dead iPAQ - Upgrading, Modifying and Unlocking

It's not entirely xda problem, but the device is quite similar, i hope it's ok to ask you guys here...
I'm not even sure what exactly is this device but it operated normal WinCE2003.
I used this one for a short period of time, i got it second or even third handed. Unfortunately for me it broke down in front of me while charging. Suddenly the the screen went dead with pixels disapearing quite funny way. prior to this i noticed another strange thing - lights going off whilst plugged into mains, and lights on when unplugged - opposite to settings of the backlight. shortly after that, it went dead... charging leds still indicate charging, but thats it.
Is it possible that its only software/rom or any other "simple" problem, or should i look for hardware solutions (not easy, two service points labelled as "PDA repairs" returned it without a simplest diagnosis
I wouldn't like to just throw it away, or sell it for few quids, any help appreciated

This is a COMPAQ (back before HP bought the iPaq brand) iPaq H3630, but it ran WM 2000 (I am not sure if there is any ROM upgrade for this model).
What you have sounds like a hardware problem and although this was a good device when it was in its prime, it is now too old to be worth a fix.
Plus I am not even sure you can get perts for it any more.
Maybe buying another one second hand and using it for parts.
Still, just in case try power + reset or combinations of any two of the 4 function buttons on it for hard reset as well as removing the battery.
And let it charge for 24 hours.
If none of that works, your device is dead. My condolences.

Related

Do I consign my XDA IIs to the bin or persevere?

I am aware that the problem with my XDA IIs is similar to other malfunctions described within this forum, however often those posts appear to be left unanswered. In order not to incur the wrath of the administrator therefore, I seek clarification and therefore I consider that I'm not duplicating any prior posts.
I acquired an XDA IIs from my son last year - the screen was cracked, the device wouldn't turn on and there was no charging cradle or lead. About six months ago I bought a usb sync/charging cable and a screen from mobilefun (described as "new" but wasn't - I complained but couldn't be ar**d to return the thing) and this week purchased a replacement battery from ebay. Now before you all shout 'caveat emptor' I wanted to do this as cheaply as possible.
I duly plugged the thing into my laptop anticipating joy and smug satisfaction; unfortunately I have only encountered misery.
The device pings, the amber led and the backlight for the screen come on (although there is nothing evident on the screen - did I pay 30 quid for a cumbersome torch) and everything looks rosy for approximately 10 minutes. Then the led turns red, the backlight switches off and it remains dormant for about 10 minutes. This cycle continues ad nauseum.
I have active sync and when the xda is in amber mode I can "see" the device on my laptop and I can communicate (synchronise) with it. So what is the problem(s)? Is the new battery a dud and a salutary lesson in why we get what we pay for? Should I be concerned that the screen lights up but displays nothing and therefore regret not returning the screen to mobile fun? Is the internal battery OK - if I change it will it have an impact upon my charging tribulations?
I hope that you can appreciate that I am loathe to spend any more money on this thing but having made an investment I'm also reluctant to bin it. Help the noob oh great ones.
first of all, welcome to the forum
interesting things happening there.
from the distance my first spontaneous reaction was "the battery and the display must be broken", which, after 3 times reading your post didn't really change despite the gigantic coincidence.
what you can try first of all is: install MyMobiler to your pc, which uses the activesync connection to connect remotely to the device and gives out the screen on the pc screen, where you can control your device with keyboard and mouse. that is always a good start, in case the display does not work or has no touch function any more...
http://mymobiler.com/
if that works out for you and you can see the screen, you can say for certain, that the device's screen is not really ok. the next thing to test would be the digitizer then.
you didn't write, whether you bought a complete display bundle or just the real screen, so let's test the touch function. i case you had seen a proper screen with mymobiler, try tapping and tapping and holding with the actual stylus on the actual screen while cradled and look at the screen's reaction in mymobiler, if the touch function works, you should be able to control the device, which would probably mean "get a new screen, digitizer is fine".
