HELP! Screen not turning on all the way- lemon?

SassyPenguin

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Hey,

So recently I bought my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I am fabulously in love with it.

Anyway, so I bought it on Saturday, today is Monday. I've been noticing that sometimes, when I go to power on the screen, the backlight turns on but the screen doesn't- so it looks like it's just a black screen that's lit up. Does anyone have the same problem? It's not a HUGE problem because I just click the power button a couple of times, and then the screen will turn on like normal.


I know it's easy enough to go back and get it exchanged, but I'm a little weary to do so because my husband just went through a horrible limbo getting his Asus Transformer exchanged because of a creaky/loose bezel and awful screen bleed issues. I think he ended up exchanging his like, 6 times until he finally bought his from another store.

My Galaxy is perfect except for that weird "screen not turning on all the way" issue.

I searched Google and other forums before posting, and I haven't come across not even one other person that has this issue.

What do you think, should I get this replaced? Has anyone else noticed this issue with theirs?

Thanks!

*SassyPenguin*
 

DAS

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Hey,

So recently I bought my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. I am fabulously in love with it.

Anyway, so I bought it on Saturday, today is Monday. I've been noticing that sometimes, when I go to power on the screen, the backlight turns on but the screen doesn't- so it looks like it's just a black screen that's lit up. Does anyone have the same problem? It's not a HUGE problem because I just click the power button a couple of times, and then the screen will turn on like normal.


I know it's easy enough to go back and get it exchanged, but I'm a little weary to do so because my husband just went through a horrible limbo getting his Asus Transformer exchanged because of a creaky/loose bezel and awful screen bleed issues. I think he ended up exchanging his like, 6 times until he finally bought his from another store.

My Galaxy is perfect except for that weird "screen not turning on all the way" issue.

I searched Google and other forums before posting, and I haven't come across not even one other person that has this issue.

What do you think, should I get this replaced? Has anyone else noticed this issue with theirs?

Thanks!

*SassyPenguin*
I would recommend exchanging the Tab right away.

Since you've not been able to find other users with the problem you are experiencing in any of the forums you've searched, I would assume that it's not a widespread defect.

That being the case, if you exchange it before the return period you're not likley to get two devices with the same issue. It sounds like it may be a case of an occassional bad unit: unfortunately, that happens sometimes.

Please let us know what you decide to do.
 

ziggster

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Is your current Tab problem-free?

Well...no. The same thing happened to my current Tab 3 weeks after I got it, which means no return to BB. It has only happened that one time though. With my first tab, it happened 4 or 5 times in one week.

I now power mine down if I'm not going to be using it for a while, as the problem only occurred while in a standby state. I don't think that it ever happened while plugged in, either.

Other than that issue, it has been problem-free (& so was my first one).
 

elvisgp

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I just dealt with the problem and kept my tablet. I've gotten used to it by now. I'm really hoping that it can be fixed in a software update. I'm also glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem either. Lol. It actually doesnt bother me that much though.
 

SassyPenguin

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I just dealt with the problem and kept my tablet. I've gotten used to it by now. I'm really hoping that it can be fixed in a software update. I'm also glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem either. Lol. It actually doesnt bother me that much though.

Yeah, it doesn't REALLY bother me that much either... I mean, it's not the end of the world, but I don't know... I think my husband's tablet-return-fest with his Asus Transformer kind of scarred me for life, lol. I think I'm going to try out my luck and see if the next one may be better.

Well...no. The same thing happened to my current Tab 3 weeks after I got it, which means no return to BB. It has only happened that one time though. With my first tab, it happened 4 or 5 times in one week.

I now power mine down if I'm not going to be using it for a while, as the problem only occurred while in a standby state. I don't think that it ever happened while plugged in, either.

Other than that issue, it has been problem-free (& so was my first one).


Again, see for me the issue was happening a few times a day. Still, not that it's a huge deal or anything, but it just makes me wonder what the underlying issue was. If it's only happened once for you, for your 2nd Tab, then I have hope.
 

SassyPenguin

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Just so y'all know, I did buy mine from Staples with the $100, but they are giving me one helluva time trying to exchange mine, so I was mad, so I'm just returning the whole deal and getting one from Best Buy instead.

Weird... Best Buy now has better customer service???
 

junkbot

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I am experiencing something similar on my GT 10.1 - When I set a screen lock password (whether it be a pattern, text password, or numeric password) and the sleep timer kicks in and shuts the screen off, and I try to wake it up immediately by pressing the power button again, I notice that sometimes the screen does not always wake up properly.

