Database Users

[Q] Paint Chipping on buttons

Anyone else have a problem with the paint chipping off the three hardware buttons? Not gradually, but very suddenly. The Menu key especially... I pressed it a few minutes ago just to have a huge chunk of glittery metal paint stick to my finger.
What to do...

I have this problem too. Coating gone only on the edge of menu button.
Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

wonder if you can buy replacement buttons.. I have this problem also.

iead1 said:
Anyone else have a problem with the paint chipping off the three hardware buttons? Not gradually, but very suddenly. The Menu key especially... I pressed it a few minutes ago just to have a huge chunk of glittery metal paint stick to my finger.
Paint is not gone but the"x" on the back cover writing is gone. and in case of quality i notced when jo sqeeze on tho lower part of the backcover it sounds like its breaking :-(
What to do...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

Why suddenly today everyone's button chipping away.
Mine on the inner edge of all buttons (LED-light-gap-position)..

No. But my volume button has a horizontal crack in the paint down the centre of it.
Sent from my X10i using Tapatalk

don't worry about it. its just a standard Sony Ericsson feature.

metcard said:
don't worry about it. its just a standard Sony Ericsson feature.
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Click to collapse
I totally agree!! Bad quality!
My X1 had 4 cracks on case and good SE replaced the whole housing for free!

We need photos.

forzanerazzurri said:
We need photos.
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Click to collapse
No need, it wont be long before it happens to you.

hubseven said:
No need, it wont be long before it happens to you.
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Click to collapse
Bite your tongue.
Seriously.

hmmm ... mine has gone too ... leaving ugly white plastic underneath ....
I foolishly thought SE would use quality components in their flagship phone!!!
It probably doesn't help that I installed the 'Toddler Lock' application and allow my baby to use my fone as a teething ring whilst I change his nappy!
I just hope he didnt swallow any of the silver paint
A warning wld have been nice .... just a simple ... "Don't let babies chew on this device because its made of cheap ****" would have sufficed!
oh well!

Its happend to mines too
Ive found buttons on ebay for 10GBP from Hong Kong but dont know if its worth it,

since i had around 4 SE phones before .. all those shinning silver buttons will eventually loose thier coating ... unless u have a cover or something ... u will loose it faster..
its very sad to see ... but SE has always done it ..

naveen_reloaded said:
since i had around 4 SE phones before .. all those shinning silver buttons will eventually loose thier coating ... unless u have a cover or something ... u will loose it faster..
its very sad to see ... but SE has always done it ..
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Click to collapse
Mine are OK for now, but since this thread started, I began to think and I realised I hardly press any of the hardware buttons
(I have even disabled the Home Button from waking up screen while locked
I have a shortcut on Launcher Pro's dock for Camera
and I put my phone to silent through the lockscreen and not the volume buttons),
so maybe it's true: after some extensive use, the paint deteriorates.

Hmm, I am a heavy user and use my fingernails to press the buttons. 5 months so far and no issues with the buttons chipping.

I mean, it's common for frequently used buttons to chip...my blackberry's volume buttons and area around the scroll ball did as well, just not in a randomly sudden manner.
I took the phone to a Docomo shop, and they said for $30USD, they'd replace the entire housing, including buttons. Sounds like a good deal, since I've dropped the phone a few times...hmm.

Weird.
Yesterday I was noticing a little flake that came out. Now I see this post.

Just to break the trend a bit here:
My buttons and all the "silver coat" are all fine, not even a scratch, yet I use this thing a LOT. a Heavy user even.
Instead I have some "wearout" on the scratchresistant Film/coating on the screen. Not much, but it's there if one look closely.
I don't notice it on daily usage anyway, so I'm not worried. I am a "heavy user" after all... (whole 100 kg )
And SE did ship this thing with an extra film to replace the pre-installed one with.

i am considered a "heavy user" ....i use the menu button the most to wake the phone up and the back button quite a bit..no chipping yet (knock on wood)

Ballad of the G2 ran over by a van...

