Develop Bugs

[Q] Resurrected my Epic from the toilet.One problem though.

Ok my one and a half year old son got a hold of my Epic Touch and I dont know for how long he had it in the toilet.I knew this day would come but I was hoping for it to be my girlfriend's original Epic,lol.
So I took it apart,dryed it real good with paper towel first,then with air and baked it in oven for a minute or two.
I put it back together and it works!Its amazing because after my son diped it in water it layed wet for about twenty minutes before I found it.
I have one question for those that have more knowledge about Epic's internals:
Everything works except the POWER BUTTON!Yes I can use the power button one time to turn on the phone but after that it doesnt work anymore.
I cant turn off the phone,bring up the shutdown/airplane mode menu or anything else,in order to turn off the phone I need to pull battery.
Yes I took it apart again cleaned everything with rubbin alcohol inside and still same problem,any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
Oh,is there any apps out there that can map power button to search or home buttons?

lviv73 said:
Ok my one and a half year old son got a hold of my Epic Touch and I dont know for how long he had it in the toilet.I knew this day would come but I was hoping for it to be my girlfriend's original Epic,lol.
So I took it apart,dryed it real good with paper towel first,then with air and baked it in oven for a minute or two.
I put it back together and it works!Its amazing because after my son diped it in water it layed wet for about twenty minutes before I found it.
I have one question for those that have more knowledge about Epic's internals:
Everything works except the POWER BUTTON!Yes I can use the power button one time to turn on the phone but after that it doesnt work anymore.
I cant turn off the phone,bring up the shutdown/airplane mode menu or anything else,in order to turn off the phone I need to pull battery.
Yes I took it apart again cleaned everything with rubbin alcohol inside and still same problem,any ideas?
Thanks in advance.
Oh,is there any apps out there that can map power button to search or home buttons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe umm quickboot plus from the market can do it. Only $2
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

Do not power it back on.. Put it in a sealed bowl and fill it with rice. Leave it there for at least 24hrs. Even longer if you want the best result. It takes water damage a couple of weeks to really rear its ugly head. Sofar rice seems to be the best bet.
Good luck.. Report back to help out others with this same prob.

Definitely try the rice trick... I would recommend doing that before baking your motherboard in the oven.
The only time I've ever heard of baking any electronic device in the oven is for the Xbox 360...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Indrid Cole said:
Do not power it back on.. Put it in a sealed bowl and fill it with rice. Leave it there for at least 24hrs. Even longer if you want the best result. It takes water damage a couple of weeks to really rear its ugly head. Sofar rice seems to be the best bet.
Good luck.. Report back to help out others with this same prob.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already took it apart and dried it,plus put it in oven.I would say that there is no need for rice now,rice is for those that want to dry inside without talkn the phone apart.Everything works but the power button which is really strange.

Mattix724 said:
Definitely try the rice trick... I would recommend doing that before baking your motherboard in the oven.
The only time I've ever heard of baking any electronic device in the oven is for the Xbox 360...
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just did that to make sure any remaing moisture was gone.Still no answer why I cant use the power button except to turn on the phone.

Are you on a custom ROM? if so, maybe its the ROM bugging out, not the phone. Just a wild guess.

Do the RICE deal as mentioned above it WORKS on all sorts of electronics!

Chew DZ said:
Are you on a custom ROM? if so, maybe its the ROM bugging out, not the phone. Just a wild guess.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im starting to think that too,im gonna try reflashing and see what happens.Power button does work to turn the phone on but after this it doesn't.
I just don't want to reflash because i been running Blazer 4.0 for 3 months now(the longest i ever went without flashing,lol) and i added all types of custom apk"s to that rom.I would usually extract apk files from this rom and pit them in the new one but i odexed it,so no it looks like im going to have to make a whole new rom and that's a day gone.