For example, if I'm reading something using the Amazon Kindle app, and I linger on a page for awhile and the sleep timer kicks in, and I hit the power button literally less than a second later, the GT won't power on properly. Sometimes this means the backlight doesn't come on. Other times, it means the backlight does come on, but is not responsive to touches. Other times, it means the backlight does come on, and tapping the screen causes the haptic feedback vibration to work. And sometimes, it does respond properly and I am presented with the lock screen.

The fix usually is just to push the power button again, and wait 30 seconds or so and try waking the GT again. This usually works, though a few times now I've had to completely power cycle the device.

If I turn off the screen lock mechanism, this problem does not exist. Could this possibly be a bug in Honeycomb? I noticed this exact same behavior on my Droid 2 phone when it was running stock Froyo. When I rooted my phone and upgraded to Gingerbread, the problem went away. I'm a little surprised to see it on Honeycomb...
 

SassyPenguin

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I am experiencing something similar on my GT 10.1 - When I set a screen lock password (whether it be a pattern, text password, or numeric password) and the sleep timer kicks in and shuts the screen off, and I try to wake it up immediately by pressing the power button again, I notice that sometimes the screen does not always wake up properly.

For example, if I'm reading something using the Amazon Kindle app, and I linger on a page for awhile and the sleep timer kicks in, and I hit the power button literally less than a second later, the GT won't power on properly. Sometimes this means the backlight doesn't come on. Other times, it means the backlight does come on, but is not responsive to touches. Other times, it means the backlight does come on, and tapping the screen causes the haptic feedback vibration to work. And sometimes, it does respond properly and I am presented with the lock screen.

The fix usually is just to push the power button again, and wait 30 seconds or so and try waking the GT again. This usually works, though a few times now I've had to completely power cycle the device.

If I turn off the screen lock mechanism, this problem does not exist. Could this possibly be a bug in Honeycomb? I noticed this exact same behavior on my Droid 2 phone when it was running stock Froyo. When I rooted my phone and upgraded to Gingerbread, the problem went away. I'm a little surprised to see it on Honeycomb...

Interesting. This issue occurs on my device with our without lock mechanisms (I don't have any password, pattern, or other kind of lock except the normal slide-to-unlock).

For me, the issue is always the same- the backlight comes on, the screen remains black, and I am able to interact with the screen because the haptic feedback still works.

To fix it, I just push the power button again immediately. Sometimes it fixes on the very next try, and sometimes it will do it a couple more times before the screen comes on properly again.

It seems like it could be a bug, but it makes me wonder... not many other people seem to have a similar issue, especially on this Galaxy Tab with 3.1. My husband has the Asus Transformer with 3.1, and has no such problem.

One similarity that we do share is that my problem does generally tend to happen when I try to power on from sleep immediately after it goes to sleep.

Are you returning/exchanging your device? Or are you just going to stick with it?
 

junkbot

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I just tried it again with the simple lock (slide-to-unlock), and while it took a few more tries before the problem occurred, I was still able to make it happen.

I probably will try exchanging it. If it still is an issue on the new device, I will probably try calling Samsung.
 

TSX05

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I have this same issue on my tab, i've had it since mid june, I have no lock patter or anything, but mine does the same thing, when trying to wake the tab the screen lights up but its just a black screen, and yes sometimes I have to hit the power button like three or four times.
 

SassyPenguin

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I have this same issue on my tab, i've had it since mid june, I have no lock patter or anything, but mine does the same thing, when trying to wake the tab the screen lights up but its just a black screen, and yes sometimes I have to hit the power button like three or four times.

Interesting. The issue hasn't escalated to any problems worse than that though, has it?

Weird that I never saw a thread about this issue before, I thought I had the one random lemon because no one else seemed to have the same issue.

Now I'm wondering if it's even worth trying to exchange. Some people seem to not have this issue at all, but then again there is the minute possibility that the exchange I get will have worse problems.

Junkbot, I did call Samsung warranty. The guy seemed to be totally surprised about what was going on. It seemed like he had never heard of this problem happening before. Just so ya know. Of course, getting work done through warranty takes a while for turnaround time, I guess if I do decide to exchange, I'll try through the retailer first.

Good luck.
 
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junkbot

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Hi Sassy,

I actually exchanged out my tablet this past weekend, and finally set it up again today. From the little bit of testing I did this evening, it appears that this new tablet does NOT have the lock screen issue (knock-on-wood as well). So it might have been my first GT was defective somehow. I haven't updated Touchwiz yet, but I'll be doing that soon, so we'll see. Hopefully this is the last we'll hear from each other about this issue... ;)
 
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