S5 Screen glitches, flickers, duplicates parts - Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
My dad has S5 G900F for about 3 years and never really had a problem with it. But now the screen sometimes glitches, bottom half of the screen goes black
when he's in the browser and once he moves the screen it disappears. The upper quarter sometimes duplicates itself, screen splits into 4 parts, other parts duplicate as well,
the phone freezes and then when he reboots it the screen turns into these old TV glitching errors. Once it boots up, it slowly goes down while the upper half is blacked out and his
wallpaper is showing. Photos in links.
Once it's fully rebooted and he gets through the lock screen which freezes for a moment it works just fine.
Do you have any idea what it could be? We're guessing that there could be a motherboard problem but we don't really know. It's an old phone and replacing motherboard would
literally cost more than the phone now so we're just curious.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dFpXv-OxwMJVYUaWFDEiLY9zVBAm1VGs
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10lu2kZbiXfpij3CGe4AmuI168_ARM68c

Hiya, guess what, I had exactly the same problem with mine. Ended up replacing the screen... But before I did so, not only did I notice the screen glitching and having "snowstorms" and suddenly rebooting, parts of the screen ended up having black squares (loading animation for instance) which went away soon after but kept coming back. So now I've got a new display (got it about a week ago) everything's been fine until I noticed that black square appearing again (only briefly while the loading animation was displayed when shutting the phone down). So I think it must be a motherboard issue... Hasn't gotten as bad as it used to be though, not having any other problems... I know this isn't exactly helpful, just felt the need to post this.

James160103 said:
Hiya, guess what, I had exactly the same problem with mine. Ended up replacing the screen... But before I did so, not only did I notice the screen glitching and having "snowstorms" and suddenly rebooting, parts of the screen ended up having black squares (loading animation for instance) which went away soon after but kept coming back. So now I've got a new display (got it about a week ago) everything's been fine until I noticed that black square appearing again (only briefly while the loading animation was displayed when shutting the phone down). So I think it must be a motherboard issue... Hasn't gotten as bad as it used to be though, not having any other problems... I know this isn't exactly helpful, just felt the need to post this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It actually helped in knowing that he's not alone who had this issue. It sucks that the motherboard is slowly giving up after 3 years of use but I'll definitely tell him about replacing the screen. It's kinda cheap after years. Although he's looking for an upgrade now. But seriously thank you Hopefully it won't get worse for you.

Update 2 Dec:
The screen no longer works. It just shows TV like error although it works in the background .

Related

White screen?

I have an unlocked Cingluar 8525 (TyTn) I have had it for like 5 months now. Upgraded to WM6 as soon as I got in in July. Recently it has started slowing down and lagging a lot. So last night I restarted it cause it froze. When I did that it would freeze on the WM startup screen. So I rebooted while holding the 2 soft keys and then clicked yes to restore. That worked. Then today the phone fell off the arm rest of my couch onto carpet and I went to go send a message and it was all white. So I restarted and now everything is just a blank white screen, no startup logo or nothing. Has anyone had this problem before? I tried resetting it again and it didnt work. I have tried turning on with no sim card and same problem. Anyone know how to fix this?
It is all too common,
I've been told it is due to a loose connection between the ribbon that attaches the screen to the mother board.
I think its a design fault - the ribbon is linked to the two parts of the Hermes (screen and keyboard) and surely all that opening and closing is essentially moving something that is designed to be a static item. This I think weakens the ribbon connection, causing the white screen of death as I've nick named it.
Here is a link to dismantling the hermes to reconnect the ribbon.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=346986
Though you should know I attempted this tonight with very little success.
I still have the white screen issue. Its very frustrating that the reason I bought this phone (the slick keyboard action) is the reason I cant use it anymore.
Hope you have more luck that I did, Let me know...
PS - If you have never taken it apart before (I did to replace the screen) It should still be under warranty - or if yours is second hand - you could send it to apex laptops for repair.

[Q] Black screen of death, then too bright with lines, now normal??

