Database Users

New Touch Screen

Hello everyone! I dropped my beloved phone (T-Mobile MDA/Wizard). The LCD did not break, it was my touch screen digitizer. So I ordered a replacement one on Ebay. I got it installed with no problem. I had to 'modify' the ribbon cable because the cable did not line up with the soldering contacts. I had to take an exacto and split the ribbon cable and move them to the right spots. Got it all back together and it asked me to align the screen. Every time i push on the screen the screen flickers in and out. It only happens on the bottom right quarter of the screen. But the touch screen portion still does not work. I ended up pruchasing a complete lcd/digitizer from ebay for $60.00.. should have just done that in the first place. Has anyone encountered this and if so, what was the fix. The first person who tells me a .22 cal pistol fixed it, I will make a video and post it, not of the phone, just my POS digitizer replacement.

.22 to a pocket pc is sometimes a solution when peace of mind after doing everything possible still does not fix any problemos. This way you at least get your frustrations out

8525 White Screen of Death - Is there Hope?

Ok so I have the fabled white screen issue on an 8525. When it first occurred I searched and read all the write ups, decided I had the ribbon cable issue. Took it apart and simply unplugged and replugged the ribbon cable with great results, no more white screen.
I repeated once when it came back after being bumped around, again with positive results...but this last(3rd)time instead of it working I now get white screen 95% of the time. I re-notched the sliders the first time, and last time.
During the 5% it works I noticed the charge light would correspond to it going white.This never happened before...
Example:
When OFF - Connect charger, Red light for 1 second, then nothing=White screen from power on
When OFF - Connect charger, Red light for 1 second, then orange charge indicator = normal startup
When ON and Working - Connect charger, no light, no charge - reboots to white screen
When ON and Working - Connect charger, orange charge indicator, reboots normally.
There is no heat or noticeable pressure on any parts, everything seems to fit normally.
It does boot normally with screen white.
Any ideas? I really don't want to give up on this thing, is there any hope? or just ebay it for parts?
Thanks
-Nick

same problems here, if someone could just tell me what parts to order, cause I have no warranty (ordered over ebay). I tried both the instruction that has chinese fonts on the page , and other from R&R, no luck, white screen all the way..

I had the WSOD and took it apart and reassembled a few time. The 3rd or 4th time the screem came back, but now it is shifter to the right around 1/4" or so. I mean there is just white along the left edge, then the normal screen/color starts and is cut off on the right.
Does anyone know how to correct that, is it related to the same flex cable or is there something else I disturbed?

mine will fade to white.. then i just push the power to put it in standby, then push power again to wake it back up and back to normal.. it rarely does it but still annoying...

If You Ordered From At&t
I had this problem about 2 weeks ago!!!!
I thought it was a fluke!
Anyway, walked over to 43rd and Lexington (NYC FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW THAT MANHATTAN IS THE CENTER OF THE WORLD)
and they gave me the EXCHANGE HOTLINE for at&t.
I called them up, told them my screen is fading to WHITE and the lady sent me a new or referbished phone.. i dont even know.
Just so you know, i ordered my phone on AMAZON with a new activation. its covered under the MANUFACTURERS warentee for a full year from the date of purchase... so is the REPLACEMENT PHONE... but not from the date of replacement, just the date of purchase.

did anyone get deeper into this yet? I got a 8500 (need those without camera) from ebay USA, already with white screen. After reading here, that this is mostly an issue with connectors, I bought it, disassembled it and reassembled it, though still white. Should I give the contacts a treatment with contact-spray? (there's a tuner spray that doesn't leave residues) Or is there something broken within the ribbon cables? Seller said it has been dropped (but he also said, he didn't want to open it, while it clearly has been opened, one screw missing and warranty seal gone). It ssems to boot up normal otherwise, I hear a sound after the boot process, so probably this isn't a software issue?
Edit: another thing I noticed: When I run it without any keyboard connected at all, it's also white. I then connected the dpad again, and I could see a hint of the at&t logo in the lower part of the screen. When I pressed around on the back of the dpad a bit, all LEDs would go on/off... Sound to me like the dpad has gone bad, possible?
Edit II: Got it. Using a 20x eyeloupe I found that the PCB of the DPad is broken under the little chip on it. Now I just gotta find a dpad here in germany, but I assume those Hermes' are all equal...

hello
where can I get manual (if there is one) for disassembling hermes. link in wiki does not work.
thanks

this worked good for me
http://inuchanbt.blog54.fc2.com/blog-entry-100.html

Anyone know if this applies to the 8125 as well? I've got a flickering white screen. I had dropped my phone a few weeks back and cracked the LCD. Replaced it with an OEM LCD - it worked fine for about 2 weeks and then just suddenly went all white. Phone still works, I can still get calls - just can't see who is calling.

