Screen lighting issue. - G1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

XDA-Dev:
I hope this finds you in high spirits and good health. Just a day ago my phone started acting peculiar regarding the lighting of the touchscreen.
Firmware: 1.6 // Build: DRC83 // Rooted: No
Damage: Slightly scratched hard plastic from dropping 2-3 times. Otherwise, outwardly pristine
Upon purchasing the phone, I immediately noticed that the screen would creak if it was pressed on the bottom right hand side (by the send button). The right side of the screen also protrudes slightly higher than the left when in the open position. I have owned the device for about 7-8 months now and have noticed that on the rear, when in open position, there is a scratch where the sliding mechanism moves. The paint is stripped and the underlying metal is displayed in those areas. And now on to the issue at hand:
When the phone is closed (touchscreen only):
- When pressing MENU, or any key that would normally illuminate the screen, this does not happen. The screen stays dim, yet the lights on the buttons bellow it brighten.
- If I slide out the keyboard while the screen is supposed to be on (meaning the buttons are lit up), nothing happens.
When the phone is open (keyboard presented):
- And the screen is off, if I press MENU, the screen comes right up with no brightness issues.
- At this point, if I close the keyboard, the backlight disables itself. The screen is NOT completely blank. If I reflect the light of the room off of it, I can just barely make out that it is indeed displaying whatever task it was that was open, but if I were in a dark room, there would be no chance of recognising what is being presented.
- Continuing from above, once the screen's backlight is disabled and I reopen the keyboard, it does not turn back on. I must turn off the screen and turn it back on for the backlight to resume normal functioning.
One would think that if the issue lies in a loose wire that once the keyboard is extended that the backlight would regain normal functioning. Because this is not happening and that it is only working under certain circumstances, I cannot accurately ascertain whether this is a software or hardware problem.
Attempted remedies:
- Soft reset (both rebooting the phone by powering off and on and by going into the reset menu)
- Hard reset (by going into the reset menu and hitting ALT+W, etc)
Neither of these attempts succeeded in restoring functionality of the backlight. I've also search high and low through the settings, but see nothing other than 'Brightness' under 'Sound & Display.'
It may be noteworthy that I have the paid application 'Power Manager' installed. Though, perhaps not since this issue was still occurring AFTER the factory reset when no foreign applications were installed.
If you require any additional details, feel free to give a reply with any questions. I'm sincerely hoping I don't have to deal with T-Mobile or HTC to have this repaired. Any tips, ideas or possible solutions would be greatly appreciated!
Regards,
Ian

Update on issue:
On the way home from work, as the battery was on it's last leg (less than 10%), I turned off the screen while the device was in the open position after finishing a text. Upon attempting to re-activate the screen, it would not do so. As always, the side buttons lit up, but the screen was blank no matter what I did. I could hear the vibration from receiving texts and the red 'omg I\'m dying LED' was still flashing, so the device had not died.
Returning home, I gave it a reboot by removing and replacing the battery. I've kept it in the open position since it has been plugged in and am quite afraid of manipulating the slide mechanism any further.
I'll be calling t-mobile to get their opinion on any further troubleshooting momentarily and report back.

Sorry for opening an older thread. do you remember what t-mobile said was the problem? i am having the same issue.

simplewhite said:
Sorry for opening an older thread. do you remember what t-mobile said was the problem? i am having the same issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ribbon wire in the slide mechanism is either broken or pulled out of socket.

