Proximity sensor stopped working

PantsOnFire · 06/12/2009, 08:40 PM

The proximity sensor in my Pre apparently stopped working today. It does not recognize when it is up to the ear and does not shut off the screen. Unfortunately no sound comes out of the earpiece and the microphone does not record anything as the other party cannot hear me speak. Everything works when I turn the speaker phone on though. It worked perfectly last night and today just won't work.

The tech at the local Sprint store was stumped as was Palm's support line. We hard reset the phone to no avail. Palm told the tech to just replace the phone which I will hopefully get on Monday.

Anybody else experience this? I have to put up with it for the weekend (hopefully just the weekend!) so I am wondering if anyone has been able to solve this problem if they have had it on their Pre.

clevin · 06/12/2009, 08:46 PM

if hard reset doesn't solve it, I think replacement would be proper.

type_hard · 06/14/2009, 01:12 AM

I have this exact same problem. It was doing this yesterday, then eventually it started working again. And now it is doing it again this evening.

The really perplexing part is that I'm not sure if it's a hardware problem.

If I run the Interactive Test that checks the proximity sensor, it works. If you haven't already tried, I'd be interested to know whether your phone behaves the same.

In case you haven't found the tests before, you can find them here:

Device Info App
Scroll to bottom and hit More Info
Tap Preferences menu at top left
Choose Interactive Tests
Screen Test
The second test is the proximity sensor test

The fact that the sensor works in the test mode makes me wonder:
a) Is there something flakey in the phone app software?
b) Do they have the sensitivity in the test mode really bumped up?

type_hard · 06/14/2009, 02:09 AM

Well, this is interesting. I just used the phone with the headphones/mic that came with the Pre. After that I use the phone normally. It's working properly again.

So, I'm thinking that it's not a proximity sensor problem. For whatever reason, I'm guessing the phone thought that something was plugged into the headphone jack.

You might try doing the same.

PantsOnFire · 06/14/2009, 10:25 AM

Well I did both tests as suggested.

The proximity sensor test passed with no problems. However when I try to make a phone call afterwards I still have the same problem, it just doesn't recognize when its up to my ear.

I then tried plugging the headphones/microphone into the pre and place a call. Audio comes through the headphones but when i unplug them it is back to the same problem and no audio comes out of the earpiece in the phone and the proximity sensor does not know when it is up to my ear.

apollo92 · 06/14/2009, 04:39 PM

i had this exact problem yesterday and tried to fix it by restarting the phone, unplugging/replugging the headset, putting the phone on the touchstone and taking it off during calls and nothing fixed it.

I tried doing the interactive tests and the prox sensor and earpiece worked fine but i didn't bother plugging in a headset for the headset test in that section

i then did a partial erase/reset and tried the phone again and ran into the same problem

i finally did the interactive test for audio again but this time i did plug in a wired headset for that portion of the test and went through all the tests normally and the earpiece/prox sensor work just fine now

when i was having this problem i noticed that the phone basically just saw it as a wired headset being plugged in all the time because if i used pandora and unplugged the jack, it wouldn't pause pandora like it previously did.. now it does with it working

seems like a pretty massive bug to me

ScrapMaker · 06/14/2009, 05:06 PM

Sounds like the Pre has a finicky earphone jack. I have heard of this happening on multitiudes of phones over the past few years.

If it won't go away--no matter what you've done, I suggest using WebOS doctor found at www.palm.com/ROM

If that doesn't fix it, take it back.

PantsOnFire · 06/14/2009, 09:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by apollo92

i had this exact problem yesterday and tried to fix it by restarting the phone, unplugging/replugging the headset, putting the phone on the touchstone and taking it off during calls and nothing fixed it.

