Hey all! I've had my T989 for about half a year now, and since I've gotten it, it's had this strange issue that has persisted across multiple complete hardware and software swaps. I'm pretty convinced I won't be free of it until I can afford to upgrade, but I figured I'd post here since NOTHING seems to work, and see if anyone can come up with something.
To start off, I got the device from Koodo, as they had a great deal on it that allowed me to get it cheap. Ever since the first device, it's occasionally rebooted for seemingly no reason, and hung after the initial boot screen. In order to reset it, I have to hold the power button for a good 10 seconds, causing it to fully reboot again after two short vibrates, following which it will boot up normally.
I initially had a broken speaker, so I took it back and had it replaced, only for the second device to have the same issue. I took that back, and temporarily tried a few other carriers with different phones, but came back to Koodo because I love the T989 too much for the price.
This third phone still had the issue, so I took it back and called Koodo's support line. They fedexed me a new model, which STILL had the same issue.
That would make me think it's a software issue, and a friend suggested that perhaps I had a bad root, but after the phone finally slowed down to near-unusability on Jedi Knight 6, I flashed a few stock ROMs back onto it, until finding one that returned it to normal speed.
I've re-rooted and tried multiple ROMS, with no success. The issue seems to persist across hardware and software. The only thing that seems to be common among them all is that I had a ghost armor screen protector applied to them all. I've since heard that ghost armor was using what was basically soapy water to clean the phone before applying the protector, and that this could have entered the phone and caused some kind of problem.
It seems to happen far more frequently when the phone is in my pocket, which leads me to think that it may have something to do with the power button, and perhaps the moisture or something else causing partial pressure on the button to trigger an incorrect reboot. This seems like a long shot to me, but it's the only commonality I can find.
I should note that I have seen the phone do this randomly while sitting on the desk in front of me after I set it down, so it may be that turning the screen off manually causes the same incorrect reboot issue, or it could be that I simply have some kind of magnetic aura that is insistent on trolling me.
Either way, thanks in advance to anyone who replies!
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Don't know if anyone else is experiencing this with their Play but as of a week or two ago the backlight started acting strange. The backlight will randomly stay off when I push the power button with the slider gamepad closed. Only way to make it come on is to pop out the slider. It seems to be random, and if I push on the slider edge slightly with my thumb with the slider closed the backlight randomly flickers, ranging from slight to severe.
The display is still working despite the backlight issues, I can open apps, and use the phone normally but the backlight flickers on and off. Makes it especially hard to use the phone in the dark.
Phone has never been dropped once.
I've replicated this problem with a variety of roms, both custom and stock. It's definitely not app related or even custom kernel related. It happens on a fresh wipe with stock rom with stock kernel. It happens on CM7 with custom kernel.
I'm curious if anybody else is experiencing this. It would tell me if it's just an isolated incident or if others are having this problem.
Sounds like a faulty connection to the backlight to me.
I had the same problem 2 days ago. Then I couldn't get my phone screen on at all!
I sent my phone back to Sony, even thought I bought it second hand. Phoned them up and talked to them. They asked what time of year I bought it so I said around August and then they gave me the address to send it to. Now I'm just waiting to see what happens next.
If your going to send your phone to Sony for repair then make sure you put the fresh firmware back on and un-root your phone as that breaks the warranty (unless they don't know about it)
Hope I helped you. If I did then click the thanks button
Sounds like a faulty ribbon cable to me. (cable that connects the screen to the rest of the phone)
You wouldn't need to drop it for that to go bad, It could just be a case of opening and closing the gamepad or lot.
Yeah good thoughts, most likely the ribbon. That really sucks because I've only had the phone for 7 months, and I've taken excellent care of it. Sounds like a major design oversight.
Mine is probably near complete failure at this point. It's taking a lot more effort to keep the screen on now. Fearing soon it won't work at all.