about the battery: since you don't really know what state the phone is in and how good the battery actually is, you should try and take out the battery connect the external power source to the cradle and load the battery in the back of the cradle. you know my device with wi-fi on for instance consumes more power, than can be loaded via usb, so after a little while, though connected to power with the amber led lighting up, the device will turn off. not with a red flash like described by you, but still...
if you load the battery to the max in the back of the cradle, take it out for say, half an hour and jam it back in, the orange led should turn green again in less than a minute, since no power was consumed, if that works out, you can then put the battery back in the device and then cradle it normally and see, whether it turns off again after 10 minutes.
the point is, all this does not really help you, i know that, but it can give you ideas on how to test the flaws and determine what really is wrong with the device. maybe you did not buy a broken screen and broken battery, maybe the device is so screwed, it destroys them itself. or maybe these testing methods give you a greater insight on what to test and maybe then you can confront the retailers responsible for that and prove it is their fault. i am sorry to hear about your device, without it working you are missing out on a great mobile experience.
greetz
Chef_Tony
Deep joy coupled with intense fury
Chef Tony - you are indeed a genius and I humbly bask in your glory. I've downloaded mymobiler and it displayed my screen which naturally needed to be aligned as I have put in a new screen and digitizer. It would appear that the digitizer is fine but the screen must be kaput.
I repeat that salutary lesson kids - if you purchase something described as new from a retailer and subsequently discover that it isn't, don't complain about it and then expect the Returns Elf to despatch the suspicious item back to the offending company. Do it yourself or bemoan the day that you couldn't be bothered to send it back to the company.
As for the battery I'm awaiting a different charger (I don't have a cradle only USB sync cable) but as I've mentioned previously I'm loathe to spend any more money so this might all be academic.
Thanks again
Buying from eBay is what 90% of ppl do here, it is not only a cheap way out, but the ONLY source for many replacement parts. Nothing wrong with that mate. eBay is actually also more expensive than numerous online wholesale sites for certain phone areas too.

power/charging issue

ive been having a problem with this phone for a while. it has a problem with turning on and statying on. i will set it on charge while its powered off for atleast two hours, but as soon as i turn it on it will last for about 5 mins and turn off.
i first replaced the battery and it has the same problem. so i replaced the charging port and it was working fine for a few weeks and now its back to the same issue. i cant even get it to charge now
so just trying to figure out what kind of other components it could be
Disclaimer: You're at a more advanced level than I am. I've never done phone repair, and I don't know enough about phone hardware to say if there are other components that could be responsible. I'm a software guy.
That being said, I'll chime in with what I do know, on the off chance that it's actually helpful.
When computers get too hot, they do an automatic thermal shutdown to try to prevent permanent damage. I assume smartphones do this as well. You're on XDA, so there's a good chance you like to tinker. Did you overclock the phone? Overclocking generates more heat, which could potentially lead to a thermal shutdown or permanent damage. Or you might be using or storing the phone in a hot environment.
Have you tried using a different charging cable? Maybe the cable or its connector went bad. You could also test the cable with a different device. Maybe the wall outlet, etc went bad. Did you check the connectors that the battery attaches to, to make sure they're clean?
When you opened the phone to replace the charging port, maybe you didn't put it together quite right, so over time something came loose or got pinched. Desktops and laptops use various types of adhesives such as thermal paste, and computer technicians have to remember to reapply new adhesive when putting a machine back together. Maybe phones use some adhesive too, and maybe you forgot to reapply it?
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable about phone hardware will chime in, but the Incredible 2 section of these forums has been a ghost town lately. That's why I'm giving my two cents. If it were me, I'd just buy a new phone.
Slinkwyde said:
Disclaimer: You're at a more advanced level than I am. I've never done phone repair, and I don't know enough about phone hardware to say if there are other components that could be responsible. I'm a software guy.
That being said, I'll chime in with what I do know, on the off chance that it's actually helpful.
When computers get too hot, they do an automatic thermal shutdown to try to prevent permanent damage. I assume smartphones do this as well. You're on XDA, so there's a good chance you like to tinker. Did you overclock the phone? Overclocking generates more heat, which could potentially lead to a thermal shutdown or permanent damage. Or you might be using or storing the phone in a hot environment.
