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[HTC Universal] screen fried

hi all,
yesterday i got an aftermarket, all purpose usb charger that could charge my iphone, my htc, my zune and my bluetooth GPS device (easier to carry one charger for all)
i put my htc on charge overnight, the way i usually do, but when i checked it in the morning, the screen was not responding to touch. the screen was fine and i could do the navigation thru keyboard, just no response on touch...
the screen wasn't burnt or damaged in anyway from any side, neither was the device hot.....
my charger specs are 5v / 1.5 amp output....
i suspected a software issue, and hard-resetted as well, but no use!
any idea if the charger (amp rating) could be responsible for the damage?
thanks,
Farrukh
http://bytesizer.blogspot.com

Same problem i'm facing . . . . .
Is there any solution to it ?

i had the same problem a couple day ago, sounds funny but
i've put it i portrait mode and just hit my left hand with my uni and it started working again,
btw check is there any dirt on the edges of the screen, try cleaning it
or go to align screen and tap every point of the screen to see if the cross moves

It is an interesting problem in a sense that it is sudden. Usually digitizer failures and loss of touch sensitivity happens over a period of time. The only time it can happen suddenly and completely is when the digitizer gets ripped off at the connector or comes loose over time. Doubt the charger was responsible. You have an intermittent (or permanent) digitizer failure. Try re-flashing ROM to exclude software corruption issue. If all fails - replace the LCD+Digitizer.
IN CASE EVERYTHING ELSE FAILS. I know it sounds extravagant to replace both, but unless you have a specialised equipment and/or are capable of flex soldering, I suggest purchasing both in one unit. Can either go new, in which case I suggest cnn.cn as one of the cheapest sources for Dopod D900 (which is the model you will be searching for on that site, no others will be available) LCD+Digitizer combos or... purchase a cheap failed second hand unit with good screen.
The replacement is a fairly straightforward job if you are capable of following the instructions precisely. The instructions can be found in a Service Manual floating somewhere on this site.

mystery problems solved by replacing flex cable

I got a used SK4G pretty cheap on eBay because "phone doesn't power on". I took a chance because sometimes it turns out to be something simple, and I got it for less than the cost of a replacement LCD+digitizer.
Anyhow, I opened it up and gave it a good long stare. Nothing obvious. (But, man, those Samsung engineers did a great job of making a phone that is very, very simple to disassemble and work on.) I put it back together and it had moved on to the condition of "stuck at the sidekick logo" on power-up, which at least told me the LCD was good. It also got fairly warm and drained the battery pretty fast.
My suspicion was some kind of corrupted firmware. I was able to get to download mode, but when I plugged it into a PC to do some flashing razzamatazz, I couldn't get past "USB device not recognized". I considered doing the UnBrickable hardware mod, but my old eyeballs can't cope with those surface-mount resistors.
Luckily, I had another working SK4G on hand and was able to swap parts back and forth. When I put the problem motherboard into the other chasis, it booted just fine.
Hmm, time for more intense staring! I finally noticed a bit of a nick on the flex cable that connects the main unit to the LCD. It's a bit of trouble (but nothing outrageous) to swap out that flex cable. Bingo! Everything worked fine. (Once I got things apart and got a better look at flex cable, I saw that it had close to a half-inch gash on it. I wish I had been able to see that earlier.)
The moral of the story is that the flex cable can be the source of all kinds of mysteries. Replacements can be had in the US for $15 or so, and information about tearing the phone apart is readily available.

