What a story!!
I bought a galaxy note 4 right on launch day first thing in the morning. Ive had just about every phone but have been waiting for a while now to get my hands on the new note 4.
I ended up buying the phone at the St . Bruno shopping center in Quebec, Canada and once i singed all the papers for my contract and got home, I finally open the box and took the phone out of the box. I loved it, it did everything one would expect from the highest end phone on the market.
A week later however, I started noticing that my buttons, especially my home button were slightly loose and my phone was also developing a weird oil spot under the home button.
So I went back to videotron but this time at St. Catherine street corporate branch store and the manager there obviously didnt know much about phones because he looked at it and proceeded with putting windex on a paper towel and wiping my screen with it and than told me that theres nothing wrong with it.
After frustratingly explaining everything to him, he told me that if the phone makes calls and works, than these issues arent covered for any kind of exchange as its not affecting the functionality of the phone. My logic tell me however that if one buy's a ferrari and realizes that the paint is f-up, wouldn't the dealership do something about it??? Anyways, without any luck I eventually left disappointed.
The following week After exhaustive attempt to solve the matter with Videotron to no avail, I found out that there was a store here in montreal called Service Absolute which is a samsung repair center that I could bring my phone to. I called them first to not waist more of my time and was than informed that yes they could help me but that it could take nearly a month before they would have any parts for this phone.
So after patiently waiting, I finally got a call back from them and droped off my phone the following day. I only had to wait two days before i got my phone back and thought that the turn around time was great! Only after few minutes of playing with it however, I noticed that the phone's new screen which now didn't have the oil spot was actually lifting from the housing about 1mm at the top of the phone and that the buttons were all still loose.
Its easy to imagine at this point how infuriated i was with all the time spent dealing with a phone that should of been right in the first place.. All the waiting, calling and runaround I got only to get a phone that was now even worst!! I could actually see inside my phone and behind the screen. Dust was starting to get inside the phone and under the camera lens and so on and I was really starting to freak out and was completly desperate to fix this issue asap to prevent things from getting worse and worse.
So I decided at this pont to take matters in my own hands and use my old trusty screwdriver to take this thing apart and get
To the bottom of the loose buttons and screen seperation.. I know! Scray [email protected]$ but it had to be done because at this point I needed a working phone for work and nobody seemed to help me. So after watching a few youtube videos, I unscrewed the screws at the back and gently seperated the phone from the metal frame with my fingers.
The whole assembly came out of the metal frame the same komd of way the old HTC phones used to. After doing so, the first thing i found out was that if your going scatch your phones metal frame which makes up most of the phone outer surfice, it's no big deal as it can be swapped out for around 40 to 50 bucks.
Next I noticed that all the buttons (volume and power) aren't adheared to the frame but only clipped in with a few pins stratigically placed. So its normal that they have play and wiggle. They're not gonna break and we're likely engineered to be this way. The wiggling is not really important as it won't affect anything on the phone's motherboard.
The next thing I noticed was that the glue between the inner midframe (the part that holds the motherboard to the screen assembly) also wasn't glued properly and was able to gently seperate it from the lcd/digitizer assembly without a heat gun or anything.. after doing so, the home button fell out and was simply dangling from its flex cable. It wasn't actually glued in place or held in with clips or anything. It's only connected to a flex cable on the left side of the button but thats it. I was easily able to pull it out and inspect it. It was built to be completely free floating between the midframe and the screen.
Which means that again, no need to worry about anything breaking as the home button is not a solidified part to start with and only in place where it is because of the space tolerence engeneered in the screen's home button whole. So it being slightly loose is normal and something that will eventually happen to all note 4's sooner or later. The slight looseness actually makes sense to me as any dust material that will get in between the home button wont get stuck as as much as if the space toleren was less. In my opinion, I thik that iPhones have less issues like this as the home button is part of the screen assembly and is also round.
In the end, I wasn't able to adhear the screen back in place as I didnt have double sided tape but manages to send it back to samsung and get it serviced again. I clearly asked them to fix it properly this time and it looks like they finally did and glued it back properly now.
