71 digitizer not working

The digitizer on the 71 is not working. Any ideas? Here are the symptoms below:

I can go to apps using the buttons. There is no response on the screen to taps. I cannot draw on Note Pad.

Soft reset does not fix the problem. Of course I don't want to do a hard reset unless I have to. I have no way to back up the info first because I can't sync. (For some reason I can only sync with IR.. this has been going on for a long time. The button on the cable does not work.. I have to use the HotSync icon.)

At one point I noticed the battery was at 0% which doesn't seem possible. The battery has been losing the ability to hold a charge.  Charging to 100% did not fix it. I have not tried a hard reset, which of course I want to avoid if I can.

I have Fitaly that is set to ask you if you want to reenable it when you do a soft reset. Sometimes I see a message try to come up that gets erased by the Fitaly prompt. Other times, the message comes up after the prompt is on and I try to hit a button since I can't tap. Before it goes to the app of the button I press, I see the message flash by. 

At one point, it was reacting like buttons were being pressed when they weren't or that it was delaying the response.. like I would press stuff and it would wait a while before reacting to it.

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Brenda