Database Users

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

2 phones / 2 issues / trying to make one phone work.

If anyone can offer any advise/assistance, it would be greatly appreciated!!
I have 2 AT&T branded 8525 phones. Both have issues and I assumed I could make one good working phone from them.
Phone 1 had a touchscreen issue. It is not responsive what-so-ever. I tried the credit card trick, cleaning out the edges, hard reset, soft reset, etc... nothing seems to make it respond at all. Reflashed the ROM, but of course I am stuck at the "Touch Screen to Begin" screen.
Phone 2 works just fine, but when plugging in the mini usb charger the screen starts to fade to white (with many vertical lines appearing...but eventually the screen goes to white). If you wiggle the charger, it will clear up, but then go back to the fading white screen. If you leave it long enough on the white screen, it will lock up.
So I thought I could take the known good LCD from phone 2 and put it in phone 1. Yesterday I took both phones apart to do this. I placed the good LCD in the phone that had the possibly bad LCD. Put it all back together and found the touchscreen still does not work . So perhaps the LCD was fine and it was something else. I then decided to just take the motherboard from phone 2 and put it in phone 1 along with the LCD I just replaced (effictively moving the lcd and motherboard over to a new case). Same issue... touchscreen does not work. I assume moving the parts around eliminates a loose connection of some sort. I did make sure the ribbon cables were properly aligned and secured well. I am guessing something is wrong on the motherboard.
Does anyone have an idea of what could be wrong to prevent the touchscreen from working?
Oh...moving both the motherboard and lcd with the whitescreen issue(phone 2) over to the other phone (phone 1) casing didn't change anything at all either...so I assume that is not a connection issue with the cables. I also looked closely at the mini USB connector on the motherboard to see if there was bad solder or something that was making it act up. I am guessing bad hardware in both phones, but was hoping I could somehow make one of these phones work and junk the other. Sounds like I may have to junk both as the cost of parts is probably is silly.
Thanks for any help!!
Eric

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.

Help! My Repair Made Phone Worse!

Hi all, I was going to sell my HTC touch HD to a mate of mine and due to many scratches on the casing I purchased a new case & chassis. After following a guide on the internet, as I removed the screen I caught a small ribbon cable believed to be the light and pulled it slightly out of the clip. We replaced it and put the phone back together and it looks like we have broken the screen as you turn it on the phone vibrates but we get a small white blob near the end call button. It also appears the phone no longer charges although the amber light appears and you can turn the phone on. I think the phone was working because if you press the buttons the phone vibrates, but now nothing happens. Is my best bet to sell the phone as it is or shall I buy a new screen and attempt another repair? its £38 for a new one and I dont want to waste any more money.

Use a program like MyMobiler to check on your desktop pc that your device is working, and that you are sure the screen is faulty. If you really have broken it then a replacement is your only option.
http://www.mtux.com/

cheers thats a great idea.
Does anyone know about why I may be getting the charging problem? Is it because the ribbon inside the phone might not be earthed 100% as I removed the tape holding it down

[Q] tmobile g1, phone has white screen, buttons don't light up

The phone was working fine but my son said the touch screen was working off and on. Now it doesn't come on at all. I am trying to find out if the phone needs a new lcd screen or maybe it's just a cable causing the phone not to work. We tried the reset, took out battery/sim card and still nothing happens on the phone. The screen is still a grayish white. It seems to be charging. When we put the battery back in it vibrates like it wants to turn on. Any help with this problem would be appreciated.

Still bad
Hi, hope you fixed the phone, sounds like a bad flex, you can get a new one from eBay (about 16Dlls).
Changing the flex isn't that difficult but you must be VERY CAREFUL or you can damage some phone internals, there is a service manual but i think you cant watch some disassembly videos on youtube, they're better.