S9 Plus Screen Flickering, Green Tint/Bars, Black Screen Issue

[Sohel]

tldr; Turning auto brightness off and setting brightness to the lowest might work.

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I have been using the Exynos model for past two years. About a month ago or so the device first exhibited screen flickering issue all of a sudden. Green bars, black screen area, sort of animated and laggy. For the time being, only immediate lock-unlock attempts were causing the screen flickering (meaning, when I unlocked immediately after locking the device, the screen was causing trouble). I left it as it was and just kept avoiding immediate unlocking. Anyhow, after maybe a couple of weeks, out of nowhere the screen appeared to be flickering permanently and the device was rendered totally unusable. I tried doing some troubleshooting, factory reset, odin flash, etc. and none of them worked. Could not visit a service center in this lockdown situation.

Later, I figured that in my case, the screen is working at a very low brightness and partially working at full brightness but not working at all in between. It's just 90% black, 10% green and such. For about a week, I have been using it at a low (i.e. 5% to 10%) brightness. Left the auto brightness, always on display, and screen-on iris recognition settings turned off. I use Bixby or Google Assistant to set the brightness if I can't see the screen. With these setup, it's working for now. As of the software, I am on the latest firmware (May 2020 security patch).

From my observation, the issue had something to do with heating. I am not certain but I feel like the issue occurs more frequently if the device is used for prolonged period and heated up due to gaming or mobile data usage. I would suggest anyone who is stuck during this time before you can repair, should your device work at a low brightness then clean up the phone, get rid of unnecessary apps, games and reduce/avoid long usage that cause heating. Also leave the medium power saving mode on as it limits the CPU usage which supposedly help reducing the heating as well. Do not use night mode, gray wallpapers, etc. Use light or colorful backgrounds, apps, etc.

Thanks. Stay home and safe.

[DeD6]

i have an identical problem with galaxy s8!

[KL19]

Does anyone have any ideas why this might be happening? it just seems so strange that the screen is not broken all the time and can still be usable with the OLED saver app or double tapping to wake up the phone? i would have thought a faulty screen would be faulty at all times with the same fault..?  Also when i took it to Samsung they said i need screen and battery replaced...why would both have broken at the same time? just doesnt really make sense to me?

[RamSubramanyam]

Extremely disappointing to see no response from Samsung. My phone got this issue right  after the August update. Iam thinking of jumping to the other camp now! Sad but at least that company will ack the problem and put out a solution in a month. The phone is unusable with the oled saver for the fun stuff like YouTube 4k videos. What's the point spending tons of money on a so called premium phone if it gets issues in less than 2 years

P. S. Adrian's technique didn't help me unfortunately

I see this green tint pretty early when the phone boots up (right when the company logo pops up). So I think the root cause is pretty deep and not with apps

[tryingtohateapple]

s9 user here. same problem. sometimes lock screen appears 95% black, only top bar is visible with some green horizontal lines. can see battery percentage but not much else.

It does seem to occur after some extended usage.

trying the OLED saver app. agree that Samsung should do more instead of making me rely on an external app to make my phone usable

[tyusuf_95]

The same issue started yesterday on my S9+. Why is SAMSUNG not responding anything yet????

I'm forced to use the OLED Saver for now. Hoping for a permanent solution soon!!

[oldayeah]

Just got the issue last night on my S9 exynos 😭

I've been using this phone since october last year, bought a secondhand btw, and the warranty is already void

I dont know why or how this issue is happening, i never drop or smash my phone etc, it just happen all of so sudden

I still have olderly S8+ exynos as secondary device,bought new from the store since 2018,and it still working perfectly,no tinting anywhere,the color are great,eventhough the top corner screen is already crack a lil bit from drop

I did try the oled saver apps,it worked,but it kinds of annoys me to use third party apps to fix the issue

I wonder if samsung maybe would release some update fix to help the users experiencing this issue who didnt have any warranty left of them so that they dont have to replace the screen

[cyentze]

I also just wanna make my voice heard. Mine suddenly turned green midday today. Initially I thought my screen is gone, and it must be a hardware issue. I wasn't doing anything much with the phone except messaging! But after reading this thread, it sounds more like an issue that can be fixed thru software upgrade. Although the Oled saver app does work, but it'd be better for Samsung to address it officially. Hope Samsung fixes this bug.

[VikramN]

Thank you for those who suggested OLED Saver app. It fixed the problem temporarily.

Samsung waiting for your response, like many other mentioned above I am also thinking of breaking my loyalty to Samsung.

[ben163s]

I'm not good at English. I write with Google Translator. Please inform Samsung support.

[TahaAli]

Exact same issue on my phone as well. I am still not able to understand that is it a hardware issue caused by software update ? and Can it be fixed by a software update ?