Have you tried using a different charging cable? Maybe the cable or its connector went bad. You could also test the cable with a different device. Maybe the wall outlet, etc went bad. Did you check the connectors that the battery attaches to, to make sure they're clean?
When you opened the phone to replace the charging port, maybe you didn't put it together quite right, so over time something came loose or got pinched. Desktops and laptops use various types of adhesives such as thermal paste, and computer technicians have to remember to reapply new adhesive when putting a machine back together. Maybe phones use some adhesive too, and maybe you forgot to reapply it?
Hopefully someone more knowledgeable about phone hardware will chime in, but the Incredible 2 section of these forums has been a ghost town lately. That's why I'm giving my two cents. If it were me, I'd just buy a new phone.
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well i greatly appreciate your lengthly response. to be honest, it is my mothers phone, which is why i want to try and fix it. i gave her an iphone so she really doesnt need this phone but i would like to figure out what is wrong because i do like to tinker with things. i have tried different chords, wall outlets, usb ports on the pc etc. i will reopen the phone to see if everything is back together, because thats the only thing i can think of from what you mentioned.
thanks again. if anyone has had a similar problem, let me know
sounds like you're either having a battery issue or need to replace your charge port on your phone. its a really simple process all you do is order the port from like amazon or ebay and the old one on your phone just unplugs from your phone circuit board there actually is a tutorial forum in the development page for the droid incredible 2 that gives you instructions on how to do this. hope this was of some help to you and if so please click thanks.
jam0688 said:
sounds like you're either having a battery issue or need to replace your charge port on your phone. its a really simple process all you do is order the port from like amazon or ebay and the old one on your phone just unplugs from your phone circuit board there actually is a tutorial forum in the development page for the droid incredible 2 that gives you instructions on how to do this. hope this was of some help to you and if so please click thanks.
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Click to collapse
The OP already tried both of those things.
Oh ok yeah i just noticed where he put that. Hardware problem maybe. Im more into software myself than i am hardware.
MINE TOO! Omg
This... it's too much. Okay, a month ago the damned power button got too hard to press in, which should have been a warning that the hardware was getting faulty I suppose. But I downloaded an app that let me use the volume button to turn screen on/off. (I won't say which because I half-blame it, unfairly, for killing my phone
(Sorry, I'm still —mourning! the death of my phone I guess.)
The app was an ugly solution, I guess, but it worked. (I couldn't turn the screen off easily, so I set the screen-off to 10 seconds.) And I hadn't used screenshots in a while so that was no big deal; and my ROM could get me to Recovery easily enough, so screw the power button, right?
But then last night, my phone STOPPED CHARGING! I did a batt pull, tried new cords; turned off every useful app. I even went back to stock ROM, which (even though plugged in) left me with 20% batt. Might as well have bricked it, I guess.
Nothing worked. I was able to turn bluetooth back on so I could use my Air Droid acct to get my on-phone pictures, at least (everything else is safe on the SD), and then I charged it overnight in the wall and hoped for the best.
I was pretty thrilled to wake up to 100% charged! —For a few minutes. As soon as I unplugged it, it started discharging fast, and then not even the wall charger stopped it from discharging.
After brooding, for a few hours, I called Verizon tech. The tech (VERY nice, admittedly) said my Dinc2 was just dead. (Damn they're good: he was more sympathetic than a doctor delivering bad news!!) —But I feel so lost. He offered me a DNA or a Dinc 4G (and some motos and crap), but said my Dinc2 wouldn't be worth fixing. He said the power button alone was a PITA, but the dongle thing you plug the charger into was likely the problem, AND it might be the battery. Maybe he said other problems, but ultimately he suggested some pre-owneds he had for sale (I'm trying to keep my unlimited data plan), or try PhoneKarma.com. (He said he didn't recommend eBay, where they have Dinc 2s, but I'm not sure why.)
So ...do Dinc2s just have power issues after (?) 3 years? I guess that's a pretty good lifetime, but boy is it depressing. (I know — hooked on a damned phone. #Sucks.) I mean, it would be stupid to fix this one, or buy another one, right?
