TMO Galaxy s5 screen goes blank but phone working?!?!?!?!

[AshManMB]

Having a weird issue with my screen.

Occasionally, (about 5 times in the last 2 weeks) when I grab my phone, the screen does not come on. I can see the multifunction buttons light up, I can swipe the screen and hear the sound for the unlock, and if I tap on the screen it does not light up and screen stays black.

If I hold power, it does not reboot. if I push home it does nothing, but I can hear that the phone is on, if a call comes through I can hear it ring, and can answer from my home button, but the screen stays black.

I can do a battery pull and phone starts fine. It is as if the backlight is not coming on at all at times, or possibly like a proximity sensor is not allowing the phone to recognize that the screen should be off.

Cannot tell if it is a hardware issue or software issue. I have not changed any software since I got it a few weeks back, some software has updated, but this is happening comepletely at random and always when the phone has been locked.

Phone has never been dropped and is in a case and has no screen protector, there is not a mark on the phone at all.

Should I arrange to swap the phone? should I contact my carrier?

Anyone else have this issue?

Thanks.

 

[Jon Jackson]

I've heard about this, you can try a factory reset and they may or may not do the trick.

 

[AshManMB]

yeah I called TMO, They had me wipe the cache partition from recovery mode, and asked me to do a backup and then do a factory reset from the recovery mode.

I will try that and see what happens, if it is still doing it, they will swap the phone for me.

 

[konvajw]

Having a weird issue with my screen.

Occasionally, (about 5 times in the last 2 weeks) when I grab my phone, the screen does not come on. I can see the multifunction buttons light up, I can swipe the screen and hear the sound for the unlock, and if I tap on the screen it does not light up and screen stays black.

If I hold power, it does not reboot. if I push home it does nothing, but I can hear that the phone is on, if a call comes through I can hear it ring, and can answer from my home button, but the screen stays black.

I can do a battery pull and phone starts fine. It is as if the backlight is not coming on at all at times, or possibly like a proximity sensor is not allowing the phone to recognize that the screen should be off.

Cannot tell if it is a hardware issue or software issue. I have not changed any software since I got it a few weeks back, some software has updated, but this is happening comepletely at random and always when the phone has been locked.

Phone has never been dropped and is in a case and has no screen protector, there is not a mark on the phone at all.

Should I arrange to swap the phone? should I contact my carrier?

Anyone else have this issue?

Thanks.

I was having a similar issue, but if I let the phone sit for 30 seconds while screen was black it would eventually come back on. Another thread had a tip about turning off the smart tv remote from the lock screen (which I also had setup) and this fixed the issue. Since I did that, so far so good for me also - but not sure if same exact problem for you or not since sounds like slightly different symptoms.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[AshManMB]

I don't use the smartv remote. ... it is happening still but have not done a reset yet

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[AshManMB]

So Fast forward a couple of weeks, and two s5's later, still having the same issue. The first replacement S5 they sent me, was unresponsive right out of the box, powered it up and could hit the lock button and phone would lock after about 10 - 15 seconds, hit the lock button or home button, and after 15 seconds would show the screen, then try swiping to unlock and it would take another 5 seconds to unlock. mind you this was also fresh from startup with no data or anything on it.

Sent it back and they sent me a new one which arrived friday. everything seemed ok, installed everything from scratch and did not restore my data or anything, and set it up with only the bare basics so I could trial run the phone. Fast forward and the phone has been constantly freezing in the same manner as my original one, only seemingly more frequently. In the last 4 days it has frozen up at least once or twice per day requiring a battery pull to reboot. phone is responsive, and I can call it, etc, but the screen does not light up, its as if the backlight is not turning on.

About to call TMO and send this one back and request a 3rd one to be sent out.

I love the phone and if this seems to be a normal thing for it at this time, I have no idea what I will do.

 

[1Coopgt]

I had this happen on my Asus Tablet once . Pretty much freaked out . Your screen setting is to low . Think I had to do a FDR to get the screen back to normal . Then I made sure my screen was turned all the way up on brightness . Hasn't happen since . GL

 

[AshManMB]

This seems to lock up shortly after a phone call has been received. spoke to tmo and they told me its not the phone, but software and it is impossible to have the same issue happening on multiple devices. They basically told me to call samsung.

So if that is the case, then I will reach out to samsung to see what they say.

 

[DonDallas71]

I am on my second S5. I got a replacement after the front facing camera got a loose internal piece that shifted and blocked the lens. Since I received the replacement, I have issues waking up the phone from day 1. When I use the home button to waked the phone, about maybe 1 out of 20 times the screen back-light will not come on. The capacitive buttons light up and the screen seems unlocked because i can hear the unlock sound when i swipe and hear the tap sounds when i touch it. I have to re-lock the screen using the power button and then unlock again for the screen to light up. This never happened on my first one. Anyone heard of this? Should I call and get another replacement?