[Q] Dropped phone, now charges only on a whim and no OTG

Well, this isn't the best place to ask, but I'm not sure where else to do so. Somehow I managed to drop my phone (onto a carpeted floor from not quite a full standing height, not concrete or anything) and it landed right on the bottom I think. I can't see any signs of damage anywhere at all -- I even pulled out the screws and looked at the PCB itself and I just can't see anything obvious at all. Unfortunately, something obviously is wrong all the same. It simply will not charge at all most of the time, though seemingly randomly on a whim when I connect it sometimes it will. I'm afraid even to touch it once it finally does as just moving the cable around seems to be enough to make it stop sometimes (whereas at some other times I can move it around a lot and everything and it still stays connected.) Last night it decided not to even charge even though the LED indicator and the icon showed that it was connected. What's more, I can no longer use the USB OTG capability to plug in USB drives, other devices, and etc (which I used for diagnostics, repairs, and etc of other things on the go.) I have multiple batteries and external chargers, so this isn't completely fatal but it means:
A. I can't keep it from running the batteries down in the first place (which means larger wear and tear on the batteries long-term since they are discharged further before charging.)
B. Since it's like this it means generally speaking it's not as ready for a fully day of use since it's starting the day with less than 100% charge before I even leave for work every time now.
C. I really did use the USB OTG feature and have already been missing it. It's not as fatal as devices like my Nexus 7 (since that lacks a MicroSDHC card reader to supplement its internal storage whereas this has one) but very annoying at least.
D. I really really miss being able to use a phone dock! I was docking it in my car to keep it at least semi-charged and to output a line output to my car stereo system. It's kind of a pain having to change the volume back and forth between headphones and line output (since a line output really needs the full volume) and obviously it uses more power while playing than just sitting quietly in a pocket anyway. I also liked the way in the dock it wouldn't completely shut off the screen, just go into a really low power mode where it had a faded clock (might be a CM10.1 feature, but nice wherever it came from) and I could just touch it to get back to the player controls.
At first I thought it was just loose, so I tried putting a very thin piece of plastic in the top part of the connector so the connection is extremely tight which fooled me at first by pretending to work really well for a while, but then after a while it just did the same stuff all over again (so it was just doing that thing where it works fine for a little while even when I move the cord around.) I just can't see what could possibly be the problem though because if there is any damage anywhere I'm just not seeing it. I really don't see how the connector could have been damaged anyway since it more or less landed straight on the middle of the bottom (and that ring that goes around the side should have absorbed the shock) but with no cracks on the PCB or anything that I can at all see I can't imagine what else it might be -- plus a few times when it decided to charge it was just sitting flat not being touched and suddenly started working randomly. It really is like it just works on a whim here...
So I'm wondering: just how screwed am I here? I don't have any sort of drop insurance -- I've never dropped a phone in a way that damaged it before -- and I don't think there's any way I could afford the ridiculous amounts they'd surely want for a repair (not to mention that for a while I'd have no phone at all if I did that...) I thought about changing out the connector myself (I see one on Amazon for $8 which is ridiculous, but obviously it has to be the exact same connector) but I'm not terribly confident about desoldering and resoldering something with such small connectors as it is and that one is hard to get to anyway. Besides which, I'm not convinced it is the connector even if I can't see what else it could possibly be. What could possibly be causing it to be quite so random about this? Is there any way at all I can fix this myself, or is this something where the only way of ever getting it fixed would be to take it in for repair at extreme cost (and no phone for a while too)? Anyone have any idea what it might cost for such a repair?

Well I'm sure you noticed the metal charging usb port that is connected to the circuit board.
It sounds to me that it may have broke free a little bit and not making a solid connection.
First thing I would do is try some one else's charger and see if it works ( Just in case)
Then If that failed I would take apart the phone and inspect the connector.
Ten screws on the back plastic and one little black one on the circuit board.
Next you pop off the ribbon connectors and finally pop off the wire connector that runs along the right side of your phone when laying face down,
Double check all connectors and remove circuit board carefully.
Now you will be free to inspect connector
For all you know. Pushing it down with some pressure on the thumb may give you the connection you need again and you should be good to go.
But you really need to see what's broken before you go to fix it.
Good luck. Pm me if you need further help

Well, like I said, I opened it up and I just can't find any signs of damage to the connector or the board. Also, if you look at the SGS3, the connector is actually inside the casing somewhat, so really I don't see how it could have bee damaged anyway -- I'm just not sure what else it could be since, as I said, I also couldn't find any cracks in the PCB or anything.
Oh, and I've used four different chargers and at least three different cables. One charger and cable is the OEM set for the SGS3 and another is the OEM set for the Nexus 7 (which is probably a decent amount more more power hungry.)

