Database Users

8525 Dead? NO! Wait yes?

Okay here's my fun little scenario that I searched for and hadn't come across anyone with the same scenario. Phone was working fine one day and next it would only display a white screen, thought something went wrong with the software. Tried a reset, tried a hard reset, tried a flash started getting some screen showing and then distorting and whiteing out also on startup would get crackled sound. Tried a few more resets and so on. Removed the battery for 3 seconds-20mins-8plus hours still having a problem. Distortion gets worse when pushing the battery in the back it seems and will eventually just go to white screen. Now I had bought a new battery recently and just for kicks threw it in, seemed to eliminate my problems. Except now as I just for kicks again am charging my old battery in the cradle along with the phone and the new battery it seems to be having similar issue although it hasn't been nearly as bad as before. Now I just took the "bad" battery off the charger and it seems to be just fine in the cradle at this moment, nevermind it's flickering again. Is more poor little Hermes on it's death bed, please tell me no. I paid $200 on it being used from a company who only warranties it for 14 days, I am almost at 30 now. I bought an warranty with it being used and all however they wont help me untill I reach 60 days I guess so I may be out of luck for 30 days before I might get it fixed or my money back. Sucks too because I switched to the $40 data plan with AT&T about 5 days ago and now I guess will be paying for something I can't really use. Okay it seems as though with random pressure on the back seems to cause it. I'm leaning towards some sort of a battery contact issue perhaps? What should I do to clean/fix the contacts?
For those that wonder why I just seemed to rant about my broken phone and seemingly figured out the problem on my own and are wondering why I am still posting all of it the answer is simple: To benefit someone else who may be experienceing the same problem or who may read it and have the problem down the road they will know what they should do. That and it's late and I'm tired

the screen issue is known to be caused by the D-pad connector coming undone

Okay I had run into that as a possibility however would that affect the sound to make it crackle? Also in experimenting some more this morning with the "old" battery in place it seems to be much much more sensitive to pressure, almost to the point of holding it in the palm of your hand causes the screen to go nutty and wash out to white screen and come back etc.. However with the new battery in its much more stable and I need to apply more pressure in order for it to reproduce these symptoms. I know you've been a member for longer than me and you also work for AT&T however my gut feeling is something else may be the culprit here. I tried recording a video using my backup phone last night except I couldn't seem to get it uploaded to show what the screen is doing. Oh well I really want use of the phone but I also don't want to void the warranty, namely my extra warranty which I can't file a claim for the next month.

Strange screen problem

Hello xda community ive got a strange problem that i wish you could help me with, sometimes my HTC Wizard 2.x IPL freezes and the screen goes white with like a 'fading effect' for no reason, its most probably hardware problem right?

same white screen of death here.
I am having the same problem. I have not been able to isolate if it is Flash memory problem, battery or some other hardware problem.
I was having some major problem with my early 2006 version of T-mobile MDA. I had upgraded to the official T-mobile upgrade ROM when it was released a couple of years ago.
The phone started flaking out this spring. at one point I had to buy a new battery and charger because I had discharged the internal battery too far. I've also "jump-started" the battery using a bench power supply to apply a constant current to get it up to speed when I had a dead battery at work.
And, when I busted the USB/power connector, one of the re-work techs soldered it back on after I dissambled the unit.
Anyway, I had been having lock-up problems before the latest dead battery issues, and had wanted to try a new ROM. When the unit did a hard reset of its own, I decided I had nothing to lose. It had been resetting itself several times a day.
I installed Slim Diamond, and enjoyed WM6 greatly. Phone worked more or less fine for more than a month, and then it started failing again. I found myself having to remove the battery to recover, and sometimes keeping the battery out for hours seemed to help. It got so bad it wouldn't even boot to a usable phone before giving me the White Screen of Death.
I managed to get it back to bootloader and re-install diamond. Worked fine getting booted, and I made some calls. then locking up in WSOD again. Blasted a Prodigy ROM onto it. Booted and let it sit connected by USB. Everything seemed fine, downloaded e-mail etc. Then, unplugged and left the house. When I tried to call, everything went fine until the point where the call should have stopped ringing and connected. Then, WSOD.
Is there a non-hardware fix for this, some ROM or tweak?
If it is a hardware fix, what is the likely culprit? I can do SMD work if needed.
Thanks
Whazoo
P.S. I should mention that when the WSOD would strike, the phone locks up completely, and if left like that, the battery gets warm.

excactly what happens to me..btw for some reason i think its battery problem, because i got it off ebay and ive seen other similar problems with bad batteries for some reason..hope someone can help us

phr0z said:
excactly what happens to me..btw for some reason i think its battery problem, because i got it off ebay and ive seen other similar problems with bad batteries for some reason..hope someone can help us
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that. I had noticed that it failed most often when trying to make a call, something that is power intensive.
I tried something today. I left the SIM out and just used it as a PDA. It seemed to work longer between reboots. However, it still rebooted while connected to a USB power source. Also, it seemed to not want to charge at times.
Even more interesting is this thread which may be related.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=444256
The excessive battery usage seems to fit with what I am getting. I wonder if something has been triggered which causes the system to drain th battery quickly, and lead to low-voltage conditions.

