Database Users

Random BackLight Bug

Hi, first time posting! so hello everyone 8)
I got xda exec, i had this problem with the first rom and the latest one too. For some random reason when my phone comes out of standby sometimes my backlight is off. i struggle to see my screen and when i check my backlight settings (brightness level) "on battery" its set to off on the slider. When i set it higher my backlight works. Also my backlight button does not respond when this happens. It just randomly happens but im starting to notice it more and more. Any ideas peeps

Try:
1- pressing the button beside the volume slider.
or
2 - pressing and holding the power button.
Hope that helps
JAmes

jamfitz86 said:
Try:
1- pressing the button beside the volume slider.
or
2 - pressing and holding the power button.
Hope that helps
JAmes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks but i tried both, doesnt work. the only way it comes back is by going to backlight settings. Is there a file that could be corrupt that stores the information about the backlight settings?

Is the box "turn on backlight when a buttonis pressed or the screen is tapped"?
Other than that i've not got a clue. Someone who knows a bit more? any ideas?
JAmes

yeah thats ticked. the only way i get the back light to work when this happens is pushing the slider up, the one in the battery settings

seems real odd.
If noone else has a suggestion a hard reset might help, dont know if you've tried that yet. If you do this dont forget to back up everything.
JAmes

Hi,
I think it really is the POWER button: if I press and hold it for a few seconds, the slider goes to zero and the light goes off. Press and hold again restores the old situation.
Peter

My wife's Magician did this sometimes too.
Turned out that in her case it was because when you hold down the power button to turn the phone off (for a second or two) it doesn't actually turn the phone off, just the backlight. (Of course it all goes dark, so it looks like the phone is off if you don't check too closely.)
Then when you press the power button to turn it on again (after it's timed out and turned itself off), there's obviously still no backlight...
May not be your problem, but give it a check...

In nearly three months, I've had this happen perhaps four times. My device has the "on-battery" backlight set at one notch, to save the most power, and I guess something must just move it that one notch down to off.
So far there's been no uniform circumstance, other than it's guaranteed to happen at night under low street or room lighting so that I can't see the screen to get to and re-adjust the setting.
A hard reset doesn't help. I've reset numerous times with different ROM versions and had the problem reappear - but very infrequently as I said.

astage said:
A hard reset doesn't help. I've reset numerous times with different ROM versions and had the problem reappear
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just wierd and a tad annoying lol, i tried all of the above ideas anyway, i thought it might be bad programming thanks peeps for your input

Not much help - I know - but my Exec does the same - annoying and strange with no rhym or reason
Jean

I've had this a few times. I've had to hold the power button in for a few seconds to get the light back.

i had the same problem, just comed up a week or so. not changed any settings either.. wierd bug

Problem with Power off

I have problem with power button. when push pwr button dont,t off pda, but when hold pwr then lights off.

Power is never shut off in PDAs, thats the way PDAs have been designed.

I have the same problem, he is not talking about a full power down. If you hit the power button quickly the phone does nothing. However if you hold the power button down for about 2-3 seconds the lcd light turns off as it should.
Because of this I have to wait 1 minute for the unit to suspend before putting it back in the holster.
Does anybody have any idea as to why this might be happening. Im not new at this so hard reset, soft reset.. new rom... new radio...turning up side down while chanting. It does not change......
It will do it right one or twice in a week.
Maybe somebody that understands the signal that the unit receives upon pressing the power button might be able to shed some light on this.... Again the button does seem to operate just not suspend when pressed normally (1 second or less)
I have done some more research and this seems to be a common problem for some with BAs but nobody has found out why. There must be some kind of common hardware fault.. Does the power button send only one signal or is it a multi signal device.

afbcamaro said:
I have the same problem, he is not talking about a full power down. If you hit the power button quickly the phone does nothing. However if you hold the power button down for about 2-3 seconds the lcd light turns off as it should.
Because of this I have to wait 1 minute for the unit to suspend before putting it back in the holster.
Does anybody have any idea as to why this might be happening. Im not new at this so hard reset, soft reset.. new rom... new radio...turning up side down while chanting. It does not change......
It will do it right one or twice in a week.
Maybe somebody that understands the signal that the unit receives upon pressing the power button might be able to shed some light on this.... Again the button does seem to operate just not suspend when pressed normally (1 second or less)
I have done some more research and this seems to be a common problem for some with BAs but nobody has found out why. There must be some kind of common hardware fault.. Does the power button send only one signal or is it a multi signal device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a problem with turning on? First, we need to know whether it is hardware issue or not...
What you can do in the mean time with the turning off problem is by installing a poweroff app like shutdownme, psshutxp, etc etc...