I tried doing the interactive tests and the prox sensor and earpiece worked fine but i didn't bother plugging in a headset for the headset test in that section

i then did a partial erase/reset and tried the phone again and ran into the same problem

i finally did the interactive test for audio again but this time i did plug in a wired headset for that portion of the test and went through all the tests normally and the earpiece/prox sensor work just fine now

when i was having this problem i noticed that the phone basically just saw it as a wired headset being plugged in all the time because if i used pandora and unplugged the jack, it wouldn't pause pandora like it previously did.. now it does with it working

seems like a pretty massive bug to me

i ran through the battery of tests and now it seems to be back to functioning as it should be. took a couple of tries though. i am worried that its going to cut out on me randomly and ill be stuck til i can get the microphone/headset and run the tests again to reset it. im going to still try to get a new one from the sprint store tomorrow.

wish i had this fix friday night though haha!

thank you all for your help and responses.

tagz · 06/14/2009, 11:12 PM

I ran into this same problem. Was using the headphones while listening to pandora. Unpluged them and set the phone down for little while. Then went to place a call and I could hear the person, but they could not hear me. Turns out it was stuck as if the headphones were still in it. During a call the little icon will either show a phone handset, headphones, or the speakerphone icon. Mine would no longer show the handset. Would only toggle between speaker, and headphone. Thus the reason the proximity sensor stoped working, it thought it was in headphone mode. Ended up returning it and getting another pre same day. But, then at palms forums other people confirmed that if you start pandora up, plug the headphones in then I think they said mute and unmute it then pull the headphones out it should correct the problem. Like I said I returned mine before knowing about this so I cant say it will work or not. Worth a shot though.

fareal · 06/24/2009, 12:10 AM

Can you post a link to that thread on the Palm forums. I'm having this issue but can't resolve it with the steps you mentioned.

scoobdude · 06/24/2009, 12:44 AM

this happened to both my wifes and my treo 650. this has just recently happened to my wife's centro as well. I fixed it by blowing in the headset jack on her centro since i did not have a 2.5mm headset with me. I also tried unplugging and plugging the headset till i saw the icon change on the screen for the 650s.

So it looks like the problem is back with the new phone as well.

Oh well in other news i need a new cord for my headphones..... for when i finally find a pre that is

sam1am · 07/01/2009, 08:05 PM

Not cool. This happened to me first yesterday and again today. Eventually fixed when I tracked down a pair of headphones and plugged them in, placed a call, unplugged them, and then tried again.

I wonder if this is a problem with a hardware switch inside the headphone jack or a problem with the software not recognizing the events properly. In other words, can it be fixed via a software update?

brettkola · 07/22/2009, 03:39 PM

The Pre sometimes has trouble detecting headphone removal if the headphones aren't playing anything. Try playing something and then removing, if that doesn't work clean with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip with almost all the lint removed.

TM02445 · 08/11/2009, 12:06 PM

Thank you Brettkola. This was almost the final nail in the Pre coffin for me. I'm sure the other things work sometimes, but this was direct and quick.

Do any of the engineer types (or Palm, if you are listening) know if this can be fixed via a future software update (or is more likely a hardware problem we are to live with)?

vicini · 08/11/2009, 02:51 PM

Alcohol worked, don't bother with anything else in this post. If phone gives the headphones or speaker phone option only, just clean out the head phone port.

chitlinpita · 08/11/2009, 06:15 PM

I have been too scared to try the alcohol and q-tip route, but I keep having this problem. Twice now I've been able to fix it using these steps.

1. Start Pandora with headphones attached.
2. Play Pandora song for a little while.
3. Stop Pandora and exit.
4. Unplug headphones.
5. Go to phone and test.
6. Should be fixed.

ccw.in.az · 08/11/2009, 06:36 PM

II fixed this problem by following a post I found here. Can't find it now but I think the procedure was:

1.) plug in headphones.
2.) press mute
3.) press mute again
4.) unplug headphones

Like I said, I think this was the order but not 100% sure.

av1atrx · 08/12/2009, 09:44 AM

I had this problem. I ran the proximity sensor test and at the end it asked if I would like to send the results to "customer service." I had never seen this option before. I sent the results and it never happened again. That was 2 weeks ago.

russell1047 · 10/01/2009, 10:35 AM

I had the same problem a few times. Just plug the headphone jack back in while youre making a call and take it back out. Keep doing this a few times until the phone icon pops up where the speaker was. And voila

joek71 · 10/02/2009, 02:59 PM

what if you never used the headphones, my started acting up, I use bluetooth and when I disconnect my blutooth I can'tmake calls cause got the headphone icon and need the bluetooth to call, and sometime when using blue tooth the headphone would come on by them selfs, I alredy ordered a new pre. But this is kind of crazy.