Related

Tilt locks up unexepectedly

Recently, my Tilt started "locking up" unexpectedly -- it is non-responsive to key or button presses, or touch screen presses, but the bluetooth and wireless lights blink occasionally so it appears to be still "alive". I have to take out the battery to reset it.
This started happening about the time I started wearing it in a belt case. I suspect I am somehow pressing some combination of buttons or partly sliding open the keyboard hwen I take it out of the case, but I'm not sure (obviously). It doesn't happen every time, in fact only about one out of fifty times I remove it from the case, but it is still bothersome.
Perhaps someone else has experienced this or can guess as to the case? Or, perhaps there is a way to turn off all external controls so they cannot be accidentally pressed - while still giving me a way to quickly answer calls/texts?
...................hmmm
[email protected] said:
Recently, my Tilt started "locking up" unexpectedly -- it is non-responsive to key or button presses, or touch screen presses, but the bluetooth and wireless lights blink occasionally so it appears to be still "alive". I have to take out the battery to reset it.
This started happening about the time I started wearing it in a belt case. I suspect I am somehow pressing some combination of buttons or partly sliding open the keyboard hwen I take it out of the case, but I'm not sure (obviously). It doesn't happen every time, in fact only about one out of fifty times I remove it from the case, but it is still bothersome.
Perhaps someone else has experienced this or can guess as to the case? Or, perhaps there is a way to turn off all external controls so they cannot be accidentally pressed - while still giving me a way to quickly answer calls/texts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Steve - If after following the help Harkadenn gave you you are still puzzled - please read the threads on lockups on the Tilt. You wil find these in the ROM sections.
Now - it is going to be necessary to know some if not all of the following information:
1. where are you - US - SE - NW - Italy?
2. what is your carrier?
3. what ROM version are you running
4. have you flashed any other ROMs? or are you running the original
5. what programs have you loaded?
I suspect that you are NOT pushing any buttons - that this is actually locking up on you.
Bill
i thought at first it was me, then i thought, it was the invisible shield i have on my kaiser, but no... it turned out to be HTC's rom that was freezing up.
I flashed dutty's rom, and hey presto, everythings quicker, no lock ups, touch screen reponds 100%!
Even flipping the keyboard out, the rotation is instant!

Run-over Tilt repaired LCD scree but still not working properly...

Hello all.
So, long story as short as possible:
My Tilt got run over, LCD screen was busted but I could still make and receive calls by sliding it open, hitting the call button and using the keyboard to dial and 'enter' to connect.
I was also still able to connect to the phone via bluetooth from my mac, as well as syncing it on my PC partition.
Eventually, I think I hit too many random buttons and turned the phone off or something as I could no longer get it to dial out this way. I was always getting the flashing green and blue lights though.
After some research (and un-won auctions on eBay) I decided to see if popping in a new LCD screen would fix my situation.
I installed the new LCD last night, and the machine is almost back to living, however, I now have the current problems:
When the phone boots into 'normal' mode, the screen is display is very truncated. It doesn't display the full HTC updated today screen and won't respond to touch. It says 'no service' but wi-fi seems to connect. If I slide it open, the keyboard lights up but doesn't respond, neither do the front keys. Also, I get only a solid orange light in the upper left LED.
If I boot the phone into 'Safe Mode' it responds to touch, connects to the AT&T network, connects to Wi-Fi, etc. The front keys still do not do anything, and when I slide it open the keyboard does not light up or respond. Also, I get both the green light in the upper right and blue in the upper left.
Another thing, when I slide the phone open and closed there's a slight ripple in the middle of the phone like something is 'pressing' on it from the back.
Sorry for the novel. Any help is appreciated. I'm considering 'clearing storage' and returning it to factory settings or flashing the ROM. I've taken it apart and put it together like four times now, checking, double checking and triple checking connections.
Thanks!
Sounds like one of the headers isnt fully seated in the display region. IIRC there are two that I had to deal with with my 10min LCD swap routine
Yeah, I think you're basically describing symptoms of having put the phone back together wrong except that it's interesting it responds in this 'Safe Mode' and interesting that it would happen after four retries
It's probably going to need a hard reset then! You might want to check nothing has been bent, warped mountings/plastic could be the cause of the screen ripple issue.
Were there any active components on the touch film for the display? (Assuming you have replaced that too with the LCD, or that they're one whole unit) if that is the case, they may be different, newer revisions? Really grasping at straws there though; at the end of the day, the poor phone has been mauled by a wheel... best of luck!!
Thanks for the thoughts! I guess I could try and break it down again. As far as I could tell, everything looked like the phone in the disassembly directions; nothing appeared unduly bent or mangled.
"Sounds like one of the headers isnt fully seated in the display region."
I'll google it, but what 'headers' are we talking about? The small metal bits that seem to touch the upper outside edge of the LCD screen?
Would an improperly seated header cause the other symptoms? Unresponsive other buttons (keyboard, front keys) and connectivity issues with the network?
"Were there any active components on the touch film for the display?"
I got a new LCD and digitizer (is that what you mean by other active components?).
Thanks again!!
AtillaDNun said:
Thanks for the thoughts! I guess I could try and break it down again. As far as I could tell, everything looked like the phone in the disassembly directions; nothing appeared unduly bent or mangled.
"Sounds like one of the headers isnt fully seated in the display region."
I'll google it, but what 'headers' are we talking about? The small metal bits that seem to touch the upper outside edge of the LCD screen?
Would an improperly seated header cause the other symptoms? Unresponsive other buttons (keyboard, front keys) and connectivity issues with the network?
"Were there any active components on the touch film for the display?"
I got a new LCD and digitizer (is that what you mean by other active components?).
Thanks again!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any cable that attaches to the circuit boards, re-seat every one you can find. One faulty connection can cause a lot of problems. I have a similar problem with a button on my PSP but im to lazy to fix it.

help-Replacing the screen lead to frustrating keyboard/button issue.