@Trebuchette, no matter what machine you use, rechargeable batteries do not last forever. Order a new battery from Amazon or eBay and you should be fine. They're pretty cheap and easy to replace. http://www.amazon.com/HTC-Incredible-6350-BTR6350B-Packaging/dp/B0064SI3QA
A case might make your power button easier to press. The OtterBox Defender is an excellent case that you can get for $15 used (very good condition), if a new battery successfully fixes your problem.
Hey: might be worth a shot! I did try another batt, but it was older too. And I didn't think of an otterbox at all, tbh. Thanks! Might be worth a try!
Hey: does it matter much if my USB cable is LG or whatever? I tried several different USBs too, but I'd been using this LG one (no idea how!) for probably about a year.
No, the brand of micro USB cable should not matter. It's a technical standard.
Don't buy a case until you've verified that a new battery actually fixes your problem. If a battery doesn't fix it, it's only a few bucks lost. In that case, I would then get a new phone.
i just came back to this thread after i basically put the project on hold for a while and wanted to see any new suggestions. so after leaving the phone alone for two months, i pluuged the phone in and i saw that orange ligh indicating it was charging. so far so good, im not using it as a primary phone which is good, but that would be my suggestion is to give the phone a rest for a while
EDIT: yeah scratch that, its doing the same **** now

[Q] Tab Pro 12.2: Screen and Button Issues

I just got this tablet (to replace the garbage SGH-I467) a few days ago (Thu., May 15th). For the first couple of days it worked like a dream. However, the last 4 nights/3 days, I have been encountering some strange issues. What I will do here is describe the issues I've been having, what I have done in attempts to fix them, list some of the things I think may have caused it, and include any additional info/questions.
Before all that though, I would like to mention that I am not a developer, but I am a bit 'tech savvy' and am more familiar with/knowledgeable of technology than the average user. Also, I have spoken with Samsung tech support and even had the support guy access my Tab Pro 12.2 remotely (I will explain what I learned from that below). So, without further ado (I apologize in advance for the long winded nature of this post, but I want detailed):
The Issues:
1) Screen "flickering"—By flickering I mean that it is shutting off and turning on rather rapidly and sporadically, though inconsistently.
I first encountered the problem 3 days ago (the 18th).
Four nights ago (the 17th), before going to bed, I plugged the device into the same outlet I have used for all my mobile devices, when I woke up (on the 18th) the screen was doing exactly what I described. I hit the home button a few times and it stopped.
That night (the 18th) I plugged it back in to the usual spot before going to bed. The next morning (yesterday, the 19th), the screen was "flickering" again. I tried to press the home key a few times, as well as both the soft keys, nothing. In between "flickers" you can see the lock screen, where I have to enter a pin, but even while visible I can't type anything. So this time, to try to solve the problem, I held the power button + volume up to get to recovery and wiped the cache partition, rebooted the device, and viola, it worked again. Thinking that I may have to factory reset the device if the problem persists, I used Kies to backup all my data. I used the tablet the rest of the day, even plugged it in (in a different outlet than the one next to my bed) for a while and had no issues.
Last night (the 19th) I did pretty much the same thing, but this time, thinking that it might be an issue with the device getting too much power (the Quick Start Guide says: "Note: Connecting the travel adapter improperly may cause serious damage to the device."), I used a travel adapter from one of my other, USB 2.0 devices (the only difference between the adapters is the output: 2.0 = 5.0V—2.0A vs. 3.0 = 5.3V—2.0A, and output was specifically what I was concerned with). This morning (the 20th) the problem has returned, but now includes my second issue: the hard home button and both soft keys, back and recent apps, no longer function. So I immediately tried to wipe the cache partition and reboot, but this time it didn't work. Thankfully I had anticipated this yesterday and had that Kies backup, so I wiped the entire device back to factory settings. But alas, it was unsuccessful and the problem persists, including the loss of button functionality, with the exception of the power and volume buttons.