Absolutely no problem with turning on from standby... Right now i just lock the phone before placing it back in the holster.
To make it clearer if you HOLD the power button down the backlight will turn off only. It will still show the display image and keys will still function (it dims)

Well, I had the same issue with the latest WM5 ROM. I thought I was too stupid to press the button, then I thought the button was broke, then I thought, I'll have to live with it.
Now that I have flashed to WM6, no problems at all! Never even came to my mind that this problem once existed. So I guess that some ROMs just have this particular bug?
Stefan

I have tried all the roms as well as 2003 and have the same issue in all of them. And im not alone.

Power off Problem
I'm in same condition.
Had the same problem when using WM2003 second Ed.
Now I've installed WM6 but nothing changed:
I cannot power-off/suspend but can turn off backlight if press and hold power button.
When in standby the button works fine to turn on the device.
Also, sometimes volume turns up continously with "noisy" beep ...
Anybody solved this problems?
Thanks,
Ruben
(WM 6 - 5.60.00 build 18125.0.4.2
radio 1.12.00 )

Power button has two modes:
1. Click mode: Click it once for a short duration. This turns off backlight and can be resumed by pressing it again or by pressing OK button
2. Press and Hold mode: Press and hold for few seconds and release. This mode will dim the backlight and no other button will bring it back. This is some kind of deep sleep in battery mode. To resume the original setting, press and hold Power button again for few more seconds.
(p.s.: I am not sure if this behavior is true for all the BA models)

April 1,
I know these modes...
It seems that "mode 1" doesn't work at all...
I would activate "Button Lock" (settings-->button--> Lock(tab)--> "lock all buttons except power button") to turn-off backlight and "lock all buttons except power button" but I cannnot...
You solved this problem?

I have had this issue of not being able to power off. One way I always got out of it was by clearing the registry hive. Unfortunately this brings the PDA back to the basic ROM. At this point the power button worked without any issues. Upon reloading the software the problem may come back. I believe the issue is related to some programs. I can't recall which program it was that seemed to cause the issue. One other thing I think that also worked was just entering the registry and getting back out and doing a hard reset.

I had the same problem with my 6600. the message button also didn't work. Believe it or not, to fix it. I banged the lower half (4-way area) on my desk a few times. Not hard enough to break the screen. But prolly hard enough to free what was prolly a sticky key. And now everything is working.

i am too
the same ...
when i press the power quickly , nothing happen
when i press the power for 2 sec. the backlight turns off
i tried every thing .... including formatting my BA
any one solve it ???

I have this same problem, my power button does`t work. i tried installing different roms but without any chance to fix it. maybe its an mechanic issue. i will change pwr button, i hope this work.

Look at one of my previous posts. I fixed it, twice, and other users have used the same metod to fix it. I think the problem is "hung bit" hardware related because you can also send it in for service, and they will change a chip, but i never had to.

Focus is dying, what could it be?

i suspect the power/lock button is FUBAR, but there are some other symptoms that do not resemble just a bad power/lock button. here are the symptoms that indicate it is the power/lock button:
1. when the phone is off, almost impossible to turn on. sometimes have to press and hold power button 10-12 times before it will shut on
2. when the phone is on and i press the lock button to lock the phone, most of the time it thinks i held the button and says "slide down to power off" although sometimes it doesn't respond at all. it almost NEVER locks when i press it (like it should be doing)
3. when the phone is on and i press the lock button to unlock the phone, most of the time it shuts off completely and i go back to step 1
symptom that indicates another problem not related to power/lock button:
1. if the phone is off and i press the power button, when the phone responds it will sometimes say "samsung" like it is turning on, and then nothing else will happen. i won't get the ATT screen and it won't boot up. this some times happens multiple times before the phone finally boots
currently i've been letting the phone time out automatically instead of the lock button, and using the camera button to unlock it. i've also been trying to not let it turn off at all, because getting it back on is really tough.
is there anyway i can disable the lock/power button...and/or is there an alternative way to lock and turn on your phone that doesn't require the use of that button? even if i tell myself not to use it, there are still times in your pocket where the darn thing gets pressed. for me that could mean it kills my phone and doesn't restart for the rest of the day, which i'm sure you can imagine is not ideal.