Nazo said:
Well, this isn't the best place to ask, but I'm not sure where else to do so. Somehow I managed to drop my phone (onto a carpeted floor from not quite a full standing height, not concrete or anything) and it landed right on the bottom I think. I can't see any signs of damage anywhere at all -- I even pulled out the screws and looked at the PCB itself and I just can't see anything obvious at all. Unfortunately, something obviously is wrong all the same. It simply will not charge at all most of the time, though seemingly randomly on a whim when I connect it sometimes it will. I'm afraid even to touch it once it finally does as just moving the cable around seems to be enough to make it stop sometimes (whereas at some other times I can move it around a lot and everything and it still stays connected.) Last night it decided not to even charge even though the LED indicator and the icon showed that it was connected. What's more, I can no longer use the USB OTG capability to plug in USB drives, other devices, and etc (which I used for diagnostics, repairs, and etc of other things on the go.) I have multiple batteries and external chargers, so this isn't completely fatal but it means:
A. I can't keep it from running the batteries down in the first place (which means larger wear and tear on the batteries long-term since they are discharged further before charging.)
B. Since it's like this it means generally speaking it's not as ready for a fully day of use since it's starting the day with less than 100% charge before I even leave for work every time now.
C. I really did use the USB OTG feature and have already been missing it. It's not as fatal as devices like my Nexus 7 (since that lacks a MicroSDHC card reader to supplement its internal storage whereas this has one) but very annoying at least.
D. I really really miss being able to use a phone dock! I was docking it in my car to keep it at least semi-charged and to output a line output to my car stereo system. It's kind of a pain having to change the volume back and forth between headphones and line output (since a line output really needs the full volume) and obviously it uses more power while playing than just sitting quietly in a pocket anyway. I also liked the way in the dock it wouldn't completely shut off the screen, just go into a really low power mode where it had a faded clock (might be a CM10.1 feature, but nice wherever it came from) and I could just touch it to get back to the player controls.
At first I thought it was just loose, so I tried putting a very thin piece of plastic in the top part of the connector so the connection is extremely tight which fooled me at first by pretending to work really well for a while, but then after a while it just did the same stuff all over again (so it was just doing that thing where it works fine for a little while even when I move the cord around.) I just can't see what could possibly be the problem though because if there is any damage anywhere I'm just not seeing it. I really don't see how the connector could have been damaged anyway since it more or less landed straight on the middle of the bottom (and that ring that goes around the side should have absorbed the shock) but with no cracks on the PCB or anything that I can at all see I can't imagine what else it might be -- plus a few times when it decided to charge it was just sitting flat not being touched and suddenly started working randomly. It really is like it just works on a whim here...
So I'm wondering: just how screwed am I here? I don't have any sort of drop insurance -- I've never dropped a phone in a way that damaged it before -- and I don't think there's any way I could afford the ridiculous amounts they'd surely want for a repair (not to mention that for a while I'd have no phone at all if I did that...) I thought about changing out the connector myself (I see one on Amazon for $8 which is ridiculous, but obviously it has to be the exact same connector) but I'm not terribly confident about desoldering and resoldering something with such small connectors as it is and that one is hard to get to anyway. Besides which, I'm not convinced it is the connector even if I can't see what else it could possibly be. What could possibly be causing it to be quite so random about this? Is there any way at all I can fix this myself, or is this something where the only way of ever getting it fixed would be to take it in for repair at extreme cost (and no phone for a while too)? Anyone have any idea what it might cost for such a repair?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You might as well try it yourself THEN go somewhere if it doesn't work out. I wouldn't think if things go horribly wrong that you'd do damage that isn't reversible, and if there was damage it would likely be just to that $8 piece.
You sound like a knowledgeable guy though, so I'd give it a shot.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

The thing is, I don't really want to spend the $8 (I'm getting pretty broke) and have to try to desolder then resolder those tiny contacts on a board I'm not even entirely sure how to safely get out possibly messing something else up along the way when I'm not convinced it is the connector (and obviously if I messed something else up along the way I could make things a lot worse -- for instance, breaking it entirely...) Things that should make it work if it were (jiggling and shaking it for instance) don't seem to and then some things that should work don't (for example, last night I disconnected the phone from one charger and connected it to another while it was at least pretending to work and it stopped even though the connector part didn't get moved at all.)
That's my real concern in the end. If it's not the connector, what is it? I'm not 100% confident about trying to replace it myself as it is, but if it's not that the time, money, and effort would be wasted...