I am having the same problem, sometimes the screen is filled with vertical lines and then fades to white. Only thing that helps is sliding out the keyboard. I think this is due to the faulty flex cable that connects the motherboard and the screen. I have ran some tests when my device was disasembled (but powered on). The screen was working fine, even when i was bending and streching the flex cable, but after asembling it back again, screen glithes continued. I've then reinforced the flex cable connector on the mobo with some rubber pads and electrical tape, and this seems to be almost working (screen jerks only happen 2-4 times a week)As Whazoo pointed out, those screen jerks used to appear more often during power intensive tasks, like receiving a call. Probably this is due to the loose cable connection. Less power than needed is flowing through the circuits and this causes the sreen to "crash".
BTW I have T-Mobile MDA

I have the same issue with my xda mini s and have been contemplating disassembling my phone for a closer look.
It is difficult to take these phones apart ?
Cheers
TT

I've had the same issues. I suspect faulty hardware. Do you guys experience "dancing" pixels short before a WSOD? Those dancing pixels can be overcome when applying sufficient pressure to the bottom of the phone. I personally suspect a worn flatcable between motherboard en LCD unit which fails to make a solid connection between both. I have to mention that I too have jump started a "dead" battery once. WSOD problems started occurring several moths after. I doubt it is linked.
Currently, the phone is stuck in bootloader, being unable to flash a new ROM on to it since it keeps on rebooting itself every few seconds to minutes. I guess it is a total loss. The phone lasted only a few months when the stylus started to drop out and it took only 16 months before the dreaded WSOD started. At first only a couple of times a week while increasing after a few weeks. I recon a motherboard transplant could fix the problem.

Hi,
got the same problem. And i have also "dancing" pixels, the screen seems to "flicker"

oh dear!
I'l have to see if this is a simple flex cable issue. Of course I had just convinced the wife the MDA I have was a hopeless case. I replaced it this week with an 8925 off eBay that I unlocked and flashed to the HTC WWE for Kaiser. BTW, the Kaiser/8925 is a nice upgrade. So, I'll take apart the old phone and see if I can get it working. If so, I'll keep it for a backup.
One question I have is why does it seem to be related to radio usage and battery drain/short life.

mine begun after changed 2.21.0olip
flashing bluring and reboting.
i´m trying find a original rom to see if fix it...
after i upgrade to wm6 the old one (wm5) that was corrupted and missing files its draining the battery in few minutes.......
----------------------------------------- xx ------------------------------- xx --------------------------------------
7 days trying fix it....
My friend was think a batery problem... He buyed a new one and used the original rom on that. The defect not desapear. The screen still blur, flashing, and the batery begin to warm up to fast, one day the batery was near blow... the batery was too fat, like a pig near christmas!
He give me the Wiza200, I find a used batery, thats work for 4 days and begin to warm up, the celular was draining to fast, and the batery warm up to fasssssst tooo. after 2 days its just no signal...
Take of batery, wait 50 minutes on charging. Turning on, reboot, reboot, reboot, reset, then it begin to be normal, after 5 minutes, no signal, and flashing and bluring the screen and itelf reboot and lock on boot screen... Anoyed i used a ATX pc power suply direct on + and - contacts, soldered some capacitors on main board and same problem. Its draining near 500ma... with sim card its work fine. i can use the games for near 20 minutes, no blur screen just reseting. I take voltages near the processor and radio and sim card suply its almost stable... variation of 10mVolts - 50mVolt... I changed the capacitors for new ones... The mobile begin to be more estable, but bluring and rebooting when put the sim card, reseting near 4 - 5 times on windows... and be estable again... but no signal.
I made a full rom backup, radio etc... tryed to change ROM... nothing change, then I tryied change radio... used the hardcpl.... sucefull changed the radio and the the ipl and cpl.... puff its just reseting and reseting again... Just dont reseting when on it was on bot block screen. I lose time searching a original ROM... My friend send me last rom used... all software back to original and the problem.... Damn...
This device was used near a beach for 2 years...
Unescrewed, again open the case... lift the shields.... clean... clean and clean... this device stoped to reboot, but no signal... wi fi useful, windows ok... used it for 2 days with no problem... when its locked up, and i reset it... Damn dont turn on, just on boot screen, and blur and flash screen and reboot itself near 3 seconds...
I lose my mind. I dissasembled all, put all things on water and a little of a soap, washed all device... for 30 minutes.
warm up all device for 40 celcius for 40 minutes and reasembled... Nothing... warm up with 40 celcius for more 30 minutes...
Wow. its turn on again......!!!! And COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOlllll no more drain the batery!!!!!! Excelent signal and im using the fone! 40 minutes and its normal... y go to street, receive some calls and its alive!!!!
Resume: 90% of hardare celular problems is sweat of hands, just need clean.
I hope help someone with it