He has already gone far and above the rice trick. That would be repetitive and unnecessary.
Also, rubbing alcohol is not a good solution. It leaves a film on the metal that is highly corrosive. You need denatured alcohol.
The power button has a two step contact. That button most likely needs to be replaced. You can order cheap on a wholesale parts website.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

azyouthinkeyeiz said:
He has already gone far and above the rice trick. That would be repetitive and unnecessary.
Also, rubbing alcohol is not a good solution. It leaves a film on the metal that is highly corrosive. You need denatured alcohol.
The power button has a two step contact. That button most likely needs to be replaced. You can order cheap on a wholesale parts website.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Finally someone understands it.I don't think power button needs replacement because i use the power button to turn on the phone,lol.But after that power button doesn't work.The power button only works one time-to turn on the phone but that's it,so its not the button that's defective.Its gotta be software related or one of the chips that controls power button after the phone is on is fried.

I didnt kno the e4gt was out that long lol.. Either way anything could be going on.. It was dropped in water lol
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

Try button remapper to resolve the power button ordeal. I personally would ditch the search button and use that as the new power button.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

The likely reason its not functioning after you power on is a short somewhere created by the liquid. When powered off the short is not affecting but once on it disables the button. I dont think you can replace that button unless you've got some decent soldering skills and you cant really be sure that even that would fix it. Liquid is one of those wildcards when it comes to electronics. You dont know if your screwed from jump or if the liquid might rear its ugly head later... too unpredictable.

d12unk13astard said:
Try button remapper to resolve the power button ordeal. I personally would ditch the search button and use that as the new power button.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just what i was thinking,what is the button remapper app called?

blackhawksnip3r said:
The likely reason its not functioning after you power on is a short somewhere created by the liquid. When powered off the short is not affecting but once on it disables the button. I dont think you can replace that button unless you've got some decent soldering skills and you cant really be sure that even that would fix it. Liquid is one of those wildcards when it comes to electronics. You dont know if your screwed from jump or if the liquid might rear its ugly head later... too unpredictable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already thought of that,i was thinking if i run the phone for a while and internals get warm that this little drop of water will evaporate(if that's what it is because i heated in in the oven pretty good,i couldn't even touch it),i will have to see after few days of usage.

i thought the one problem... would be it smelled like ****. :good:

lviv73 said:
I already thought of that,i was thinking if i run the phone for a while and internals get warm that this little drop of water will evaporate(if that's what it is because i heated in in the oven pretty good,i couldn't even touch it),i will have to see after few days of usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol the water emits an electrical shock when put in water which can damage any part of the phone.. Heating it up in a microwave is only resoldering the phone.. Wont fix an electrical shock that could have damaged a chip or a hardware button a led etc.. What would happen if you had a pc plugged in and dropped it in water while it was on? Just throw it in the microwave and itd be fine?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

elliwigy said:
Lol the water emits an electrical shock when put in water which can damage any part of the phone.. Heating it up in a microwave is only resoldering the phone.. Wont fix an electrical shock that could have damaged a chip or a hardware button a led etc.. What would happen if you had a pc plugged in and dropped it in water while it was on? Just throw it in the microwave and itd be fine?
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol,microwave?Who said anything about microwave?Im talking about regular oven,microwave will fry everything in few seconds.

Damn it,now its serious,phone wont go into Download Mode.When i try to put it in download mode i push "up" key for "Yes" and it flashes for about one second download mode,well not exactly it flashes this:
ODIN MODE(in red letters)
Product Name:SPH-700
Custom Binary Download:NO
Current Binary:Samsung Official
Downloading do not turn off target
It flashes that for about one second then it starts to boot into android.Another thing that i noticed is when i power on the phone i get Samsung Galaxy S2 logo then it disappears then the phone reboots and i get Samsung Galaxy S2 logo second time and then it boots into android.
So it boots after second galaxy s logo.I can still boot into CWM though that's only good thing.
Has anyone encountered similar phenomenon before?

Home buttons, Search button Etc.. Doesn't work! :(

I've tried many solutions, I completely wiped and reflashed different roms. I've also repartitioned my SD (doubt that would do much) .
and still my button's wont work.
Has there been reports of physically damaged bottom buttons? I see no damage whatsoever also lights up perfectly.
Just an idea!
Please help me, its the only phone I currently have in my apartment. Any help or suggestions would be amazing thank you !

Only thing I can think of if there is no damage to the digitizer part would be damage to the ribbon cable that connects the digitizer to the rest of the phone.

kbeezie said:
Only thing I can think of if there is no damage to the digitizer part would be damage to the ribbon cable that connects the digitizer to the rest of the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what I was thinking... is it difficult to open the phone up ? or is very sophisticated with the amount of screws?