It is important to note that when I first got the Tab Pro 12.2 and set up the lock screen, I used the option that delays the actual locking of the device 10 minutes after screen timeout, but set it so that if I lock the screen with the power button it ISN'T delayed and immediately locks. That being said, a couple of times when the "flickering" stopped long enough to momentarily use the device, I was able to enter my pin and unlock. But when the screen starts flickering again, it locks the device, so the power button must be affected as well. Though since the first factory reset of the device, I haven't set up a pin. I have done several factory resets and none of them have worked. The best result has simply been limited (no back, recent apps or home key) and momentary functionality. I tried using Kies to do emergency firmware recovery, but every time I click the option it disconnects the device.
When Samsung tech support remotely accessed by device (I used one of the momentary functionality windows to download the required application) the agent was able to utilized soft and home key functionality, even though I couldn't. This tells me that it was hardware related, not related to UI/software.
So there are a couple of things I think may have caused/contributed to the problem:
The first, which I vaguely touched on above, is the power issue. Perhaps I have shorted the device out somehow. The outlet I use to charge things while I'm sleeping is on the wall behind my bed, so I have to use a common extension cord, one that has 3 outlets at the end. I have a light plugged into that and in the past have charged both my SGH-I467 (AT&T Note 8.0) and my SGH-I747 (AT&T S4 Active) with that cord and outlet. That is the only place I have charged the SM-T900 overnight, but none of the other power sources I have used have caused these issues.
The second possibility is a virus some sort. I have never used the Samsung app store on any of my other devices, but in order to update the Hancom Office suite I had to. Since I had an enjoyable time using it to that end, I decided to see what else I could find on Samsung's store. I downloaded a couple of things (the "Official Captain America game" and a couple wallpaper/theme apps) and was looking around the store to see if there was anything else I wanted to download. I found several apps that had reviews claiming they were trojans, so I immediately checked the reviews for the apps I had downloaded, but none of them had similar reviews. However, that does not mean they didn't have viruses.
So, what do the resident Android gurus of XDA think about these issues?
I tried searching all over the forums and elsewhere online for people having the same issues, but couldn't find anything. Have any of you ever encountered something similar to this?
Until recently, I hadn't ever heard of anyone getting a virus on an Android device. Are they common? What is the nature of Android viruses?
If these issues do have something to do with overcharging/shorting the device, how can I mitigate that problem? Tonight when I charge the tablet, instead of using the USB 3.0 charging cable, I am going to try just using the 2.0 cable. As I understand it, that can be done by simply plugging it into the right side of the port. Hopefully that will stop exacerbating the problem.
Again, I apologize for such a long winded post. I would like to thank you all in advance. If ever I have problems with an Android, you guys are the ones to ask!
*UPDATE* Before I started typing this I was attempting to run the Kies 'Firmware Upgrade and Initialization', as opposed to 'Emergency Firmware Recovery', to see if that too would disconnect the device. Unfortunately it said that my device needed to be charged first. So I shut it down and plugged it into a surge protected strip and began typing this post. Occasionally I would go over an check the charge. While it was shut down and charging I was able to use the home key to bring up the green battery. Once the charge looked like it was about 75% complete I turned it back on and lo and behold, the "flickering" issue looks resolved and so does the button issue. I can go back, enter the recent apps and task manager, and use the home key functions. For how long this will last, however, is unknown. I guess we'll see in the morning. I'll post what happens tomorrow.
What kind of case are you using? Some users have seen issues with some cases that use magnets for auto-sleep-wake. When the front of the cover is flipped back behind the tablet, the magnets seem to activate the auto-sleep feature
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
RE: Case?
dodo99x said:
What kind of case are you using? Some users have seen issues with some cases that use magnets for auto-sleep-wake. When the front of the cover is flipped back behind the tablet, the magnets seem to activate the auto-sleep feature
Sent from my SM-P900 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I am not using a case or cover at all...
same issues here
Sounds exactly as the same issue I have had the last week. I have done several factory resets triad to avoid installing as many applications as I had prior the factory reset (to see If it was an app causing the issue). No solution yet but I will try your way with kies described above. I have a tab pro 8.4.
VeinkWiles said:
So, what do the resident Android gurus of XDA think about these issues?
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I am no guru, but it sounds like a loose connection. Maybe it is affected by temperature. Try it on a (not too) hot water bottle or on freezer packs.