Same prob a year ago.
I had the same problem a year ago. Sorry to say I never found a solution. I ended up buying another used one from eBay. ROMs won't help I flash my phones a lot looking for the perfect combination. I think you are on the right track with the connector between the display and MB. I think it has to do with condensation and heat. Explains why heavier powered use causes the problem. The more battery drain, the more internal heat. When I finally gave up on mine, It wouldn't boot anymore. Actually it does boot and everything is working. I've even received calls with the screen white. I picked it up a couple months ago, tinkering with it. I put a fresh battery in and it booted up and lasted about 10 min. I was excited for a while thinking time had fixed it. Bummer. Good luck. I hope you find your solution.

i've been experiencing vertical lines & flicker with my tmobile mda especially within the submenus. found out that by lowering the overclock (omapclock) to a value near its default clock speed, the problems disappear. i'm guessing it might be related to overclocking my gadget.

Battery staus randomly change with 5.0.2

Hi to everyone, i bought from internet second-hand Nexus 4 with 5.0.2 but after a couple of day i got a very strange problem:
The battery % randomly change.
I mean, i am normally (but it happen also in standby) using my N4 when it alert to me that the battery is out.
It pass from 40% (or whatever good %) to 4,5 sometimes 1 and then shut down.
Also, i noticed that sometime i can't find "battery" icon in the option menu.
So i try to rebooth the phone but the touchscreen doesn't work and i need to tap with 2,3 or 4 finger.
When i reboot again, it work but they % keep changing, sometime in a bigger number, sometime in a lower number.
I complete wipe and format my N4 and for 2 days works in the best way, the battery keep the load and so on
but then, here we are again.
I got a couple of screenshot of the battery icon missing in the option, of the % changing but it is very hard make a video of this becouse it happen randomly.
Android is 5.0.2 stock, no root, no bootloader
Ofc the guy that sell to me said the phone was perfect, no problem and all the stuff works good.
it the first time it happen to me..
Please help me if you can becouse i really don't know how to behave.
Many many many thanks, Federico.

Is there any noticeable bulge to the battery on the rear of the unit? It sounds like a hardware battery issue.

So, it can be a hardware problem?
Yesterday my battery long last For about 24h...
Maybe a problem in the socket.
I should open the phone (battery is not removibile, so i dont know if there is any bulge)
I dont nave many experience with hardware problemi so i cannot spot them.
I Also should take a look in the hidden menu and take note of the mV.
Sorry for my english..
I try to find the mini torx and open my phone asap.
Thank you!

I replaced my battery the other day while replacing the power button. I didn't have an issue with the battery but figured it couldn't hurt. Turns out the replacement brand new OEM battery built 3 months ago is lasting exactly the same as the original 2 year old battery.
The battery is a really easy job to do though. You could try removing the screw's holding the connector on. They've been known to cause problems for some people.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

Big Edit!
i finally open the device ( i missing the TR5 Torx!) and i come across in some funny surprise!
First of all, the battery was covered by paper label
Then you can see the antistatic blue tap broken
No glue is present between battery and device
The two little screw on the connector is missing <- may be the major cause?
For sure, the battery was tampered and that may be the cause of my problem.
Just one question: there is a way to understand if the battery is original ?
Special thanks to:

added info

Ah, it does indeed seem like it was tampered with, especially with the defects in the top right corner and such. Unfortunately I don't think there is a way to see whether it is original or not, but now I definitely recommend purchasing a new battery, as well as some of the extra components that seem to be missing.

