Database Users

Swapped my Wizard for a Universal: power button confuses.

Hi all. My friend and I have swapped our phones. He wanted something more pocket-friendly and more like a phone, whereas I wanted something with a bigger screen to sling in my bag - so it seems like a good compromise.
However, the way the Universal handles power/standby and the backlight seems quite different and it's baffling me. I'd appreciate some help getting my head around it.
On my Wizard, after I'd got it all figured out, I would just pull it out of my pocket and press the power button on the top to instantly turn the display and backlight on and see what was on the screen. Then I'd press the button again to turn the display and backlight off and put it back in my pocket. While in my pocket like this, all buttons except the power button were locked, yet it would still receive calls and get my e-mails and texts: ideal. If I wanted to shut the whole thing down I would *hold* the power button and it would shut down completely.
Now I've got the Universal. Pressing the power button seems to have the same effect, but holding it now turns the backlight off. Here are my questions:
1) Why would you want to do that?
2) Why is there a separate backlight button too, if holding the power button toggles the backlight?
3) How can I turn the device fully off (apart from removing the battery temporarily)?
4) How do you generally use *your* Universal? Do you just close the screen and toss it in a bag/pocket? Or do you leave it in tablet mode and press the power button?
Thanks for any thoughts!
- Si

Re: Swapped my Wizard for a Universal: power button confuses
Wow, your friend sure got ripped off. I came from a Wizard myself, the Universal is a much more refined machine. I will try to answer your questions to the best of my knowledge.
1) Why would you want to do that?
I have no clue, I wonder why there are so many backlight options.
2) Why is there a separate backlight button too, if holding the power button toggles the backlight?
Same answer as above :lol:
3) How can I turn the device fully off (apart from removing the battery temporarily)?
I've never had to fully turn it off, even in the factory manual they don't tell you. They give you a run around answer I'll quote here,
"Power button: Press and hold to turn the screen backlight on and off (you can also do this using the screen backlight button see page #9 & #17) When you close the lid the screen goes off; if you leave the lid open, the backlight will time out and then the screen will switch off. A single press of the power button will turn the screen on or off. The phone is turned on at startup, after the SIM pin is entered. If the screen goes off, the phone will still remain connected."
4) How do you generally use *your* Universal? Do you just close the screen and toss it in a bag/pocket? Or do you leave it in tablet mode and press the power button?
Becareful closing it and tossing it in your bag, the screen likes to make contact with the keyboard leaving marks on the keys and screen ( ) People usually put a small screen wipe rag in between the screen and keyboard before closing or get a silicone case. I have the silicone case, when I'm out it's in my hands since I'm not a belt clip person or in my pants pocket when it fits :wink: The only time it's in tablet mode is when I'm surfing the net or playing a game; I don't like to leave it in tablet mode as it exposes the screen to accidents.

My friend is pretty happy with the Wizard - it suits his needs better and it is amazing what a difference the 'compactness' makes if you use it mainly as a phone rather than a PDA.
Okay, so it seems you can't turn the Universal off. I always plug my phone in to charge at night, so I'm not worried about that.
I was really impressed with the ruggedness of the Wizard. The screen never got any scratches on it. I wish they made iPods out of the same material!
When you use the Universal as a phone, do you tend to use it closed? I feel sort of silly holding a chopping-board sized slab up to my ear. Maybe I'll get a Bluetooth headset

Izzard-UK said:
When you use the Universal as a phone, do you tend to use it closed? I feel sort of silly holding a chopping-board sized slab up to my ear. Maybe I'll get a Bluetooth headset
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Click to collapse
To be honest, I've only used the Universal's earpiece once or twice. It's too big to hold up to your ear for talking. When sitting at your desk, or when you're playing with it, people are always giving you the "Wow!" look but when you have it up against your ear as a cell phone they laugh...and laugh :lol:
I always use a bluetooth earpiece/headset. I have either my Bluespoon AX2 or Motorola HT820 with me at all times. Bluetooth is a must! I rarely use the Wizard's earpiece either, always bluetooth on the Wizard as well.

Backlight dims, power button doesn't work properly...

I have had the Touch 3G for nearly a year now and for the last 3 months I have had this recurring problem which is fixed with a hard reset but will recur again after about 6 weeks. The symptoms are:
1. When turning on, the backlight dims just before the HTC flash screen and startup sound (when it says "Smart Mobility")
2. Touching the screen doesn't bring the backlight back on.
3. Pressing the power button doesn't turn the screen off from this dimmed state, but after pressing touching the screen will turn the backlight back on.
4. Pressing the power button again will now turn off the screen, but pressing it again won't turn the screen back on! If I call it from another phone, the vibrator goes on but it doesn't ring, the screen stays off and you can't answer the call. If you hang up on the other phone it keeps vibrating and you need to do a soft reset to stop it.
If I do a hard reset the symptoms are gone and reinstalling the exact same software doesn't cause the problems immediately but withing a month or so it happens again. All I did just prior to these problems was use TomTom a bit more than usual, but otherwise nothing different. I have used TaskManager to see if there is anything weird running in the background but it all looks fine. I have had a cursory look through the registry but also can't find anything?
Any advice would be appreciated.

pdiaz said:
I have had the Touch 3G for nearly a year now and for the last 3 months I have had this recurring problem which is fixed with a hard reset but will recur again after about 6 weeks. The symptoms are:
1. When turning on, the backlight dims just before the HTC flash screen and startup sound (when it says "Smart Mobility")
2. Touching the screen doesn't bring the backlight back on.
3. Pressing the power button doesn't turn the screen off from this dimmed state, but after pressing touching the screen will turn the backlight back on.
4. Pressing the power button again will now turn off the screen, but pressing it again won't turn the screen back on! If I call it from another phone, the vibrator goes on but it doesn't ring, the screen stays off and you can't answer the call. If you hang up on the other phone it keeps vibrating and you need to do a soft reset to stop it.
If I do a hard reset the symptoms are gone and reinstalling the exact same software doesn't cause the problems immediately but withing a month or so it happens again. All I did just prior to these problems was use TomTom a bit more than usual, but otherwise nothing different. I have used TaskManager to see if there is anything weird running in the background but it all looks fine. I have had a cursory look through the registry but also can't find anything?
Any advice would be appreciated.
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Sounds like it's going all haywire. If you've had it less than a year, I'd send it in real quick. Sounds more like a hardware problem.

