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

(Topic created on: 16-05-2020 11:37 PM)
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Sohel
Student
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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.

126 REPLIES 126
Andrea_S_90
First Poster
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It works. Even if I don't use any screen lock (only the swipe). Even if it is overheated because of the intense usage. 
It can't be a hardware problem, in my opinion. 

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Overwatch
First Poster
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I have the same problem since last February. Simply using AOD will prevent this problem. 

It happens when your device's display is completely off i.e. After restarts, turning off the display by proximity in call or locking your device. OLED saver uses the full brightness option so that might also heat up your device. Since that is simply full brightness with Black Overlay (probably).  


--> My solution is simply turning AOD scheduled (6 AM to 11 PM) with the "Clock" or "Clock & Home button" option since the "Home button only" option might not work sometimes.  

--> And for the call, I use the power button to end the call so even I can't see anything I can end the call. and after  7/8 sec when There is an AOD clock then only I Unlock my device.

And for some reason, if the device starts to flicker when unlock simply lock again and wait for 10 sec so AOD will appear for 6/7 seconds before you unlock. Also, you can also control your brightness from the lock screen ( or probably have to set it up from setting) so the set is to less than 10% or above 90% and checks if AOD is on or not. 

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JPTiger
Apprentice
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This is getting more technical than most users should have to deal with, but has anyone tried reinstalling their firmware with a tool like Odin? I've been having this issue as well (black screen with a few visible lines across the top unless I use the Always On Display) and am thinking this would be the next step. Haven't committed though, was wondering if anyone else has tried it yet.

 

BTW if your screen is mostly black and you need to see things (for example in the middle of a call, when the Always On Display won't come on), try holding it a few inches from a lightbulb. In my case that makes the screen visible (if a bit glitchy).

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JPTiger
Apprentice
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Well, I just tried it and it didn't fix it.

For the record, I'm in the US on T-Mobile, so I used Frija to download the latest firmware for my SM-G960U with the CSC "TMB" and installed it with Odin v3.13.3. The problem if anything seems worse.

 

I will say in my case that OLED Saver does seem to help. The tint is still there, but I no longer have to worry about most of the screen shorting out and going black. Seems this is a hardware issue with an odd software workaround.

S9plus-user
Student
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My S9 plus is having the same issue. It was just green lines at first and now no more green lines and the screen is all black. So, I can’t see a thing anymore. Lowering my screen brightness didn’t solve my problem but in my case, I had to turn on AOD and only AOD could solve my black screen. Unfortunately , my phone is out of warranty period and getting a new screen will cost me more than $200 in my country. I am not even sure if it is still worth to pay again because the service here won’t guarantee their solution. Been a Samsung loyal user for so long and now I am not even sure I can still trust to buy next Samsung phone.  

JFAA
Student
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In my honest opinion this has become a ridiculous situation. This problem is affecting thousands of users around the world for an year and so far no official stand from Samsung other than a copy+paste bot reply asking us for a "soft reset". 
We pay quite a good amount of money for our phones and we expect a good experience from them and what we got now is a black screen and green lines after an Update coming from Samsung that utterly made our phones unusable. 
Would like to hear an opinion from Samsung if this is their new marketing strategy to make us buy new phones. 
After contacting Samsung support I got the same reply as an bot and of course they want to charge to access the situation.
This is affecting my trust in the brand and will share my opinion as wide as possible to keep costumers from buying phones that get faulty after one year. 

Renish
Journeyman
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I found that cooling the phone recovers the screen faster provided you do not switch on the screen till it cools. I cooled it using Ice pack, but this is not the solution it is just a work around.

 

Already see few of my friends moving away from Samsung just because of this issue do not want to risk paying so high for such a unreliable quality.

Only reason I spent so much was reliability and quality, but it appears like I was also wrong. Spending half on other brands will get similar features.

Now I can't even think of getting another Samsung phone for any one in my family.

 

I am sure everyone is facing this issue in S9, can't find anyone who is not getting this issue.

amulder87
First Poster
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Identical issue for me. It used to only happen when I unlocked it shortly after locking it, but after a few months of that, it will now go bad in the middle of use if the screen brightness is ever over ~20%. From around 20%-75% the screen is covered in black bars and tinted green or else entirely black except for a small green section on top. Above 75%, it's usable again, but the screen is tinted a weird color.

akan2397
First Poster
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From India,

I  am also having the same issue since yesterday, the screen is covered in black bars and tinted green. I also tried factory reset, but no help.

After using OLED Saver, phone is usable but screen is so dull.

Does Samsung have any solution for this, it's really disappointing after spending so much money?

Seems choosing Samsung over Apple or OnePlus was the wrong choice.

 

 
nl2asa
First Poster
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OLED saver did it for now but after so much time Samsung cant you fix this?

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