As you can tell from my title, the face buttons on my g2 isn't working. Let me give you some back ground information about it. It is my sister's g2. She didn't have insurance on it for whatever reason, fell out of her pocket, and got ran over by a 15 passenger van. I took it apart, replaced the screen, and gave it back to her, with everything functional. Couple weeks later she apparently dropped it "just right" cause the screen stopped working again. (fyi, my sister is REALLY bad with electronics...) She decided she's going to get a mt4g so she gave the g2 to me. I replace the screen again, and do the spring mod for the hinge. Everything goes well, boot it up and such. But alas, the face keys don't work. Pulled the battery, did factory reset, neither of these worked. So does anyone have any ideas or clues on what to do?

Wow it got ran over by a van and your g2 is still some what intact? That's crazy... Well I bet you need to replace some components of the soft keys since they might be damaged
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App

lainvalenajr said:
Wow it got ran over by a van and your g2 is still some what intact? That's crazy... Well I bet you need to replace some components of the soft keys since they might be damaged
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I replaced the screen the first time after it got ran over, the soft keys still worked flawlessly. Was only after my sister dropped it and broke the screen again, that apparently they don't work.

That is insanity that this damn thing got run over by a van and somehow still manages to function. Go HTC your hardware is pretty fantastic despite its flaws.

you can use key tracker to see if the system is registering any kind of key press, and button remapper to reassign the functions you need to the volume up/down and camera buttons or trackpad center until you figure out something better.
Hope this helps.

Thanks ill dawg. The key tracker showed me that its not registering any thing from the home keys, as much as I suspected. I noticed at the bottomish of the screen there is a dead area on the touch screen, so the digitizer must of gotten ruined too, so I have to replace that next. The button remapper does provide an adequate work around for now though.
I think the regular phone speaker got messed up as well, though I'm not sure on that, could of been like that all along, but appears to be damage on the metal "screen" area that protects it, so I'll probably replace that too.
So, while I'm already that far into the phone again (hopefully for the last time), are there any other hardware tweaks I should do for my phone? I have already done the hinge spring mod.
FYI the van that ran over this phone is a 2009 Ford E series van with a large wheel chair lift in the back. The stock weight is almost 5000 pounds, no idea how much the lift adds to it, nor the people inside. So one can only imagine the forces put onto this phone, and the only thing that seemed to have broke was the screen/digitizer and speaker...damn I love htc

Rubic13 said:
Thanks ill dawg. The key tracker showed me that its not registering any thing from the home keys, as much as I suspected. I noticed at the bottomish of the screen there is a dead area on the touch screen, so the digitizer must of gotten ruined too, so I have to replace that next. The button remapper does provide an adequate work around for now though.
I think the regular phone speaker got messed up as well, though I'm not sure on that, could of been like that all along, but appears to be damage on the metal "screen" area that protects it, so I'll probably replace that too.
So, while I'm already that far into the phone again (hopefully for the last time), are there any other hardware tweaks I should do for my phone? I have already done the hinge spring mod.
FYI the van that ran over this phone is a 2009 Ford E series van with a large wheel chair lift in the back. The stock weight is almost 5000 pounds, no idea how much the lift adds to it, nor the people inside. So one can only imagine the forces put onto this phone, and the only thing that seemed to have broke was the screen/digitizer and speaker...damn I love htc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not surprised the G2 has taken this amount of damage. The HTC Evo is known to stop bullets and still work flawlessly.

wow...what a tank of a phone.
btw, i'm curious how much do the screen replacements cost? is it really worthwhile to replace it as opposed to getting a new phone?

imdando said:
btw, i'm curious how much do the screen replacements cost? is it really worthwhile to replace it as opposed to getting a new phone?
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I bought it off of repairs universe, probably can be found cheaper but meh, was lazy. Screen costs 50, then 5 bucks for T5 Torx screwdriver, then 5 or so for shipping I believe. So your looking at 60 bucks, compared to the 120-160 it was for insurance to replace it(least thats what it cost me when i wrecked my g1). You also need a smallish phillips screwdriver as well, but I had a whole assortment of those already so no idea what it'll run you for that.
The digitizer runs for 65 bucks on repairuniverse, but found an amazon listing for 30 bucks, so figure I'll give that a try.
All said I'll be about 100 bucks into the phone. So cheaper than insurance, and also I feel now that if anything goes wrong with the hardware, I know the innards well enough that I can fix or replace just about anything.

