Why does my LG G3 screen flicker and fades to darkness?

[the Core]

Edit: Sorry everyone, the issue reoccurred. I also went for the "paper trick" but then with a piece of leather. Works like a charm, except that the phone gets in a reboot loop every now and then.

The issue (to get at the same line):
I had this exact same issue. The screen would flicker and get pixely. Then it would emit some background light. This stopped if you pressed the off button and if you pressed it again, the screen would work for between a second and a minute.

Cause? I can guess: there was a lot of dust in my loading connector. As the phone wouldn't always charge, I fiddled the USB cable until the phone began charging. Now, the display connector on the mother board is located close to the connector. I may have loosened the connection somehow.

My solution:
Actually I don't know for sure what solved the issue in the end, but I have been trying to fix it for three days (many hours) and now it is working again. I'll share what I did. So if the next one with this issue or anyone else has an opinion about it, I'd love to hear it.

• Clean connector. Screw the G3 open, hold the motherboard in your hand and get all dust out of the charge connector with a toothpick (wood or plastic, but no metal). This didn't solved it, but it might obviate the cause. Note: this took me half an hour, better use compressed air.
• press on the four connectors on the motherboard. My issue didn't seem to be related the the camera, but because everyone said this helped, I pushed the camera connector and other connectors hard to its place
• push the cables In addition to the previous steps I pushed down the connector cables with a round piece of plastic (piece of an old credit card). I think this actually solved the issue.
• Fiddle around with the charge connector. Point the phone's screen to mirror (or webcam), so you can see when it fades or in my case turns off. Remove the battery and connect a usb cable. You'll see a exclamation mark. Just fiddle around until the screen fades. This way you may be able to discover where you need to aplly pressure to your motherboard. My screen would turn off sometimes, but it didn't fade. I guess I repaired my phone.

Right now, my phone's screen is playing qhd Youtube videos for over an hour. I'm afraid though this issue will happen again and I'm over the 15 months.

Conclusion: I think the issue is caused by a bad USB cable connection (fix this first). It's fixed by pushing down the four connector cables on the motherboard. I hope this will contribute to the discovery of the real issue.

 

[bishopx26]

Solved it without paper!

But first:
Damn try88, that stuff is worth over $150. This issue seems to be just a loose connection (that's why the paper (or better, rubber) trick works). The other parts are still worth lots of money. Don't throw it away.

The issue (to get at the same line):
I had this exact same issue. The screen would flicker and get pixely. Then it would emit some background light. This stopped if you pressed the off button and if you pressed it again, the screen would work for between a second and a minute.
Cause? I can guess: there was a lot of dust in my loading connector. As the phone wouldn't always charge, I fiddled the USB cable until the phone began charging. Now, the display connector on the mother board is located close to the connector. I may have loosened the connection somehow.

My solution:
Actually I don't know for sure what solved the issue in the end, but I have been trying to fix it for three days (many hours) and now it is working again. I'll share what I did. So if the next one with this issue or anyone else has an opinion about it, I'd love to hear it.

• Clean connector. Screw the G3 open, hold the motherboard in your hand and get all dust out of the charge connector with a toothpick (wood or plastic, but no metal). This didn't solved it, but it might obviate the cause. Note: this took me half an hour, better use compressed air.
• press on the four connectors on the motherboard. My issue didn't seem to be related the the camera, but because everyone said this helped, I pushed the camera connector and other connectors hard to its place
• push the cables In addition to the previous steps I pushed down the connector cables with a round piece of plastic (piece of an old credit card). I think this actually solved the issue.
• Fiddle around with the charge connector. Point the phone's screen to mirror (or webcam), so you can see when it fades or in my case turns off. Remove the battery and connect a usb cable. You'll see a exclamation mark. Just fiddle around until the screen fades. This way you may be able to discover where you need to aplly pressure to your motherboard. My screen would turn off sometimes, but it didn't fade. I guess I repaired my phone.

Right now, my phone's screen is playing qhd Youtube videos for over an hour. I'm afraid though this issue will happen again and I'm over the 15 months.

