Database Users

A few buttons on face not working...

Besides dropping my phone a few too many times, I recently got my phone a little wet (on scale of 1 to 10, 10 being submerged, I would say this water contact was 3).
After letting the phone dry overnight and performing a soft reset , I now have lost the use of the left button on face (Above TALK button)and the multi button( a good name for this button escapes me).
So I tried a hard reset and the HTC ROM upgrade hoping some magic would fix this button. No magic. Any ideas?
Michael

Probably should have let your phone dry out a bit longer. Putting it in the oven on it's lowest setting for a few hours works too, if you happen to ever do it again, but I guess that isn't going to help you right now. If that's the only function you lost then I would concider myself lucky, especially since you can use the bottom task bar button to do what you would use that button for most of the time anyway.

sweet jesus, this is horrible :O
good luck with your device...

Remove the battery and sim card. Look at the horizontal strip where the sim card goes... the strip should be white. If it isn't, then the water has damaged your device. A continued "drying out" may restore the circuits.

HTC is turning off :(

Hello everyone! I have problem with my phone because sometimes is turning off without any reason, I bought brand new battery and is still same when is switched off and I want to put it back on i must take off battery for couple of minutes, then put battery back and then switch on anybody know whats happened?? And how to fix it!!

It's the most standard problem with htc models touch and elf...
This problem is hardware based! in this condition there are only 2 things you can do:
1.send the device to a htc service center and get the motherboard changed for $300+ if you are out of warranty.
2.Or open the mobile and put a piece of thin plastic in between the omap prosessor chip and the steel piece tha goes over it and then put the second cover on top in order to apply pressure to it because the solder pins that are in between the cpu and the mobo are not connecting properly and lose contact so the phone goes off or freezes then goes off and some times stays off. Make sure that there is enough but not to much pressure applied to it! it worked for mine but i did it because it was out of warranty... its a temporary fix but if you are gentile to it after it will surely work for a few more months...
IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEFORE OR YOUR TOUCH/ELF IS STILL IN WARRANTY DO NOT TRY IT!
I will post a pic that i took when i did mine if anyone is interested... Let me know...

Thanks for reply!
Uff.... first way to fix it is a little bit too expensive! And 2 way to do it seems quite easy, so i try to do it this way Could you add any picture of this and just tell me how to open this phone?
Many thanks!

@Firestarter42
Thanks man!!!!
did what you said, the plastic trik, and the phone is back to life (it was totally dead and didn't charge) you save a life today!!!

I had the same problem untill one day when he didn`t want to turn on and now i do not know what to do with it how to make it work again

Dear Sir,
I have just tried method 2.
My elf didnt have a metal cover on the processor, lol... got it used from someone... or should I say abused? lol
anyway, I hope it works. will update...
here's a link for the demonstrated tutorial:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=476152
Thanks a lot again.

I haved the same problem.....and i realize after many times that I didn't change my ipl and uspl!!!so my cocked rom frequentely turn off my device!!!now it's all right!!!!!!!

i had the same problm too....
it kept turning off and just a few weeks ago it would never turn on...
i did try that trick of keeping the plastic thingy on the omap processor ... it worked for a few weeks max after tht it happened as above
finally took my phone to htc.. told them it was gift and i dont have the invoice... actually purchased frm ebay for 150$ .....
they checked it was in warranty,.. they replaced the board... hurray... my elfin is alive again.. and in wm6.1
hope htc fixes this crap issue as many face this problem

My HTC elf was freezing, rbooting and so on, i was thinking that it was a windows/flash/third party programs problems ....
BUT I confirm that the method "open the mobile and put a piece of thin plastic in between the omap prosessor chip and the steel piece tha goes over it"
brings my htc elf to life again ... stable !
(i've done it with a metal piece and not plastic.)
Thanks for the advice !!!!

my elf was freezing and turning off so i try this 2. method and it works, and elf is much faster then before in my case...