After replacing the screen and reinstalling the HTC Rom I am having the most frustrating keyboard/button issue.
When I turn it on everything works great, it's like a new phone. No problems.
When the screen shuts off, either manually or automatically and I turn it back on is when the problem arises. When using the phone with the keyboard, the phone seems to randomly after any key (only on the keyboard) push the center button the front.
Lets say I'm typing in Word, after the 3rd character for example it will save and quit. In SMS it will make a new line. In explorer it will bring up the context menu. Each time the buttons on the from of the phone will turn on, which they shouldn't be doing.
I can use the buttons on the front to do what ever and the problem wont come up, only with the keyboard.
What could I have screwed up while replacing the screen? The thing I don't get is the correlation with the screen shutting off.
Fixed
I fixed it and I'm posting here in case someone else has the same problem.
The faulty part was the scroll wheel and it's little PCB board. I replaced that and now it works. I also discovered that if that piece is missing, you will have the same problem.

[Q] Lock screen issue, flickering and automatically locking

Anyone noticed something similar?
Sometimes when unlocking phone with the unlock button or by double tapping it wakes up but is unresponsive to touch, the brightness alters with random intervals, wallpaper flickers. The phone becomes usable again after a few locks and unlocks with the button , although very rarely but still sometimes it automatically locks itself after unlocking.
Factory reset didn't help and before that I was using all the latest updates.
Is this a problem on the hardware side?
SanttV said:
Anyone noticed something similar?
Sometimes when unlocking phone with the unlock button or by double tapping it wakes up but is unresponsive to touch, the brightness alters with random intervals, wallpaper flickers. The phone becomes usable again after a few locks and unlocks with the button , although very rarely but still sometimes it automatically locks itself after unlocking.
Factory reset didn't help and before that I was using all the latest updates.
Is this a problem on the hardware side?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pretty sure mine is. It started with similar issues and has only gotten worse. Flexing the phone a bit makes the screen go all wonky and it's the only way I can get it to come on/become responsive. I will more than likely have to send it in to Sony. Ugh.
Sent phone in
Received back with the following itemized work:
Action: part (s) replaced
Part Description:
Front Cover Assy Green
Screw Len: 2.0 Diam: 1.4
Screw Other Len: 3.0 Diam: 1.4
Screw Other Len: 3.0 Diam: 1.4
Screw Other Len: 3.0 Diam: 1.4
Shield Camera
Screw Len:3.2 Diam:1.2
Screw Len:3.2 Diam:1.2
Cap USB Sub Assy Green
Cap SIM Sub Assy Green
Panel Side Charger Green
Window Back Sub Assy Green Row
Idk wth all that means. Some of it I can guess at...but for a phone that was treated rather gingerly...to have behaved in such a manner after X amount of months (7, I think it was, before stuff started going wonky) w/out the screen being cracked or damaged in any way...the answer is lost on me! Hopefully it doesn't happen again.
Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

Weirdest black screen issue, tried everything ....