Conclusion: I think the issue is caused by a bad USB cable connection (fix this first). It's fixed by pushing down the four connector cables on the motherboard. I hope this will contribute to the discovery of the real issue.

listen bro is that possible u make a video with the steps u just said and upload on youtube.. it will help a lot of users.. if you dont mind

 

[Zorineau]

Hi everyone,

Any new developments on this topic ?

I suffer the same behavior.
Card board seems to work for a while but it's going back...
I start heating the hoven.

 

[jnl1964]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

Hi everyone,
My LG G3, after 13months, began doing the same thing, and after reading several posts I was wondering if this is happening out of the blue or after a drop or some other calamity that happened to the phone. I thought about and remember dropping my phone a few days before the first incident of screen fading. I had a case on it and didn't notice any damage, but I wonder if something was damaged internally. I thought about sending it back to LG,but I opted for a new device instead.

 

[FLJO1340]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

I never dropped mine and it still did this... On the flip side, my wife has dropped hers many times, and has never once had her screen fade to black (and she has a cracked screen from one of the drops, making the entire top half of the phone useless to the touch).

We bought ours Mid-December 2014 (though they were manufactured in October). My screen first started fading to black Mid-January 2016 (13 months after purchase). The paper trick worked for about 3 month (replacing many times), but now it seems to not want to work, I can only get the phone on for a couple seconds at a time. I was hoping to make it to December so I can get a new phone, but looks like it's back to the old iPhone for the next 8 months.

F'ing LG, burned by them everytime - shame on me.

 

[the Core]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

@bishopx26: sorry, but it only worked for about 1.5 weeks. I ended up doing the paper trick.

@FLJO1340: you can try holding your phone with your right hand with your middle finger at the on/off button and your forefinger at the top right corner. Then press hard (like you would hold it for a minute max) with your forefinger and turn the device off and on again. If it doesn't work at once, repeat turning it off (wait two sec) and turning it on. This worked for me, but it's very frustrating. If you did the paper trick just with paper, you could try a piece of leather/clothe or maybe plastic Place it beneath the infrared sensor and between the 4 cover connector pins and the buttons.

 

[Steven Stites]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

I find it intriguing to see that my phone began exhibiting these exact problems when I purchased my phone in mid-November 2014.

This cannot be a simple coincidence that the G3 only seems to last for about 15 months before degrading so drastically. Perhaps I simply put tinfoil on my head and didn't notice, but it does appear to me like LG is intentionally cutting corners and making sure the phones aren't something that can last long. Why? I probably don't even need to guess anything other than the color green and we can see a clear motivation behind such possible actions.

Curse you, LG, for playing into the stereotypical business model of spitting on customers once you part them from their money.

 

[Broken LG G3]

Yes. Repair 1 was LCD. Repair 2 was HDMI. Repair 3 was LCD again. I've been sending it in with post-its stuck to the phone saying, "Replace the motherboard". Seems they aren't getting the message. Waiting for FedEx to deliver, but not getting my hopes up.

Just got my phone. Yes, it took 25 days to deliver it. What a mess that was. Phone has been running for 4 hours now without issue. Hoping it's finally been fixed.

 

[jarodsfisher]

First off I would like to state, that I love this phone..........when it works. I've sent my phone in to LG, which was pointless, since it's out of warranty, & I don't feel like paying them to correc their mistake of making an inferior product. I replaced the midframe/display this past weekend, prior to completely reading this forum & realizing that it wouldn't fix it. So I reinstalled the original midframe/display after that didn't fix anything. I've tried the paper trick in there near the camera area. No better. I've not yet tried the baking deal, but based on what I've read here, that doesn't seem to be a long term fix either. Has anyone had any luck getting LG to man up, so to speak, & fix their junk yet. Or does anyone else have any fixes to suggest. Based on my own experience & what I've read here, it appears to be an issue with the circuit board.

