Fixing Black Screen on Nexus 7

[rossmitton]

Had the Nexus a week, rooted it successfully, used it rooted for a few days. Playing around with OTG, worked drives and mouse well. Then it just wouldn't respond to power off/on.

Worried and Googled for a while, then managed to get the cover off and disconnect and reconnect the battery as you would in a mobile phone.
Success!

Got the most help from this guy , proud he was an Aussie.

 

[agnesemi]

I actually had the same issue. I had a black screen on my Nexus 7 and couldn't do anything. I called Asus and they told me to:
1- plug the Nexus 7 to the power cable as if you were charging it
2- hold down the power button for 20 seconds
I followed above steps and my Nexus 7 started up!

 

[Sloetz]

Thanks agnesemi, your solution helped me out!!

 

[Jstars]

1- plug the Nexus 7 to the power cable as if you were charging it
2- hold down the power button for 20 seconds
I followed above steps and my Nexus 7 started up!

I've had my Nexus 7 black screen on me twice now... (started after ICS 4.2 came out?? Coincidence??)

Both times it seemed to come back after a few minutes (of being frantic). Both times I had reconnected to power ..
but did not hold the button for anywhere near 20 seconds. But will remember that the next time and try it.

Thanks

J

 

[Jeff Hengesbach]

Had to perform the battery disconnect on my unit. 20 second button hold would produce some screen flickers but the unit would never boot up.

 

[Zackyy]

I have the same problem! So, I plugged it in and it was flickering some time, then the screen had really low brightness. Like everything is black, but random-appearing red-green-blue lines and white dots were appearing. Dunno how to fix this! Tried everything! Boot menu wont work, wont power up and wont turn on at all. Some help please? :'''(

 

[Didact7]

I had the same issue today and a hard reset fixed it. But I'd like to know if this is a hardware issue or a software issue so I can decide whether to return it or not. If it's just Android being a little buggy, I probably won't.

 

[VoluntaryMan]

Open it up, unplug the battery, wait ~30s and plug it back in. pop the case back on and it will boot up fine. at least it did for me with the same sounding issue.

 

[Don Steve Evergreen]

My Nexus 7 gone black just after transferring video clips. I tried power button option ( pressing down for 20-30 sec as advised by some). It did not work. I also tried pressing power button and volume down together for some seconds. It did not work either.

Finally i decided to remove the battery. I must say it is pretty easy to remove the back cover. I did not use any screw driver and any tool as i thought those stuffs might damage the body of the device. I just used my own nails to separate the cover. If you put your 2 or 3 nails in the ditch made by silver body and black plastic cover and pull it apart, the cover will come up. You can see the flat black battery inside . That point, try to detach the connection point using your nail. Leave disconnected for 30 sec. and reconnect gently. If you try power button, you can see GOOGLE on screen. That means it works again. Good luck

 

[Penzes Geza]

I hope that someone can help me with my half dead Nexus 7.
These things have happened to the device:
The previouos owner dropped it, the screen cracked, but apart from that, it was still functional.
They replaced the LCD touchscreen unit with a new one. The device haven't functioned since (not even with the original, cracked display).
I received the device in this condition, and the first thing I noticed, was that the battery was dead (~2,5V cell voltage). I recharged the cell directly (with my own separate Li-polymer charger), and I soldered the battery protection circuit back (now it's completely charged, around 4.16V).
At first I thought that the device had drained the battery while they were waiting for the new display, and the dead battery was the reason why it didn't work for them after the screen swap, but unfortunately it was not the case.

Here are the symptoms:
After reconnecting the battery to the main board, and pressing the power button, I can feel the processor getting slightly warm, but the display stays black (the backlight is off and nothing changes on the display, not even in bright light).
When I connect it to my PC, XP recognises it as a mobile device, and the 16GB flash storage is completely accesible (in the properties menu, it says the device is using battery power).
When I try the 30 second power + volulme up key combination before connecting, my PC tries to install a new driver, without any success.
All this points to a screen problem, but the screen is brand new, all ribbon cables seem to be intact. I wanted to do a factory reset, but all the methods I've read about required the USB debugging mode to be activated (obviously I can't do that).
Interestingly, one time the device started making some sort of a key-press sound (2-3 times) when I pressed the power + volume up buttons, so it is not completely brain-dead.
I've tried the power cable + 20 second powerkey-press method, it didn't work.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[thinka]

For me something else worked:

- Power on/off (even holding the button for 30 seconds) = failed, something happend but the screen was still almost black

- opening the case (with two fingers, second and third, on top), then pressing "Power" (without touching the battery!) = worked,
I could see the start screen (not locked mode) again

Good luck!

 

[Penzes Geza]

Taking it apart once again revealed nasty cracks in the LCD ribbon cable. I'm waiting for a replacement. Hopefully, it was the only fault, and the rest is intact.

 

[VFRMark]

agnesemi - Brilliant advise - worked perfectly

 

[flacousa]

Thanks, mine too when dark and your suggestion worked, first problem since getting the tablet in July.

 

[tanishh]

hey thanx a lot......dat really helped

 

[David Chang1]

I don't know about others, but none of the methods suggested in this forum EXCEPT yours helped me. Thank you!

 

[Mattys62]

PLEASE tell me if you found a solution because i just replaced the screen and digitizer and now it dosent turn on at all but i can hear sound? maybe the ribbon?

 

[preppystud]

i just had the same problem today. i am using the 2013 version.

i just powered off, and restarted, then the problem went away. i don't know if it is the software or hardware problem.

 

[shyneng26]

Hi ,, 4th time my nexus screen turned black,, and it shows only unlock screen but when i tried to unlock it , its still black,, so i have to turn it off .. pls help How to fix this thing?, thanks!

 

[fjag2000]

I got my Nexus 7 broken after it felt down, everything worked perfectly except half touch screen, I could use it to listening music or watching videos and many other things, but it was difficult to work with due to I had to rotate it all the time to use the half screen where the touch screen worked fine. I decided to replace the screen. After replacing the digitizer+LCD screen (one piece all together) my Nexus 7 starts up but I get BLACK SCREEN. I can hear everything: unlock screen, notifications, etc even when connecting to a PC it is detected. The funny thing is that if I replace it back to the broken part (broken screen) I get the same symptoms.
I haven't been able to fix this.

Anything you can advise to do to fix it will be more than welcome !!!!

Thank you !!!!