I don't recall that the wizard had the same problem... Though from a logical point, it seems that there is an issue behind white screens and the thumbpad being responsible for it, so it may well be the same thing. Perhaps just disassemble the wizard (there should be a howto too) and check if theres a similar connection from mainboard to thumbpad circuit.

Is there a disassembling manual for a imate k-jam that anyone knows about?

Here's a website with a video manual i found useful...
http://viralelectronics.com/category/howto/page/2/

Figured out the problem...
The only reason I figured out the screen goes blank is because the motherboard loses connection with the screen when you slide the keyboard out...try this out and see if the screen comes back...
put the screen on sleep mode (no white screen)...then slide out the keyboard and tilt it a little hard after pressing on the screen and put the power on. if it doesnt work try again it might take some pressure and power to make it work...be careful not to put too much power but as far as I went, it's a very sturdy cell.
alternately, slide out the keyboard in sleep mode, and press all the buttons really hard and then try to press the power button (press more towards the space bar because that helps)...if any of this works and the screen comes back on even just for a second...follow the following
Go back to the person who gave the link to the site with opening the HTC instructions and follow through and clean the whole phone up from dirt around the screen and such...you dont need to put those rubber things or whatever it says to put on the screen...then when you are putting it back together, press hard on the wire connecting the touch screen to the motherboard. I suggest sealing it with a good tape...and then you are good to go! I did it but it had a few glitches...the screens contrast sometimes goes awry but it is still visible and responds to touch. Also, the physical buttons work as well!!
Good Luck and do it at your on risk.

Have any of you tried this? http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163

hope the best

i tried this and it worked for me. i also pressed alil hard around the d-pad and heard a pop. i think it poped back into place.
thanks

razor rc said:
i tried this and it worked for me. i also pressed alil hard around the d-pad and heard a pop. i think it poped back into place.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i still have this problem.

fixed my wsod
I noticed a few days ago my 8525 screen went white, rebooted and it went away. Today it came back, but would only go away for a few seconds and then back to white. After reading some forums I decided to check the connector. I took the phone apart following this site as a guide. I removed the connector on the board side and cleaned the contacts with a qtip and denatured alcohol. Phone has been perfect for the last few hours, no more white screen of death. I didn't mess with the connector on the LCD side, just the board side. I'm a computer tech and I found it quite annoying to disassemble, but I managed without causing any damage, however, I'd rate the job at about a 8/10 as far as technical ability.
Joey

warped0202 said:
I noticed a few days ago my 8525 screen went white, rebooted and it went away. Today it came back, but would only go away for a few seconds and then back to white. After reading some forums I decided to check the connector. I took the phone apart following this site as a guide. I removed the connector on the board side and cleaned the contacts with a qtip and denatured alcohol. Phone has been perfect for the last few hours, no more white screen of death. I didn't mess with the connector on the LCD side, just the board side. I'm a computer tech and I found it quite annoying to disassemble, but I managed without causing any damage, however, I'd rate the job at about a 8/10 as far as technical ability.
Joey
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i agree that this is one of the first things to try in curing the white screen issue. Others may find their problem runs a little deeper and the contacts on the d/pad chip are broken. An improvised cure which may not be very permanent is to place a little padding on the surface of the chip as described here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163
If you have appropriate heat gun equipment you can re-flow the solder on the d/pad daughter board - but remember to remove the sticky key pad layer or you'll cook it!!
I regret that I'm closing this thread because we have several "White Screen" threads and the questions and answers are being spread all over the place.
Please use this one for future posts:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=321163
Mike

HELP! T-Mobile MDA screen going loco

Hi, peeps. Would like to ask for your assistance in troubleshooting my old T-Mobile MDA - the one that is also the Xda mini S.
The unit in question is 2nd hand although it was still in good shape when I got it. Used it for over a year already and has seen much use. Once, the insides got wet and I had to dry it out but it was okay after that. Although the keyboard wasn't showing any backlight until I figured out that a blowdryer would help remedy that situation (after careful dismantling).
Recently, the screen when you slide open the keyboard either comes up blank (whole screen is just white) or is discolored and a bit disaligned (the top part is either missing or is at the bottom of the screen). It happens too on the normal layout at times.
I upgraded the firmware with the most recent one I downloaded here last year. No problems experienced though with regards to the OS and not sure if the recent problem can be attributed to it.
Any ideas and suggestions?