I've never had this problem before but this week my phone switched itself off (so had to boot up again) a couple of times. I did try a new custom rom but I've also been using a different charger (USB mains adaptor) and a replacement battery (this seems to be a poor replacement battery which seems to make up the battery level.
So I don't know what was causing it. For some reason, removing the SD card and re-inserting it seems to have done the trick for now but I'll keep watching it.

Hi guys
My phone is, usually at night when there is no use, switching the screen off, the earphone green indicator flashes but the phone will not turn on when I press the power button, I have to do a soft reset each time to get it back on again (even though it appears to be on with the flashing green light). I cannot get calls or text and my alarm fails to sound. Have overslept a few times now!. Also, its battery has gone for a ball of ^&*%. Will this trick help? Thanks a lot!

Turn off as in literally 'poof!' or, it will restart?

The only way to get it to restart is to do a soft reset, or remove and replace the battery. The phone's green light will flash but there is no way to the screen to activate or use the phone - make calls, use the alarm, receive etc. The screen stays black, no use trying the power button either...

Firestarter42 said:
It's the most standard problem with htc models touch and elf...
This problem is hardware based! in this condition there are only 2 things you can do:
1.send the device to a htc service center and get the motherboard changed for $300+ if you are out of warranty.
2.Or open the mobile and put a piece of thin plastic in between the omap prosessor chip and the steel piece tha goes over it and then put the second cover on top in order to apply pressure to it because the solder pins that are in between the cpu and the mobo are not connecting properly and lose contact so the phone goes off or freezes then goes off and some times stays off. Make sure that there is enough but not to much pressure applied to it! it worked for mine but i did it because it was out of warranty... its a temporary fix but if you are gentile to it after it will surely work for a few more months...
IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEFORE OR YOUR TOUCH/ELF IS STILL IN WARRANTY DO NOT TRY IT!
I will post a pic that i took when i did mine if anyone is interested... Let me know...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thankx your solutions worked out with my HTC Touch and i get replaced omap processor

power problem on Elf (not the usual)
hello guys, i have an Elf T-mobile that someone "lost" i found it, but was bricked...i unbricked following the awesome guides on the forum and installed on it the original italian rom (obviously am not german)
but...here's the problem, when i press the power button (should get it into stand by mode like every pda does) or also when goes on stand by itself, just shuts down !!!
then the pda auto soft resets, until the end...doesn't have the "auto power off problem" like i readed on the forums...however it tried but didn't solve the problem
i think is a problem with the radio, or the IPL or SPL (i tried 1.11.0002 IPL and 1.11.000 SPL...then 2.2x.xxxx IPL and SPL...now i tried 3.14.0002 IPL and 3.14.0000 SPL, also tried different radios...
but the problem remains...
EDIT: Problem solved, changed the little battery in the motherborad, it worked for me

help
Firestarter42 said:
It's the most standard problem with htc models touch and elf...
This problem is hardware based! in this condition there are only 2 things you can do:
1.send the device to a htc service center and get the motherboard changed for $300+ if you are out of warranty.
2.Or open the mobile and put a piece of thin plastic in between the omap prosessor chip and the steel piece tha goes over it and then put the second cover on top in order to apply pressure to it because the solder pins that are in between the cpu and the mobo are not connecting properly and lose contact so the phone goes off or freezes then goes off and some times stays off. Make sure that there is enough but not to much pressure applied to it! it worked for mine but i did it because it was out of warranty... its a temporary fix but if you are gentile to it after it will surely work for a few more months...
IF YOU HAVE NEVER DONE SOMETHING LIKE THIS BEFORE OR YOUR TOUCH/ELF IS STILL IN WARRANTY DO NOT TRY IT!
I will post a pic that i took when i did mine if anyone is interested... Let me know...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can any one provide some sought of tutorial for this please
thanks