I don't think it is hardware as a hard reset fixes it...it just recurs down the track. I have done a hardrest and reinstalled all my apps and it is working great again but I was wondering if I should be checking somewhere in the registry for an aberrant setting. I am u using a backup image program so at least when it happen again I an restore my system more simply.

But then again, all the symptoms you mentioned point to a hardware defect. You could try to find a tweak, but like all electronic devices, it's the luck of the draw. Try emailing HTC and see what they say.

always switching to Landscape...

I have calibrated the G sensor over and over again, but when i am texting it will jump to landscape mode and will not go back to portrait no matter what I do..

are you using a custom rom or texting program?

Just as it came from the shop thanks

hmm. does this only happen when you are texting and are you able to return to portrait mode upon exit of texting or is the phone permanently stuck in landscape.

It seems to have cured itself I let it totally run down, and then recharged it fully and everything back to normal... Other things were happening as well the phone would get quite warm, and the Volume during a call was loud with no control. and the Home screen button did not work, Thanks for your interest. May do a factory reset still.

ralphMcC said:
It seems to have cured itself I let it totally run down, and then recharged it fully and everything back to normal... Other things were happening as well the phone would get quite warm, and the Volume during a call was loud with no control. and the Home screen button did not work, Thanks for your interest. May do a factory reset still.
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I had exactly the same issues as you. I did not have a custom ROM, just the default HTC one, latest version. For me, the problems (landscape mode for texting, device freezing, no volume control, ...) began after having installed Co0kie Home Tab Editor v1.8.5.1. Uninstalling the software didn't solve the problem, so I just flashed my rom...

[Q] screen no longer working

Phone was working with no issues until the other day. I was viewing a web page and noticed the text didn't look quite right, it seemed to be shimmering. Then a bit later on switching to the camera app the screen was just a lot of green flashing lines, pressing home button worked and then starting the camera again it would either be the same or would work properly. Then later that evening after using the phone fine opening the s cover the screen would not come on but the menu and back buttons would light up, pressing the power button a couple of times would make the screen appear. Then that stopped working as well, and no even then back and menu buttons don't light up. the phone still seems to work as plugging in the headphones and pressing the button on them starts my music playing, but I can't get the screen to turn on at all.
The phone has never been dropped has been very well looked after and is immaculate , there are no scratches on the screen and I can't see any cracks (from a pressure break) either.
Any ideas?

this might sound like im trolling, but did you try turning it off and on again?
seriously, your screen is probably broken. send it to sammys customer service or whereever you bought your phone and let them check and/or repair it

Screen wakes up all the time

Hey there,
I've a big issue for a few months already.
My S4 jflte always wakes up whenever the screen turns off.
I tried to figure out where it's caused by and when I cut off the soft buttons (home/menu/back) and started the phone, the screen didn't wake up anymore.
As far as I know there is no way to repair this w/o damaging the screen itself.
So could I block the buttons from waking up the screen?
As you can see when a app is opened and the screen turns off automatically and turns on again, the home screen appears and puts the app in the background.
youtube(.)com/watch?v=Bhul9UMJ8l4 (I don't have 10 posts yet so I have to post it this way. Sorry)
Could anyone help me? I've been researching for a long time and found no solution.

Says video not found.
Are you on a stock rom?

The Video is working fine for me. Did you copy the whole link and did you remove the brackets? ( )
I'm on AOSP 6.0.1 Kernel 3.4.110-Alucard-PWR-CORE from JDCTeam.
I tried different ROMs so far (including the Stock) and it's definitely a hardware issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bhul9UMJ8l4
have you been doing full wipes inbetween roms ? if you have then maybe it's a hardware issue.

Yes, I've always done full wipes. I'm pretty sure it's a hardware issue. Is there any way to block the keys from waking up the phone? I usually use the power button anyways to wake up the phone.

You can probably disable the keys altogether. Or maybe just the menu and back key, and leave only the home button functional.
There is no way to do it with that rom yet, but you could use Xposed and Gravity Box.
Most apps nowadays offer inbuilt menu and back options anyway.

Before you try to disconnect any buttons, try to clean the phone. That has solved many problems in the past.
Look for disassemble S4 videos on youtube, and for cleaning use a small paintbrush, or a very soft toothbrush, and Isoprophyl Alcohol(70% clean alcohol, 30% pure water), you can buy that in the Apotheke.
Clean the board an all other reachable electronics. Let it dry, reassemble and see if it helped.

Thanks for the tips, but I've already done that before (twice) without success.
I'm looking for a way to disable the keys from waking up the screen. I've tried it with the key configuration files in the system, but it didn't work.
Example: When I press the home button the screen wakes up. I just want to disable the wake up for all buttons except for the power button.
Does anyone know a app for this? Or a mod for xposed?

There is no actual "wake up" function assigned to the back and menu key. Only the home button has one. So there's nothing you can disable, except for the keys altogether. I already suggested you how to do that in the 5th reply to this thread.

I've found a work-around. I disabled the keys with 'Xposed Additions' while the screen is turned off or locked.
Thanks alot for your help guys!