[Q] Scrambled/garbled screen on T-Mobile G2 - flex cable problem? Please help! - G2 and Desire Z Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi all.
My phone's display has been getting progressively worse and worse over the past couple weeks. Initially, when I flipped out the keyboard, the screen would get garbled. I could technically still interact with it (it still responded to stuff), but the display would start glitching out and move all over the place. It's like there's tons of scanlines and it repeats the same display again and again.
When I went back into portrait mode, things were fine. This was extremely awkward but I dealt with it because I had little choice.
However, over the past couple weeks, the problem's gotten progressively worse. Holding my phone a certain way would cause the screen to glitch up again. It came to a point where I had to flip out the screen and keep the flex cable positioned a certain way so I could see the screen. I'm using a dull edge to kinda poke that flex cable around and it helped me gain use of the phone, but today it's gotten so bad now it refuses to "undo" itself when it boots and no amount of poking and prodding of the flex cable will help.
It looks almost exactly like this guy's phone (not my video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IVlvZt3U3U
Pictures of how my phone looks right after bootup:
http://i.imgur.com/eQ5j9KC.jpg
A few seconds after bootup:
http://i.imgur.com/L4doDyV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/zVIH9Pw.jpg
Luckily, I was able to get a VNC server installed on the thing, so if you guys think it's a software issue, I may be able to get it to do something, but I'm not going to be able to interact with the phone if I put it into Clockwork Recovery mode, so doing a hard reset is out of the question.
I'm having a flex cable come in and I'm going to get some local assistance disassembling and installing it, but before I do that, had anyone had this issue before? What did you do to fix it?

best guess is you need a new flex cable
for more info and links to disassembly see here

Related

Screen died?

Last night I was out and during the night I pulled my desire z out of my pocket to find that the screen was dead, the soft touch buttons were still lit up and working but no display. I pulled the battery and tried to reboot and no luck, you can hear it booting and even unlock/receive calls and txts etc once it has booted up just the screen stays blank the whole time so have to do everything on feel.
Essentially does this just mean my screen has a hardware fault? is it worth trying to fix? I assume the only option would be to purchase a replacement screen and dissemble and reassemble it?
(warranty is not worth it as I live in New Zealand and would have to send my phone back to the UK where I bought it from, also I have dropped it quite a few times so probably voided anyway...)
Thanks in advance for any input
Does it never display anything? So not even a flash during boot or something?
Because then it is probably a hardware problem.
Since the soft touch buttons do still work I think there might be a little crack or something in the flat cable that connects the bottom half with the top.
Maybe you could check whether you can see if the cable is broken or not?
The best thing to do then is to look for a replacement and try to fix it yourself or bring it to a shop where they can do it for you.
No it never displays anything, completely dead the whole time. The touch input is still working though as I answered a phone call this morning on it by making the usual gesture just without being able to see anything. Doesnt seem to be anything wrong with the cable itself as far as I can see. Yea might have to get someone to have a look at it.
My phone is acting the same. I dropped my phone in the pond before, but pulled battery out on time and had it in rice for a day. My phone was still working for about two weeks after that incident. I dropped it and had one little crack at the top of the screen and about a week after that it died when I had a water balloon fight with the phone in my pocket. D;
Do any of you know if the replacement lcd screen/digitizer for the Desire Z would work for the G2?
I had the same thing happening to my G2 screen, only it was intermittently working for a little while, then just completely died and wouldn't work. It was doing this crazy flickering thing then the back light wouldn't go on at all. If I held the phone at a certain angle in the sun, I could see that the pixels were indeed working on the display, but there was no backlight to make them normally visible.
So I purchased a replacement screen from ebay and carefully followed the directions on a youtube video for a G2 take apart. Its not a hard task to take apart and get down to the screen itself. It was rather easy. After putting it back together the screen still didn't work! Sounds work, i can also receive calls etc. But the screen still doesn't work!
Is there any way that this could be a software issue?
Oh and PS, I believe the LCD replacement would work for both the desire Z and the G2. They are identical phones after all right? I'd say its a safe bet. The screen I bought was only 35 bucks. Didn't think that was a bad deal.
Another dead screen or something else?
Few days ago my phone fell of the couch onto a rug - no big deal, so far it has survived much worse, but when I picked it up, the colors were all messed up - overly green and red. Tried restarting - no luck. Everything worked fine, except the colors, but then the screen turned of completely. I could hear notifications, phonecalls, but the screen was dead. After some tapping on the screen, it turned on again - with ****ed up colors. Then started flickering and was gone again. Few more times I could turn it on by tapping before it was dead for good.
Figured, after all these drops it survived, maybe the screen connector is a bit loose. I mean, I could sometime get a contact when tapping it, so I dissasambled it completely, secured all the connection, put it all back tougether and fired up - same thing: dead screen, phone working.
Has anyone had such problem before? Is it screen that is dead, or connector or... I have no clue... I would like try to fix it on my own, with some replacement parts I could get on ebay - but, what gave?

[Q] Backlight starting to die?

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.

faulty screen/digitiser

Yesterday, I was just using my phone when the touchscreen suddenly stopped responding in one area. Its a bout a 2m wide strip running across the phone in portrait mode which does not respond. Originally I thought it might have been something to with the custom rom I installed last week so I completely wiped the phone and reset it to stock rom. I then ran the service test via *#*#7378423#*#* and ran a touchscreen test. This sowed me exactly where the digitiser was unresponsive.
The strange thing is that it sometimes works but more often than not there is a defined area where it just will not respond. Anyone know what the exact problem is?
By the sounds of it, you probably need to replace your digitizer. You could try taking it apart and try checking the digitizer's connection. Mine ended up getting loose, and the screen ended up being unresponsive unless it was tilted a specific way. If you need a guide on taking it apart, there are some fantastic guides on youtube detailing the disassembly process.
i am having the same problem..... replacing the flex cable will tell you if it works. Hold tight

[Q] Captivate Glide: Screen 'redding out', not that old.

Too late to return of course, and the seller on Ebay (bought it new) is retired.
I've had the phone about 4 months now, and like the phone a lot, its fine. Except now suddenly the screen is starting to get a reddish/purplish smeary "hue" around all the icons. This comes and goes.
I've found if I slide the keyboard out briskly and snap it back, the screen will usually (but not always) right itself. But I'm sure that's not going to keep working for long.
The suggestion is a loose video cable or wire somewhere inside. I've found the video below which gives the steps of taking the phone apart for a 'screen repair', but its about as long as an open heart surgery procedure and I don't look forward to risking taking the phone apart any more than I need to.
However.... loose wire? Has anybody seen this, and is there any suggestion for a fix? I have much customization on the phone, and my worst fear is the display will suddenly short out leaving me bricked at a complete loss.
Also, there is a second problem which I have suddenly noticed- the phone will not dial. I tap on a contact and it says "Dialing...", but takes forever for it to begin, or never does (forcing it to reboot). I'm not sure if this is related or not but thought I'd mention.
Thanks much for any suggestions!!

Digitizer Problem

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.

Categories

Resources