Resolving the Nokia 6710 Navigator Zooming Problem


If you use the Nokia 6710 Navigator, most probably you will be having the zooming problem unless you are one of the lucky few. The zoom bar registers keystrokes randomly even though you are not touching the zoom area at all. This causes key and phone lockup. When using applications that support the zoom bar, the application zooms in and out randomly and incessantly that it is impossible to use the application. Furthermore, if you’re using Garmin Mobile XT, the keystrokes caused by the zoom bar cause Garmin to initiate search with some useless characters. This makes it impossible to search in Garmin despite the fact that Garmin does not support the zoom bar. Follow the steps in this post to resolve the issues.

Among the symptoms of the zoom bar acting up are:

  • Constant and random zooming in and out while using Web browser, viewing pictures in Gallery, while using the Map, and while taking photos.
  • Keys randomly do not respond due to the keystroke buffer filling up because of random zooming keystrokes.
  • Phone randomly locks up for a while due to the zoom bar acting up.
  • Zooming happens randomly when you press the menu key, the call key, or the left and right shortcut keys.
  • Sometimes the call and menu keys do not respond.

Users have been making a lot of noise in the Nokia forum and elsewhere on the Internet but Nokia does not seem to be bothered. All they need to do is just enable an option in the firmware to disable the zoom bar. Problem solved. All the zoom bar sensitive applications can still perform zoom in and out using the volume keys or other keys on the keypad anyway.

So, how to solve this? Simple. Install MagicKey by Leftup and configure it to remap the keystrokes from the zoom bar to unsupported keys. Problem solved. Here are the steps to do it:

  1. Download the MagicKey application. Click here to search it in Google and download from a forum where you have access.
  2. If you do not have a developer certificate, apply one from OPDA. Register and apply for the certificate. Follow the instructions there.
  3. Once you have the certificate, login and upload MagicKey. It will be signed. Download it.
  4. Install MagicKey on your Nokia 6710. Better to install it on the Phone Memory instead of Memory Card so that it will always be there even if you remove the Memory Card.
  5. Once installed, open MagicKey. It is in the Apps > Installat. folder.
  6. In MagicKey, select Options. Then, select Start on Boot. If it is already Not Start On Boot, leave it.
  7. Shut down your phone and then restart it.
  8. Open MagicKey again and navigate to the KeyMap List tab.
  9. Click on Default KeyMap.
  10. Select Click to Add Key Pair.
  11. In the Original key field, type 192 and then in Maps to, type 6.
  12. Select OK.
  13. Select Click to Add Key Pair again.
  14. In the Original key field, type 193 this time. Then in Maps to, again, type 6.
  15. Select OK.
  16. Exit MagicKey and restart your phone.

That should do the trick. If you use Garmin Mobile XT, you may also want to create a specific keymap for it because in Garmin, the camera key also somehow registers keystrokes caused by the zoom bar. I do not know why but if you have that problem, do the following too:

  1. Open MagicKey and navigate to the KeyMap List tab.
  2. Click Options and select Add.
  3. Type a name for the keymap like Garmin Keymap.
  4. Click on the new keymap to open it.
  5. Select Click to Add Key Pair and add three new keypairs one by one namely 192, 193, and 226 all mapped to 6.
  6. Once done, navigate to the App List tab.
  7. Click Options and select Add.
  8. From the list, select GMobile XT. The new app will be added.
  9. In the App List tab, select GMobile XT and click it.
  10. Select the Garmin keymap you created just now.
  11. Exit MagicKey and restart your phone.

You can also do this for other applications if you find some weird keystrokes happening randomly.

The solution reduces the random zooming by a huge magnitude. However, once in a while, it acts up again because MagicKey lost focus or there are just too many random zoom bar keystrokes happening. If that is the case, open MagicKey, make sure that it starts on boot (the menu option will show Not Start on Boot). Then, restart your phone. If after restart there are still some key problems, just open MagicKey so that the daemon loads and then close MagicKey.

There. Your Nokia 6710 should be back to becoming your dream phone – without the zoom bar, though.