Dude I had/have the same issue. I opened up my phone and put it back together. It started working better now. But whenever it stops working momentarily I just lock and unlock the screen.

there is a seperate flex cable for the buttons, it could be this or it could be the digitizer, either way relativley cheap and easy to replace. you can't always see the problem so just opening it up and looking may not tell you the problem.
but like strawmetal said, if there is some corrision on the contact points or some other intermediate problem, just opening the phone, disconecting it, cleaning things up, and putting it back together may fix your issues
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

strawmetal said:
Dude I had/have the same issue. I opened up my phone and put it back together. It started working better now. But whenever it stops working momentarily I just lock and unlock the screen.
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Click to collapse
Do you still have the issue after reverting to stock?. Locking/unlocking the. Phone worksfor me as well, just sometiimes it is very annoying
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using Tapatalk 2

Came down to once yesterday. Earlier I even had a thin horizontal strip on the screen where touch wouldn't work. I had a tough time accepting/canceling dialog boxes. This is no longer an issue. Hope the bottom capacitatives don't show any more problems today. Then I'll be back onto the rooted side of android.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
EDIT: I got a lot of ghost activity on myscreen today. Fixed by lock and unlock but goes back to ghosting in a minute.

Today I didn't have any issues, phone was working normally, no unresponsive screen at all, capacitive buttons also worked well. It is puzzling...
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using Tapatalk 2

strawmetal said:
Came down to once yesterday. Earlier I even had a thin horizontal strip on the screen where touch wouldn't work. I had a tough time accepting/canceling dialog boxes. This is no longer an issue. Hope the bottom capacitatives don't show any more problems today. Then I'll be back onto the rooted side of android.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium
EDIT: I got a lot of ghost activity on myscreen today. Fixed by lock and unlock but goes back to ghosting in a minute.
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Click to collapse
What do you mean by ghost activity?
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using Tapatalk 2

Ghost activity = screen being pressed without any interaction.
Sent from my HTC Vision using xda premium

unlock/power button

hi guys just recently my one x started playing me up. when i press power button to unlock it dont always unlock the screen, sometimes takes few presses, anybody else found this issue?
ive done a reset on phone to

Yes, I believe it responds differently depending on which side you press it from. If your finger is coming from the back of the phone and is not sufficiently strong, it sometimes does not register a press (my guss is because it is sloped). But whenever I do a direct strong press, it always responds.

Philalethes said:
Yes, I believe it responds differently depending on which side you press it from. If your finger is coming from the back of the phone and is not sufficiently strong, it sometimes does not register a press (my guss is because it is sloped). But whenever I do a direct strong press, it always responds.
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Click to collapse
mines ****ed then , as no matter where i press it sometimes it dont work, back to vodafone, worries me tho as i dropped it when i first had it and marked casing , whether they will say this is the issue, but it aint i no as it was working fine for couple weeks after

I had this in desire. Sent I it in for repair under warranty
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

dan281082 said:
mines ****ed then , as no matter where i press it sometimes it dont work, back to vodafone, worries me tho as i dropped it when i first had it and marked casing , whether they will say this is the issue, but it aint i no as it was working fine for couple weeks after
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible that the drop could of broke it as you could of cracked the housing for the button slightly and continued use of the button over time the crack got bigger and pushed the button further in the phone, by dropping it you may of reduced the fair wear and tear of the phone.
sent from a powerhouse HTC one X quad core nvidia beast

My hox using 1-2 seconds when I wake it from a deep sleep.

grinder19 said:
It's possible that the drop could of broke it as you could of cracked the housing for the button slightly and continued use of the button over time the crack got bigger and pushed the button further in the phone, by dropping it you may of reduced the fair wear and tear of the phone.
sent from a powerhouse HTC one X quad core nvidia beast
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i didnt wanna hear this!!

weird tho it only happens if the phones been left alone for a while, if i lock then unlock straight away its fine its when i leave it theres a issue

Mine sometimes does that too. But not consistent though. I assume it's because I'm on a fresh Jelly Bean. Hopefully the latest build would fix this.
I did thought it might have something to do with the button being in an angle also.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

just thought i would mention that i became concerned about basic wear and tear on my power button eventually destroying it, so i tried an app called ultimate on off in the play store. it actually works pretty well, but of course if you want to do a reset or take a screenshot, you do have to use the power button. otherwise, i don't touch that button any more.

after posting about the screen unlock issue. my one x developed massive screen flicker issues screen was hoping all over the place and it was almost like it looked dissovled in places. its gone back to repair,. just hop htc dnt c the little mark and refuse me, although the vodafone paperwork says in perfect condition!!!