 

[dancing-bass]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

I've moved on to an LG G4 now. Made sure I got one with a late serial number to avoid the bootloop issue the early ones had. I'm gonna stay subbed to this thread, just to see if someone solves it (aside from replacing the entire motherboard). Good luck everyone.

 

[mondymondelo]

Good day pre. I'm also from the philippines. I'm also experiencing the same prob as yours.It occurred last day.And I'm also on plan for 2 years. I just want to ask if you solve problem already? I'm currently on plan for globe for 2 years and it will end this December.Hoping for your response.

 

[eks2212]

I didn't updated my phone, but facing same with my LG G3 Dual LTE

 

[eks2212]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

What is the FDR?

 

[davidnc]

Re: HELP - LG G3 Screen Flickers and fades to darkness

What is the FDR?

Factory data reset

 

[the Core]

I've tried the paper trick in there near the camera area.

@jarodsfisher: did you try it right? For me it's working perfectly and as soon as I remove the "paper", the issue returns. Let see, it needs to be about 2 by 1 cm (0.8 by 0.4 inch) and between 0.1 and 0.2 cm thick (0.04-0.08 inch). you'll need to place it below the black infrared sensor and next to the camera and 4 shiney wireless charging connectors. Then put some case of back cover on the phone.

I wonder if this issue is related to the battery. I have another known issue, that is, my LG G3 keeps rebooting. It reboots when using power consuming apps like the camera, Google Chrome or a game. A battery replace worked for only a day. When replacing the battery I noticed the old one has curved a little and has become shorter. That's why the newer batter fits better and the old one is thicker in the middle. That extra thickness might add pressure to the screen and motherbord. The first place where that's going to cause loose connectors is near the cam (and CPU), because that's closest to the battery. I'm just guessing but this could mean that it's not the motherboard that's malfunctioning, but it's the frame (chasis) of the LG G3. Does anyone have ideas on this?

 

[mondymondelo]

@jarodsfisher: did you try it right? For me it's working perfectly and as soon as I remove the "paper", the issue returns. Let see, it needs to be about 2 by 1 cm (0.8 by 0.4 inch) and between 0.1 and 0.2 cm thick (0.04-0.08 inch). you'll need to place it below the black infrared sensor and next to the camera and 4 shiney wireless charging connectors. Then put some case of back cover on the phone.

I wonder if this issue is related to the battery. I have another known issue, that is, my LG G3 keeps rebooting. It reboots when using power consuming apps like the camera, Google Chrome or a game. A battery replace worked for only a day. When replacing the battery I noticed the old one has curved a little and has become shorter. That's why the newer batter fits better and the old one is thicker in the middle. That extra thickness might add pressure to the screen and motherbord. The first place where that's going to cause loose connectors is near the cam (and CPU), because that's closest to the battery. I'm just guessing but this could mean that it's not the motherboard that's malfunctioning, but it's the frame (chasis) of the LG G3. Does anyone have ideas on this?

I just want to know if this is safe to do the paper trick?I also have the same problem.I already factory reset my phone but nothing happened.I will try the paper trick this weekend to verify if it's really effective.I will post on this thread on sunday maybe

 

[the Core]

I just want to know if this is safe to do the paper trick?I

Hi mondymondelo,

Did you try the trick yet and did it work? I think it's safe to do it. There is no info in this thread or anywhere else on the internet about the real problem. What's going wrong and why does it help to add some pressure to some transistors next to the CPU (Snapdragon 805)?

My best guess is that the battery warps over time (1 to 1.5 year) and gets bold in the the middle. For me this might be the cause for some battery issues and bootloop too. Because of the deformation, the LG frame itself deforms too and things don't make contact anymore. That's what the pressure is for.

 

[bernard_06]

sir, your g3 is warranty covered before the black screen appear?
sorry for my bad english

 

[dancing-bass]

sir, your g3 is warranty covered before the black screen appear?
sorry for my bad english

Most people get the black screen months after the warranty has expired

 

[the Core]

An extra warranty is applied to this kind of factory failures. However, I dropped my phone and replaced the screen myself. I don't think LG is going to fix my phone for free now.