Pop Sergeant
New member
- Jul 26, 2012
- 166
- 0
Hello everyone. I recently upgraded my tablet from a Toshiba Thrive (10.1) with android ICS 4.03 to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2014 (10.1) running Samsung's stock Jelly Bean 4.3.
This is a tale of woe with a happy ending, at least for me, and I want to share the "solution" in case any others of our fine community are having like issues.
I don't know if any of this is applicable to the Galaxy S or Galaxy 3 series devices. I'm speaking of and only about the Galaxy Note 2014 model because I have zero experience with any other Samsung branded device.
It might be a little bold to label this a PSA, but I can say without hesitation that I wish I could have found something like this, even if it didn't help, as opposed to radio-silence about my issues, while I was struggling with these problems. Sometimes, at least for me, even a pointer to a false lead helps me to at least rule out a solution set or gets me to thinking in a new line of troubleshooting. Please take this essay in that spirit and not as some kind of wizard advice from on high.
This is simply the result of trial and error, fruitless research, frustration, and desperation from a TPA fan that led to a good outcome.
Everything (TPA-wise) is great (now), but I immediately had issues with flippers (especially the left flipper) sticking in the "up" position and balls auto-launching on those tables that have auto-launch triggers as well as the old troll bomb auto-use issue especially with AFM and MM. Perhaps the most frustration issue was the random "screen capture" that would occur for no known reason.
I first thought it was a TPA issue (gasp, I know, right?) until I started having a similar issue with ZEN, at least as far as the very unreliable flipper responses.
It was a nightmare. I'd been holding on to my 3.5 year old Thrive simply because TPA worked so darn well on it. Never any device related issues with it at all.
Not once.
Now, suddenly, with a supposedly much more capable device, my favorite game of any genre (TPA) is close to being unplayable.
I searched the forums, found a comment or two regarding flippers being unresponsive on iOS (iPads) and one obscure reference in the android forum about flippers and auto-launch but most of the advice returned to those posts (not mine) were along the lines of "it's you" or "be careful where you place your thumbs" or "root your device/screen drivers".
Now, don't get me wrong. Those are sound points all. I just wasn't ready to accept advice that would have me concentrating more on my finger mechanics than my game play or to root a top-tier (in my opinion) device fresh out of the box just that week.
I knew from my Thrive use, that sliding my thumb left or right horizontally would lock the left flipper in the "up" position if the slide distance was longer than about 1/2 inch (1.27 cm).
I assumed from reading some of the iOS threads that the high resolution screen capability of a device may or may not have been a problem at one point in time as regards the number of pixels involved and the macro layout of menus and touch zones, which I extrapolated to perhaps have some impact on my thumb's imprint/activation of the touch screen. Maybe, I thought, what to me was a slight slide of the thumb was being read as a motion shortcut because it was occurring over a small area but with more pixels than I had been use to using.
Finally, I gathered from numerous mentions in several threads that "interrupts" could be a problem in detecting touch/multi-touch commands.
I'm sharing all of those musings so these recommendations might make a little more sense, at least in terms of why I opted for these specific changes.
I can tell you that since I made these changes I have not once had a repeat of any of those issues above that had been occurring every-single session previous.
As of the date of this posting, it has been a solid 14 days since, without issue.
Not once.
- STICKY FLIPPERS / AUTO-ACTIVATE
SETTINGS / CONNECTIONS – ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility Section: Easy touch mode – OFF
Vision Section: Magnification Gestures – OFF
Vision Section: Notification reminder – OFF
Mobility Section: Press and hold delay – INCREASE to Medium (1.0 second) *
*Note: This is my best guess as to the primary reason I was experiencing response issues.
- STICKY FLIPPERS / RANDOM SCREEN CAPTURES
SETTINGS / CONTROLS – Motion Control (Side Bar)
Motions – OFF
Palm motion – OFF *
*Note: Read the description of this sensor, this was obviously the screen capture problem.
- DEAD FLIPPER / DELAYED RESPONSE
I was looking for potential "interrupts" ….
SETTINGS / CONTROLS - Voice and input method (Side bar)
S-PEN – Turn off pen detection when the pen is attached (Toggle ON)
SETTINGS / CONNECTIONS – ADVANCED *
*Note: I had no idea this was here, so let me explain: open settings, select the connections tab on top, then select the "page/details" icon (touch area) immediately to the left of the solid state "home" button. This pops-up a details dialog and allows you to select "ADVANCED" to get to the advanced settings for this page
WiFi – Advanced Section: Network notification - OFF
WiFi – Advanced Section: Always Allow Scanning – OFF
-DONE -
I strongly suggest that you perform a cold reboot (not a restart) of the device.
That's it.
I have not noticed any degradation on tablet usability, ease of use, or convenience. When I need those functions, it seems the applications I am using evoke them per application and turn them off when done or offer a menu option to the same end.
And as I said, the point of this rambling tale …
I have not had any issues with sticky flippers, dead flippers, delayed responses, auto-activation, or unexpected screen captures since.
The Galaxy Note 2014 (10.1) offers a superb TPA experience, both visually and in performance. I might add that it also allows me to set ZEN to its most demanding display settings without a performance hit as well.
If this helps you, then great news! If it doesn't, then I'm truly sorry and I feel your pain -- I almost lost my mind in the week it took to come up with this solution set for myself -- but at least you now know several more things it ain't, right?
