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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
Schrute
First Poster
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Hey All! I have been experiencing this frustrating issue for the past couple weeks. Samsung support told me the screen was damaged and I need to pay $200 to replace it. However, I came across another chat where someone (frustrated grad student) figured out how to go around it. 

Turn on ‘Always on Display' then when you you are trying to unlock the phone instead of pressing the side power button double tap the screen and then use fingerprint sensor to unlock. 

This has worked for me everytime. Thank you Frustrated grad student! This clearly seems to be a software problem. 

Hope this helps the rest of you.

 

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mmedia1
First Poster
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Isn't it amazing that a company can just disregard its paying customers?  This problem is a blatant insult to the consumer who has put down good money for a product & basically been ignored when the product becomes crippled by no doing of their own.

The community has been crying out for help for what appears to be a number of years on this problem & not once has Samsung offered any assistance in this matter.  The AOD workaround does work, but is lame to have to do that as a permanent thing.

This is very similar to the problem with the S8/S9 audio engine snaps and crackles that were introduced after an Android update when used by low latency apps like gaming apps & music production apps. No fix ever happened.   Total waste of an otherwise pretty nice device.

Thanks all who contributed here & tried to help.  Kudos to the frustrated grad student!

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Parag07
Student
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Hello Samsung,

I am your new member with S9 series screen issues in your ever growing list. Please look into this issue in your next software update before you loose trust of another one. 

My phone is perfectly fine with no hardware issues but only works when brightness is reduced.  When i restart my phone your samsung logo appears perfectly bright without any distortion proving there is no hardware problem.

Big thank you to community members for sharing this brilliant work around.

I'm sure Samsung are not as deaf as they are acting.

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mmedia1
First Poster
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I wouldn't hold out hope @Parag07 .

The phone is old and software updates stopped last year. Probably 0 chance Samsung will do anything about this.  They have never even acknowledged the problem.... why would they now.

Actually, appears Android changed something in release 9, 10 that caused the hardware to behave this way.  While Google may fix whatever they did to break it in 9, 10, now there is no way to get 11 or later onto the device unless maybe you do it manually.  Its just a hopeless catch-22 situation. Either use the AOD workaround or repurpose it as a music player in your gym or 2nd streaming camera - LOL. 

 

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KidsSeeGhosts
First Poster
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You are awesome!!!

Always on truck solved the issue for me

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Parag07
Student
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Hi Everyone,

I had green screen problem, but by increasing the brightness as mentioned above atleast made the phone usable. 

I just received Android 10 patch for March today (21/3/22).

Not sure if anybody is brave enough to download this patch.

I am worried if this patch totally kills the phone and our work around wont work anymore.

Thanks for the help guys.

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dr41k
First Poster
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I'm having the same issues and AOD is my magical "fix", except for calls.

You'd imagine not being able to handle calls would be considered as a critical issue to address, regardless of the device's age. It's clearly a software issue, and they just choose to ignore it.

Absolutely disappointed. I keep searching for solutions but only hit dead ends. Do we need to actually sue them to have a SOFTWARE issue fixed?

Members_cYFILHP
Student
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I absolutely agree: even if Samsung considers this a hardware issue, there are two problems:
- this issue affects a lot! of users (Samsung should even consider offering an out-of-warranty screen fix/replacement to save the reputation of the brand)
- there is a usable software workaround (AOD) for it, except during calls

Unable to normally handle calls is a must for a phone. A 3-4 years old flagship device should really not become unusable because of this. The AOD workaround is acceptable for a lot of users - since screen replacement is financially not viable at this point in the device's lifetime.

But if there is no viable solution for this issue, this means a lot of (otherwise perfect) devices are going to reach their end around 3 years. Not really in line with EU's current plans on environment protection.

So Samsung: please at least give us an option in the Phone application that activates AOD (or the commands that AOD issues to the display - that heals the screen) when the screen is blanked by the proximity sensor during calls! Otherwise we are simply unable to do anything with the phone until it gets to AOD again. Which normally is only happening after the calling party on the other side ends the call - quite ridiculous for a flagship phone. 

A small help for this case is to go to the Phone app's Settings | "Answering and ending calls" and enable the "Press Power key to end" and "Press Volume up to answer" options.
This way at least the call can be ended.

p.s.: I contacted the local Samsung customer service (in an EU country), sent them the link to this page, and asked them to try to lobby for this fix.

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amit11
First Poster
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Has anyone tried device rooting/reinstalling android/firmware update ?

If its a software issue, i think it can be fixed ?

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sranjeet
First Poster
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samsung says hardware issue, but for many it looks as software issue.. I am facing same issue and would like to root or do firmware update..

For now I am using following workaround.

- Keeping adaptive brightness on whenever screen goes black . Take your phone in a bright light area, it will increase brightness to maximum and screen will come up. Or try to expose the phone's light sensor in front of artificial light if daylight is not there.

 

- I have also remembered the position where the brightness bar is and I slide the top menu down and touch the position of max brightness.

None of the other suggestions in the thread works for me.

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