Non rooted, T mobile branded 3 month old note 8. No water damange, no drops etc.
Using chrome one miniute, set the phone down to watch a movie on my tablet, picked up the phone to check messages and boom. Screen is off. The phone works, I can even answer calls because I know where the answer button is on the screen, haptic feedback works, all indicator lights work. The phone screen remains off.
Tried a soft reset (tried hard reset too the best I could being I cant see the screen) and the phone seems to reset based on the vibration and indicator light patters but the screen remains off. It's as if a physical connection between the screen and the brains of the phone has been severed. Literaraly the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a decade of Android phone ownership.
Googled all the black screen issues with these phones and most of them are resolved with just a soft reset... some said that the phone is in it's lowest dimmed state and go to a dark room and i'll see it faintly and then can increase brightness... no luck...
Has anyone experienced this?
I would say it's a warranty job, just tried turning my brightness to zero and you can still see the screen.
I did have a similar problem on an old note that had root and custom rom though but I had somehow set the volume rocker to control brightness and it had lowered itself to minimum in my pocket
KEVIN88GT said:
Non rooted, T mobile branded 3 month old note 8. No water damange, no drops etc.
Using chrome one miniute, set the phone down to watch a movie on my tablet, picked up the phone to check messages and boom. Screen is off. The phone works, I can even answer calls because I know where the answer button is on the screen, haptic feedback works, all indicator lights work. The phone screen remains off.
Tried a soft reset (tried hard reset too the best I could being I cant see the screen) and the phone seems to reset based on the vibration and indicator light patters but the screen remains off. It's as if a physical connection between the screen and the brains of the phone has been severed. Literaraly the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a decade of Android phone ownership.
Googled all the black screen issues with these phones and most of them are resolved with just a soft reset... some said that the phone is in it's lowest dimmed state and go to a dark room and i'll see it faintly and then can increase brightness... no luck...
Has anyone experienced this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try pressing and holding Volume down and power button for 5 to 7 seconds to force power off, then try to boot to download mode Volume Down + Bixby + Power button and see if the download mode screen shows......if not then probably a bad screen.
Sent from my God Mode 8
Tried it......nothing.....warranty job it is.... Bummed to have some refurnished phone in exchange for a Brand new 900 dollar phone just a few months back?
KEVIN88GT said:
Tried it......nothing.....warranty job it is.... Bummed to have some refurnished phone in exchange for a Brand new 900 dollar phone just a few months back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that sucks, i can imagine..... i too hate the idea of refurbished units being swapped for warranty....bs, should be brand new unit!
Sent from my God Mode 8
so I had it replaced under warranty through T mobile. Refurb phone will come in today. One quesion. Should I let the Tmobile techs do the data/settings transfer from old phone to new one or just do everything myself from scratch (which will obviously take longer).
This happened to my phone twice for the past month or so. (both in Nougat and Oreo - Non rooted) Black screen but phone seems to be responding -- I can receive calls and notifications etc -- And force reboot doesn't fix it. I've also tried drainging the phone when it first happened to me but doesn't work. HOWEVER, it gets okay so randomly. Like I just left it for couple of hours and it just worked when I hit the power button.
I did tried bringing the device to Samsung but what they did is to just manually upgrade/reset the software in their end which I could have done in my part but I just let them do it. They told me to come back if it happens again which is kinda BS.
I can conveniently say this is a Hardware issue. I will wait for it to happen again on my phone and request for a replacement. Phone is 4 months old when it first happened.
I have the same issue with blank screen but phone is working.
It started couple of weeks after i dropped my phone on the ground. There is black dot on my screen and broken glass but phone was working ok and was still pretty usable. But then it started:
Display works fine but when i switch display of, lock the phone or display switched because of its timer it didn come switch on... But phone works, i can use it with blank (black) screen.
I had to do force restart so the display will turn on with samsung logo and booting screen, and keep on till another switch of.
I was trying every setting (but no hard reset) and then i found a little hack:
When you turn on the "Always On Display" (AOD) function you can let the screen switch off or do it manually, wait for 1-2 sec and always on display will come up to the screen. Then when you press home button or lock button screen will swtich on normally. YOu can type pin and use phone witch screen working. But when you try to unlock from "AOD" with your finger or your eyes it unlock but with screen black.
So i was using it like this. everytime you need to wait second untill AOD comes up, but it was working fine.
Problem nu 2 is that now it stop working, AOD is working but when i want to switch screen on from AOD it shows black screen and phone is working on blind.
So everytime after my screen goes black or to AOD i have to unlock the phone blindly and "Force restart" it and have to keep waiting until boot, and then have to never let phone to screen of.
Its not usuable.
¨
Now what do you think? Is it hardware problem or software problem? Because screen is working but randomly. The black dot of dead pixels on the screen is getting slightly bigger in time (about 1 year) but its like 1.5cm round. Maybe this cause the problem? And why hack with AOD was working for half a year and then stoped working? There wasnt any updates right before, but i tried to install some apps (non display related) so ill try to uninstall them.
Hawe you got any idea if i can repair it on my own even if i loose the waterproofability?
Or can it be replaced for free if i have a warranty? (I dont have insurance)
Thanks for your tips guys.