I got the same problem on with the screen my Cingular 8125. When I slide the keyboard open, the exact same thing happens to my screen. Sometimes It only used to happen maybe once every 10th time, but as of last, it is happening all the time.
I spoke to someone at a repair store in Toronto and the guys said it will cost close to $100 to replace some wiring in the back. It didn't seem worth it for me so I got another phone instead, but I would love to keep using this phone if this could be replaced.

Hey guys. If you are comfortable, I would suggest dismantling the phone and taking a look at the ribbon connector between the board and the screen. My guess is that it is loose, or damaged. Reseat the ribbon and try again. Otherwise I would see if replacing the screen helped. Certainly much cheaper than a new phone...

Reseating
first of all check out the socket (on board) where the screen coaxial cord is plugged in , r all the connector pins alligned or are any bent / pulled back ?
in that case reset pins location using a tiny neidle or pin, also use a double faced adheisive tape on the back of the screen connector to rest it tight to keyboard (original setup only they use glue).
second check out if the screen does that if was flipped using software , if it was a hardware case and upper solution wouldnt help then check to see if the sliding mechanism (two plastic identical bars screwed by two screws each to the top and the buttom of the screen) are aligned and screwed tigh to the screen.
now the wizard hardware is a survivor but any tampering with it require tight reseating , screwing and later reflashing (even if the software showed unaffected).

X1 Ribbon cable - what happens and a fix I came up with!

Hi, I come on here quite a lot for information as it's an amazing resource! This time however, I'm attempting to give something back!
I experienced the "black screen on slide out" on Monday. Phone completely screwed. I've also had a few droppages and had it apart once before so there's no way warranty is gonna help!
I stripped it down and soon discovered what it is that actually fails on the ribbon. The coating had worn through due to rubbing on something during the slide out / in process. it had been playing up for a while, probably due to shorting out on the metal case, but now the tracks (aluminium?) had worn right down.....
In pic 1 i've circled the worn area. The shiny section is where i'd tried taping over it to prevent shorting, before i realised the tracks were gone.
Got an almost new one off ebay for 15 quid and, realising it was going to happen again, came up with a solution that, so far, looks like it will work....
A while back I bought some "anti rattle felt" for my car's dashboard - really thin and strong self adhesive felt to prevent squeaking joins between dash sections. I cut a piece of this and stuck it to the new ribbon. Once this stuff is on it's well stuck, by the way!
See pic 2 for the modded ribbon cable.
On reassembly everything is working just fine so far! Here's hoping that it lasts longer than 6 months this time!
Just need a new casing now as mine is decidedly second hand!
Hope this turns out to be of use to someone!

cool story bro

when i took apart my xperia to replace the housing this seemed like a really weak point in the device. glad to see someone who has had the problem has been able to fix it

Why does the screen go black?

Hi,
When the coating wears off the ribbon cable it exposes the tracks in it. when you slide the keyboard out the exposed tracks short out on the metal casing and the screen loses it's input signal.
thats whats happened on mine at least and i presume quite a few others?
HTH!

Update:
That's interesting: My phone was also losing signal with the keyboard out, and occasionally while closed up as well. It would just randomly drop to "no signal" for a few seconds.
It hasn't done it since replacing the ribbon cable.....could be coincidental of course.

I'm having the same problem
It just started a week ago and I got the phone in January off of ebay. I'm new to opening up the phone so could anyone help me find the correct tools or have a link to a site with pictured instructions?
I noticed that the sliding mechanism started to go loose about 4-5 months ago but didn't expect the screen not respond in landscape mode. I have yet to see the other symptoms you all are referring to. I would like to fix this before it get worse.

In mine case it went totaly black after one week of this problem... You have all the instruction on youtube, there is where i looked. For tools you can be inovative, but the exactly right ones come with housings from ebay, it is only 15EUR, and i bet you have some cracks so it wouldn't hurt replacing. That is what i did, along with ordering new sliding mechanizm, and new ribbon cable.
I am open for ideas to prevent my ribbon cable from being cut at it weakest point again.