06/12/2009, 08:40 PM	#1 (permalink)
PantsOnFire Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 24 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Proximity sensor stopped working The proximity sensor in my Pre apparently stopped working today. It does not recognize when it is up to the ear and does not shut off the screen. Unfortunately no sound comes out of the earpiece and the microphone does not record anything as the other party cannot hear me speak. Everything works when I turn the speaker phone on though. It worked perfectly last night and today just won't work. The tech at the local Sprint store was stumped as was Palm's support line. We hard reset the phone to no avail. Palm told the tech to just replace the phone which I will hopefully get on Monday. Anybody else experience this? I have to put up with it for the weekend (hopefully just the weekend!) so I am wondering if anyone has been able to solve this problem if they have had it on their Pre.

08/11/2009, 12:06 PM	#14 (permalink)
TM02445 Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Rubbing alcohol on stripped down Q-Tip works!! Thank you Brettkola. This was almost the final nail in the Pre coffin for me. I'm sure the other things work sometimes, but this was direct and quick. Do any of the engineer types (or Palm, if you are listening) know if this can be fixed via a future software update (or is more likely a hardware problem we are to live with)? Last edited by TM02445; 08/11/2009 at 12:28 PM. Reason: Adding quesion

10/01/2009, 10:35 AM	#19 (permalink)
russell1047 Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Solution to headphone problem I had the same problem a few times. Just plug the headphone jack back in while youre making a call and take it back out. Keep doing this a few times until the phone icon pops up where the speaker was. And voila

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06/12/2009, 08:46 PM	#2 (permalink)
clevin Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 945 Thanks: 14 Thanked 86 Times in 60 Posts	if hard reset doesn't solve it, I think replacement would be proper.

06/14/2009, 01:12 AM	#3 (permalink)
type_hard Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I have this exact same problem. It was doing this yesterday, then eventually it started working again. And now it is doing it again this evening. The really perplexing part is that I'm not sure if it's a hardware problem. If I run the Interactive Test that checks the proximity sensor, it works. If you haven't already tried, I'd be interested to know whether your phone behaves the same. In case you haven't found the tests before, you can find them here: Device Info App Scroll to bottom and hit More Info Tap Preferences menu at top left Choose Interactive Tests Screen Test The second test is the proximity sensor test The fact that the sensor works in the test mode makes me wonder: a) Is there something flakey in the phone app software? b) Do they have the sensitivity in the test mode really bumped up?

06/14/2009, 02:09 AM	#4 (permalink)
type_hard Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Well, this is interesting. I just used the phone with the headphones/mic that came with the Pre. After that I use the phone normally. It's working properly again. So, I'm thinking that it's not a proximity sensor problem. For whatever reason, I'm guessing the phone thought that something was plugged into the headphone jack. You might try doing the same.

06/14/2009, 10:25 AM	#5 (permalink)
PantsOnFire Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 24 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Well I did both tests as suggested. The proximity sensor test passed with no problems. However when I try to make a phone call afterwards I still have the same problem, it just doesn't recognize when its up to my ear. I then tried plugging the headphones/microphone into the pre and place a call. Audio comes through the headphones but when i unplug them it is back to the same problem and no audio comes out of the earpiece in the phone and the proximity sensor does not know when it is up to my ear.

06/14/2009, 04:39 PM	#6 (permalink)
apollo92 Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 2 Thanks: 2 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	i had this exact problem yesterday and tried to fix it by restarting the phone, unplugging/replugging the headset, putting the phone on the touchstone and taking it off during calls and nothing fixed it. I tried doing the interactive tests and the prox sensor and earpiece worked fine but i didn't bother plugging in a headset for the headset test in that section i then did a partial erase/reset and tried the phone again and ran into the same problem i finally did the interactive test for audio again but this time i did plug in a wired headset for that portion of the test and went through all the tests normally and the earpiece/prox sensor work just fine now when i was having this problem i noticed that the phone basically just saw it as a wired headset being plugged in all the time because if i used pandora and unplugged the jack, it wouldn't pause pandora like it previously did.. now it does with it working seems like a pretty massive bug to me

06/14/2009, 05:06 PM	#7 (permalink)
ScrapMaker Member Join Date: May 2009 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 692 Thanks: 5 Thanked 44 Times in 37 Posts	Sounds like the Pre has a finicky earphone jack. I have heard of this happening on multitiudes of phones over the past few years. If it won't go away--no matter what you've done, I suggest using WebOS doctor found at www.palm.com/ROM If that doesn't fix it, take it back.

