For months I’ve had an issue with my iPad screen becoming unresponsive. This was happening with the 2017 and now 2018 model. But it was sporadic. I might go days with no issue then suddenly scrolling, tapping or anything would be met with no response. Sometimes for a couple seconds, sometimes for 10 to 20 seconds. I could tap and swipe and tap and nothing. But, through it all, anytime I put Pencil to screen it would work perfectly. Over the past few days it was getting worse. to the point that I chatted Apple Care knowing full well they would want me to reset to the default and start over.
Sigh.
I prepped for it. Almost did it this morning. But noticed that I was having a error free morning. The screen was smooth and responsive as I could want. I thought, hmmm, I know it’s not fixed but I’ll wait till it acts up again. Funny thing. I realized I’d left my Pencil on a shelf 15 feet from the iPad. Huh. Kept using it and no problems. Finally, in the late afternoon I attached the Pencil. Pulled it off and used it. Reattached it. 40 minutes later the screen was stuttering. Hmmm. Pencil was attached at that point. I used it for 20 minutes. Stutter. Stutter. Took the Pencil off and put it back on the shelf. Confirmed no signal. 3 hours of use after that with no stuttering.
Now, in the past I had turned off Bluetooth having read that some thought the Pencil might be the problem and that turning off Bluetooth would fix it. It never did anything for me. But putting the Pencil across the room sure has. I’ll be testing over the next week but in my case this really seems like an issue. I’m not sure if it is the Pencil or the screen, hardware or software. There are enough threads elsewhere that it does seem to be a thing.