 

[Galaxie_500]

I often turn Auto brightness off and manually turn it very low, because Auto is unfortunately too bright in a totally dark room. Next day, with plenty of light, the screen was black. Had to blindly swipe down for Settings and blindly tap the location of the Auto brightness button from memory. Now I try to remember to manually turn the brightness above minimum and switch back to Auto before putting the phone away for the night.

 

[Ken Cyr]

It is heat related. When I put my phone on the window still the problem starts. I take it off the window sill and put it on the furnace register for a few minutes it works again. As long as it's in a pocket near body heat there is no problem but if it sits where it's even mildly cool the problem comes back. It started out as occasional but now it happens all the time. I've tried everything heat is the only fix. I have no idea what to do to fix this issue.

 

[MudMouse]

I have the same problem, my Galaxy S5 screen will not fire up at temperatures below about 25 degrees C. It flickers and will occasionally start up but at a rate of about 1 in 50 attempts.
When I went to a warm climate recently (about 30 deg C) it never failed to start up during the three weeks I was there but on returning to the UK climate it is back to needing to be warmed up before starting.
Everything is working whilst the screen is dark and incoming calls make the phone ring - I just can't answer them!!

HELP - has anyone found a fix - I have tried everything from taking the battery out to a factory reset without any success.

 

[Aumar Aslam]

I have the same problem, my Galaxy S5 screen will not fire up at temperatures below about 25 degrees C. It flickers and will occasionally start up but at a rate of about 1 in 50 attempts.
When I went to a warm climate recently (about 30 deg C) it never failed to start up during the three weeks I was there but on returning to the UK climate it is back to needing to be warmed up before starting.
Everything is working whilst the screen is dark and incoming calls make the phone ring - I just can't answer them!!

HELP - has anyone found a fix - I have tried everything from taking the battery out to a factory reset without any success.

Hey there. Samecase with me as well. I live in a place where it canhit a max of 35 in summers. It started with a small(approx 3/4th of an inch) lower section of screen flickering between extra bright and dim backlight but at around 2-5 flickers a second. Eventually flickering was observed in another inch of the screen after afew days in the same manner. In around 15 days whole screen started flickering except the top half inch especially when it is on low brightness or battery is lower than 5% or while screen goes to very dim mode after use and then this problem of not waking up started. It just doesn't wake up at all. And then the trick. I would either keep mu thumb on the fingerprint scanner for around 16 seconds or simply keep the phone near any warm surface keeping the display facing the warm surface. Since it is below 0° here now, it has become more frequent and difficult to wake up the screen. Yes its a Galaxy S5. 2nd year of use and problem since October 2016

 

[MudMouse]

I have searched the net and have found at least three other reported cases of the screen not turning on when it is cool or cold but turning on every time when the screen is warm.

The only problem is that in each case they were unable to resolve the issue as either Samsung replaced it under warranty or they got fed up and bought another phone.

I still have my phone which to all intents and purposes is fully operational and performs very well - except when the screen is cold. The phone is still functioning - I just cant see what to do to use it!!

Has anyone found out the cause or a fix to overcome the problem.

Cheers Steve

 

[MudMouse]

Something interesting has happened - I got another phone so turned off the S5 which was left de-powered for about a month. I recharged it the other day and powered it up - which it did straight away. I have since left it outside for a few hours at about 5 degrees C and lo and behold it fired up first time. The screen now seems to start up whatever the temperature. Is this the answer??? No ideas why this would solve the problem.

Chers Steve

 

[christopher westburry]

Having a weird issue with my screen.
[...]
Anyone else have this issue?

Thanks.

[Problem]:
Pretty much the same here. I also noticed that it matters on the set brightness of the display and the surrounding temperature. By default I cannot use the auto-brightness anymore shortly after the warranty expired (I bought the device right after it was released). And later on this...

[Short Run Solution]:
But here a tweak. Plug in a hairdryer and warm up your phone or just sit a while with the bum on it. Or just keep the display turned on all the time even if that will consime alot of power lol

[Long-term Solution?]:
But well.. From some brands, I know that some manufacturers explicitly or implicitly (don't wanna judge anyone here) put in some "bugs" to make the device nearly unusable tho. So e.g. on my sister's Sony, when I flashed a new ROM, her phone worked just fine. So I plan on installing another ROM (preferrably a Vanilla-like ROM) on my S5 soon and see wether this is a software-related or a hardware problem.

That said, if the lazy me backed up all his data and actually happened to try this out, I hope I'll remember to come over and tell you about the results. If not, someone else who tried this may fill in the post pls