tuffluck said:
i suspect the power/lock button is FUBAR, but there are some other symptoms that do not resemble just a bad power/lock button. here are the symptoms that indicate it is the power/lock button:
1. when the phone is off, almost impossible to turn on. sometimes have to press and hold power button 10-12 times before it will shut on
2. when the phone is on and i press the lock button to lock the phone, most of the time it thinks i held the button and says "slide down to power off" although sometimes it doesn't respond at all. it almost NEVER locks when i press it (like it should be doing)
3. when the phone is on and i press the lock button to unlock the phone, most of the time it shuts off completely and i go back to step 1
symptom that indicates another problem not related to power/lock button:
1. if the phone is off and i press the power button, when the phone responds it will sometimes say "samsung" like it is turning on, and then nothing else will happen. i won't get the ATT screen and it won't boot up. this some times happens multiple times before the phone finally boots
currently i've been letting the phone time out automatically instead of the lock button, and using the camera button to unlock it. i've also been trying to not let it turn off at all, because getting it back on is really tough.
is there anyway i can disable the lock/power button...and/or is there an alternative way to lock and turn on your phone that doesn't require the use of that button? even if i tell myself not to use it, there are still times in your pocket where the darn thing gets pressed. for me that could mean it kills my phone and doesn't restart for the rest of the day, which i'm sure you can imagine is not ideal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You seem to have a (hardware) problem with the power button (obviously).
There are a couple of ways to turn on the phone/display without the power button:
- camera/back
- connect power charger
- usb connect
Last 2 are not practical and first you already do. You should try and see how much would it cost to replace the power button, if you're out of warranty. Should be cheap, and beats workarounds.

is there any way to lock it rather than letting it just time out? what about turning it on?
do you feel pretty confident that the seemingly unrelated symptom where the "samsung" screen comes up and then shuts off while trying to turn the phone on STILL indicates the button is broken? just worried this problem extends further than just the button.
thanks for your help.

tuffluck said:
is there any way to lock it rather than letting it just time out? what about turning it on?
do you feel pretty confident that the seemingly unrelated symptom where the "samsung" screen comes up and then shuts off while trying to turn the phone on STILL indicates the button is broken? just worried this problem extends further than just the button.
thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's no other way to turn it on (except plugging it to charge) and you found the one workaround, with the camera.
I am *very* sure that the power button is the culprit in your case, most likely the spring that pops back the button is either broken or out of place.
If you keep the power button pressed, in 2 seconds you'll see the slide message, but if you keep it pressed, then it just turns off after 2 more seconds. So, yes, it's the power button and nothing else, in your case.
Fix that and you should be back to normal.
And you're not the only one with this problem. Recently, I've tried to help someone else here, with the same problem, as you can see here.

thanks. i called around and a guy here in town said it will take him 30 minutes for $30 to fix it. i'm taking it to him at lunch, so hopefully i'll come back with a fully functional phone--he also was pretty certain it was the power button, and had seen this before. thanks for your help.

well it wasn't the power button. apparently there is a battery connected to the power button that is dying. but you can't even order a new battery, so pretty much once it's dead, it's dead for good and you have to do the camera button workaround like i was doing.
though he did solder the battery to the board a little more (that's another problem, from the factory it is soldered to the main board so even if you could replace it, you'd likely damage the board), and it seemed to fix the problem. he claimed it would only be temporary and within a few weeks the problem will likely come back.

tuffluck said:
well it wasn't the power button. apparently there is a battery connected to the power button that is dying. but you can't even order a new battery, so pretty much once it's dead, it's dead for good and you have to do the camera button workaround like i was doing.
though he did solder the battery to the board a little more (that's another problem, from the factory it is soldered to the main board so even if you could replace it, you'd likely damage the board), and it seemed to fix the problem. he claimed it would only be temporary and within a few weeks the problem will likely come back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is weird indeed. I don't think I ever heard of another type of battery being used in phones, tied to buttons. Unless it's a capacitor but anyways...
Thanks for sharing the info with us!

I know this is thread is almost a year old, but unfortunately, it seems my Samsung Focus (v1.3) also has the exact same issue.
The worst bit is that every other aspect of this once glorious phone still works and I was very happy using it, not really feeling the need to upgrade.
I was using a custom ROM which I flashed back to AT&T original 7004 but that did not work. It doesn't seem to be a software issue at all.
The symptoms are the same - tapping the power button to lock the phone gives you the option to slide to power-off and after a second it will do that anyway (without any interaction). When you try to boot, it won't progress past the SAMSUNG screen and in the rare chance it does boot, it will work for an hour or two before dying again. Connecting power helps a little (as you can't turn off the phone with mains power connected), but only just. I have tried using the original battery which I initially suspected was causing issues but even a generic battery has the same issues. I'm tempted to spend $20 on a genuine battery but I don't think it will really help given the generic battery did work properly when the phone was itself.
I'm now faced with upgrading to the Lumia 920 but with new models around the corner I think I'm going for the budget Lumia 520 which has similar specs to the Focus (except LED flash) and will hold out for the new flagship model, or buy the 920 when it falls a bit more.