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Update: I’ve discovered that in Ovi Store and Web, mapping the zoom bar to 6 gives a problem that causes dropdown menus on web pages to dropdown – even when you don’t click it. In fact, it happens continuously that you keep on selecting the option and it drops down again and again — making the web page useless. If you use Web or Ovi Store, better to map the zoom bar to 0 (None). After making that adjustments, I can use Ovi Store properly.

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Reader Comments

Hi Tejan,

My PCV tap surgery seems to work well enough, but not perfect. Sometimes, it still happen but not so bad anymore. I still turn on MagicKeys to trap the keystrokes but that means sometime there’s still unresponsive keys.

I think I’ll try back with two layers of the PVC tape. If that still doesn’t work, maybe I’ll just cut off the zoom bar strip…

Just a tip when opening a Nokia phone. Be careful and do it slow. Some parts are actually glued together by double-tape (the keypad circuit and the zoom bar strip). So, pry slowly but firmly to separate the top cover. Mario’s video seems easy because he probably already removed the double-tape.

Great tips! I will try it definitely
thanks for sharing this!

I used the MagicKey on my 6710. I mapped to 186 (operator) instead of 6 (print screen) and it works. I did not need the screen touch zoom bar at all. Prefere it this way. Works for maps, camera and browser.
Thanks a lot.

It will give some “zooming” once in a while, though. When it does, just restart the phone and then run magickeys again. Or, if you truly don’t want to use the zoom bar ever, just open the phone and cut off the zoom strip. 😉

There is a new comment on the Nokia forum.

Here:

http://discussions.nokia.com.au/t5/Nseries-and-S60-Smartphones/6710-Navigator-Zooming-in-and-out/m-p/711443#M214707

Maybe there is a glimmer of hope (IF it’s real…)

any other solutions beside installing MagicKey?

I’ve already abandoned hope for Nokia Care Centre. By the time the Malaysian Care Centre have the parts, my warranty will be useless. More than a year already! BTW, my warranty already voided… ha ha. I opened and put on tape.

wow, i thought i was the only one having problems with my 6710. I will try to open my phone when i get home and put electrical tape on the housing part of the zoom bar. hope it works. It’s a very good phone if not for the problems.

Read somewhere that ripping out the sensor key would put an end to the random zooming and phone would then run well, u loose warranty though and zoom obviously, does this work though or would it damage phone and leave it useless in sensor is ripped?

Should be okay. See earlier comments and pictures by bAN01TgAZ.

Hi Universal Cynic,

I have tried MagicKey and have mapped 192 and 193 both to 186 (as I saw from another post), and that seems to work fine. I first tried 6 as you posted earlier, but it gave me the same problem. 186 also gave me the same problem but it stopped once I had opened and exited the MagicKey application.

It has only been a few minutes, however, so I will wait a few days and see if the situation stays corrected.

Otherwise, thank you for your efforts and your wonderful help. I saw a post in the Nokia Forum which told us to open the screen and cut the cable that connects to the zoom bar, and I was seriously considering that drastic measure until I came across your post.

Will keep you (and everyone else here) updated on whether MagicKeys has resolved the issue once and for all.

Hi Ricardo,

You’re welcome. Glad to hear it works for you. For my 6710, I didn’t cut the zoom bar strip. But I did open up the phone and put a PVC tape on the zoom strip. That reduced the zoom keys registering. Then I use MagicKeys to totally disable it. The reason I put the tape is to make it less sensitive. Even with MagicKeys trapping the zoom keystrokes, the keystrokes still happen. That will still fill up the keybuffer. By putting the PVC tape, I reduce the keystrokes – freeing up the keybuffer and giving MagicKeys a better chance to trap the few strokes that still happened.

I re-mapped the 192 and 193 to 6.
Does NOT worked,still zooming in and out.Now I tried:
192 remap 186
193 remap 6
This combination is WORK for me,
I am happy now.

Thanx for the help. I mapped the keys to 29 and it works fine (neglecting the magic key bug). Thanx also to drtezza so I can zoom camera and gallery pictures. The zoom problem was really annoying.

Thanks UC!
Helped me a lot in taking the irritating zoom function away. My phone is brand new and I was more or less aware of the problems with this model but I liked the phone and decided to bear it out but with the solution you supplied it’s much easier!
Mapped all to 6 incuding Garmin. Seems fine althought the keypad problem is still there but much less.

