Wondering if anyone has any advice on something, plus I'd like to make some observations on a common problem. I dropped my phone about 4 months ago from about 3 feet up, in the cold (around 5C). Since then, I've had vertical lines appearing on my screen as in this post (https://www.asus.com/zentalk/thread-70061-1-1.html). Only difference is the lines don't extend all the way up the screen. There is about an inch at the top where the screen is normal. I have a few observations about the issue:
- It does not appear to be a broken screen. I replaced the screen/digitizer/frame assembly with another (used one), and it worked at first, but developed the same symptoms after a few days, out of the blue (did not drop).
- I can coax the screen to act fairly normally if I display a mostly white screen (either by inverting colors, or by setting a white background/opening a white app, etc)
- After a certain amount of time with a "mostly white" screen, I can revert to a dark screen and it seems to act normally and display dark colors again/can see everything on screen (not always though).
- When it's funky, I can see a vertical line about an inch from the top that flickers - above it, the screen is normal, below the screen is funky (vertical lines)
- It happens randomly, as in it will work normally, I will shut off the screen, and when I turn it back on, it's funky again.
- Weather/heat/cold appears to have no impact on it.
- This occurs during boot and in TWRP recovery, so it's not caused by software (doesn't seem like it's ROM dependent, by the way, I'm on CM 13.0), perhaps by bootloader which is common for everything that runs on the phone?
From these observations, it seems like it's not the screen that's the issue but rather the board the screen connects to (inside the phone, top board with the camera/volume attached to it). Does this seem right? I can't figure out why the screen would work when mostly white is displayed. I had a theory earlier that perhaps a (nano/micrometer sized) crack developed on the transparent conductor used to build the TFTs that drive the individual pixels - that would seem to make sense of the "white". As the lower pixels are driven, sufficient voltage/current is supplied to bridge the very small crack that occurred, leading to a (mostly) normally working screen. However that would have been fixed by replacing the screen, so it doesn't seem like that's the case.
I see two possibilities:
- The board that connects to the display has something that cracked/shorted like I mentioned above and sufficient voltage/current bridges the crack
- OR The second LCD is also broken - however this doesn't seem to be the case as the screen worked perfectly for a couple days. I haven't had the screen work for that long since this happened.
So, what are everyone's thoughts? I'm out of warranty. I could try replacing the board or just get a new phone. Or perhaps someone else has some insight...
Related
After upgrading my IPAQ 4705 to WM6, I needed to replace the backup battery. After reassembly, the screen display isn't working correctly:
On a soft reset the first screen is correct. It's the right size and has the right size text and looks perfect in all respects. The next screen, however, shows an image that is 10 times too large for the screen. As an example, on a hard reset, it shows the correct screen, then I see the words "align screen" with the word "align" taking 3/4 of the screen and each letter being 3/4 of an inch high. The word "screen" starts on the right side and wraps around to the left side. The touch screen works, but the crosses are also large and I can't get past the align screen. I can activesync in without problem. I tried removing the welcome link to bypass alignment, but then I see the same huge text for the Today screen and all other screens.
I have carefully looked at the ribbon cable to the screen, and there is one wire that is suspect. It looks like something struck the cable right at that point. Under a microscope, the wire "looks" OK, but I can't be certain. I don't want to try to "fix" this hardware problem if it's not the problem. Since some screens display correctly, I was wondering if this could be some kind of scaling issue. Perhaps a register is storing some scale factor that would be corrected if I could align the screen, but I can't.
I would have expected the ROM reset or hard reset to fix this, but then again. maybe not.
I've tried switching ROMS, but I get the same problem with all.
Does anyone have specs for the connector or ribbon cable to the screen? I suspect that the one possibly bad wire could go to the touch screen part and the screens that look OK are ROM images (drawn without reference to the touch screen), while the bad ones are being scaled by some error in the touch screen input.
Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
IpaqOwner3 said:
I have carefully looked at the ribbon cable to the screen, and there is one wire that is suspect. It looks like something struck the cable right at that point.
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I was able to trace this wire back, scrape away some of overlay to access the copper and test this wire. It was broken - no connection. It must be part of the touch screen sensing system (even though the touch screen worked). Using some SMT rework tools, flux, fine solder and very fine wire, I was able to bypass the broken single wire in the ribbon cable, and it's now working fine.
I recently removed the motherboard from my original evo and set it in a new one b/c I shattered the screen on my original. The process seemed to work for the first couple days, however now I have a large area of dark shading on my screen. I am still able to view the screen entirely but this large shaded area is obviously a nuisance. I assume I must have hit/messed up something during the transfer. Any idea what that could be?
Sounds like a problem with the backlight for the screen maybe. Might try taking it apart again and making sure that all the cables are properly seated where they need to be, might be a loose connection somewhere.
Just received my second One X from amazon UK (first was sent back due to charging issues).
Been getting some weird things with the screen on this one, which I haven't heard of in the other threads. I have a fair amount of pixels on the screen that will flicker white on certain screens, particularly on the pull-down notification. The pixels seem to be roughly distributed along two vertical lines on the screen, and there's about 20-30, although it's hard to tell since they never flicker all at once. The white pixels don't show up in screenshots, so I don't think it's a software issue, although it's possible, I suppose.