Hello,
I got the Galaxy S4 yesterday morning. Today around 9pm the screen was completely black. I could hear sounds and the buttons would light up but nothing worked. I pulled the battery and sim card as suggested via google search and still nothing. I got home and the screen came back on but it was really super bright with horizontal lines that were slightly shifted in one spot on top of each other. I plugged my usb from the charger into it a few times and eventually got a battery charging logo to come up. Had to do that a few more times before I got the screen back up. Now the screen appears normal but I'm scared that something happened to it. Either the screen is going to die soon or maybe it somehow over heated and that is why the screen was acting wierd. I just hope that since it seems normal now that I can get it replaced in store even though I can't duplicate the symptoms.
I'm curious as to what your take is on what's wrong with my phone? It had at least 75% charge before it started acting crazy. I don't want to keep it thinking it's fine and then after 15 days it goes out again and I'm stuck waiting for a repair to be shipped back to me.
Thanks
I just did a live chat with a Samsung Tech guy. He says it's because I installed an app or had a sd card inserted. He told me to uninstall Facebook and any ebook reading Apps and see if that fixes the problem. Do they think people fall for this? So incredible stupid if that's how they train their techs.
I was able to replicate the symptoms again. I bought the s view cover and when installing it had to press a little hard on the edges to snap into place. The screen went black again and did the same thing. Plugging to power then restarting fixed it. I found out that when I press the top right corner around where the time is, the screen flickers black and looks like I wants to cut out. Is there a sensor or digitizer located at that spot. If it's an issue when putting on a case, I see this is going to not bode well for the life of this phone. I went back to the dealer today and she gave me the number and location of a local samsung repair center. I'll have to give them a call tomorrow I suppose. Just be careful of any pressure being applied to the screen, even though mine has been acting up on it's own.
Just checked it now and it went totally black again and is not coming on. I've only had it a few days so not even enough time to load much stuff on it or customize it. I'm with Wind Mobile in Canada. It's getting boxed up and taken to the store asap tomorrow.

[Q] Strange Screen Issue: Is it the end?

So i've had my Nexus 4 for just over 2 years now. It's stuck by me through thick and thin, i think this might be the end though.
Anyway, so i picked the phone up at around 2 am this morning, it had been working perfectly all day up to this point. So i picked it up, the colours on the screen are a bit weird. I change what's on the screen and the colours remain weird, so i do the standard thing of a reboot to see if that clears it up. This is where the big issue comes in, when the phone turns on again, there's a 1 cm wide black bar on the left side of the screen. Nothing appears to affect it, but sometimes it randomly appears greyer than others.
The rest of the screen has the same weird colours as it did before i restarted, kind of muted, and moving light areas on the screen (like app icons) makes bars of lighter colour move across the screen with them.
If i didn't know that the phone hadn't been dropped i'd be saying that the screen was just broken right now. But i flashed CM12 (was on the latest PA beta) and when the phone was restarting the whole screen flashed working for a split second before going to its broken state again. This hints at the issue being software related, especially given that it initially happened with no physical damage occurring to the phone? When thinking about this, the colour issue reminds me of what happens when you installed CM11 with the wrong kernel and it looks messed up...
Anyway, I think my phone is dead, and i'm posting here in case someone has some genius idea as to what on earth killed my phone.
I'm pretty good at doing stuff with the phone, so can flash and install whatever, hindered only slightly by missing 1 cm of the recovery menu. I would take pictures, but normally i use my phone as a camera and...... If any more info would be useful then please ask!
Thanks for any help, ideas or input in advance!
T

