bobpeers -> blog

My Desire is 6 months old, not rooted and has Android 2.2 installed. Just recently the proximity sensor has issues, it seems that it only detects very bright light so is useless indoors (or in grey Danish winter).
Basically the sensor should detect when I make a call and hold the phone to my ear and then turn off the screen, it should turn back on when I remove it from my ear.
In reality as soon as I start a call the screen goes blank and it never turns back on. I’m unable to hang up the call or press any buttons during the call. Only after the call is ended by the other party does the screen turn back on, and then it takes about a minutes after the call ends to do this.
If I insert the charger, headphone jack or hold the phone to a very bright lamp the screen turns on so it seems to be a software issue as the sensor does work, it’s just the sensitivity is totally out of calibration.
I contacted HTC who suggested a hard reset, which I did, but the problem still exists so after the New Year I think I’ll have to send it for repair.
It’s a shame, I really like the phone but this issue makes it useless for phone calls right now.
The issue seems to affect a few people and there’s a thread on the HTC community forum.
Update – I found a stupidly easy fix. Just blow between the screen and the ear piece. It looks like there is no gap but it blows dust out of the sensor. HTC needs to seal the screen better to stop this.
The fix came from this tweet.