This was a crazy experience and all I can tell you is that I definatly got an up close look of this phone and decided to keep it afterall as it's still better than a refurbished one and also because it's super easy to repair if anything ever broke on it.
Anyways i know this is a long post but I thought I'd share my experience with everyone and put some of your worries to rest.
Cheers!
Related
unfortunately, some two weeks ago I was unlucky enough to get my head kicked in - ie, well and truely slapped and kicked around
My o2 xda exec was in my pocket - after I woke up, and yes, I am serious, the phone needed to be reset and has been sluggish to use.
Tonight I opened the screen up - as in as normal and the screen is shafted - am I correct in thinking that this is probably due to the beating the phone received?
afaik there has been no other impact on it, and it has always been kept in a case
I guess I will be claiming on my insurance for it
sorry to hear about you getting beaten up! if you had no problems with your phone before, i would safely say that your screen is "shafted". it could be your flex cable, if you turn your screen to the side you will see a screw on a metal plate. open that up and see if there is any damage to your flex cable. if your screen is cracked...well its cracked and theres not much you can do about that except get a new screen.
Hi all,
Looks like my Sprint Vogue is flaking out on me. The touchscreen is suddenly and without warning not working at all. Everything else works (all other buttons, activesync, all functions). I'd like to do a hard reset before giving up on it, but I'd really like to sync my contacts/messages/photos/etc before doing that. So here's the problem- I use Dashwire to sync, and I'm unable to hit the "SYNC NOW" button!
Any ideas on how to switch to and activate the bottom left and bottom right menu buttons without being able to touch them? For example, the Inbox and Menu buttons on the Mail app screen, or Album/Slideshow on the Photos and Videos screen? If I can get to those I'll be able to activate the sync. Any help would be great!
Thanks,
Bogus
There is a application called "MyMobiler" which allows you to control your phone over ip/usb/bluetooth. If i remember correctly launching the installer on your pc while your phone is connected to activesynch will install it without having to press anything.
Awesome, thank you. That did exactly what I needed it to!
Once it finishes sync'ing I'll give the reset a shot and see if the screen is really borked or not.
No problem glad i could help. If the touchscreen refuses to work you might wanna try replacing it. The part is called a digitzer and they go for 15-20 dollars online. I bought one and it wasn't difficult at all to replace.
Yeah, that's the plan. Hard reset didn't fix the problem, so I'm guessing that part is busted. Between this site and PPCG I found the guide for taking apart the phone, so it's looking like I'll be doing some minor surgery in a few days.
bogus83 said:
Yeah, that's the plan. Hard reset didn't fix the problem, so I'm guessing that part is busted. Between this site and PPCG I found the guide for taking apart the phone, so it's looking like I'll be doing some minor surgery in a few days.
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Click to collapse
How would the touch screen instantly not work?
maybe someone let it fall and put it back to normal like nothing happened
and i know what u mean.I dont wanna give up my vogue. EVER,
but im 15...by the time im 30, i wont remember what vogue is.LOL.
Actually, it seems to have developed a very small air bubble in the very upper left corner. I'm pretty sure that's causing the digitizer to think there's constant pressure in that area, evidenced by the "Start" menu occasionally activating when I turn on the phone. I ordered a new digitizer anyway- the set of torx screwdrivers I'd need to open the case cost the same as a new digitizer and the screwdriver I need. I don't really understand how the air bubble formed (or even what it is contained in), but one way or another I'll resolve the problem next week.
And I just turned 26- I'm sure by the time I'm 30 I'll be sporting a Touch Pro 4 running Windows Mobile 8.5
Well, the digitizer and tools came much faster than I'd anticipated (I won the auction on eBay on Friday, paid same day, and got it in the mail today, shipped from CA to NY!). So I dove right in. It was a straightforward affair- remove the four torx screws from the back under the cover, remove the speaker, pry open the front from the mainboard, disconnect the keypad circuit board from the mainboard and the digitizer from the keypad board, push out the old digitizer, swap in the new one and hook it all back up.