Atleast I am able to do a search on Garmin without the bloody AAA’s!

Thanks again.

You’re welcome, Marco. You can try putting the tape trick to reduce the keypad problem to almost nothing.. but you’ll have to open the phone. Actually, Nokia says they know how to fix the phone (by repairing the grounding of the zoombar — which is like putting the tape, hah!). So, if it’s convenient, better take it to the nearest Nokia service center and tell them it’s the zoombar problem.

Hi all. Thank you UniCynic for your work with this endless prolem that finally for me came to end by adding the double layer tape as showed in the youtube videos. I can’t believe I have a working phone now after a year of pain!

Hi luca,
You’re welcome. I didn’t do much work… just looking for answers on the Internet. My thanks to those people who worked on getting it done. Also those who contributed information here.

Just to let you people know that after a year struggling with the Nokia 6710 Navigator, I’ve decided to abandon Nokia. Despite the nice N8, I don’t dare risk it.
So now I’ve switched to Samsung. I’m typing this now on my Samsung Galaxy S. I’m totally loving it! The best phone I’ve ever used.
My Nokia has better camera with flash. It can also run Garmin. And yet, despite all that, this Galaxy S still beats it like 10 times better.
So, bye bye Nokia. It’s been emotional.

Hi,
Thank you so ever much for the software along with your informative instructions. I’ve mapped the mentioned buttons to 0 and now, not only did I get rid of the random zoom keystrokes, but I can still use the zoom bar along with the keys * and # too zoom in NORMALLY in all the applications I’ve tried so far.
And Nokia, if only your concern about your customers was as cool as your products.

[…] updates have been issued, fixing other bugs but this one hasn’t gone anywhere. Thankfully there was a solution forthcoming, not from Nokia though, which involved disabling the zoom bar. This should have be […]

Two months on Galaxy S now. Just beautiful. Found a good alternative to Garmin… Sygic Aura. Expensive, though. And still able to use Ovi Maps online through Locus. And where Samsung fails (still waaaaayyy better than Nokia), the Android community steps in. They even have custom Romd and custom kernels… And all legal because Google holds on to “Do No Evil”.

It’s not perfect but pretty close. Whatever shortcomings there are, there are always the App Market for all sorts of apps. I’ve also just discovered Netmite that allows me to download and convert normal MIDP java apps into Android APKs right on the phone! So now I can still use whatever java apps and games I have. Really cool.

I would like to write a review of the Galaxy S but can only think of two words: the best!

I am going to try the grounding solution before opening the phone as it’s still under warranty. Found two care centres in my vicinity so will try them and see what happens.

Got my phone back after less than a week! Was sceptical at first but lo and behold, it works! Zooming is fine! No random behaviour and keys are working properly without having to rewrite anything! No interruptions because of the constant zooming. What a pleasure! Seems they’ve got it right this time!

it took me a while to work out how to sign the certificate to the magickey app, but i got there in the end and i found that mapping both to 186 works for me. thanks heaps! stupid nokia….def not getting another one after this is y 3rd replacement in a year of the same phone!!

My phone is 6710s. I followed all of the steps and it seemed like it worked, but the zoom bar problem was not fixed, because there were the usual problems. Anyway it is way better than before. Thanks.

It worked for me. Sometimes the zoom problem returns but opening Magic key and close it solves this problem.
I have one question. What does this program do? What does this mapping etc. do?

But again many thanks for this program.

You’re welcome…. but I didn’t make the program. I’m just linking it.
The program takes an input, and report another input to the phone system. So, we program it to intercept the zoom bar input and tell the phone it’s an input from a non-existent key. Sometimes it fails because there’s just too many erratic input from the zoom bar… so just restart it.

I tried MagicKeys and taping the zoom bar as shown in the Youtube video but all to no avail. The only thing that seemed to work for me was buying a new casing from a Chinese supplier off eBay and that seems to have fixed it – for now. Go figure…

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started and set up my own. Do you need any html coding knowledge to make
your own blog? Any help would be really appreciated!

Yes, I’m using WordPress, with some customization.

thanks for your solotion.at first it worked but after i did shut down and turned on the problem retuned.but opening again majic key and closing it is solved this big problem. again 1000 thanks

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