They never show up on solid colors as far as i can make out, but i get them on the camera preview and in the notification drawer (seems to be that shade of grey combined with the fine texture that sets it off). Very occasionally I get it on the bubbles live wallpaper. I also get it when viewing screenshots of the notification pulldown, so it seems to be the colour/texture, not the actual window being drawn.
I can't tell if this is a software or hardware issue.. I've done a few reboots and a factory reset, which did absolutely nothing. It's always the same pixels, which suggests hardware to me, but then it's oddly specific circumstances that set it off.
Any ideas/anyone else getting similar issues?
Edit: re-reading your post it may not be what I thought. Info below for the "usual" screen flicker issue.
It's a well known issue that pretty much everyone has. The backlight flickers slightly due to a voltage drain when the CPU is busy, causing whites and greys to turn a slightly warmer "colour" for a moment.
It's fixed in the 1.29.11 (not 1.29.7) update which just rolled out in Europe and should follow in the UK in about 2 weeks. It takes up to 2 more weeks after the update for it to monitor the voltage of your individual screen and learn to compensate so the flicker goes away.
Yeah, it's not the backlight, it's literally single pixels flickering from their correct colour to white.
So I've been through the standard factory reset crap with customer service, and they're recommending I sent it in for repair. Has anyone had any luck with the repair centre (I'm in the UK)?
Not sure if it's even worth sending it back since I'm still not sure if it's a hardware or software issue. If it's a software issue, will they fix it, or will they just turn it back and go "nope, couldn't find anything"?
I have EXACTLY the same issue, but with two pixels only, I'm almost convinced it's a hardware fault because I'm on a custom rom and it's still there, I got mine without a warranty though so I'll have to deal with it, any suggestions other than acceptance?
I have same issue, i change the rom and now its fine. it was almost on 3 or 4 roms, and finally its disappear
kami2k said:
I have same issue, i change the rom and now its fine. it was almost on 3 or 4 roms, and finally its disappear
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Well thank you that's rather comforting to know, fingers crossed
Hi everyone,
I've had my Desire Z for little over 2 years now and two months ago (was running CM7.2 at the time) I started getting a weird issue where my touchscreen would only be responsive when the keyboard was slid out (so the opposite problem of what quite a few other people have reported where the touchscreen becomes unresponsive when the keyboard is out). The status LED would also stay off whenever the keyboard was closed, and the keyboard backlight didn't come on anymore at all. Also, I had to make sure that the keyboard was slid out during boot, if the phone booted without the keyboard out the screen would not become responsive at all until after another reboot. My earpiece speaker stopped working around the same time so I was wondering whether it was just an issue with the flex cable becoming a bit loose, but the touchscreen would consistently start working again when I flipped the keyboard out, and also the physical scroll button on the top bit would always work, so I was still hoping it would be some weird software issue.
I then upgraded to Flinny's (amazing) Andromadus ROM (build 22, complete data+dalvik wipe) after which the keyboard backlight started working again, but the rest remained pretty much the same. Since then the touchscreen issues have been getting worse, so that I sometimes have to flip the keyboard in and out again a few times, or turn the screen on or off with the power button several times before it becomes responsive again, but then it tends to work fine until I lock the screen again, with no noticeable dead spots anywhere on the screen. I've had days where it worked all day without problems (except having to flip out the keyboard, that's been a constant for the past two months), and then today I haven't been able to get the screen to do anything at all even after dozens of reboots.
I've already bought a new digitizer and am all ready to put it in (I'll have to replace the broken earpiece anyway), but was wondering whether anyone has any thoughts on whether it could still be a software issue after all, or if anyone has experienced anything similar? The thing with having to flip the keyboard out to get not only the touchscreen but also the status LED to work is just so weird and makes me doubt that it's a pure broken digitizer or lose flex cable issue, so I'm wondering whether it would be better to first try reverting to a stock ROM before taking on the messy sticky glue stuff (I should be fine but still, never done it before)?
Many thanks!
From what you describe my best guess would be the main flex cable is what needs to be replaced. Flash a touch based recovery and see if you have the issue there as well, if so its very unlikely that its anything but a hardware fault
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks for the heads-up, I've been playing around a bit more with software and I do manage to get the screen working again occasionally, typically after the second boot into a newly flashed ROM or restoring a backup, and only until one or two reboots later when it becomes completely unresponsive again. I've tried CM 7.2.0 as well as Flinny's Andromadus 10, and it is only complete flashing that does the trick, cache wipe or factory reset alone does nothing. The two occasions where the touchscreen worked were still limited to when the keyboard was flipped out, and it also had to be flipped out during boot, otherwise nothing would work. I've learned to navigate my way around the phone by just using the hardware navigation button, but I'll have a close look at the flex cable when I take it apart to replace the earpiece speaker tonight...
Hello,
so I took my dear phone apart yesterday to replace the broken earpiece - everything went fine but after reassembly the replacement earpiece isn't working either, which leads me to think that all those little broken bits might actually be related to some contacts being a bit lose, all in the same region. Should've thought about that earlier really since the earpiece and the LED (only works when keyboard flipped out) are both in that top region that the digitiser data presumable also has to run through before passing through the flex cable.