Not for the faint of heart to be sure, but for someone who likes to tinker it was a lot of fun. Took maybe 15 minutes because prying the case from the mainboard was difficult. More accurately, the top plastic case is extremely thin and fragile- if you do this you'll almost definitely crack it in at least one place. If not, you'll crack it pushing the digitizer out from behind. But I'm not that worried about cosmetics, I got my Vogue second-hand off-contract, refurbished, so it wasn't exactly mint to begin with.
On the plus side, the repair worked like a charm! I tested every touch feature I could think of and as many areas of the screen as I could, it actually seemed to respond better than when I initially got the phone. The odd part is I could still see the air bubble in the old screen, and couldn't flatten it out even by squeezing on both sides of it. I wish I knew how it formed so I could prevent it from happening again, but I'll just have to be careful.
So to anyone considering this project:
If you're worried about damaging the casing and have insurance or a warranty or something like that, take it to the phone company to get it repaired.
For anyone else, the $15 bucks for the screen and three tools is a lot cheaper than buying a new phone. Plus you get the geek cred for repairing your own phone.
Its easy to break the sliding mechanism when opening up the back cover. There is a small slit on the bottom back when supposedly helps do that, but it does not work as intended. If you pull out on that slit, you will cause the sliding mechanism to break in that there will now be a gap in between the 2 halfs of the phone and it will not be tight as before. The way to open the back cover is to open the slide, hold the back portion on one side of the speaker grill (do not hold or pull on the top half of the phone) and use your fingernail to separate the back cover along the edge. It will come off easilly and when you have enough of the back cover peeled away it will separate easilly. I broke my first phone's mechanism by trying to pull on the small indent on the bottom which clearly does not work as intended.
I agree. The manual mentions that little slit on the bottom, but it's obvious once you start putting pressure on it that it's a quick way to break your new toy. I just went to the other side and started prying and got it off.
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I think this has happened to me, the gap is driving me nuts right now is there any way to fix it cause I don't think I have a case in order to return it and get it replaced. What is stupid is that the manual tells you to open the back like that. Edit: So I ended up trying to get a new surround and since I was over the 30 days (by 3 days) they wouldn't give me a new phone. My next choice is to send it to HTC and get it fixed but I am not too sure if it is worth it, or if it will get worse and that I should. Any comments?
nVd90 said:
I think this has happened to me, the gap is driving me nuts right now is there any way to fix it cause I don't think I have a case in order to return it and get it replaced. What is stupid is that the manual tells you to open the back like that. Edit: So I ended up trying to get a new surround and since I was over the 30 days (by 3 days) they wouldn't give me a new phone. My next choice is to send it to HTC and get it fixed but I am not too sure if it is worth it, or if it will get worse and that I should. Any comments?
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Click to collapse
You should try talking to HTC's customer support. explain to them the situation. and let them know that the OFFICIAL user manual tells you to do it like this. I really don't think they can blame you for instructions they gave you. It's worth a try...
Last night my Transformer started acting up. I was browsing Facebook, and then I hit the back case just right while setting it down and the screen went all green and purple (garbled/glitchy). I kept pressing it and eventually the screen completely shut off, though the backlight was still on.
In this small "how to", I will show you what you need to reconnect to get the screen back to operational status.
There are two sets of tear down pics for the TF that I found. One comes from XDA member hybridau, found here and the other is Tech Republic. I'll be linking to pics from Tech Republic along with my own as they were a little more informative.
Take the device apart. Torx T5 is needed for the bottom. Work your way from the end they show in the picture here. Then, press down hard (but be gentle ) on the side until the bezel disconnects from the base (pic). Next, gradually work your way around until you get to the dock connector. I used a thin piece of plastic to go around the edges, but I've heard a guitar pic works well (I don't own one). Note: for me, the dock connector was the most difficult part of the bezel to remove.
Remove the four screws around the screen area and then the three around both long sides (six total).
Turn the device over (screen facing down) and remove the back cover (pic).
