White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active, how can I get rid of them?

[chrisd1022]

White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Long time listener, first time caller. I have a Samsung Galaxy S5 Active on AT&T and this is one of the most annoying problems I've ever had with a phone. On the lock screen, the numbers are covered with white squares. Even the date and time are covered with white squares. Restarting the phone makes it go away for a day, then it comes back. I don't want to have to restart my phone everyday though!

Here's what I have tried so far to no avail.
Restarted phone
Uninstalled all apps
Cleared phone cache (not just app cache)
Factory Reset (didn't even sign in with Google account)

I changed everything back after I found out it had no effect. Not only does it happen on lock screen, but it happens on other places on the phone too! I've uploaded some pictures so you can see what's going on. (Yes, the lock screen is a picture of me and my girlfriend)

I even got my phone replaced under warranty twice! Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Welcome to Android Central! Usually, a reboot or a cache partition wipe fixes that, so it's unusual that it's persisting for you. Even though you already tried uninstalling all apps and doing a factory reset, it's still possible there was either some app you missed, or that apps started reinstalling automatically after the reset. See if this persists in Safe Mode: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-10696

 

[chrisd1022]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Thanks! I did another cache partition wipe, and have the phone booted in safe mode. Of course it won't do it now, because it only does it after a day or two, so I will update here in a couple days!

 

[chrisd1022]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Ok, sorry about the late reply, I got busy with work and the labor day weekend, but running in safe mode for 24 hours, and the problem is not solved. So it is not any third party apps that are causing this problem. Also I'm running Android 5.0 Lollipop baseband G870AUCU2BOF3 it is not rooted.

So here's all that I did so far.
Restarted phone
Uninstalled all apps
Cleared phone cache (not just app cache)
Factory Reset (didn't even sign in with Google account)
Cache partition wipe
Booted in safe mode

I don't know what could be the problem with my phone. I would hate to have to deal with this problem until 2017 when I upgrade.

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Bring it to your local Best Buy, and ask the Samsung rep there to re-flash the firmware.

 

[chrisd1022]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Bring it to your local Best Buy, and ask the Samsung rep there to re-flash the firmware.

I actually did that a couple weeks back as well, but that did not work. The samsung reps were stumped too.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

Hmm. Starting to wonder if it's a hardware issue. Is it still under warranty? If so, you should consider contacting Samsung for warranty repair or replacement.

 

[chrisd1022]

That's what I thought too. I got a replacement through AT&T twice under warranty (This is the third one), so I don't know what it could be or if even AT&T or Samsung is even aware of this, since the Active isn't as popular as the regular S5 or S6.

 

[The1Unknown]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

I have also gone thru the warranty process with AT&T. I am sick of this model. Short of throwing this phone out into a canyon, I'm just waiting to see if there are alternative devices. I'll be switching phones before Christmas. Can't wait to get rid of it. With all the problems this model has, AT&T or Samsung should allow for refunds on a lemon device. I tried getting AT&T to get release my payments and the grounds of a lemon device. They want me to buy out the phone and then I can get any phone I want. REALLY????

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Johnny Zero]

Re: White squares covering text on Samsung Galaxy S5 Active

I had this problem with G870AUCU1BOC5. The white squares would appear in 4-5 days, so I rebooted every 3 days.

It got better with G870AUCU2BOF2, and it would go 9+ days. So I reboot weekly on Sundays.

I am now on G870AUCU2BOF3, and have not experimented with it. I am on the weekly reboot regimen and have not seen it once.