ishaan_chd88 said:
can any one provide some sought of tutorial for this please
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm presuming you mean for option 2, as 1 is quite obvious
Anyways, I haven't done this, but I am posting my best guess (untried, untested, just a theory).
Open your phone up and completely dissamble as described here. Completely strip it down so you only have your mainboard. Clearly take all the necessary precautions before hand (backup, etc etc.)
When done, you will see there are blank shields above where the chips will be, if you look, you can see little dimples, you can ease these off here. This will get you into where the omap processor is. You can then put the plastic on top, and make sure it is done as described. Should literally be a case of putting it all together and hoping for the best after that. I will have a look at some point (can't promise when) and see if I can take some photos of where this will go etc.
An alternative would be to try and reflow the joints of solder with a heat gun... very dangerous considering how tight the components are packed in, and overkill.

captainstu72 said:
I'm presuming you mean for option 2, as 1 is quite obvious
Anyways, I haven't done this, but I am posting my best guess (untried, untested, just a theory).
Open your phone up and completely dissamble as described here. Completely strip it down so you only have your mainboard. Clearly take all the necessary precautions before hand (backup, etc etc.)
When done, you will see there are blank shields above where the chips will be, if you look, you can see little dimples, you can ease these off here. This will get you into where the omap processor is. You can then put the plastic on top, and make sure it is done as described. Should literally be a case of putting it all together and hoping for the best after that. I will have a look at some point (can't promise when) and see if I can take some photos of where this will go etc.
An alternative would be to try and reflow the joints of solder with a heat gun... very dangerous considering how tight the components are packed in, and overkill.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks man but i guess am so dumb that am not getting where is this processor located anyways currently my phone is working fine but in few days I'll get the tools & open it...let see than
if you can arrange any pic of processor(where we have to fit plastic) it will be extremely helpful...
anyways thanks for helping
tc

where to get small battery on mother board

Battery won't charge, power button broken, me going crazy

Ok, im going to start not from the beginning beginning, but from where problems started.
Friday night, went out, I was writing an sms when somebody pushed me and i dropped my wiz, i picked it up, to find that the battery was gone, nowhere to be found, i did find the cover tho. i tried to look for the batt, but i was in the middle of the club so it wasn't that easy.. I knew that a friend of mine had a spare one so i didn't worry that much.
Sunday I got the replacement, tried it, no luck, it ran out i thought, but when i tried to charge it, nothing happened. Buying a new one is not that easy when you are in Argentina, and they are expensive, so i decided to jump sart it. good news: it worked, i could turn on the phone, so the battery is fine. bad news: it still doesn't want to charge!
I previously had problems with the usb, and i had to have it soldered again, pretty strong, but I thought that might be the problem again, so i disassembled my wiz. new problem: the power button broke, the tiny, tiny black piece fell off, AND I LOST IT! DOH!
Anyways, the usb is still soldered pretty strong, i don't think its gonna go loose again, so thats not the freaking problem!
So now, instead of the initial no-charge problem, i have a disassembled wizard, that won't charge the goddamn battery, AND a broken power button (tried to glue it, but fell off again and thats when i lost the piece).
Regarding the button, i've studied my options, what would you recommend and how would you do it?
option 1: turn on the phone with the soft reset hole, and remap the screen on/off function to another button.
option 2: replace the power button internal piece with the one from the voice command button (i never use it). i've taken a look and they seem to be the same, but i don't know if taking it off and soldering it back would work..
anyways, that leaves me again with my initial problem, and i do have an hypothesis. I THINK (because I THINK i remember this happening to me before), that the battery won't start charging until windows has started, and the jump star power the battery has is not enough to get it started (tried to tape it and leave it for a while to see if it charged a bit more, but didn't work, the phone turns on but goes out when loading, and since i've my wiz pretty loaded it takes its time to load).
So to try this out i would need a way to charge the battery manually, and i don't have access to another wiz to have it charged (my friend had a spare batt because his wiz is broken).
So, if you have a solution to this, ANY different solution, or even an IDEA, please give me a hint!
For what i've read, this are common problems, so there must be something out there.