Well that's that. The problem, as I feared, was more fundamental (which is part of what I was asking here.) I plugged in something last night and it just shut off. I checked all over and couldn't find shorts or anything to explain it. Even after leaving the battery out overnight it still won't come on. Clearly the problem was much more fundamental than it seemed. Regardless, the question of the connector is moot now. EDIT: It might have been caused by the connector after all. It seems like there are pins at the back that either are loose or were knocked loose by the fall. I THINK one of them was touching another causing a short. Unfortunately, it's too late to discover that now as either way the damage is already done and it no longer works even after I got them straightened out.

[HELP!] Photon Q display suddenly faulty

So I was using my Photon Q as usual, had a sick new CM11 install I was playing with for the last week or so, and all was good. I pulled it out of my pocket before I took a shower to check the time and nothing. The keyboard would open when slid out, and it even buzzed when i force restarted it. The backlight turns on for a few seconds when turning it on but other than that, no dice, it turns right off. HDMI out is doing nothing either. It is detected by my computer and otherwise acts like everything is normal. I didn't drop it, it was just in my pocket and a little warm, but it was really just the usual "pocket" warmth. What the **** happened? I can't even tear it open to check because one of the inner screws is stripped : (
EDIT: Can't boot into fastboot or anything manually, connections look good, this is so annoyingly random, and this is the first motorola device to just fail on me without reason...
EDIT EDIT: Died in my drawer last night, plugged it in and the green LED turned on, but shortly after it turned off and and now I am back to exactly where I was before.
Answer: So As you can see from the replies below I am most likely dealing with a broken flex cable to the front panel. I am gonna save up for an un-modded replacement and just swap motherboards. I gutted my current Photon Q and am storing all the parts in bubble wrap, with the motherboard delicately wrapped in paper (less friction, it's sim modded and those exposed copper wires just seem so fragile)

@CornholioGSM I ping you because you are the main Photon Q guys and one of the few still really active, you have seen this phone inside out, any ideas???
EDIT: I checked all the connection after tearing away plastic, it's all good looking. I don't understand wtf happened...

It's usually an issue with the flex (ribbon) cable... all I can say is make very sure that cable is still properly connected.
Good luck.

One of my Photons had a dead display while another had an apparently dead display because the broken flat cable.
Hard to say which one is the culprit w/o a close visual inspection to the flat cable, and even in that case a flat cable apparently in good shape can have one or more broken lines.
BTW a LCD panel can theoretically last for decades, while the cable has a finite number of sliding operations, so the latter is more likely to be the culprit.
Possibly your best option is to get a cheap unmodded PQ from the USA, and replace the whole screen assembly w/o further investigations. Less risk to damage something, way less time needed for the transplant, and possibly even the cheaper option.

The Solutor said:
One of my Photons had a dead display while another had an apparently dead display because the broken flat cable.
Hard to say which one is the culprit w/o a close visual inspection to the flat cable, and even in that case a flat cable apparently in good shape can have one or more broken lines.
BTW a LCD panel can theoretically last for decades, while the cable has a finite number of sliding operations, so the latter is more likely to be the culprit.
Possibly your best option is to get a cheap unmodded PQ from the USA, and replace the whole screen assembly w/o further investigations. Less risk to damage something, way less time needed for the transplant, and possibly even the cheaper option.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, I'll probably use whatever money I get from my Nexus 5 sale for a replacement Photon Q (un modded). Mine is beat up from a recent camping trip, scratches all over, I need this anyway. Worst case I have myself a sweet new music player. For now I am using a Galaxy Nexus, which I love, but I miss the Sailfish OS support.

Spare Charger With Assurion Replacement Phone from Sprint.