In any case, I also took a picture of the flex cable which is slightly bent but doesn't seem straightforwardly damaged (see attachment, that thing on the right is *not* a rip). Think it's worth trying to replace it anyway?
What was truly bizarre is that after the first boot following reassembly the touchscreen worked quite consistently for the entire evening - I thought I might've fixed a lose contact by un- and replugging the digitiser cable, but then the screen went nonreactive again at some point. I wonder if the working screen was again actually related to some software reset caused by the battery being taken out for so long? In the meantime the actual screen and trackball are still working away perfectly. Bizarre.
Just to let people know the solution to the mystery: the increasingly odd behaviour was actually caused by an initially small rip in the flex ribbon cable that got bigger and bigger - it's actually half-visible in the picture I uploaded above, only that the rip is where the cable comes out from underneath the case, and not where it's wrinkled!
Just in case it could be useful for anyone, here's the (top half of phone) components in the order in which they failed on me, which I guess corresponds to the order of the respective data lines in the ribbon cable (from the top of the phone towards the center):
environment brightness sensor (I thought that the sensor had been broken for almost a year, but as soon as I rebooted with the new flex cable I noticed how my phone stopped shining into my face at full brightness - if your brightness sensor gets stuck reporting the same (low) value this means your flex cable is on its way out!)
earpiece speaker
status led
touchscreen
screen (non-alignment with edge of screen, visual artefacts)
screen (fade to black/power interrupt)
obstacle3 said:
Just to let people know the solution to the mystery: the increasingly odd behaviour was actually caused by an initially small rip in the flex ribbon cable that got bigger and bigger - it's actually half-visible in the picture I uploaded above, only that the rip is where the cable comes out from underneath the case, and not where it's wrinkled!
Just in case it could be useful for anyone, here's the (top half of phone) components in the order in which they failed on me, which I guess corresponds to the order of the respective data lines in the ribbon cable (from the top of the phone towards the center):
environment brightness sensor (I thought that the sensor had been broken for almost a year, but as soon as I rebooted with the new flex cable I noticed how my phone stopped shining into my face at full brightness - if your brightness sensor gets stuck reporting the same (low) value this means your flex cable is on its way out!)
earpiece speaker
status led
touchscreen
screen (non-alignment with edge of screen, visual artefacts)
screen (fade to black/power interrupt)
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I'll for sure keep that in mind. Mine is still going strong for the time being, but it's good to know some warning signs if I need to replace parts or if it's time to get a new phone
fireball0093 said:
I'll for sure keep that in mind. Mine is still going strong for the time being, but it's good to know some warning signs if I need to replace parts or if it's time to get a new phone
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Replacement parts all the way, the repair was 15$ and it feels as good as new! Well, it could do with a new battery but that's just another 5..
Just realised that the proximity sensor should actually be added to the very top of the list - just noticed that faint red light when taking a phone call, don't remember seeing that in almost a year :]
obstacle3 said:
Replacement parts all the way, the repair was 15$ and it feels as good as new! Well, it could do with a new battery but that's just another 5..
Just realised that the proximity sensor should actually be added to the very top of the list - just noticed that faint red light when taking a phone call, don't remember seeing that in almost a year :]
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That's not a bad cost at all. I know I'm going to have to replace my keyboard in probably 2 months or so (maybe sooner) because some buttons are starting to not work. Other than that fact my phone is currently still going strong for being going on a 3 and a half year old phone
Hi, maybe someone have encouter similar issue and have and could comfirm if there could be anything else i could do except replacing whole lcd+touch, which cost pretty much same as new unit
My my screen is showing some weird artefacts on screen, at first there is not much but its getting worse after few muniutes of use. If i lock and unlock the device i show white light bleed on left side of the screen (first picture) then if i lock again, wait for a while it disappears, but some artefacts and color pixel start to show on left side (second pic). After a while some strong white lines apear, always in the some spot, but if i put down the device for few minutes it desappers. Reattaching battery didn't help, i guess thats not the case. Could this be a faulty LCD connector? Or the screen is dying.. ? Definitly not a software bug, i just upgraded to 6.0 and even in bootloader mode while upgrading there were those two lines (last pic)
What screen brightNess do you use. It's recommended to use 20% to avoid screen burn in
dksohum7 said:
What screen brightNess do you use. It's recommended to use 20% to avoid screen burn in
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Hmm.. since i usually use the tablet in bright locations its probably set to higher then 50%, at least..
There is one more thing, after like 10 minutes of use, almost all the above issues stops, only thing that stays is the "burned like" vertical stripes, barely visible, on about 2/3 of the screen.
I does not make the table unusable but its quite annoying...
could this be affect of screen burn in ?
i think its just a bad screen from a begining cuz i have tab s 8.4 for almost 2 years now and i gave it to my brother for a year and he was in Tenerife...temperatures there are high so i doubt its a screen burn since my tablet is still ok even after one year at Tenerife with probably brightnes always on 100%...just sharing my xperiance cheers guys