Not registering screen touches but device otherwise seemingly functionable

Question

The problem is that it does not register any touches on the screen, though all buttons work fine. So I can turn it on and also do the shutdown, Home+Off button but can not Slide it to activate.
I had this problem before where I thought it had completely failed and order a return service from Apple. Ironically, the day the UPS package arrived, I tried it again and it worked until yesterday, several months later.
While I had no clue what happend the first time, I have an better idea this time. I was browsing with Safari when it crashed and froze the screen. Pressing home quit Safari after a while but from here, it stopped registering touches. After a hard reset, I was able to activate it and got to the home screen, I suspect my mistake was in re-entering Safari which again froze and stopped registering touches. Since then I have not been able to Touch anything regardless of any number of hard resets.
I suspect it started working the last time after it had been without use for a while causing a completely battery drain and this is what I'm attempting now. Though a bit difficult with the activation screen only showing for a few seconds and the last bits of juice requiring turning it on every third second.
I have been unable to find any postings of this problem on the forums or Google. Perhaps not using the right description.
I hope to hear from anyone with knowledge of this problem.

Answer 1

Dud...
To perform a 'hard reset' (in the Apple OS) is to Apple>Shut Down and then restart, A 'soft reset' would be Apple>Restart
Typically, only a 'hard reset' clears the memory.
With the touch OS Apple says:
If something is not working right, restarting or resetting iPod touch will likely solve the problem.
Restart iPod touch: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button until the red slider appears.
Slide your finger across the slider to turn off iPod touch. To turn iPod touch back on, press and hold the Sleep/Wake until the Apple logo appears.
Reset iPod touch: Press and hold the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button at the
same time for at least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
So it sounds like a touch Restart is what I would call a 'hard reset' and a touch Reset is what I would call a 'soft reset'.