Cheers.
Pops
This is a tale of woe with a happy ending, at least for me, and I want to share the "solution" in case any others of our fine community are having like issues.
I don't know if any of this is applicable to the Galaxy S or Galaxy 3 series devices. I'm speaking of and only about the Galaxy Note 2014 model because I have zero experience with any other Samsung branded device.
It might be a little bold to label this a PSA, but I can say without hesitation that I wish I could have found something like this, even if it didn't help, as opposed to radio-silence about my issues, while I was struggling with these problems. Sometimes, at least for me, even a pointer to a false lead helps me to at least rule out a solution set or gets me to thinking in a new line of troubleshooting. Please take this essay in that spirit and not as some kind of wizard advice from on high.
This is simply the result of trial and error, fruitless research, frustration, and desperation from a TPA fan that led to a good outcome.
Everything (TPA-wise) is great (now), but I immediately had issues with flippers (especially the left flipper) sticking in the "up" position and balls auto-launching on those tables that have auto-launch triggers as well as the old troll bomb auto-use issue especially with AFM and MM. Perhaps the most frustration issue was the random "screen capture" that would occur for no known reason.
I first thought it was a TPA issue (gasp, I know, right?) until I started having a similar issue with ZEN, at least as far as the very unreliable flipper responses.
It was a nightmare. I'd been holding on to my 3.5 year old Thrive simply because TPA worked so darn well on it. Never any device related issues with it at all.
Not once.
Now, suddenly, with a supposedly much more capable device, my favorite game of any genre (TPA) is close to being unplayable.
I searched the forums, found a comment or two regarding flippers being unresponsive on iOS (iPads) and one obscure reference in the android forum about flippers and auto-launch but most of the advice returned to those posts (not mine) were along the lines of "it's you" or "be careful where you place your thumbs" or "root your device/screen drivers".
Now, don't get me wrong. Those are sound points all. I just wasn't ready to accept advice that would have me concentrating more on my finger mechanics than my game play or to root a top-tier (in my opinion) device fresh out of the box just that week.
I knew from my Thrive use, that sliding my thumb left or right horizontally would lock the left flipper in the "up" position if the slide distance was longer than about 1/2 inch (1.27 cm).
I assumed from reading some of the iOS threads that the high resolution screen capability of a device may or may not have been a problem at one point in time as regards the number of pixels involved and the macro layout of menus and touch zones, which I extrapolated to perhaps have some impact on my thumb's imprint/activation of the touch screen. Maybe, I thought, what to me was a slight slide of the thumb was being read as a motion shortcut because it was occurring over a small area but with more pixels than I had been use to using.
Finally, I gathered from numerous mentions in several threads that "interrupts" could be a problem in detecting touch/multi-touch commands.
I'm sharing all of those musings so these recommendations might make a little more sense, at least in terms of why I opted for these specific changes.
I can tell you that since I made these changes I have not once had a repeat of any of those issues above that had been occurring every-single session previous.
As of the date of this posting, it has been a solid 14 days since, without issue.
Not once.
- STICKY FLIPPERS / AUTO-ACTIVATE
SETTINGS / CONNECTIONS – ACCESSIBILITY
Accessibility Section: Easy touch mode – OFF
Vision Section: Magnification Gestures – OFF
Vision Section: Notification reminder – OFF
Mobility Section: Press and hold delay – INCREASE to Medium (1.0 second) *
*Note: This is my best guess as to the primary reason I was experiencing response issues.
- STICKY FLIPPERS / RANDOM SCREEN CAPTURES
SETTINGS / CONTROLS – Motion Control (Side Bar)
Motions – OFF
Palm motion – OFF *
*Note: Read the description of this sensor, this was obviously the screen capture problem.
- DEAD FLIPPER / DELAYED RESPONSE
I was looking for potential "interrupts" ….
SETTINGS / CONTROLS - Voice and input method (Side bar)
S-PEN – Turn off pen detection when the pen is attached (Toggle ON)
SETTINGS / CONNECTIONS – ADVANCED *
*Note: I had no idea this was here, so let me explain: open settings, select the connections tab on top, then select the "page/details" icon (touch area) immediately to the left of the solid state "home" button. This pops-up a details dialog and allows you to select "ADVANCED" to get to the advanced settings for this page
WiFi – Advanced Section: Network notification - OFF
WiFi – Advanced Section: Always Allow Scanning – OFF
-DONE -
I strongly suggest that you perform a cold reboot (not a restart) of the device.
That's it.
I have not noticed any degradation on tablet usability, ease of use, or convenience. When I need those functions, it seems the applications I am using evoke them per application and turn them off when done or offer a menu option to the same end.
And as I said, the point of this rambling tale …
I have not had any issues with sticky flippers, dead flippers, delayed responses, auto-activation, or unexpected screen captures since.
The Galaxy Note 2014 (10.1) offers a superb TPA experience, both visually and in performance. I might add that it also allows me to set ZEN to its most demanding display settings without a performance hit as well.
If this helps you, then great news! If it doesn't, then I'm truly sorry and I feel your pain -- I almost lost my mind in the week it took to come up with this solution set for myself -- but at least you now know several more things it ain't, right?
Cheers.
Pops
