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.

[Avi Rocks]

Really! man facing the same issue, Samsung just sell their products at higher prices but they don't give product worth that price that we are paying. Got my S9 9 months ago and its showing green-screen issue and screen flickering. Really disappointed! with Samsung Phone experience.  

[Samuel999]

One more here - AOD also solves but that's totally unacceptable to face this in a so much expensive device!

[Marko3]

Thanks. Useful tip. Was just about to spend a lot on a new phone.

[VBPhilomath]

I am also having this problem. It always seems to happen if I'm on a long phone call. Letting it cool down seems to fix the problem. It works fine, otherwise, but I'm going to start looking for a new phone. There's no rush, but I don't need the annoyance.

[SR-M3]

Yes , i am also facing the same issue, its temporary resolved with oled saver , but cant view videos in 720p or 1080p in YouTube. disgusting , Been 19 Months since purchase. This is first time i have switched to samsung from Huawei. I was very skeptic , but still i trusted the screen quality of samsung ignoring battery backup and heating issue. But to my surprise this what i get 'a Flagship phone which has just lasted 19 months. Worst , Even My previous phones Lenovo , Honor 8 pro are still running fine just a battery change.  Even though i never played games just surfing and youtube. 

Trust me , I am leaving Samsung Brand, Never Ever Gonna Recommend Samsung phones in my circle. 

[JPTiger]

I just took my phone with this issue in to a ubreakifix store in the US and they had an interesting theory: the screen has come very, very slightly disconnected from the motherboard. Unfortunately because of their contract with samsung, if they tried to reseat it and that didn't fix it, they'd have to replace the screen, which costs more than a used S9 at this point, so I don't want to risk it. But maybe someone in another country where that's not the case could try?

[MacD]

Thank you so much! I had same issues. 

My screen started flickering and streaks of black  and green and at the same time, the touch screen wasn't (or barely) working. 

A factory reset proved not to be helpful.

Adaptive brightness was on. I have to say I had never set up bixby so my phone wouldn't listen to me ;-). Thus I couldn't reduce brightness via Bixby. To be able to adjust the brightness, you have to cover the very top part of the phone so as to cover the light sensor. In my case, the visibility on the screen was enough to go to settings/display and deselect 'adaptive brightness' in favour of 'basic' screen mode. Note that the touch screen was still not responsive as usual but manageable. Brightness was reduced to the minimum and suddenly touch screen responsiveness was back to the old normal.

Then I downloaded the latest 'Samsung update' and 'BANG!' my phone was back to NORMAL....

I guess, very often, this is a firmware issue and there is no need to change any physical parts. 

Hope this can help!

[JPTiger]

Wow @MacD, you're the first person I've seen online who find a software fix! Could you please tell us what country you're in and what the software version is on your phone after the firmware update (settings> software update> last update)? If you could screenshot/ copy the current version number(s) that would potentially really help a lot of people.

[MacD]

Hi @JPTiger! Sorry for late reply. I'm very sorry to tell you that my happiness was really short-lived. After 2 days of my update, I had to deal with the same issue. Brightness is set to the lowest again and I am straining my eyes to read any notifications on this phone. Btw, my phone was bought in UAE and I live in Mauritius. The latest update: Android security patch level: 1 Apr 2021.

[MacD]