Mike Austin said:
I am no guru, but it sounds like a loose connection. Maybe it is affected by temperature. Try it on a (not too) hot water bottle or on freezer packs.
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It's not overheating. It can get warm, but it's never gotten hot. And I've had other devices that have seriously overheated and still functioned, albeit slowly.
**UPDATE**
After I got it working the night I originally posted I let it fully charge (it's important to note that I got it up to about 75% while it was off; green battery the only thing on the screen, and I had home button functionality), then disconnected it and disabled all the radios, put it in power saving and left it over night without power. Doing that I was able to use it all day yesterday. But while I was full-charging it, after it reached 100%, I noticed that it started acting up almost immediately. The sound was on and kept making the lock screen sound (that's how I noticed it from across the room). So it is tied to the power/lock key. But disconnecting it before it could get out of control mitigated the problem. Last night I was going to try to charge it over night with USB 2.0, but I fell asleep before changing the cable out, so it charged on 3.0 all night and is back in poor repair. I'm currently trying to full charge it while off to see if that gives me functionality again.
Either way, each time I fix it the solution becomes more difficult/timely than the previous one. It's clearly not getting better, so I'm going to have to send it in to repairs.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537
VeinkWiles said:
It's not overheating. It can get warm, but it's never gotten hot. And I've had other devices that have seriously overheated and still functioned, albeit slowly.
**UPDATE**
After I got it working the night I originally posted I let it fully charge (it's important to note that I got it up to about 75% while it was off; green battery the only thing on the screen, and I had home button functionality), then disconnected it and disabled all the radios, put it in power saving and left it over night without power. Doing that I was able to use it all day yesterday. But while I was full-charging it, after it reached 100%, I noticed that it started acting up almost immediately. The sound was on and kept making the lock screen sound (that's how I noticed it from across the room). So it is tied to the power/lock key. But disconnecting it before it could get out of control mitigated the problem. Last night I was going to try to charge it over night with USB 2.0, but I fell asleep before changing the cable out, so it charged on 3.0 all night and is back in poor repair. I'm currently trying to full charge it while off to see if that gives me functionality again.
Either way, each time I fix it the solution becomes more difficult/timely than the previous one. It's clearly not getting better, so I'm going to have to send it in to repairs.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537
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Click to collapse
Sorta sounds like a screen grounding problem. I had a nexus seven with this issue and the charger seemed to really make it act up. Needless to say I gave that to my wife and bought this. If the digitizer is not grounded properly it will act up.
Turning on developer settings and set it to show touches on screen. See if when charging the screen registers more touches than you are doing.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk
Re: developer settings; display touches
dottat said:
Sorta sounds like a screen grounding problem. I had a nexus seven with this issue and the charger seemed to really make it act up. Needless to say I gave that to my wife and bought this. If the digitizer is not grounded properly it will act up.
Turning on developer settings and set it to show touches on screen. See if when charging the screen registers more touches than you are doing.
Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk
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Damn! That's an outstanding idea! The only downside is that last night I sent the tablet to Samsung's repair department, so I can't test that out. But once I get it back, if the problem persists I will definitely be doing that first. Thanks for the advice dottat.
Fw:Re: developer settings; display touches
mikegbg said:
Sounds exactly as the same issue I have had the last week. I have done several factory resets triad to avoid installing as many applications as I had prior the factory reset (to see If it was an app causing the issue). No solution yet but I will try your way with kies described above. I have a tab pro 8.4.
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Click to collapse
Hey dude, check out dottat's reply. He's got a really good idea that may shed some light on the source of the problem. Unfortunately, I can't try it out. If you do it, let me know how it goes. Maybe you can take some screenshots? Either way, hopefully you can get something out of it.

Second Pixel C with same issue - backlight stops working.

I am on my second Pixel C where the backlight has stopped working after a month. The screen still works, if I shine a light at it just right I can see the contents (especially when they are white), but the backlight just doesn't come on. The previous one did this on and off for about a week while waiting for the replacement, meaning it would occasionally come back on and work for a little while. But, right before the replacement arrived, it went off and never came back on. My replacement did it for the first time today (it is one month old now), I connected to my laptop when I got home and issued an "adb reboot", and it appears to be working again. I have requested a refund from Google, but they said they couldn't authorize it, so I have filed a dispute with my credit card company in order to get my money back.