Yotaphone 2 ereader screen problem

I have yotaphone 2 from tinydeal germany. (I think they flash the ROM to change the language.)
The phone worked fine at first but now the e screen on the back is doing strange things, leaving images of previous pages showing through the current page. This means, for example, on the clock face the clock is faint on a grey background and as the fingers move they leave a black after-image. Pages that should be black look speckled grey. Any suggestions for cause and a fix?
Unfortunately this is how (older) EPD screens work. When updated they somtimes leave a ghost image behind. To eliminate this the screen needs to be flashed white/black/white before redrawing and with the low refresh frequency of EPD this results in a very flickering image. So there is nothing wrong with your screen, this is just how EPD screens work. See also here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper#Disadvantages
Thanks, but this ghosting or layered imaging is much more severe. I know someone else with the same phone where black is black and whilst there is very slight ghosting of things like clock fingers it is nothing like this current phone. The phone was fine when we got it, and the layered/grey imaging has started without me doing anything. I only mentioned flashing of the ROM because Tinydeal have told me that that is what they do to change the language on these phones.
So from the Wikipedia entry and your comments I now assume that the phone should automatically flash black/white between page changes but it isn't doing it.
The ghost images don't appear if you load something like chess or sudoko onto the rear display but appear again as soon as the regular Yotapanel or Yotacover is used.
I have the same problem, but only when the white theme in the Yotahub is turned off (so the dark theme is active) or when I use the Yota Mirror. The ghosting is terrible. When I use the white theme, it looks like it should look. I am not aware of any changes I made to my phone yesterday, but in the afternoon this problem started.
Does someone know how to check if the screen is flashing/refreshing correctly and if not, how to repair this?
Update: when I put a completely black screen on the back, it is spotty. The black is not black, but dark grey, and there are many lighter spots on the screen.
Update 2: the white theme has this problem too, but less visible. The white starts as real white, but because of ghosting becomes slightly grey. With black it is much more noticeable, because black does start as dark grey.
Well this may only turn out to be a temporary fix but I went through the Yotapanel pages repeatedly and very rapidly using the bottom of the page buttons.
I got all sorts of shades of grey and multiple overlying images but then the phone suddenly showed a clear black and white page with clock.
Ringing the phone from another phone produced a clear missed call message on the back of the phone and then after a minute the clear black and white clock page came back. I am leavng the phone without looking at all the othe Yotapanels or the Yotacover for the moment in the hope that something just got out of phase in the software and the phone might now settle down to correct operation again.
I have the same problem. It has started a few days ago and it gets worse every day.
Unfrtunately the problem has returned on my phone although I was able to get back to a black screen with the clock after three page changes using the bottom left arrow. This time a missed call message came up very clearly on the back of the phone but after the missed call message cleared the whole of the back of the phone was speckled grey with a very faint clock image. One question though: is this just the phones from Tinydeal where they have apparently flashed the ROM, or is it all phones?
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lggfc.nookclearscreen
That's the app for Nook ereader to refresh its screen and get rid of ghosting. Works also on Yotaphone.
What always works for me to clear the screen when the ghosting annoys me is to switch to Android on the EPD screen (by holding the circle button and choosing the left option) and switch back right away using the same procedure. This always leaves me with a clean black back.
Thanks Keeper and VirtualL.
Tinydeal asked me to upload a video to demonstrate the fault, and no sooner than they did that the phone started behaving normally again!
So if it goes again the first thing I will try is that page sequence, and if it fails the App.
I have to say that these are really fantastic phones. I think that a lot of original reviewers completely overlooked the basic issue of not being able to see a phone screen in bright sunlight, but that the yotaphone overcomes this problem.
Resolved by switching the back to front screen views a couple of times. Getting the front screen to mirror on the back seems to give that hard black and white interscreen flash that clears previous images.
Lothor said:
Resolved by switching the back to front screen views a couple of times. Getting the front screen to mirror on the back seems to give that hard black and white interscreen flash that clears previous images.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know if you already use it but this widget makes it very easy to switch between mirror and back. Just one click on the widget.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/yotaphone-one/development/widget-yota-toolbelt-t3145462
Last week, I got a chinese version (YD206) through GearBest. I had the same problem what you mentioned. (Black was always Grey and was never black and lot of ghosting). Until yesterday, I used to think that's how the e-Ink display works so I was using White theme all the time.
After seeing your post, I tried using Nook cleaner software and it did not help. Then, I removed the screen protector which the phone came with. For the next 1 hour, I did not see any difference. I left it thinking it could be ROM issue.
But, after few hours, I noticed everything became normal. Now, the e-ink screen looks goergeous in BLACK.
VirtuaLeech said:
What always works for me to clear the screen when the ghosting annoys me is to switch to Android on the EPD screen (by holding the circle button and choosing the left option) and switch back right away using the same procedure. This always leaves me with a clean black back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This issue keeps coming back and I am not able to find a guaranteed solution to this.
Like you described, activating and deactivating Yota Mirror in quick succession clears the ghosting and makes the screen BLACK. At other times, it does not work at all.
I even try swapping to different Yota Panels, but it is a hit and miss. Is this issue specific to Chinese version of YD206?
How to solve this issue permanently?
If not possible, is there any known step which I can do to clear the ghosting?
prasathvishnu said:
This issue keeps coming back and I am not able to find a guaranteed solution to this.
Like you described, activating and deactivating Yota Mirror in quick succession clears the ghosting and makes the screen BLACK. At other times, it does not work at all.
I even try swapping to different Yota Panels, but it is a hit and miss. Is this issue specific to Chinese version of YD206?
How to solve this issue permanently?
If not possible, is there any known step which I can do to clear the ghosting?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same problem with a GearBest YD206 running Android 4.4.3. Would updating the firmware change anything?
Hey Yotaphone Users!
I finally have a solution for this problem, that I received from the Yota Phone Support:
"If you see that ghosting is amplified, try to do some steps. Try to discharge the phone completely. Then leave it discharged for long periods of time, f.e. overnight. Then charge the phone to 100%."
For me that worked perfectly!
For me the discharge-recharge didn't work at all.
Discharged untill it switched off. Turned it on again untill switched off, untill phone wouldn't start up again. So: battery was flat.
What happened was: EPD turned black. Yohoo! Happy!
But: after one night discharged, i put it on charger again. Screen switched on, and ghosting was immediately back.
Disappointed. Very disappointed.
Anyone has a different solution?
stoerebink said:
For me the discharge-recharge didn't work at all.
Discharged untill it switched off. Turned it on again untill switched off, untill phone wouldn't start up again. So: battery was flat.
What happened was: EPD turned black. Yohoo! Happy!
But: after one night discharged, i put it on charger again. Screen switched on, and ghosting was immediately back.
Disappointed. Very disappointed.
Anyone has a different solution?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sad to hear that.
Did you remove the screen protector from the back side as in the post #14 the user said that after removing the epd screen became normal black again?
Has anyone heard and try heating with hairdryer the EPD screen for 2 minutes (not too hot) to eliminate ghosting?