Thank you for support.
By the way, i found in my office two screw that fit in the hole so i am ok, i can use a little drop of a glue or a particular biadhesive tap for block the battery in the status.. other stuff seems to be ok.

Alright, sounds good.

It looks identical to the original and the oem replacement I put in. Judging by the date it is probably not the original.
Hopefully mine doesn't act up because of leaving the screws out. I only did it because of the number of people claiming it was a fix.
I didn't put any paper on top of mine however. That makes me think the previous owner had an issue they were trying to fix with it.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

I searched the internet images and looks very similar to the original , in fact when don't show this defect has a great autonomy !
The label,i think it's been done by the past owner to obtain a thickness and hold down the battery in position , you can since it lacks the glue on the back .
The real problem is : may be due to the fact that the missing screws let "move" the connector and generate the defect ?
Moreover, the battery sends a lot of information on the phone , not only the + and - .
even just a little contact property can generate defects .
I Really hope.
I order a new battery and i have some screws taken from old laptops, mobile, maybe i can fit two of them (the first i found was too long)
The boy agreed only to refund the value of the battery ( claimed to know nothing , honestly , I do not believe but that's another story)
Sorry but i don't understand this phrase:
"Hopefully mine doesn't act up because of leaving the screws out. I only did it because of the number of people claiming it was a fix. "
You meant some people leaving the screws away from connector ?
Many thanks to all, Federico.

I mean that when I replaced the battery while I was replacing the power button, I left out the screws because so many people claimed they were too tight and caused the red light of death problem. Since I didn't want that to happen to me I left them out. I did keep them in case I had a problem so o can put them back in but so far everything is working fine.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

That doesnt sound good for me

Maybe try putting some in again but not too tight.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

I just pur two screw and hold the battery.
Same behavour.. Hoping is a sort of bug in the battery

Must be. My 2 year old battery lasted just as well as the new one. Held up really well.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Free mobile app

I hope man next week should be to my home!

Exactly same Problem!
Facing the same problem here. phone blanks off at 40%. Could be because of 5.0.2 as problem appeared around the time I upgraded to 5.0.2. Could be a hardware issue too as I changed the battery myself.
Edit- Loose connector is not a problem as battery charges from 0% after the phone switches off. It is either a problem with the battery or with the battery status sensor.

where is locate the battery status sensor ? in the battery or on the phone ? i try to find something on internet but...
Edit:
Just noticed that my n4 is not complete clear. Files from twrp are inside. I need to totally clear my n4 before keep testing

Well, today update:
First of all, i tried to turn on a lot of "nerdy" stats using the developer menù in order to understand if something of strange happening,but nothing of strange attract my attention.
I also turn on the thing that you can see your tap on display in order to understand is just a software problem, but actually when touchscreen does not respond, doenst respond.
Then i totally wipe my N4 (following a tutorial found on XDA) flashing kernel, radio, bootloader and stock 4.4.4 and that is what i can say:
1. "Battery" in "Options - Device" isnt shown.
Very strtange imho but that make me hopefully, maybe the origin of the problems is located on battery according with what you say.
2. I am unable to boot my N4 pressing Power button! (Actually that happen also with lollipop).
I need to turn on the device passing through fastboot menù, not a big problem but a little bit annoying .
3. Touchscreen seems to work.
Nothing to say
I will test the phone today and tomorrow.
As ever, thank you for all and the support!!
Federico.
EDIT of EDIT
1A. Rotating the device and switching from landscape to portrait battery icon shown in options.
That can be an hardware problem.
It is very hard to replicate but....
---
That must be an hardware issue, becouse tilting my device battery icon (and the orignal problem) shown.
Now i hope that is locate in the battery connector instead of device connector...

Note 4 screen locking up intermittently

Hi all
[Originally posted this in the Verizon Note 4 forum accidentally, so apologies if you've seen it already]
My Note 4 screen has started locking up (i.e. continuing to work in the background and the screen is still responding to system events (SMS notifications etc) but it is not responding to touch.
I have tried several factory resets, after which the screen stays responsive for about 3 or 4 pages, then locks up again.
Background: the phone was rooted about a year ago, to get around the SD card restriction, and has worked fine up until the last week. I gave the phone to a friend who put CWM-based recovery manager and the latest Samsung Android 5.1.1 on it. After setting the phone up successfully and downloading all my apps on to it and getting everything running perfectly, I used CWM to back up the OS image onto the SD card.
Phone worked great for about a day, then started freezing. Wiping the caches / restoring / factory resets and all permutations of these have so far proved ineffective...
I took the phone in to a repair shop last night, the guy reckoned the problem was down to a poor screen replacement, and they hadn't used the correct bonding cement, and that the screen had separated from the LCD such that capacitance couldn't do its thing.
However if this were the case, the screen would not work at all, even briefly after a system reset.
The repairer is simply dismantling and rebuilding the phone to see if it's a loose/dirty connector somewhere. He's not going to try to fix it with firmware/software.
Any pointers or suggestions gratefully received
Vaughan