Overall, I like the device. I have had to work around a few of its shortcomings, but everything was satisfactory. I just can't keep replacing something every month.
Has anyone else experienced this? I mean, I know how to search and have found similar reports, this exact issue. Where the screen still comes on and is visible under the right lighting conditions, but the backlight is just non-functional. If so, what was the recourse you took to solve it? I have tried not putting it in my case (thinking that was the problem), rebooting (which occasionally has worked, but not always), factory resets (real tough without being able to see), plugging it in when malfunctioning, leaving adaptive brightness disabled, cursing at it and throwing my hands up in the air in frustration, etc. Nothing reliably works, and now I am afraid to let it go to sleep seeing how it came back after the reboot today.
Thanks for reading this...
My Pixel C started doing this last week. Wasn't so bad at first, but it's slowly gotten worse and starting last night the backlight will go hours without turning on. I've tried charging it, hooking it up to my computer, and just finished a factory reset and nothing has worked. Just like you if I shine a light at the right angle I can see things, but that's not exactly fun to do. Bought it at the end of March, so it almost made it 4 months.
One thing I should add, and this is probably a coincidence, is it started happening right after I downloaded the July updates. I only mention this in case someone else has had a similar experience.
My second one had gotten even worse, the screen sometimes comes on now, but the right half is either just fuzz or completely distorted, and the touch screen is non functioning.
I have ordered a Samsung galaxy tab s2, and will get my money back either from Google (doubtful), or my credit card company. Hope Samsung updates it at least to N.
I'm so torn, when it worked the pixel was awesome, I love the screen, closest any has come to the ratio of my camera. But two in a row only lasting a month each, and it's hard to consider a third, or fourth...
Sorry yours is glitching out on you, hope you get a satisfactory resolution.
I have the same problem. Exactly like you describe above. Since my Pixel C is one month out of warranty there is nothing I can do except warn others not to buy this product,
Oliver Browne.
Same here for me. First one started with screen issues as described above, lucky for me i was 3 days before the end of waranty, second one lasted 93 days... 3 days out of waranty for a replacement device! Thanks Google for a cheap device...
Envoyé de mon iPad en utilisant Tapatalk
I face the same issue, and was able to turn on the backlight by adjusting its brightness using the touch screen. Try shining a torch onto it while locating the brightness setting. This temporary fix works for me every time, and hope it helps someone.
Trying the torch was very useful! I now know for a 100% that the backlight doesn't work. I used the torch to see what I was actually doing on the screen, and erased all data & cleaned the cache.
Unfortunately the backlight stayed off, so I assume it's a hardware issue.
I've sent an email to Google support, hopefully they can get this one fixed or replaced.
did you manage to fix your issue ?
Same issue here, and no not resolved.
The only thing I can do to work around it is keep tapping the power button every second. Eventually you get lucky and the backlight will turn on. (Rebooting doesn't seem to be needed.)
Hi all,
I bought this tablet as a gift for my little brother. He encountered the very same issue 2 or 3 weeks ago, and it became worse today, as now backlight won't turn on anymore, even after a reboot and a factory reset.
It must be a hardware issue...
I will try to contact their after sales service, as the tablet isn't even 6 months old.
HI, my first Pixel c met this issues after 20 months... first it was only sometimes and backlight came back after some pushes on the power button... but it get worst and worst: 2 days without backlight and at the end half screen fuzzy issues. I order a replacement product with my warranty (2 years in Europe)... and now my second Pixel meets the same issue... with a no responding screen issue too... it's awful and my warranty is over yet... nothing can fix this...! something seems to be bad quality in this device....
