a phone number and was able to hit the button to activate the keypad and it never turned off at all while i was putting in #'s. You may have a bad phone, Have you rebooted the phone?
 
davoid said:
I've also had this happen to me. You have to be lightning fast to tap the key to beat the screen shutting off.
Click to expand...

Now it sounds like it could be a software issue. Maybe the proximity wake does not reset the timed sleep function so the phone is trying to go to sleep immediately after the screen comes back on.
 
Doit2it said:
The prox sensor ONLY works while you are on a phone call. That's why you never have a problem while texting.

The prox sensor is one of the two 'lenses' to the right of the earpiece. How is it the lighting where you are placing the call? If you are casting a shadow over the prox sensor with your hand, it might activate. Although that sounds like the prox is too sensitive.

Try holding the phone with a light source coming from the top of the phone, where you won't cast a shadow. Does the screen still blank?

If no one else has the issue, you may thing about returning the phone. You just might have an overly sensitive proximity sensor.
Click to expand...

If the prox sensor only works on a call, how does Direct Call work? I thought it also used the prox sensor to detect the "holding phone to ear" motion?

I tried testing it in the dark so I wouldn't cast a shadow, and with a light behind me so I would, and I couldn't replicate the problem either way. It's very intermittent.

Doit2it said:
Now it sounds like it could be a software issue. Maybe the proximity wake does not reset the timed sleep function so the phone is trying to go to sleep immediately after the screen comes back on.
Click to expand...

It doesn't seem like that. When it does happen, the screen comes on and stays on, it only shuts back off if my finger gets near it at all.

I'm kind of hoping this is some weird software problem so I can avoid the hassle of having to exchange my phone, especially since I can't reliably recreate the problem to demonstrate to AT&T...
 
Same issue here and I also concluded this is due to my hand setting off the proximity sensor. I am going to see if avoiding the sensor when inputting numbers has an impact. If my hand / finger comes stealthily from below or the side and it still turns off, shouldn't this be a different issue? There must also be a touch sensor for sensing touch anywhere on the screen and perhaps this is linked into the behavior.

I just turned off "Smart Stay" face recognition to see if perhaps it was messing with the sensor, but time will tell.

This is such a pain to debug since it seems to be intermittent. Has anyone found a solution yet?

** UPDATE
Turning off Smart Stay appears to have fixed the problem.
 
bigdaddyrox457 said:
I disabled smart stay, but still have the problem. Would love a solution, as this is extremely annoying on a phone that, otherwise, I LOVE.
Click to expand...

I was having the same problem and driving me NUTS. Then played with my case that has a cut out around the sensor. It's a 2 piece plastic clam shell with a silicone overlay. If I take the case off, it works fine. Just putting the top of the case within an inch of the proximity sensor and the display shuts off. The sensor isn't measuring light, because I can put a light directly over the sensor and it still doesn't come on. Even a piece of paper near the sensor will shut off the phone (it's not casting a shadow on the sensor). So it's not detecting heat or light, must be measuring "mass" like they use at traffic signals? So for now have to disable the proximity sensor (in the dial-pad settings).

Will try and take the phone to sprint and see if it's a problem with other phones before my time runs out.
 
I found that just being left handed caused the intermittant screen issue/blanking, where during a call, entering a numeric password the operation failed (due to the screen blanking/turning off)..It is the proximity sensor, located upper right on SIII that causes the screen to turn off.
Holding the phone with the left hand and using the right hand to enter a password activates the proximity sensor causing the screen to turn off - exactly what it was designed to do- blank the screen when the sensor gets close to a face/heat..The right hand gets close enough to the sensor to blank the screen. If you use the phone as a right handed person (holding the phone in the right hand and touching your password numbers with the left hand) you will solve your irritating problem. Haven't seen any other related issues with this phone, but I've only had it for a couple days..
 
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