Hey dan, it sounds exactly like the problem I've had with my HOX. At first the unlock button did not always respond and then the UI started acting up, flying all over the screen and distort and stuff and finally it just didnt turn on at all anymore.
They HTC lady I contacted said it was hardware related and I highly doubt it has anything to do with you dropping the phone once.
Take a look here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1745886

dan281082 said:
weird tho it only happens if the phones been left alone for a while, if i lock then unlock straight away its fine its when i leave it theres a issue
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Click to collapse
I had this problem with a custom kernel. The phone entered something called deep sleep if i recall correctly. This made me press the power button multiple times before it would wake, but only if the phone hadn't been used for a while.

NorteX said:
I had this problem with a custom kernel. The phone entered something called deep sleep if i recall correctly. This made me press the power button multiple times before it would wake, but only if the phone hadn't been used for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
its all new and i suppose we have to accept some initial teething issues, but my desire never did!

I had this issue and it seems to me that it actually is the blank screen of death issue
Check that thread out guys
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

It sometimes happen to me when you try to unlock my phone right after you lock it (pressing the lock button to lock the screen then pressing the lock button to unlock). I don't know if its the same issue that you are having though.

My power button is extremely weak. almost no travel at all.. unfortunately my friends HOX is decent movement so i guess mine is just spanked

Did you meant Awesome On Off? I just tried it and so far so good. Its not perfect but it works for now. I guess its pretty cool how the phone automatically turns on when you tilt it at a certain angel.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda app-developers app

when it happened to me, to ensure it wasn't the power/lock button, I installed a kernel with sweep to wake, and when I tried sweeping to wake, the problem repeated itself.
maybe you guys could try that to differentiate between a problem in the display or the actual button. That is...if you're rooted.
Otherwise, you might as well take it to the repair

so apparently vodafone have "exchanged" my phone whether that means new or refurb time will tell!!

Button Problems and First Root Ever

Hi, Everyone! This is my first post on here but I have spent the better part of the last week reading all the different threads. Yesterday my Samsung Epic 4G decided to go a little insane on me. It was working eprfectly fine (especially for a 2 year old phone) when all of a sudden my power button seemed to start cyling and the power off screen kept popping up and the volume keys did the same. I turned the phone off and even tried taking the battery out and giving it a rest but the problem persisted.
Another issue was that some of the numbers no longer worked correctly. The even numbers both on the touch screen and keypad would dial
"2468" instead of the corresponding number; very weird! The phone had never been rooted or modded at all. Well I was able to get into the phone after figuring out a way to input my passcode with the faulty numbers and I performed a hard reset. The phone is back to completely stock but the power button and camera button do nothing. The volume up button works well but the volume down (besides lowring the volume) button causes google search to pop up and then a bunch of letters and numbers to be typed in both the google search bar and in the message of box of the last person I texted. I can still use the phone by opening the key pad to wake the screen up and I can text and call fine as long as I don't touch the Volume Down button. Also, battery life is ridicolously low. I am up for upgrade but don;t really feel like upgrading to the S3 just yet. Sorry for the long post. I know it is against forum policy but I wanted to get the whole story out there. So here is what I am looking to do:
I want to root the phone and install one of the roms to maybe eek out a couple more weeks out of it. Again it works ok now, just the sliding out of the keypad and lack of power button sucks. The phone boots up if I take the battery out and put it back in wihtout touching the power button.
I have read up on Odin and that looks somewhat straightforward. Just trying to see what you think is my best course of action. Again, I do not have a power button working or camera button and a faulty Volume Down Button. Maybe I can do the whole slip in the battery while holding "1" to get it into download mode? This will be my first time rooting a phone so any help is great and appreciated. Thanks and again, sorry for the really long post!

