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:
- Download the MagicKey application. Click here to search it in Google and download from a forum where you have access.
- If you do not have a developer certificate, apply one from OPDA. Register and apply for the certificate. Follow the instructions there.
- Once you have the certificate, login and upload MagicKey. It will be signed. Download it.
- 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.
- Once installed, open MagicKey. It is in the Apps > Installat. folder.
- In MagicKey, select Options. Then, select Start on Boot. If it is already Not Start On Boot, leave it.
- Shut down your phone and then restart it.
- Open MagicKey again and navigate to the KeyMap List tab.
- Click on Default KeyMap.
- Select Click to Add Key Pair.
- In the Original key field, type 192 and then in Maps to, type 6.
- Select OK.
- Select Click to Add Key Pair again.
- In the Original key field, type 193 this time. Then in Maps to, again, type 6.
- Select OK.
- 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:
- Open MagicKey and navigate to the KeyMap List tab.
- Click Options and select Add.
- Type a name for the keymap like Garmin Keymap.
- Click on the new keymap to open it.
- Select Click to Add Key Pair and add three new keypairs one by one namely 192, 193, and 226 all mapped to 6.
- Once done, navigate to the App List tab.
- Click Options and select Add.
- From the list, select GMobile XT. The new app will be added.
- In the App List tab, select GMobile XT and click it.
- Select the Garmin keymap you created just now.
- 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.
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.
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.