In hopes that this might help someone else down the line, I was able to fix my problem. Yesterday the screen pretty much quit and I had no choice but to try and solve it myself or buy a new phone.
Using this disassembly video as a visual aid I carefully pulled my phone apart: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3n5ZfkqhzE
You'll need a torx T5 tool to pull out all the screws but they are cheap.
Underneath the phone and jammed into the screen ribbon was a rather thick hair just hanging out. Somehow it buried itself in there. I removed it, unplugged and replugged the screen ribbon and cleaned the dusty inside with a q-tip and reassembled it all together.
It works fine now, so hopefully this helps someone else avoid having to pony up for a new phone. For those under warranty probably best to send back but for those like me with no warranty it's worth the shot.
Hello everyone,
Basically went to unlock my phone today and touch screen is not responding, however the hardware buttons work fine. Now i've done some research and found other posts of people with the same problem, however their touchscreen problems seem to be fixed(temporarily, at least) with a battery pull.. mine however is still unresponsive after half a day and multiple battery pulls.
Id rather not have to send in for certified to replace an otherwise perfectly working phone.
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
bigdeezer20 said:
Hello everyone,
Basically went to unlock my phone today and touch screen is not responding, however the hardware buttons work fine. Now i've done some research and found other posts of people with the same problem, however their touchscreen problems seem to be fixed(temporarily, at least) with a battery pull.. mine however is still unresponsive after half a day and multiple battery pulls.
Id rather not have to send in for certified to replace an otherwise perfectly working phone.
Any ideas/suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
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Click to collapse
are u undervolting?
Nope, sorry forgot to say. Completely stock never unlocked or rooted.
Also i tried getting into recovery to try and do a factory reset but when i select recovery i just get the android on his back with the red triangle..
so instead i just went through the steps and unlocked the bootloader and booted up (in order to give me the factory reset without having to touch the screen)
It unlocked and booted up fine but still no response..
No new recent app installed and never had this happen before.
Mine did this after a few days of owning it, and luckily the store took it back and swapped it out with a perfectly working unit. Is yours within a few weeks of purchase?
Figured this out randomly. Remove battery cover. With phone turned on, press on the area to the to the left of the camera lens until the screen is responsive. My screen becomes unresponsive when the phone is dropped and this fixes it.
dailong said:
Figured this out randomly. Remove battery cover. With phone turned on, press on the area to the to the left of the camera lens until the screen is responsive. My screen becomes unresponsive when the phone is dropped and this fixes it.
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hrmm this does not seem to fix either. I also have never dropped my phone, although this seems to be worrisome if the issue is hardware related.
@ tmellen i purchased the phone from amazon and am a few days past my return date :-/
Guess ill just give them a call and hope for the best. Thanks for the ideas everyone.
(update) called amazon and they are sending me a brand new phone.
Knowing this i thought i'd try dailong's method again only this time i was quite a bit more "rough" with pressing down on that area, and it actually worked!
Ill still be taking the new phone once it gets here but for anyone who is having this problem there's a sweet spot on the left edge of the phone towards the top (looking at it with the back cover off) there should be a circle shape. press on that area really hard and it should fix.. weird
Experienced the same on my GSM version a few minutes ago. I had to call my mobile to get it to respond. After that it worked again as normal. I'll see if I get this issue again in the next few days. Hope it's just random
Had the same happen earlier to mine and I was on AOKP. I've had this happen to other phone before, shouldn't be a a cause for alarm unless it happens very frequently. Btw, next time it happens to me I'll give that left side of the camera trick a try.
mine got fixed by removing battery.
EDIT: This is the 32GB model, fwiw.
My new N7 had me very worried this morning.