Man, that's a bad thing
I'll try to help you as much as I can.
You are right about Wiz only start charging when it's on. After my N78 was stolen and I went back to the Wizard, the battery was without any charge for months... I plugged it and no red LED... Turned it on and, bingo, red LED and charging!
The voice command and the on/off buttons are the same, so (in theory) it would work 100% IF you were able to change their places (at least for me, it is impossible to do manually, never found any good equip here =\ )
With a lot of patience (and a small soldering iron) I would try to take the voice comm button off and place it where the on/off was.
For the battery, maybe someone here can point if there is a "battery charger" standalone device, or such a thing...
Good luck man

hey thanks for the quick reply!
i'm not thinking of doing it myself, i'm not not that precise nor is my solder, but i know a guy, same dude that fixed my usb. I like that idea more than the other, but i guess that remapping the screen on/off and using the soft reset button would be much safer.. i haven't made up my mind about that yet.
Weir thing about MY wiz, at least thats what i think happened to me last time my battery was completely discharged, is that not only the device must be ON for it to charge, but it needs to have WINDOWS already loaded, i know for most devices it's not like that, but i think thats how mine works, or at least thats the only explanation i could find!
btw, i love your case modding concept, and since i might have my wiz sitting for a while, i might go ahead and try something too! nothing as extreme as yours of course.. i'd love to see more updates on your project along with some guide to see what ideas i can take

slight detail while thinking my options.. if i was to remap the screen on/off function to another button, would i need to have the device in sync? or connected via cable? because when i had the usb soldered, don't know how nor why (all the pins seem to be ok) but the device won't be recognized by any computer, usb only works for charging (or used to work, at least, still haven't figured why it won't charge now).
If its only an app that i can load to the phone, once i have it working (that if i ever will), i can load the app thru minisd, BT or IrDa so that would't be a problem.. i haven's investigated that issue yet.

Hey jinxie, how's your Wizard?
If you're still stuck with the battery (I hope not), check this out...
I think this will solve your battery problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=4963547&postcount=5
That's probably to work, just be carefull with the battery's temperature. If it starts to heat, stop the process and wait it to get normal, then start again.
Good luck!

i tried keeping the wires attached to the contacts for a while, didn't think it'd work better doing it just for a little and then repeating the process, i'll try that!
yeap, i'm still stuck and i think i will be for a while, i have to solve the battery issue first (would be useless to do anything else if i'm not certain i will get it to work), then i have to decide what i am going to do with the power button, and then i might paint it, i'm thinking matte black, or maybe take some ideas from your project if you have made any progress at the time!
thanks for the tip, i'll try it today and i let you know how it went

development: phone DOES NOT turn on with the soft reset button as i thought, i was sure it did, but after jumping the bat once again, tried the wiring method (not repeating the jump start but wiring it directly to de device pins), and tried to turn it on with soft reset and dind't work, while it does turn on with the power button, wich is broken, so in order to turn it on i cannot have the phone assambled, wich means that in order to try to make it work, i will need to hold the battery attached with my hands, and it is a pain in the.. you know where.
update: i wired the charger i was using to jump start the battery to the pins in the wizard, then held the battery in place with my hand, with a small screwdriver i pushed the broken power button. wizard turned on, IT FINALLY LOADED WINDOWS, but don't rush, i then (with my MOUTH) connected the USB wall charger to the port in the phone, and removed the wiring, i was expecting the goddamn light to turn on and the screen to tell me that my phone was finally charging. I WAS WRONG. then i had to let go because my hand was killing me and it went off
and the damn thing refuses to charge! what could it be????????
2nd update: I AM MACGYVER !
i figured the wiring had given the bat enough power to load windows on its own, so tried once more holding everything together with my hand but without wiring the pins this time, and at last the amber light turned on!!! im so proud of myself lol
SO NOW: device works ok, charges ok, battery has enaugh power to load windows, WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT THE BROKEN POWER BUTTON? i know you can't remap the power function since its hardware, but the screen on/off function might be remapped. soft reset button DOES not turn on the phone, is there any other way of turning it on? or my only option is to take off the voice command button and soldering it where the power button should be?