Now, look for the piece in the pics below. The ribbon needs to be pushed all the way in where you can't see any of the connectors. Mine was visibly out of place. It won't be fully out of place. I used my fingernails to gently move it back into place one side at a time. You may want to try something else... it's not the easiest thing to move back since there is tape that was/is supposed to hold the thing in place.
Full device view:
That's it! I turned it on while it was apart to make sure screen worked, but that's up to you. Put it back together the reverse way... much easier putting it back together. I put the bezel back on the opposite direction I took it off.
Little background on the device:
The device has been dropped a few times while in a protective case or when tossing onto the bed (no visible signs anywhere on the device -- seriously, the device was thrown and dropped more during shipping than it was in my possession), so I called ASUS and they issued an RMA on it. Of course, if the issues are caused by you (dropping), you have to pay. Regardless, shippings going to cost some money.
Thus, I took it upon myself to fix it. I knew it had to be a ribbon that was disconnected because I doubted it was any kind of screen problem. I had also read in another thread here that that when they sent their TF off the return said all the techs did was reattach the ribbon. What a waste of time, money, and effort?!
Anyway... hope this helps someone with the same issues I had!
Thank you very much for the details. It doesn't effect me but I have read several threads where people are having this issue. I am asking a mod to sticky this for awhile so it doesn't get lost
Thanks! I just hope it helps someone else contemplating doing what I did. I almost wasted time and money sending it to Texas for repairs!
Argh! i just spent the last 20 mins typing up a post and lost it! So lemme try this again...
Ok long story short, I goofed and dropped my s4 into a cup of coffee. It was submerged about 1/3 of the phone , on the top portion of the phone. I removed it immediately, pulled the battery and used a small vacuum to suck out as much of the liquid from the phone before i opened it up. Im pretty good with these kinda projects and have fixed many a phone over the years for friends who busted their screens etc. I hadnt been inside an S4 before this though, so i approached with caution. I used alcohol and a lint free microfiber brush to clean off anything that had coffee on it. All and all everything went pretty smoothly. After cleaning i put the phone in a bag of rice and silica gel for a few hours then put it back together and turned it on. It loaded up quick as usual, everything was pretty normal. But suddenly the screen would stop responding to my touches for a few seconds, and then start working again. So i turned it off, took it apart again and dug a lil deeper. I cleaned off all the contacts for the ribbons, and anything else that had any kinda sticky coffee residue on it. I put it back in the bag last last night and opened it up today and reassembled it. Turned it on , and like magic, everything was great! well 99% great. The phone is acting like it always has,and no more screen unresponsiveness or anything like that. All except for a small sliver of the top of the screen under the Samsung logo. Just a tiny sliver of the screen doesnt respond to my touches, which is a big pain in my butt because its just enough to not be able to swipe down the pulldown menu, and in some games i play, i cant click anything thats on the very edge of the screen in landscape mode. The screen looks normal, no signs of damage like ive seen in other devices when digitizers become damaged etc. Just that tiny little line of screen wont pick up touches.
I only went so far as to taking out the mobo and looking underneath that. I know i can go deeper, and would have to if i needed to replace the digitizer, but before i go through all that, i figured id seek the advice of the XDA Gurus first. Is there possibly anywhere else that i missed cleaning out the junk a that could be causing the problem in that area? Ive been very careful thus far and everything is working accordingly, hell the headphone jack even works still and that thing was full of coffee!! And all the other problems after the initial cleaning have gone away,and im left with this little line of screen that wont read my touches!! So i must have done something right so far! Im hoping that maybe i just overlooked another possible place to clean up any leftover junk and then will get full function of my screen again. if not, then i guess ill be ordering a new digitizer sometime soon.
Thanks for your time, anyone who reads this. I hope to hear some good news *crosses fingers* soon, and get my phone working properly again.
I'm impressed. Not just in your skills but with the build of the S4. Coffee is highly acidic. I once tore apart a keyboard that my wife spilled coffee on. The coffee etched the traces right off the P.C. board. If the S4 survived coffee on the inside workings they use a pretty good coating. It is possible they missed a spot and the coffee got it.
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