I woke up and went to use the tablet, only to notice a very skinny - yet very noticeable- black line running the entire length of the screen, about an inch or so away from the right edge (when holding in portrait). I started searching around online, and it seems this was an issue on the older N7 model, and that Google typically replaced those units as it was usually a faulty screen. This made me very nervous as I've only owned this tablet for a week and I figured I would now have to exchange it. I tried everything from powering off, uninstalling the most recently installed apps, changing keyboard and a few other actions, but to no avail. I was about to perform a factory reset, to see if that helped, and decided to take a screenshot before I did that to show others what the issue was. Well, as soon as I took the screenshot (Home + Volume down), it went away! I can't imagine what caused it in the first place, but it's gone now and everything else seems to be OK, so I think this was just a false alarm.
Update: So the black line re-appeared later in the evening yesterday. I noticed that the line persists through the opening splash screen and boot anitmation when you reset the device, so I don't think it's related to the launcher (Nova) or any apps I'm using. I also determined that the line disappears when using the camera, so I'm really not sure what to think about this. If it happens again, I may just exchange it at BB since I've only had it for a week. I still love this tablet, and plan to keep using one for the foreseeable future, but I'm starting to become a bit nervous that this is a hardware defect that will continue to be an issue.
Anyone with a (new or old) Nexus who has experienced anything like this? Thanks very much.
goodwidp said:
EDIT: This is the 32GB model, fwiw.
My new N7 had me very worried this morning.
I woke up and went to use the tablet, only to notice a very skinny - yet very noticeable- black line running the entire length of the screen, about an inch or so away from the right edge (when holding in portrait). I started searching around online, and it seems this was an issue on the older N7 model, and that Google typically replaced those units as it was usually a faulty screen. This made me very nervous as I've only owned this tablet for a week and I figured I would now have to exchange it. I tried everything from powering off, uninstalling the most recently installed apps, changing keyboard and a few other actions, but to no avail. I was about to perform a factory reset, to see if that helped, and decided to take a screenshot before I did that to show others what the issue was. Well, as soon as I took the screenshot (Home + Volume down), it went away! I can't imagine what caused it in the first place, but it's gone now and everything else seems to be OK, so I think this was just a false alarm.
Update: So the black line re-appeared later in the evening yesterday. I noticed that the line persists through the opening splash screen and boot anitmation when you reset the device, so I don't think it's related to the launcher (Nova) or any apps I'm using. I also determined that the line disappears when using the camera, so I'm really not sure what to think about this. If it happens again, I may just exchange it at BB since I've only had it for a week. I still love this tablet, and plan to keep using one for the foreseeable future, but I'm starting to become a bit nervous that this is a hardware defect that will continue to be an issue.
Anyone with a (new or old) Nexus who has experienced anything like this? Thanks very much.
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A line one the screen is definitely not normal. Specially after you have completed a complete system restore. I would suggest at this point to go ahead and exchange the unit.
[email protected] said:
A line one the screen is definitely not normal. Specially after you have completed a complete system restore. I would suggest at this point to go ahead and exchange the unit.
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Thanks very much for the response. I'm going to go ahead and exchange it.
Also, apologies for originally posting this in the General thread.
So I decided to exchange my N7 due to the black line occasionally appearing. I took it back to Best Buy and was given another BNIB unit, only to discover that it was DOA when I got home. I tired using 4 different USB cables as well as different power adapters and electric outlets. No response whatsoever each time. Looks like I'll have to take this back tomorrow and hope that I get lucky with number 3.
So, initially I began having problems with "ghost touching", then, portions of my screen became unresponsive to touch in addition to the "ghost touching". I did the line drawing test multiple times. At times, it showed a dead space to the right (vertically only, horizontal was ok), other times, it was working fine. I was so focused on checking the right side of the screen, I didn't check the bottom. When I did, it showed an unresponsive area at the bottom as well. Almost as if the screen was off kilter. I did a factory reset through the normal phone menu and from TWRP and the ghost touching has seemed to resolve itself, however, the unresponsive screen is getting worse. Now a full 1/3 of the screen on the right is intermittently unresponsive.
