3rd party power adapter causing screen glitches?

Question

After some rearranging my bedroom, I had to replace my US plug power adapter to a 3rd party UK plug power adapter, whenever I plug my iPad Air 2 into the 3rd party charger, the screen starts to glitch and it acts almost like there is another (invisible) finger constantly on the screen, this causes issues when selecting different keyboards, playing games, typing and scrolling through internet. But when I remove the iPad from charging, this issue doesn't happen... it's almost like the touch screen having a weird spasm whenever it's got water droplets on it.

When I had my old original Apple US plug adapter, this problem never happened, also I replaced the original short and fragile Apple charging cord to another one that is 3 metres (although I don't think that the cable is the issue because I've been using it for a very long time).

This issue is quite new to me and i am quite unsure whether it's the iPad itself or the power adapter...

What should I do?

Thanks,

Sid.

Answer 1

It's almost certainly the fact you're using the 3rd party UK plug power adapter (although it's not clear to me how you're doing this).

Regardless, as a simple test to confirm, all you need to do is plug your iPad into a USB port (e.g. on your Mac/PC) using the same cable. If the problem doesn't repeat itself, you have your answer.

If it does still occur, you know then that's it's likely the cable or iPad itself. You could then double-check there's nothing inside the Lighting port of your iPad causing interference/conductivity issues. If there's nothing obvious, retest by using another cable.

Answer 2

I encountered this exact scenario under different conditions.

Apple UK 5W folding-pin mains adapter + 2m Amazon Basics lightning cable

This has always worked fine when used with standard mains supply. But I used the same combination on a train which had power sockets at each seat and experienced the same screen/touch glitches on my iPhone 7Plus. Unplugging the adaptor instantly resolved the issue.

So - It would appear the same issue can be caused by what I assume was a below-spec electricity supply.

Answer 3

Recent findings....

For few days I have been experimenting which component is causing these screen spasms... here are my findings,

Apple adapter + Apple cable = no interference Apple adapter + 3rd party cable = no interference 3rd party adapter + Apple cable = interference 3rd party adapter + 3rd party cable = interference

Please note, the original Apple cable that came with my iPad had a slit just before the lightning plug, but this didn't play any role of the interference on my iPad, I had also eliminated the chances that my slit cable was causing interference by using my mum's cable from her iPad Air 2.

Conclusion...

The testing and the results shows that the 3rd party adapter did cause the interference, initially I thought it was the screen protector, as it was cracked slightly, bit even when I removed it the interference was still evident. So right now, I can confidently say that some 3rd party adapters do not work well with the iPad, although in my case it didn't damage the iPad itself, please be careful when buying 3rd party adapters, always check the rating before buying, for me the rating was the same as the original Apple adapter.

Pictures of the culprit 3rd party adapter...

FYI - I used the 2.1 amp socket in the plug (labelled 2.1A) and I haven't yet tested the 1 amp socket yet whether it will still produce the screen interference. The adapter seems to be unbranded and manufactured from China, and was bought by my dad a very long time ago from Amazon to replace his faulty iPhone 4s adapter.