imdando said:
wow...what a tank of a phone.
btw, i'm curious how much do the screen replacements cost? is it really worthwhile to replace it as opposed to getting a new phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
According to source Repairs-Universe the screen and digitizer cost $49.99 and $64.99 respectively.
I suppose to answer your last question it would depend on how handy with a set of wrenches the end user is. I have no idea if "run over by a van" is a legitimate insurance claim, but I know that I would certainly love my phone a lot more if I ripped it apart and put a new screen in. Being able to tell some random bar-jack, "Why yes, my telephone did get run over by a van and all I had to do was replace the screen" is pretty good word of mouth advertising for HTC.
Edit: beaten like a two handed chimpanzee going for a banana

astriaos said:
I have no idea if "run over by a van" is a legitimate insurance claim,
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Click to collapse
Insurance covers any damage or loss. I could tell them I paid a hooker to pee on me while I played the picolo into my phone and the urine ruined my phone. Approved. Unless you have a picolo exemption on your policy. Then you're ****ed.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

well final update. In total I replaced the lcd screen, touch screen, and ear piece speaker, and works 100% now. I did go ahead and do the spring mod and got the bigger capacity batteries from amazon. So yeah other than a few scuffs and such, it is impossible to tell that it was ran over by a 3 tonn vehicle.

It may be overused, but:
It's not a bug. It's a feature.

klaas4 said:
It may be overused, but:
It's not a bug. It's a feature.
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Click to collapse
Forgive me, but what are you even talking about? What is a feature?

[FIX] Possible Power Button Fix

I do not take responsibility for what you do with your stuff, I just did this to fix mine.
This is not a sleep of death fix.
This is a fix for those of us who got to experience cheap product design and our power buttons become almost useless at turning our TF on.
What I did:
I took off the bezel carefully and slowly using a thin guitar pick (after removing the star screws)
I took a typical 3x5 index card and cut an approximate 1x1 millimeter square off the corner.
Carefully, using tweezers, I glued the piece of index card to the light blue button on the bezel, not the rest of the tablet.
I snapped everything back in place carefully and the power button is responsive again!
Again, I am not responsible for you and your tablet. I just did this at 7am since I couldn't sleep.
If there is enough interest I can post pics of the process.
Edit: It also seems to help to let the index card piece dry on and then pull it off to leave a papery residue, it works a little better by softening the button.
Edit 2: I'd like to point out post 5 for a good picture. It seems to just need to be played around with on the thickness level, mine needed very little, yours may need more.

You gotta love when they use cheap buttons on a $400 item... What good is it if you can't turn it on? My buttons still work, but I have read a lot of reports about button issues. Hopefully, they used better buttons on the prime!

Nice. I have the same problem as you did. Can you tell me if the small black plastic piece was attached to the switch on the board inside? I am not 100% sure there is one but the volume buttons have it and I know my power button doesn't. I am thinking it broke off and is missing somewhere inside my bezel as it won't fit properly anymore either. I'm going to rma my tf for other reasons but it would be nice to fix it myself in the mean time.
Thanks for this post. It gives me hope lol.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

For the love of god man post those pics!!!
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

Yeah my button when new was very easy to operate, even my 3 year old could do it.
As time went by it got harder and harder to turn on. I took the button out and extended with a little piece of plastic. I used an old gift card.
Work great now.

No trouble with my button not working yet, and I've had mine since the spring. The big issue I have with the power button is how close it is to the volume-up button! If I had a nickel for every time I accidentally turned the device off when trying to turn it up, I'd be very rich by now. Very annoying.

baseballfanz said:
Yeah my button when new was very easy to operate, even my 3 year old could do it.
As time went by it got harder and harder to turn on. I took the button out and extended with a little piece of plastic. I used an old gift card.
Work great now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good pic, that's pretty much exactly how my work around looked.

Would you happen to have a pic of the device rather than the button? I'd like to see how your switch is constructed to see what mine is missing. Thanks.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

igot6strings said:
Would you happen to have a pic of the device rather than the button? I'd like to see how your switch is constructed to see what mine is missing. Thanks.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I though I had a picture of the the button on the mother board but I guess it didn't save. The power button should look like the two volume button.

interesting...
I returned my Acer Iconia a500 because I realized how cheaply designed the power button was. The a500 tablet on display at Best Buy had a broken power button, and there was tons of others with the same exact problems/concerns. I don't understand why these manufacturers don't learn. I was under the impression that the Transformer was much better built- then I saw this thread. I have an Asus transformer prime on pre-order, but am afraid I will have to RMA the dam thing after a few months for the same problem. I hate apple, IOS, and Itunes, and just wish there was an equivalent 10 inch android tablet that is built just as solid, and wont break down after 3 months from normal use. Will I be ok with the Prime????