I'm assuming my flex ribbon went bad yesterday, since sliding the keypad out causes my screen to shut off.
Already ordered a cable off ebay and will attempt to replace it myself :O

Replaced my flex ribbon cable with one I bought on eBay. The screen doesn't turn on at all now, which leads me to believe the cable I was sent is defective. Put the old one back in and it works okay, less landscape mode. ughhh what a pain.

great tips! my input is I bought a case off of ebay that was ~60$ and everything actually fit fine for me...so I wouldn't discount every seller but you do get what you pay for, the 15$ cases are probablly the ones that will give you problems

I working in a mobilephone repair center if anyone need help drop me a priv... i able to get 2nd hand or even brand new components

Replaced the flex ribbon cable -
I got my flex ribbon cable a few weeks ago and took it to my local repair shop. They replaced it but the LCD screen/optical joystick receives no power. The touchscreen and everything else on the phone works just fine now. I thought it was a defective item so it was exchanged with a new one.
Got the repair shop to replace it again and the outcome still remains the same as the first.
Theres no light coming from the screen nor the side illumination.
I just told the repair shop to just place the original back in for the mean time.
Before the repairs, there would be a flicker of white light and random illuminations. Now there's no lights at all except the power botton.
Could it be defective a batch that the seller was sending out? or the repair shop's mistake and is playing dumb so they do not have to admint fault?
Hopefully there's an easy fix to this problem.
-Also I did inspect the ribbon before and after the repair. looks new as the OEm
Can anybody help me out with this new problem after replacing the cable -

perhaps you should try a hard reset. Ive had problems in the past where the optical joystick and the illuminators did not work, and that worked for me.
On the other hand, the top illuminators are on the same piece of hardware as the flex cable that was replaced, so a faulty flex cable is possible. The bottom illuminators are on the circuit board that the optical joystick attaches to, separate but connected to the flex cable.
Ive recently replaced my flex cable and touchscreen. The experience i had with the faulty touch screen was that it appeared to receive no power, but was in fact displaying a dark backlit illumination that could only be seen in the dark. At the same time however, the screen did not display anything. I'm not sure if this is similar to your experience, but if so then your touchscreen would need to be replaced.
ive done all repairs on the xperia myself, and one thing ive discovered is if something doesnt work right after a repair, simply disassembling it and reassembling it to make sure all the connections are properly done has worked for me in the past.
"Before the repairs, there would be a flicker of white light and random illuminations. Now there's no lights at all except the power button."
Now when you say the power button, do you mean that a red light appears under it?
I dont know if i can come to a conclusion or that i can help (or have helped) you come to a conclusion, but i can only assure you that the xperia acts out in strange and weird ways.
Good Luck!

Tags
Dismantle / Disassemble Sony Ericson Xperia X1
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Sony-Ericsson-XPERIA-X1/788/1
http://www.formymobile.co.uk/xperiadisassembly.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWDurQrRt-Y (REAR)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyGUbxFqvyc&feature=related (FRONT)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elgC8hwHfYQ&feature=related
For info.
Mike

Thanks for the links. I've tried the hardreset and restoring the original rom but the issue is still there. It's really bugging me that everything works but the LCD screen. I'm currently using MyMobiler to use my phone. The touch screen works fine and so does the soft keys. Just no power for the lights. I might just give up and wait for another phone that catches my eye and then tinker with the xperia myself. but if anyone got a solution or want me to test something then I'll give it a try.
My warranty is no longer affective so I'll use my phone as a tester to help others with any problems.

TRIONDAVE, how's your Xperia running now with the cable mod that you did? Its been 6 months since you created the thread. I hope you're still around.
My Xperia X1 works nearly fine, except for the keyboard issues, so I'm thinking of opening it up. If your Ribbon mod helped I might just do it too once I've got it opened. Mine has a MOUNTain of cracks though, and the battery compartment itself is cracked on both side enough to make the compartment CURVED. Hence the Battery cover doesn't sit well.
I'm looking around for broken Xperias which I might be able to use to change the internal cracked casing. Lets see.

DatDereX1 said:
cool story bro
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My thoughts exactly.

Hello guys, I am in need of real help over here!
Its just that Ive replaced my ribbon cable, the old one got screwd up.
However I got done for 10 minutes ago, tried to start up the phone.. without success :,(
The ribbon cable doesnt have anything to do with the start up, only the screen am I correct? Cause I cannot even start my phone..
Ive connected the charger, but when I remove the battery it shows a red light, meaning no battery, correct?
So what may the problem be exactly? Maybe the battery is all dead, or?
PLEASE HELP!

for the people with ribbon failures how long have you had the phone before it occurred ? im just interested on the cables lifespan.
mine is fine so far but i have noticed the slider is flimsy and rocks left and right.

loose buttons but not something to worry about!