I was getting stutters like this, and after a month my phone started shutting down when I hit 50% or so. I replaced the battery off eBay, and that cleared the problem up. I think sine quickcharge 2.0 batteries fail faster than they should, but a Sammy battery is only $6.50 or so, so I don't mind buying one more often fir the quickcharge benefits.
Maybe try a new battery?

Samsung original screen replacements always come with AMOLED+Touchscreen.
If the guy only replaced the touchscreen you have a fake one and yeah i don't need to tell you about chinese replica's quality.
I myself work at a smartphone repair shop and we only use original products to get the best quality for our customers. It's more expensive that way i know but thats better than putting sh*t in there ands the customer needs to come back with the phone.

SquirtingCherry said:
Samsung original screen replacements always come with AMOLED+Touchscreen.
If the guy only replaced the touchscreen you have a fake one and yeah i don't need to tell you about chinese replica's quality.
I myself work at a smartphone repair shop and we only use original products to get the best quality for our customers. It's more expensive that way i know but thats better than putting sh*t in there ands the customer needs to come back with the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that Mr Cherry..
So it's the dodgy glass doing it? It's definitely not the genuine Samsung part as it gets covered in grease as soon as you touch it.
The weird thing is, if it was the glass then I'd assume it wouldn't work at all; whereas when I do a factory reset it works for a short while then stops...
Baffling.

Galaxy s4 almost bricked

Hello. I want to start off and say that even tho i used a lot of phones Samsung fits me bets. With that in mind i want to tell the story of my broken s4 i9505. I bought it new and used it about 2 years until i got and iphone 5s. The phone remaind in a drawer with the intention of selling some time but forgot about it, then i used the phone once a week or so paired with moto 360 because iphone could not connect and used the watch only for time .(bluetooth worked fine remember this). Anyway i decided to sell it and i had all my apps and accounts in there so i thought the fastest way was to factory reset it and make it fresh so i can sell it (rom was not stock at the moment, i have no ideea what rom it was). I sold it to a friend that told me he wanted to pair something with it thru bluetooth and bluetooth didnt work...i sayd that it wasnt possible because all i did was a factory reset and that couldn't damage anything. Things got worse as the phone was charging very very slow and if it got over 90% baterry would not respond to anything (red led at 90% and got to green when full but still no response from phone) and the only thing to do is to remove battery. Then i took the phone back, got it a new battery but that didn't changed anything, took it to some repairs shops that didn't ever hear about this problem, i had it chance the software but that didn't do anything. The problem i suspect it is and i saw a few other posts online was the bluetooth module would stop working for some reason and do this to the phone. Currently i don't know what to do with it and i don't want to sell it just for part for 50 euros or so. Also i read that the bluetooth module can't really be changed as a spare part because it's part of the motherboard and that means almost all the phone. Phone is in mint condition, i didn't damage it before the sell , the buyer didn't damage it or messed with the rom...Another thing i noticed is that in settings under bluetooth address says unavailable. Can someone please help me ? I can provide more information about serials and stuff if needed. Also wi-fi doesn't work now.

Mine also show unavailable under Bluetooth address, but it works.
Are you currently on the stock rom?

Yes is stock. Android version 5.0.1 I9505XXUHOJ2. If i toggle bluetooth on says starting bluetooth then after 5 seconds it disables. I guess the problem is from hardware not software. So fast battery drain is not normal something is using a lot of energy.

As far as I know, the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules are in the same physical chip, therefore something might be physically broken. Here's a clip I came across while trying to fix my phone's Wi-Fi and I think it's exactly what might fix yours. (Should be very cheap to do too.) I think basically what he's doing is putting some flux on the board then reflowing it with the hot air gun.
Before taking that step, be sure to exhaust the possible software fixes. I'm not sure, but updating the bootloader and modem MIGHT fix it.

My wi-fi started working again it just took a while but the bluetooth does exactly the same as in the clip so maybe that's the problem. I don't understand why does so glue over it make it work...also for me it's hard to turn the phone off because the screen goes black but the blue led still stays on and the only way to turn it off completly is to take out battery. Maybe this will solve the battery problem aswell ?