My iPod Touch 3G's home button barely works after a year of use... good my Sensation XE is gonna replace it XD. Had my Transformer for nearly 6 months now, no signs of the power button getting any worse... it's something I'm always worried about after my ipod. At least there si a temporary fix for it, I want to make sure my TF lasts at least 2 years, hopefully close to 3.
tno~~

they had to replace all the boards (motherboard, daughterboards) to fix my power button issue.

Have to wonder what you folks are doing with your tablets. We've got two Transformers, used every day since May and June respectively, and neither has the slightest issue with any of the physical buttons.

Thanks guys, I'm gonna try this. I was using piece of pencil eraser in it before I had to turn it in lol.
Sent from samsung vibrant

czissis said:
My power and volume buttons have been loose since the second I pulled it out of the box.
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Click to collapse
...which makes me wonder if there's a batch problem (although none of the five tablets I've personally bought have had this problem), yours was mistreated while still packaged, or you got a second-hand tablet...

I just got a new TF at Best Buy yesterday, and the power button is loose and hard to press, and the volume button is so sunk in, it's almost impossible to press without trying really hard, and rattles when I type on left side of the screen in landscape. Before I try to exchange it to many times, what should they feel like on a perfect TF? Should they be soft and easy to press, with no looseness?

Power Button
polbit said:
I just got a new TF at Best Buy yesterday, and the power button is loose and hard to press, and the volume button is so sunk in, it's almost impossible to press without trying really hard, and rattles when I type on left side of the screen in landscape. Before I try to exchange it to many times, what should they feel like on a perfect TF? Should they be soft and easy to press, with no looseness?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dropped my ASUS Transformer on the floor and I had to take the back off (easily done with a thin screwdriver) to bend everything back in place. After putting it back together I had the problem with a loose power button that after while became a stuck button. So I took it apart again, turns out that there is a very very small button on the print board side and the power button has to be adjusted exactly over it and locked in a cavity between the front and back. So if your button is loose it is not properly clicked in the cavity or the cavity has been made to big from the factory

I fixed mine "by accident" when I was prying out the button from the bezel. Under the bezel was another plastic frame that was glued on. When the plastic frame holding the silver button split from the bezel it had more room to move, reaching the pcb button that was just too recessed. Yey

Mine(power button) started to failed on the third day after I purchased it. Then I decided to forget about it and just look for alternatives to power on my transformer without using the power button. so I get the dock, dock seems to be defective, a brand new dock where the touchpad doesn't wake up my transformer(rarely does), this is just one among several issues dock came with. Am I a lucky asus customer or what?

[Q] New iconia or money back cause of volume button?

Hi - look at the picture what i've attached.
The silver coating just went out from the volume button.
Should i return it back to the shop (Mediamarkt) ?
Any chance to get new iconia or money back in terms of guaranty?

Wow, what are you using your volume button for?? A saw or a hammer. I only touch my volume button maybe once or twice a day.

That's the problem. I'm not using the button almost at all.

Sunburn

Just try getting it replaced in the store.
I guess since this is not an issue that restricts the function of your tablet, it wouldn't fall under guarantee.
But the staff at Media Markt is known to have no idea what they're doing, so just demand a replacement.
A refund would be unusual though, you don't normally get that in store.
Regards,
pintness

thanks pintness,
that's the answer, what i was looking for.

THAT Will fall under warranty repair. same as a keyboard on laptop that the letters come off inside the warranty period.. That issue has been seen here on this forum before.. I think that button must have have some type of oil or something on it before it was chromed. Maybe was done right after machine serviced who knows.. I HAD A Car that the bumpers did that a year after i got it.. The dealership repaired it with no issue.. says it happends sometimes.. with Chrome plating....and plating over plastic is even more difficult.. Look up the process online you will see. Its quite amazing at how much goes into one tiny piece .