well, found the little button part that was missing, glued it (yes, GLUED it), and it kinda worked, i had painted the casing already, so i assembled everything back again. i used a folded piece of paper to hold the button still so it won't fall again and i think it was too big cause now its kind of hard to press but i can live with that, what i cannot live with is NO SIGNAL.. i mean, CMON!! are you kiddin me? now that the button works, battery works, phone assembled, and now this?? when i dissassembled the phone i forgot to take out the sim card, so the metal parts that hold it opened a bit, but i pressed them back, the sim in no way loose, so i guess i might have screwed the attenna :S
i've just checked, i can see the sim contacts so... [CENSORED] !!!
also now the screen looks weird.. like if it had less colours, like when you format your pc and haven's installed the graphic drivers yet, 3d effects look funny..

Hey man, have you painted ALL the Wizard parts, on both sides?
'Cause there is one that has a piece of copper board inside. It makes contact with the antenna. Without that contact, you'll never have signal
The piece I'm talking about is the one that has the camera protection, saying "1.3 MP camera". Look at its back and see if there's no paint on a green and golden plate. Remove the paint if it got there (the golden part is the important one, since it makes contact with the antenna).
Good luck man!

hahah lol, no of course i didn't paint both sides! but anyways im gonna take it apart again, clean it, and try again..
done. it had some paintng yes, but they were very tiny spray drops, so i don't think that is, anyway i cleaned it. On the other hand, i found that the antenna is loose on the left side :S what can i do about it?

A possible final fix of back button I FOUND~

Guys I did some search job today and have a possible final solution to the back button problem.
Luckily this is also in the forum posted by user ID:insaneturbo13
his thread is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=833663
He is a Samsung Captivate user, right. Since I think if nexus s have met with is annoying problem, other samsung phones may either. So I did some search job in bed with my insensitive-back-button Nexus S, and found the Epic 4G, Samsung Focus, Captivate, etc. Almost all samsung phones got users annoyed by the problem.
Then I searched the Youtube to see if there is any Samsung user had ever achieved some success in solving the issue, and I found.(You won't know how terrible it is when you have to use a U.S VPN just to watch Youtube since it is blocked in here China mainland... really slow speed...together with facebook and twitter...ToT)
My understanding to the cause is: The picture of the back button is a thin line with an arrow, so the inside paint here may over-cover this thin line, which will definitely make the touch action less sensitive. And that's why there are less people got such problem with the other three keys.
And since capacitive buttons actually respond with the obvious temperature difference, so many frustrated nexus s users like me found under warmer environment the problem is less annoying...
Maybe this is only workable for insensitive problem. But hopefully this is a way.
Since I am a Chinese, it's impossible for me to have an exchange with the Bestbuy. So this is my only solution. But for most of you, it's highly recommended to take several exchanges before you definitely want to try this way.
Of course, try this at your own risk

what i did was tighten up the screws on the back of the phone... especially in the lower part of the phone. I haven't seen the issue since and initially it was a pretty often issue for me.

bogdi1988 said:
what i did was tighten up the screws on the back of the phone... especially in the lower part of the phone. I haven't seen the issue since and initially it was a pretty often issue for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is also a good way to solve the problem especially when you dont have to take to phone apart~
The theory may be the same, which is to make the distance between your touch and the module inside shorter cuz there is a piece of rubber under the button position so it can be possible~~
Thanks for sharing this way Dude~~~

bogdi1988 said:
what i did was tighten up the screws on the back of the phone... especially in the lower part of the phone. I haven't seen the issue since and initially it was a pretty often issue for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how did you access the screws at the bottom to tighten them?