I forgot to mention that the phone is currently running on Gingerbread 2.3.6. This may or may not make it more difficult to root.

Did the phone get wet at all? Use it in the rain?
Sent from my PantechP4100 using xda premium

kennyglass123 said:
Did the phone get wet at all? Use it in the rain?
Sent from my PantechP4100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
was thinking this as well

It actually got wet about 1.5 years. I threw it in rice for about a week and never had any issues. The phone has never frozen or had issues the past year and a half. Yesterday it was in the kitchen charging (with a samsung charger but not one for this phone specifically) and it started doing the whole power button/power off screen flashing. I was able to get it in download mode earlier today but i don't know about recovery mode since the power button is dead. Maybe I should root it to see if its a hardware issue?
Edit: I forgot to mention that the phone gets really really hot while charging as well in the area above the battery. Hopefully nothing short-circuited.

It could take a while before the corrosin gets bad enough to affect your phone. I dropped a phone in the toilet once, and it was over 2 years before it crapped out. Took it apart and it looked like an old Chevy wheel well inside.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

frostedunit said:
It could take a while before the corrosin gets bad enough to affect your phone. I dropped a phone in the toilet once, and it was over 2 years before it crapped out. Took it apart and it looked like an old Chevy wheel well inside.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a good point. I never thought of that. It was also in the kitchen which was humid and hot as ever yesterday. Do you think any kind of root or rom could help me squeeze a little bit of life out of my old phone.

Raymos24 said:
That is a good point. I never thought of that. It was also in the kitchen which was humid and hot as ever yesterday. Do you think any kind of root or rom could help me squeeze a little bit of life out of my old phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doubtful. If you're hardware's screwed, so are you.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2

So I left the phone alone for a couple days with the battery out. I go to turn it on today and it worked perfectly. Then after about 5 minutes the power button stopped working again, but everything else is ok. No random letters and numbers and the volume buttons work as well. Now, I'm kind of lost as to what to do. I do have a parts phone, same one as this. Maybe I need to replace the power button? It clicks and everything and even worked for a couple minutes but now is non-functional again.

[Rant] Samsung can't make a power button

Title says it all.
I'm angry at Samsung for making cheap power buttons. My GS1 captivate lost it's power button and I know just about every other captivate owner had theirs die. Now my S3 power button is on it's way out.
It's gone to "stuck on mode" like three times now. This means random reboots + screen on off on off on off... it's really really frustrating.
The only thing I've been able to find that seems to help is to unscrew and take apart the main board and blow out as much dust and crap as possible. There's tear down guides with lots of pictures for those who have the same trouble and want to take their phone apart. Warning this probably voids warranty, you're responsible. A simple Google search yields many tear down guides.
The S3 power button is apart of the silicone board if I remember right, I don't think it can be de soldered. You'd have to get a whole new main board(cpu, ram, all the things) to fix a failed power button. Samsung should at least make solderable so we can replace it.
Anyways there's my rant. SAMSUNG FIX YOUR BUTTON DESIGN!!
[/Rant]
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

I just tend to avoid using the button unless I need to, I set my lock screen to sleep at one minute and lock after 5 and I just use the home button to wake it up
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

I have a cappy that ended up with me due to the power button. However, it only happens on stock. Really bizarre. If I keep it custom on it no problems. I have one skyrocket that this began happening to on custom and persists on stock. Another skyrocket I bought brand new in April still ok. Brand new s3 bought in June still ok. Knock on wood. I would do like above post and use home to wake, but what's to say that button wont go out from overuse? Hopefully in my dry climate, I wont have that problem. Both the cappy and rocket doing it came from one of the wetter places in the country, Oregon. Southern Cali doesn't have that problem. Lol

Its really all about how you press the button. Every device I use be it a controller a phone a keyboard or a remote I use it thinking its **** and the buttons will break easily. So I make sure I push dead center of the button and just hard enough for it to register. Otherwise I feel like I'm just crushing it needlessly.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using xda app-developers app

Invisible lock widget saves button presses
I have used the app invisible lock widget for years to turn off and lock my phone. it saves presses on the power button. just touch the screen instead.

Probably best this type stuff goes to the Off-Topic Thread