06/14/2009, 11:12 PM	#9 (permalink)
tagz Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 9 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I ran into this same problem. Was using the headphones while listening to pandora. Unpluged them and set the phone down for little while. Then went to place a call and I could hear the person, but they could not hear me. Turns out it was stuck as if the headphones were still in it. During a call the little icon will either show a phone handset, headphones, or the speakerphone icon. Mine would no longer show the handset. Would only toggle between speaker, and headphone. Thus the reason the proximity sensor stoped working, it thought it was in headphone mode. Ended up returning it and getting another pre same day. But, then at palms forums other people confirmed that if you start pandora up, plug the headphones in then I think they said mute and unmute it then pull the headphones out it should correct the problem. Like I said I returned mine before knowing about this so I cant say it will work or not. Worth a shot though.

06/24/2009, 12:10 AM	#10 (permalink)
fareal Member Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 196 Thanks: 5 Thanked 10 Times in 8 Posts	Can you post a link to that thread on the Palm forums. I'm having this issue but can't resolve it with the steps you mentioned.

06/24/2009, 12:44 AM	#11 (permalink)
scoobdude Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 372 Thanks: 14 Thanked 23 Times in 21 Posts	this happened to both my wifes and my treo 650. this has just recently happened to my wife's centro as well. I fixed it by blowing in the headset jack on her centro since i did not have a 2.5mm headset with me. I also tried unplugging and plugging the headset till i saw the icon change on the screen for the 650s. So it looks like the problem is back with the new phone as well. Oh well in other news i need a new cord for my headphones..... for when i finally find a pre that is

07/01/2009, 08:05 PM	#12 (permalink)
sam1am Member Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: The SLC Posts: 177 Thanks: 24 Thanked 79 Times in 24 Posts	Not cool. This happened to me first yesterday and again today. Eventually fixed when I tracked down a pair of headphones and plugged them in, placed a call, unplugged them, and then tried again. I wonder if this is a problem with a hardware switch inside the headphone jack or a problem with the software not recognizing the events properly. In other words, can it be fixed via a software update?

07/22/2009, 03:39 PM	#13 (permalink)
brettkola Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 14 Thanks: 1 Thanked 2 Times in 1 Post	The Pre sometimes has trouble detecting headphone removal if the headphones aren't playing anything. Try playing something and then removing, if that doesn't work clean with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip with almost all the lint removed.

08/11/2009, 02:51 PM	#15 (permalink)
vicini Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 33 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Alcohol worked, don't bother with anything else in this post. If phone gives the headphones or speaker phone option only, just clean out the head phone port.

08/11/2009, 06:15 PM	#16 (permalink)
chitlinpita Member Join Date: Aug 2009 Posts: 2 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I have been too scared to try the alcohol and q-tip route, but I keep having this problem. Twice now I've been able to fix it using these steps. 1. Start Pandora with headphones attached. 2. Play Pandora song for a little while. 3. Stop Pandora and exit. 4. Unplug headphones. 5. Go to phone and test. 6. Should be fixed.

08/11/2009, 06:36 PM	#17 (permalink)
ccw.in.az Member Join Date: Jul 2009 Posts: 4 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	II fixed this problem by following a post I found here. Can't find it now but I think the procedure was: 1.) plug in headphones. 2.) press mute 3.) press mute again 4.) unplug headphones Like I said, I think this was the order but not 100% sure.

08/12/2009, 09:44 AM	#18 (permalink)
av1atrx Member Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 32 Thanks: 8 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I had this problem. I ran the proximity sensor test and at the end it asked if I would like to send the results to "customer service." I had never seen this option before. I sent the results and it never happened again. That was 2 weeks ago.

10/02/2009, 02:59 PM	#20 (permalink)
joek71 Member Join Date: Jun 2009 Posts: 139 Thanks: 7 Thanked 9 Times in 8 Posts	what if you never used the headphones, my started acting up, I use bluetooth and when I disconnect my blutooth I can'tmake calls cause got the headphone icon and need the bluetooth to call, and sometime when using blue tooth the headphone would come on by them selfs, I alredy ordered a new pre. But this is kind of crazy.