Take off the battery cover. You have 6 bright screws around the edges of the phone. Tighten those up.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

Although, I know this is not gonna help, but it comes from personal experience.
In the beginning, I used to be haunted by the silly back button "bizarre".
I factory reset the phone then voila. It's gone.
The reason I am confident to post this is, my brother's phone was fixed in
a same way as well. I know, I can be just lucky, but I just wanted to share.

bogdi1988 said:
Take off the battery cover. You have 6 bright screws around the edges of the phone. Tighten those up.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, I decided to watch the video on how to take apart the phone this morning, didn't do it, but it covered the screw access for the hidden 2 screws.
tightened the screws what little bit I could without fear of breaking something (they were already pretty tight), but it made no noticable difference.
I actually got my phone a few days before they were launched (friend is at&t store manager), so I 've been living with it as long as they have been available. it's annoying, and did get a little better with froyo, but not bad enough for me to tear apart the phone and risk damage to the screen...

droptopmas said:
thanks, I decided to watch the video on how to take apart the phone this morning, didn't do it, but it covered the screw access for the hidden 2 screws.
tightened the screws what little bit I could without fear of breaking something (they were already pretty tight), but it made no noticable difference.
I actually got my phone a few days before they were launched (friend is at&t store manager), so I 've been living with it as long as they have been available. it's annoying, and did get a little better with froyo, but not bad enough for me to tear apart the phone and risk damage to the screen...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are no hidden or covered screws and the phone doesn't need to be taken apart.
look here: http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/BJtxWYS4NMaMyMKL.medium
these are the 6 screws

Mine just started this thing where it presses the back button by itself. Pretty anoying and is making the phone useless. I can't do anything without it just hammering on the back button.

hi everyone,
i'm new to this forum, and joined to see if anyone has been successful in fixing the back button issue...
i've followed some of the advice from previous posts (tightening screws, reset factory settings, updating the OS) but still no luck.
hoping that someone might have discovered a fix (apart from returing the device!) they could share.
thanks!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hi everyone,
After posting the thread above, I updated OS to 2.3.3 and now back button is working fine.... I waited for a couple of weeks before confirming this, so hopefully anyone still waiting on a fix could try what I did. This seems to be a software problem more than anything else...
btw - 2.3.3 noticeably washes out colours, and there's a yellow/green tinge to white space. awful.

sadkorean34 said:
Although, I know this is not gonna help, but it comes from personal experience.
In the beginning, I used to be haunted by the silly back button "bizarre".
I factory reset the phone then voila. It's gone.
The reason I am confident to post this is, my brother's phone was fixed in
a same way as well. I know, I can be just lucky, but I just wanted to share.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
I did the same and the problem has gone - just realised after reading your post that factory reset solved this problem.

My phone is constantly on 3G but whenever it dips into Edge or has a weak data signal I notice the back button issue as well. And I tried a factory reset but it did
not fix the problem on 2.3.3

Back button issue
There are a few longer threads in this forum about the back button issue on the Nexus S -- for some people the back button doesn't work at all, and for others it turns on all by itself. There were a few replies from a Google employee (ryguy) who said it would be fixed in an upcoming OTA update, etc. but some reported having problems AFTER getting 2.3.2 when the problem didn't exist before. There are also other reports of tightening the screws on the back of the phone, which haven't tried but seemed to improve things for people whose back button WASN'T working at all.
For my phone around 2-3 weeks after buying it I had the back button come on all by itself. I fixed it by doing hard resets, as suggested on an earlier thread that deals with this issue (it's like 10 pages long but has the complete story of everyone's experience and fixes with this issue). Anyway, the point is for me after the first hard reset the problem persisted, so I did it a few more times (like maybe 5 times) and now it's gone.
There are some people who tried a hard reset (factory settings restore) and the problem still persists but I think that you have to do as many hard resets as possible (like, over and over and over) until the problem disappears. I'm rooted so I did a Nandroid backup first, then did 5 hard resets through Clockwork Recovery (select the "Wipe User Data" option), and after five hard resets I just flashed by backup and I was back to where I was, minus the back button issue. You don't have to be rooted, of course, to do this, but if you are, doing that ROM Manager backup allows you to quickly reinstall everything to the exact way it was after you're done with the five or 10 hard resets or whatever.
If you're unrooted you can power off the phone, then turn it on while holding the Up Volume button. This boots you into Bootloader mode and you can navigate around to do a factory reset. Or, if you are rooted and have ROM manager, you can use ClockworkMod Recovery like I did (see other threads on how to use these programs).
Anyway, again for me I had to do a bunch of these hard resets to fix the problem, so if it persists after the first two resets, I think you have to keep doing it until it disappears. Hope this helps - TC
Samsung Nexus S with root access
Stock Android 2.3.1