Reprocrastinator said:
I have the same issue with blank screen but phone is working.
It started couple of weeks after i dropped my phone on the ground. There is black dot on my screen and broken glass but phone was working ok and was still pretty usable. But then it started:
Display works fine but when i switch display of, lock the phone or display switched because of its timer it didn come switch on... But phone works, i can use it with blank (black) screen.
I had to do force restart so the display will turn on with samsung logo and booting screen, and keep on till another switch of.
I was trying every setting (but no hard reset) and then i found a little hack:
When you turn on the "Always On Display" (AOD) function you can let the screen switch off or do it manually, wait for 1-2 sec and always on display will come up to the screen. Then when you press home button or lock button screen will swtich on normally. YOu can type pin and use phone witch screen working. But when you try to unlock from "AOD" with your finger or your eyes it unlock but with screen black.
So i was using it like this. everytime you need to wait second untill AOD comes up, but it was working fine.
Problem nu 2 is that now it stop working, AOD is working but when i want to switch screen on from AOD it shows black screen and phone is working on blind.
So everytime after my screen goes black or to AOD i have to unlock the phone blindly and "Force restart" it and have to keep waiting until boot, and then have to never let phone to screen of.
Its not usuable.
¨
Now what do you think? Is it hardware problem or software problem? Because screen is working but randomly. The black dot of dead pixels on the screen is getting slightly bigger in time (about 1 year) but its like 1.5cm round. Maybe this cause the problem? And why hack with AOD was working for half a year and then stoped working? There wasnt any updates right before, but i tried to install some apps (non display related) so ill try to uninstall them.
Hawe you got any idea if i can repair it on my own even if i loose the waterproofability?
Or can it be replaced for free if i have a warranty? (I dont have insurance)
Thanks for your tips guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're under warranty it will likely be a free repair, unless they find other damage. Like moisture damage.
As far as fixing it yourself, it's just about as cheap to have Samsung do it than it is to buy the parts yourself. It's $229 for Samsung to do it, and you'll maintain the water resistance rating.
same has happened to me
KEVIN88GT said:
Non rooted, T mobile branded 3 month old note 8. No water damange, no drops etc.
Using chrome one miniute, set the phone down to watch a movie on my tablet, picked up the phone to check messages and boom. Screen is off. The phone works, I can even answer calls because I know where the answer button is on the screen, haptic feedback works, all indicator lights work. The phone screen remains off.
Tried a soft reset (tried hard reset too the best I could being I cant see the screen) and the phone seems to reset based on the vibration and indicator light patters but the screen remains off. It's as if a physical connection between the screen and the brains of the phone has been severed. Literaraly the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a decade of Android phone ownership.
Googled all the black screen issues with these phones and most of them are resolved with just a soft reset... some said that the phone is in it's lowest dimmed state and go to a dark room and i'll see it faintly and then can increase brightness... no luck...
Has anyone experienced this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has just happened to my note 8 too. I was about to update it and had started it. set my phone down and picked it up and phone screen is black but can hear the haptic feedback.
I can only see the lock screen and the notifications. Everytime I try to unlock my phone I only get to see a glimpse of the notescreen and then the screen turns black. Even when I try to go to camera through the lock screen the screen goes black too. When I charge my phone it heats up so I haven't really charged it as well. Has this also happened to anyone? It seems as if the phone's sensitivity still works in all places but when I unlock it the screen just goes black.
I also have problem of freezings and always rebooting. Tried soft and hard resets/factory reset. Still same problem. This phone has hardware issue. Do not buy.
I realize this thread is quite old but I have this exact same issue now. I have managed to discover some other information by playing around with various settings which are noted below. To begin with, I was able to used the AOD hack posted above for a while but it no longer works. The only way I can get my screen to come back is with a soft reset - but as soon as the screen times out or i turn it off, it goes black, with or without AOD enable. All the on screen buttons still work as well as the haptic feedback - I just can't see anything.
Now on to what I have found:
One thing I have found is if I turn off adaptive screen brightness and crank the brightness slider to the right, when it goes black I can faintly see some of the buttons - enough that I can turn the phone off or restart it from the power menu (If I switch the default setting to night that also helps to see the buttons a bit better). Also, if I enable night mode I can also see the brightness slider faintly but when I slide it left, it just makes the screen completely black and when I slide it right, it only returns it to the very faint brightness level.
So at this point I am stuck. To summarize the issue:
1. When the screen either times out or turns off, it is still "alive" but goes black. It will not return to normal brightness.
2. Turning off adaptive brightness and cranking brightness slider to right allows you to see faint buttons after screen times out but won't return to normal brightness.
3. Enabling night mode helps to see the faint buttons, in particular the brightness slider a bit better. However the screen still cannot return to normal brightness.
4. The only way to get the screen back to full brightness (albeit temporarily until the next timeout) is to turn off the phone or reset from the power menu; or soft reset holding volume down + power simultaneously.
Hopefully someone else has figured out a way to recover this. I am on Android 9 with Samsung UI 1.0
Phone is completely stock, never rooted and completely out of warranty.

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