left side screen glitched

Hello,
The left side of the screen shows some Missingno type glitching (I've attached some pics)
Does anyone know where this type of problem comes from?
I had the screen replaced and it worked beautifully afterwards for a couple of days...
I also installed system updates.. so I'm wondering; is this a hardware or software issue?
Thanks for your time and interest
/Shady69
Happened to my wife. Needed to be returned and fixed, hardware glitch not software. I am not sure if it was a screen issue or some other hardware.
Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Did you have the screen replaced because of the screen flashing, or did the flashes start only after you had the screen replaced?
If the problem has been consistent over the course of two different screens, it would point towards a hardware fault on the sending end of the display connector, right where the ribbons leave the motherboard.
If this problem is brand-new, it might just be that the display connector was not fully secured when the new screen was installed.
Mine is doing the exact same thing. Left side goes all grey and static looking.
I took it apart and reseated the screen ribbon connector and at first I thought it made a difference, but now it continues to glitch out. I took it apart a second time and it has the half screen right at boot up. Sometimes it goes away just setting on the desk but seems to come back regularly. Its only the visual part of the screen, the touch points are still all in the same locations. And when I took a screen shot while it was glitching, the screen shot came out normal. So I am hoping its only the screen/digitizer that is going bad.
I am going to buy a new screen and see if that fixes it. Its only $60 on eBay and its pretty simple to take apart. I will post back if it fixes the problem. That way if someone else has the issue they will know.
Moto x style display problem
I have got the similar problems with display and I will return for warranty repair. I will tell you later what happened.
Downgrade to Lollipop , It worked for me.!
...
(This is the tip for everyone)
I replaced the screen and that seems to have fixed it for now. I haven't had much chance to use it since the screen replacement though. I will update in the next week or so and let everyone know how the screen replacement holds up.
The replacement screen only lasted about a week and now the righthand side has glitched out. I am going to take it apart and put it back together but i think its time for a new phone.
These phone are getting cheap and I really like it so I may just get another. Although the lure of a dual sim version is attractive.

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