Hi - just wanted to add my experience with this issue (as my focus exhibited these exact symptoms today). Unlike some people, though, even if my phone managed to boot up, it would shut down again after a few seconds on the tile screen.
Like cysser0, I also suspected the battery at first, but replacing the long-life I had purchased last year with the original battery (which I keep charged as a back-up) had no effect on the symptoms. To be brief, I tried all sorts of things over the course of an hour. Nearing the end of my tether, and resigning myself to try a format as a last resort, I discovered that if I held the power button and the volume button down, I could get the phone to stay on. Releasing either of these buttons would result in the phone switching off suddenly.
Wrapping a rubber band tightly around the top of the phone has allowed me to continue using the phone for the moment, and I have managed to do a backup of all my content (not that I will be able to restore it on this phone, it seems).

NEED HELP. Power button stuck.

My power button gets stuck and as you know when you long press it it reboots the phone. So basically my phone is just constantly rebooting and rebooting, its practically unusable. I need help if anyone knows a way to disable the function of power button, I mean so the power button wont do any function anymore, or swap it with another button.

I had the same problem. Got the button replaced, it worked for a month or so and I started getting the random reboots again. A search on the internet reveals that this is a common problem with the S3, and I doubt they fixed the issue for the S3 neo.
1.5 years of use and my power button is broken, my volume buttons are mushy and my camera doesn't focus at all. The build quality on this phone is a joke.
You'll probably have to have your power key replaced as well. Or do what I did and remove it from the motherboard. You won't believe how flimsy the solder is. I now use the accessibility shortcut button to lock / unlock my phone. It's a hassle and it takes up screen real estate, but at least it works.

SpaceDye said:
I had the same problem. Got the button replaced, it worked for a month or so and I started getting the random reboots again. A search on the internet reveals that this is a common problem with the S3, and I doubt they fixed the issue for the S3 neo.
1.5 years of use and my power button is broken, my volume buttons are mushy and my camera doesn't focus at all. The build quality on this phone is a joke.
You'll probably have to have your power key replaced as well. Or do what I did and remove it from the motherboard. You won't believe how flimsy the solder is. I now use the accessibility shortcut button to lock / unlock my phone. It's a hassle and it takes up screen real estate, but at least it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine stopped doing it now but I'm sure it will start again. You are right, build quality of this phone is really lame. That part on the sides that looks like metal is mostly worned off from my phone. Camera focus is crap and volume is lower than before, I can barely hear notifications. Maybe I'll remove the button too, but I'm concerned about how to boot the phone if it turns off.

You can turn on the phone by connecting the charger, immediately booting into download mode (before the battery icon comes up) and restarting from there. It's not the best solution, but at least I have a functional phone until my oneplus x arrives sometime this week

try to do this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXSbBG4NV-w

samo_say said:
try to do this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXSbBG4NV-w
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried something similar and boy it works for a while.

SpaceDye said:
You can turn on the phone by connecting the charger, immediately booting into download mode (before the battery icon comes up) and restarting from there. It's not the best solution, but at least I have a functional phone until my oneplus x arrives sometime this week
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually a fantastic idea. I thought about flashing cm that has no offline charging and booting that way, but this is better solution lol.

SpaceDye said:
. I now use the accessibility shortcut button to lock / unlock my phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try nova launcher since it has a gesture for double tap to lock screen, or maybe a 3rd party app.

use soft lock to lock screen without pressing power button

can't wake up screen

It has happened couple times random . just left phone on the table after couple mins pick up the phone can't wake up screen dead ! I need to press volume down and power bottom to make it come back . Everyone know what is going on?

It has happened to me as well, I have to hold the power button until the screen with Power Off or Reset and cancel it in order to wake back the black screen

Jnioms said:
It has happened to me as well, I have to hold the power button until the screen with Power Off or Reset and cancel it in order to wake back the black screen
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you how to fix this issue?

paullu said:
Do you how to fix this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How to wake the screen? Yes, i said it there, I have to hold the power button until the screen with Power Off or Reset appears and cancel it in order to wake back the black screen.
How to fix the problem of the screen suddenly dying? No, i have no idea why it happens either, i guess it is a bug that Samsung has to fix

I posted a thread about this a couple weeks ago...it randomly happened, and since then now happens once a day. I have to completely restart the phone with the volume down/power button in order to reboot. Do all of you use the AOD? My thought was that it maybe had something to do with that. I only have the home button set up on mine.