I am hoping there is something I can flash on this phone that might assist the digitizer if it is software related. If not, could it be that the cable is not grounded properly or has possibly become partly unplugged? I know what a pain this phone is to take apart because I had to take my first M8 apart when I accidentally gave it a ride home in a cup of tea. (really tired after working one night, forgot the cup was in the cup holder). Turns out they really don't like that. My current M8 I bought from a private seller, so I have no warranty, no insurance and extremely limited funds at the moment for handling this problem. I've had this replacement phone for several months, so I know the phone wasn't defective when I got it.
I am rooted, running stock ROM, stock kernel and TWRP Recovery v2.7.0.2
Thank you in advance for any help.
Okay, so today I bought a Pixel Xl for 30 bucks off a guy on craigslist. He stated in the post that the phone was continuously rebooting and he couldn't fix the issue. He ended up buying a Pixel 4 XL instead of paying to have a repair done. I fix electronics and all that good stuff so I figured it would be a component on the logic board, most likely some failed solder joints or something along those lines. Well before I went and opened it up a I stated realizing that there were times when the phone would boot into android but only if I was holding the device. I thought it was weird and so I kept reading online and someone mentioned heating the back of the phone up would get it to boot and sure enough they were right but inevitably it would reboot again. Well I eventually realized that if I continuously pressed to power button as follows..... 1 press 1 press, wait 1 press 1 press wait the phone would remain on. Thats when I started seeing the lock screen was not activating at all as I pressed each time which it should've done. So I continued to press the button at that same rate of speed for about 2 minutes and eventually the lock screen began responding as it should've.
Long story short, if your Pixel is stuck in a constant reboot then it looks like a possible cause is the pin on the ribbon cable becoming pushed in and held in place by something. Could be dirt and gunk or something that possibly seeped into the button area and is causing the button to remain in a pressed state regardless of any actual pressure being applied to the button that's meant to activate the pressure point on the power cable. So if you're in the same situation try continuously pushing the button in order to free what's ever loved itself in place being the button and eventually the device will stop rebooting. You should also use a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol on a tip and light apply it around the power button to help free up any dirt that's undoubtedly managed to make its way in there.
HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE ELSE!!
Loved your solution. It worked like a charm on my pixel 3XL.
Initially while reading the other articles which clearly stated it's a hardware issue and that you need to go to store, or do some factory reset and stuff, it freaked me out. But with more research I was lucky to have come across your article. I'll be honest here, I didn't think it will work. Sounded like a troubleshoot kind of solution which generally aren't so effective, but, conitinuously pushing the button, worked like a charm and my device switched on.
Thanks for saving my device, my repair cost money, my mental peace.
Greetings from India.
This is a light case scenario, because people who are in this kind of situation don't have a issue with the buttons. You would probably be able to define this behavior if the screen immediately blacks out, or you see a blue line across the display (sign of hard reboot). More common cases are the device sticking through the Google > G animation then crashing, which is often the case of failing UFS, more potential in 128gb models, however I've seen and even owned a 32gb model that had this same exact issue.
Ohhhhhhhh thank you so much!! Thought it was a software failure but it kept rebooting when rebooting into fastboot by holding power down. After hitting it hard on the table multiple times it finally stopped rebooting. Very bad hardware by Google.
djared704 said:
This is a light case scenario, because people who are in this kind of situation don't have a issue with the buttons. You would probably be able to define this behavior if the screen immediately blacks out, or you see a blue line across the display (sign of hard reboot). More common cases are the device sticking through the Google > G animation then crashing, which is often the case of failing UFS, more potential in 128gb models, however I've seen and even owned a 32gb model that had this same exact issue.
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if that were the case, would it not random or bootloop whether in recovery or fastboot?mine does an infinite bootloop but it wont bootloop in stock recovery or fastboot. sometimes it would crash and reboot then spin to a bootloop from twrp. google pixel
I finally figured out a solution for this as well! I sideload the latest Google OTA for an XL and it fixed the stuck bootloop! It was simply a software issue!