When all else fails........kentucky chrome
no offense erica_renee

Wiggly unresponsive home buttons

I came across a bunch of threads and videos on YouTube of people saying that their home button is loose, wiggly, and sometimes unresponsive. (as in my case)
My s6 has an issue where it didn't respond to normal pressing on the left side of the button, and since I'm left handed caused a lot of miss clicks for me.
I went to samsung today and they've sent it to the technicians, hopefully I'll get a replacement.
Here's an example from youtube of someone who has an issue on both sides of the button. (only responds in the middle)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5IIAIl0Dfw
Since this is a manufacturer problem, I think Samsung should recognize this issue and replace units that have that issue.

Yup, had the same with mine, but only left side.
So many quality issues with this phone that I went back to iPhone6.

Apoxx said:
Yup, had the same with mine, but only left side.
So many quality issues with this phone that I went back to iPhone6.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is on the left side only as well, I'm not sure how the 14 days return policy apply to electronic devices in my country, I didn't even notice the problem at first, now that period has passed anyway so I gave it to Samsung under their warranty, hopefully they'll either fix it or replace the device and won't just claim it's not a real issue or something, it's a premium device that I paid a lot for, there shouldn't be issues like this with a premium phone.

They hand out refurbs under warranty. I would've kept it for something that minor.

I wonder if that's an issue that can be repaired though, like replacing the button or something. (using the manufacturer warranty of course)

Mine has the same issue. Left side presses do nothing until I get towards the centre. Right side is perfect up to the very edge. The button doesn't feel wobbly. But I put it close to my ear and tapping I could then hear the left side is rattling but the right side there's no rattling. I'm going back to the EE shop tomorrow about this. Two things concern me though. Is it possible to get one that doesn't have this issue because many people have said they've had a few replacements with the same problem. Secondly, I hope Oliv3 is wrong and I don't get a refurb replacement.

Roman5 said:
Mine has the same issue. Left side presses do nothing until I get towards the centre. Right side is perfect up to the very edge. The button doesn't feel wobbly. But I put it close to my ear and tapping I could then hear the left side is rattling but the right side there's no rattling. I'm going back to the EE shop tomorrow about this. Two things concern me though. Is it possible to get one that doesn't have this issue because many people have said they've had a few replacements with the same problem. Secondly, I hope Oliv3 is wrong and I don't get a refurb replacement.
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Click to collapse
My first S6 had the exact same problem. I got a replacement with a fully functional home key. Too bad a third of the screen had a really bad case of pink tint. Getting a replacement tomorrow. I wonder what will be wrong with that one...
I am getting a bit fed up with the inconsistent build quality of these phones.

This has ALWAYS been the case with the Galaxy series of phones.
I had 7 replacement S4s, YES 7!!! Because each replacement I got had a fault be it pink tint, green tint, banding on the screen, wobbly power buttons, wobbly home button etc
I finally gave up on my 7th handset and made do with a defective power button as it had a near perfect screen.
So basically, I would rather a wonky home button than half a screen that's pink.
Think twice about sending in for replacement.
My S6 has very unresponsive capacitive buttons, the back button especially doesn't register i've touched it 25% of the time.
But, the screen is good, so I'm living with it.

Oliv3 said:
They hand out refurbs under warranty. I would've kept it for something that minor.
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Click to collapse
Refurbished phones like Apple does? So if i send my phone that has a little scratch on the frame i'll get one without it? Because i have the wiggly home button that doesnt respond to clicks on the sides, but i didnt want to send it to repair and be without phone for a couple of weeks, but getting rid of the scratched frame would make me send it.

They repaired it, though it took two repairs.
First time they've replaced everything besides the home button, which was the problem I've sent it in the first place. (They've replaced the entire display, charging port and god knows what else)
Second time they've replaced a bunch of stuff including the home button. (Random stuff like "battery sticker(?)")
Oh well, at least now it responds like it should, it's still a bit wiggly but nothing that bothers me as long as it works well.

Dunams said:
They repaired it, though it took two repairs.
First time they've replaced everything besides the home button, which was the problem I've sent it in the first place. (They've replaced the entire display, charging port and god knows what else)
Second time they've replaced a bunch of stuff including the home button. (Random stuff like "battery sticker(?)")
Oh well, at least now it responds like it should, it's still a bit wiggly but nothing that bothers me as long as it works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Probs they send out refurbished products in the US only, you know to be on the same level of Apple. I think i'll wait then, the problem doesnt bother me that much.