What a story!!
I bought a galaxy note 4 right on launch day first thing in the morning. Ive had just about every phone but have been waiting for a while now to get my hands on the new note 4.
I ended up buying the phone at the St . Bruno shopping center in Quebec, Canada and once i singed all the papers for my contract and got home, I finally open the box and took the phone out of the box. I loved it, it did everything one would expect from the highest end phone on the market.
A week later however, I started noticing that my buttons, especially my home button were slightly loose and my phone was also developing a weird oil spot under the home button.
So I went back to videotron but this time at St. Catherine street corporate branch store and the manager there obviously didnt know much about phones because he looked at it and proceeded with putting windex on a paper towel and wiping my screen with it and than told me that theres nothing wrong with it.
After frustratingly explaining everything to him, he told me that if the phone makes calls and works, than these issues arent covered for any kind of exchange as its not affecting the functionality of the phone. My logic tell me however that if one buy's a ferrari and realizes that the paint is f-up, wouldn't the dealership do something about it??? Anyways, without any luck I eventually left disappointed.
The following week After exhaustive attempt to solve the matter with Videotron to no avail, I found out that there was a store here in montreal called Service Absolute which is a samsung repair center that I could bring my phone to. I called them first to not waist more of my time and was than informed that yes they could help me but that it could take nearly a month before they would have any parts for this phone.
So after patiently waiting, I finally got a call back from them and droped off my phone the following day. I only had to wait two days before i got my phone back and thought that the turn around time was great! Only after few minutes of playing with it however, I noticed that the phone's new screen which now didn't have the oil spot was actually lifting from the housing about 1mm at the top of the phone and that the buttons were all still loose.
Its easy to imagine at this point how infuriated i was with all the time spent dealing with a phone that should of been right in the first place.. All the waiting, calling and runaround I got only to get a phone that was now even worst!! I could actually see inside my phone and behind the screen. Dust was starting to get inside the phone and under the camera lens and so on and I was really starting to freak out and was completly desperate to fix this issue asap to prevent things from getting worse and worse.
So I decided at this pont to take matters in my own hands and use my old trusty screwdriver to take this thing apart and get
To the bottom of the loose buttons and screen seperation.. I know! Scray [email protected]$ but it had to be done because at this point I needed a working phone for work and nobody seemed to help me. So after watching a few youtube videos, I unscrewed the screws at the back and gently seperated the phone from the metal frame with my fingers.
The whole assembly came out of the metal frame the same komd of way the old HTC phones used to. After doing so, the first thing i found out was that if your going scatch your phones metal frame which makes up most of the phone outer surfice, it's no big deal as it can be swapped out for around 40 to 50 bucks.
Next I noticed that all the buttons (volume and power) aren't adheared to the frame but only clipped in with a few pins stratigically placed. So its normal that they have play and wiggle. They're not gonna break and we're likely engineered to be this way. The wiggling is not really important as it won't affect anything on the phone's motherboard.
The next thing I noticed was that the glue between the inner midframe (the part that holds the motherboard to the screen assembly) also wasn't glued properly and was able to gently seperate it from the lcd/digitizer assembly without a heat gun or anything.. after doing so, the home button fell out and was simply dangling from its flex cable. It wasn't actually glued in place or held in with clips or anything. It's only connected to a flex cable on the left side of the button but thats it. I was easily able to pull it out and inspect it. It was built to be completely free floating between the midframe and the screen.
Which means that again, no need to worry about anything breaking as the home button is not a solidified part to start with and only in place where it is because of the space tolerence engeneered in the screen's home button whole. So it being slightly loose is normal and something that will eventually happen to all note 4's sooner or later. The slight looseness actually makes sense to me as any dust material that will get in between the home button wont get stuck as as much as if the space toleren was less. In my opinion, I thik that iPhones have less issues like this as the home button is part of the screen assembly and is also round.
In the end, I wasn't able to adhear the screen back in place as I didnt have double sided tape but manages to send it back to samsung and get it serviced again. I clearly asked them to fix it properly this time and it looks like they finally did and glued it back properly now.
This was a crazy experience and all I can tell you is that I definatly got an up close look of this phone and decided to keep it afterall as it's still better than a refurbished one and also because it's super easy to repair if anything ever broke on it.
Anyways i know this is a long post but I thought I'd share my experience with everyone and put some of your worries to rest.
Cheers!