tchan1 said:
There are a few longer threads in this forum about the back button issue on the Nexus S -- for some people the back button doesn't work at all, and for others it turns on all by itself. There were a few replies from a Google employee (ryguy) who said it would be fixed in an upcoming OTA update, etc. but some reported having problems AFTER getting 2.3.2 when the problem didn't exist before. There are also other reports of tightening the screws on the back of the phone, which haven't tried but seemed to improve things for people whose back button WASN'T working at all.
For my phone around 2-3 weeks after buying it I had the back button come on all by itself. I fixed it by doing hard resets, as suggested on an earlier thread that deals with this issue (it's like 10 pages long but has the complete story of everyone's experience and fixes with this issue). Anyway, the point is for me after the first hard reset the problem persisted, so I did it a few more times (like maybe 5 times) and now it's gone.
There are some people who tried a hard reset (factory settings restore) and the problem still persists but I think that you have to do as many hard resets as possible (like, over and over and over) until the problem disappears. I'm rooted so I did a Nandroid backup first, then did 5 hard resets through Clockwork Recovery (select the "Wipe User Data" option), and after five hard resets I just flashed by backup and I was back to where I was, minus the back button issue. You don't have to be rooted, of course, to do this, but if you are, doing that ROM Manager backup allows you to quickly reinstall everything to the exact way it was after you're done with the five or 10 hard resets or whatever.
If you're unrooted you can power off the phone, then turn it on while holding the Up Volume button. This boots you into Bootloader mode and you can navigate around to do a factory reset. Or, if you are rooted and have ROM manager, you can use ClockworkMod Recovery like I did (see other threads on how to use these programs).
Anyway, again for me I had to do a bunch of these hard resets to fix the problem, so if it persists after the first two resets, I think you have to keep doing it until it disappears. Hope this helps - TC
Samsung Nexus S with root access
Stock Android 2.3.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think mine is forever beat. 15 hard resets and its still there.