I'm on my 2nd pixel c and final. Google support said that because they had replaced it under warranty the warranty only applies to the original purchase date not the replacement which seemed BS to me because I was shipped a refurb tablet
Never the less using adb/ fast boot I was able to get the device into bootloader and blindly reload the entire operating system. It was only until I performed a wipe within TWRP that the screen started working again. Interesting and now off it is working for the past hour or so. Currently applying latest updates but not holding my breath. Unfortunately it looks like Google is killing off the tablets and I don't know if any of their Engineers have actually tried to use a Chromebook in place of a tablet but it just doesn't translate well. If I cannot get this device working reliably I may buy another refurb to get a few more years out of it. The pixelbook is way too heavy for Couchsurfing
The screen comes and goes with no particular interaction. I'm really bummed because I had gotten so used to this device. I buy another but I'm afraid it's going to happen again. I don't see any tablets that are upgrades either. The Android tablet days are over. Pixelbook is not intuitive. Although it runs Android apps it does so very poorly with in Chrome OS and it's very bulky. I'm a try my luck with another refurb off eBay. Have not been able to find anyone that can repair it

Slowly increasing hardware problem

Hi all,
I have a general hardware problem with my Samsung Galaxy Tab S4. Maybe someone here has an idea or tip for me.
I still used the factory software without any rooting or unlocking the bootloader. So everything original and up to date.
A few month ago the tablet began to restart in the middle of using it. At the beginning it happened seldom, but then more and more often. Also during the restart new restarts happened more and more often, so that it took several retries, until it started again. Now it is not usable anymore, because it is not running longer than a few seconds before the next restart if it happens to boot completely at all.
I was able to make a factory reset but this didn’t solve the problem.
My first theory is, that this could be a problem with the battery, that it is slowly dying and had more and more problems to hold the voltage. But the problem also exists when the power supply is connected. So I am not sure if this rules out the possibility, that this could be cause by the battery? Does somebody know how this is internally wired, if a broken battery could still have a negative effect when the power supply is connected?
Do you have other ideas/advices, what could be the problem or would could be helpful to do?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Best
The USB power input can't sink enough current to boot it or even run it without the battery acting as a reserve during peak usage spikes.
Replace the battery and go from there.
Thanks, then I will try this.
Vertex9999 said:
Thanks, then I will try this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Vertex, have you tried this already? I have pretty much the same problem and the battery was also my first intuition, but I don't know if buying a new one is worth it. Thanks!
Hi,
unfortunately I didn't had time to do it yet. I want to change the battery myself and for that I will need time and somebody to borrow me a hot air gun, because everything is glued together.
I will report, when I have done it but it will be at least a few weeks.
Alright, so I'll probably try it sooner, I'll update after replacing the battery. Also, if you haven't tried it yet, you might want to try just disconnecting the battery from the motherboard and connecting again after like 20s, I've read that it sometimes resolves this problem, but it didn't work for me. Fortunately removing the back lid of tab s4 is pretty easy, I used hairdryer, so with heatgun it should be even easier.
Thanks for the tips. I am currently on vacation but when I am back I will also try with a hairdryer.
Any additional tips for removing the back lid to somebody doing it the first time beyond what you can see in the youtube videos? How do you glue it back together?
Hi, sorry for the late reply.
I have eventually replaced the battery, and nothing changed unfortunately… I did a factory reset, etc. However I also had an issue that you didn't describe in your original post, which is that USB connection is not working, it only charges the battery, when connected to the PC while booted it's just not visible at all (tried with several cables, two computers, on windows and linux), when in download mode it kind of shows up, but it's not recognized and no drivers or any solution that I've found are working, so I don't know if it's still hardware problem something with the USB related parts or something in the system on lower level. Well, I'll be trying.
About the back lid. Beyond YT videos only thing that comes to my mind is patience. About the glue, you have few options and it depends a bit on how removing the cover goes. 1) glue stays in the more or less same condition as before removing the cover - that's how it went for me - in that case you can just reuse it, just by closing the cover and pressing it down for some time, it's probably not as strong as new but for me it worked just fine, especially if you use a book cover for the tablet there won't be a problem.
But if the glue came off, wrinkled a lot, or just doesn't stick anymore, 2) you can either use a special epoxide glue often with signature like T-7000 or T-800 but if you just look for a glue for smarphones you'll easily find it. Or 3) Buy a special sticker for this exact device which has a specific shape, it's pretty much the same thing as is used by manufacturer.

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