I got the Essential phone from Sprint basically the first day it was available from them, in September of last year, and I have liked the phone very much. However, within a month and a half of purchasing it, I dropped it on the sidewalk in NYC and got a very bad series of cracks in it. I am paying for insurance from Sprint, but even with the insurance, I was told it would cost me $200 to fix, basically because they could not replace the screen, they were going to give me a new phone. At the time, I was a little tight with cash and did not want to spend that, so I decided to live with the issue, which at that time was mostly just visible cracking on the screen. However, in the month's since then, the screen got worse, it started reacting erractically to my touch, and black smears started appearing on the screen. Finally, last Saturday, the phone went blooey, to use a technical term, the screen abruptly became almost totally unresponsive; I could not reliably open apps by clicking on the icon on the screen, and the phone often acted as if I was pressing other apps when I was not even touching the screen at all--it even turned on the flashlight by itself several times.
So at this point, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and finally pay to get the phone replaced. Of course, at this point the cost had gone up by about $50, but what do you expect. I no longer trust Essential's word that I don't need a case or screen protector, so I have gotten an Incipio case and a Skinomi screen protector. I have had the phone for 2 days and the case/screen for 1, and so far, so good, but obviously it is a little early in the game.
However, I have one issue, when I was in touch with Assurion, the Sprint insurance company, about getting the replacement, I was happy when they told me I would be shipped a charger with the replacement phone. I still have the one the original phone came with, and it works fine, but it's always nice to have a backup. However, the charger they sent is not the same kind as came with the phone. That was a USB-C to USB-C charger, whereas the one that came with the replacement phone is a standard USB to USB-C charger, the company name is Griffin on the charger, and it does not work very well at all. I have left the new phone connected to it for hours, and it pretty much stays status quo; the power doesn't go down, but it doesn't go up either. The original charger works fine with the phone, so the problem is not the phone itself.
Has anyone else there had this issue? Were you able to resolve it?

maltydog said:
I got the Essential phone from Sprint basically the first day it was available from them, in September of last year, and I have liked the phone very much. However, within a month and a half of purchasing it, I dropped it on the sidewalk in NYC and got a very bad series of cracks in it. I am paying for insurance from Sprint, but even with the insurance, I was told it would cost me $200 to fix, basically because they could not replace the screen, they were going to give me a new phone. At the time, I was a little tight with cash and did not want to spend that, so I decided to live with the issue, which at that time was mostly just visible cracking on the screen. However, in the month's since then, the screen got worse, it started reacting erractically to my touch, and black smears started appearing on the screen. Finally, last Saturday, the phone went blooey, to use a technical term, the screen abruptly became almost totally unresponsive; I could not reliably open apps by clicking on the icon on the screen, and the phone often acted as if I was pressing other apps when I was not even touching the screen at all--it even turned on the flashlight by itself several times.
So at this point, I had no choice but to bite the bullet and finally pay to get the phone replaced. Of course, at this point the cost had gone up by about $50, but what do you expect. I no longer trust Essential's word that I don't need a case or screen protector, so I have gotten an Incipio case and a Skinomi screen protector. I have had the phone for 2 days and the case/screen for 1, and so far, so good, but obviously it is a little early in the game.
However, I have one issue, when I was in touch with Assurion, the Sprint insurance company, about getting the replacement, I was happy when they told me I would be shipped a charger with the replacement phone. I still have the one the original phone came with, and it works fine, but it's always nice to have a backup. However, the charger they sent is not the same kind as came with the phone. That was a USB-C to USB-C charger, whereas the one that came with the replacement phone is a standard USB to USB-C charger, the company name is Griffin on the charger, and it does not work very well at all. I have left the new phone connected to it for hours, and it pretty much stays status quo; the power doesn't go down, but it doesn't go up either. The original charger works fine with the phone, so the problem is not the phone itself.
Has anyone else there had this issue? Were you able to resolve it?
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Click to collapse
What are the current outputs for the charger? It is most likely a QuickCharge block and the PH-1 does not support quick charge. It won't negotiate properly and because of that sometimes you'll plug it in and it'll charge pretty fast, other times it might actually start slowly dying. You need a USB PD (power delivery) charger. Also saying you no longer trust Essentials word because YOU dropped the phone isn't fair. Plenty of others have dropped it without issue. It really does suck that you happened to damage your device, but bashing the company because they didn't make an indestructible device is a bit harsh. Not trying to be a ****, just saying.