My apologies for bumping such an old thread... But i got a captivate to serve as a backup phone, and i slapped over ICS on to it..
Everything was super awesome.... BUT! not the Back button.
A few minutes of google'ing later, im here.
So after reading through this thread, and the one linked to in the OP, i opened up my Phone and ....well....went on with it.
50 Minutes later :
http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8361/dsc03039j.jpg
http://img818.imageshack.us/img818/4579/dsc03040d.jpg
Some Tips :
1: Once your down to the frame with the LCD assembly stuck to it, first remove the Antenna Module. Under that disconnect the black ribbon connector. (This ribbon connects the capacitive button module to the main board).
2: Before starting to Pry apart the LCD from the frame, take a hair dryer and heat up the edges of the LCD Assembly's frame. This helps a freaking lot in prying it apart. Plus it somewhat preserves the 3M adhesive tape present underneath, and can easily be reused.
3: Start prying open the LCD, from the Ear piece side. Take your time and DO NOT!! And i freaking mean, DO NOT!!!!! rush through while removing the LCD assembly.
4: When your almost half way through (or slightly more , but significantly above the capacitive buttons) take a peak between the frame and the LCD assembly, youll see the "Bridging/Connecting" ribbon i mentioned earlier and it might be stuck to the LCD's back.
-> the best way to proceed further is to simultaneously heat up the "glued" parts and slowly continue with removing the LCD. This way, the glue will not stick to the whatever parts it is meant to stick to , THAT strongly and will be much easier to remove.
5: Now as soon as you reach the part where you can see the Capacitive button module sticking to the LCD assembly, go into SUPER FREAKING SLOW mode... THE RIBBON UNDERNEATH IS VERY VERY FRAGILE! ONE YANK AND YOU'LL HAVE TO PURCHASE A NEW CAPACITIVE MODULE.
*Best way to do this is, to again simultaneously heat the concerned parts while slowing pulling the LCD assembly and the capacitive button module apart.*
You can try going LEFT-RIGHT-LEFT-RIGHT alternatively, to slowly make the adhesive give away.
6: After you have the LCD assembly out, its pretty much dependent on how stable yours hands are at slowly etching out the Light gray parts.
-> You can hold the LCD assembly against a TABLE LAMP / some light source, to better see which parts of paint you need to etch out. *i Almost etched the whole of my back button* So be very careful and gentle as well PATIENT!
Before assembling the LCD back into the frame, i took a small piece of paper (about the size of the capacitive button module) and stuck it between the frame and the module. Just so that it makes better contact with the LCD assembly.
7: Stick the LCD back onto the frame and again heat up the edges. Also while putting the LCD back together, make sure the adhesive tape has not lumped up on any of the edges (This might have happened while trying to pry the LCD out) , if it has, then just gently even/flatten it out. Stick the LCD back and heat the edges. Rest, just take a soft cloth and squeeze the LCD's edges and frame together,so as to make sure they stick together properly. The heat really helps in bonding things here.
Assemble back the phone, blah blah.
I used a CREDIT CARD to start prying the LCD away from the frame. It was pretty easy, because of the heat.
DO THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK! I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU SOMEHOW MANGE TO MESS UP YOUR PHONE! Specifically the LCD and the CAPACITVE TOUCH MODULE!
Big thanks to the OP for posting this.

I have lost interest in the Surround and can't wait to upgrade

First I lose the screen as I back into something and a piece of metal barely tapped the screen and it was enough to crack it. I got it replaced and a week later the SD card went bad (couldn't save it regardless of the deep format options I tried). That forced me to buy a new card and have to re-install about 80-100 apps and games and re-configure everything.
It' been about a month since then and I get a call this morning. Upon hanging up the screen won't turn back on. I think...whatever. I pull the battery to reboot it and bam...at the Windows Phone 7 logo screen it starts to vibrate............and vibrate....and vibrate. Great...it won't stop vibrating. Looking it up online it seems the ONLY way to fix it...is to hard reset it AGAIN. $^#$^ that lol.
So the vibrator conveniently has a open window to it right above the LED flash so you can see it without having to remove the layers of plastic. I took a piece of tape, rolled it up and cut it down....and jammed it in their to prevent it from spinning.....phone works fine now (just simply dont have vibrate options now).
Hopefully when MS gets off their arse and launches Mango, the update will reset whatever screwed up setting it is that is causing it to flip out and I can take the tape out. That is...if the motor doesn't some how burn out from being jammed ^^.
Maybe I should have gone with the Samsung :/
At lease someone can benefit from this if their vibrate screws up and they don't want to hard reset. Just jam the little guy from moving! It's not like your losing anything...the vibrate on the Surround is so low, most of the time you don't even feel it go off in your pocket.
09/22/2011 Update: Well then! This proves a success for those having this issue in the future. Many HTC phones seem to have experienced this (based on searching out the vibration issues google). I removed the tape this evening, and the vibrator was still. At first I assumed it must have been burnt out from keeping it from spinning...as it was still generating power (eating through the battery that whole time)......but after testing it out...everything is back to normal. Vibration function is working fine. So I guess if you wait it out, it corrects itself eventually. How...I don't know...but I recommend jamming the motor if you ever experience it vs letting it vibrate continually for a day or two which prob would burn it out. No hard reset needed!I still want a new phone though...something just as thin but with a slide out keyboard and duel proc and cams

My surround works well all the time