What exactly is broken on my Galaxy S5 screen?

[Android Central Question]

I dropped my Galaxy S5 on a hard floor and the extreme upper left corner was kinda cracked. At first, it was just a yellow tint. If a little pressure was applied, it would go back to a normal-colored, perfect picture screen that was fully functional. It started getting worse after an hour. The screen began freezing with the last image still visible but unchanging. I could hear that the touch screen was still perfectly functional. This happened more and more, along with gray screens with multi-colored noise, and more pressure being required each time the screen was coaxed to look normal again. Currently it's off and I have a temporary phone with a temporary number, but I can still turn it on and have the screen work and look perfect, as long as there's constant heavy pressure on the cracked area or if I kinda twist the phone on either end. If the pressure is released, the screen will either freeze, turn gray with multicolored noise, screen will tint, or in some cases, the phone will immediately restart. What exactly do you think is broken? What should I order? I'm intrigued by the fact that I can get a perfect picture.

 

[Tim1954]

These screens have layers. You have the LCD part which is the display, and the digitiser, which is the part that responds to your touches.
Theoretically you can replace them separately, but I'd replace the whole screen fairly soon before you lose all functionality.
I'd also back up all your info to a pc while you still can. This screen will fail you, it's just a matter of when....

 

[Rukbat]

The problem with an S5 (I'm facing the same problem with my S5 - the screen has to come off to replace the USB port) is that they're selling for as little as $80 today - and replacing the screen costs about $70 just for the labor. So is it really worth replacing the screen when you can just buy a used phone in good condition? (If you maintain backups, which you always should, there's no problem in getting all your apps and data to a "new" phone.)

(The problem with your screen, by the way, is that the LCD layer broke, and being liquid [that's what the L stands for] the layer isn't working unless you press hard enough to seal the broken tube ends. Eventually though, that pressure will become more than the screen can take without breaking the glass.)