Rear camera-hardware detected, yet black image. Camera "bus" malfunctioning?
Hi
Half a year ago my girlfriend accidentally gave my Z3 Compact a rollercoaster ride in our washing machine (full tour). The screen broke, but it could turn on and everything looked fine (gave no errors) when connecting to HDMI.
Yesterday I received a replacement LCD, which gave it a new life. It seems that everything works except for the rear camera. When opening any camera-app, the HUD is visible, but image is black, and no error. If i switch to front camera, which works, and back to the rear camera, it shows a freezed image of the last image from the front camera.
I checked some debug-apps to see if it detects the camera-module, and it does. If it's connected, alle the specs of the camera is listed, and if disconnected, the module is not listed.
I then got a broken Z3 Compact from a friend, and I tested both rear camera modules in both phones. The modules are working in his phone, both doing the same black screen in mine.
I tried hard reset, PC Companion-repair, updates, clearing camera cache etc., but with no luck.
Do you have any suggestion to how I can fix this?
Do you know where on the motherboard I could look for dirt in relation to some "rear camera bus/chip"?
Thank you for any help!
Edit: And isn't it amazing that this phone works to this extend after 2½ hours in 60 degrees celcius (140 fahrenheit) warm water with soap and 1400rpm? Wow! (Btw., all panels were open, and screen totally broken, so water must have been everywhere in the phone.)
I have a similar issue on my partners z3c after the screen cracked, I have replaced the screen and it works great however the camera shows a black screen. I know the camera module is working as I have tried it in another phone. Having searched for this issue I seen it has effected quite a few others not only those who have opened their phone.
what software you used to debug so I can verify that the phone can also see the camera module
This is happening to me too a year down the line of ownership.
Replaced with new camera from eBay still black screen. Between your experience and mine of both testing the camera we've prices it's not the lens, so what could it be.
Need to fix don't know what to do
The camera module itself may work but the chip which handles the rear camera may be damaged even if the phone works pretty good.
So if the chip or anything else related to the camera is dead, you can even try thousands of camera modules from different phones on YOUR phone, none of them will work.
That's my opinion - guy's who work in electronical industry for 3,5 years now and have seen hunderds of differend kinds of damages on different stuff.
I see what you are saying however it would be nice to have an idea of where any chip/bus is that may be damaged to see if it xan be fixed or is replaceable.
romcio47 said:
The camera module itself may work but the chip which handles the rear camera may be damaged even if the phone works pretty good.
So if the chip or anything else related to the camera is dead, you can even try thousands of camera modules from different phones on YOUR phone, none of them will work.
That's my opinion - guy's who work in electronical industry for 3,5 years now and have seen hunderds of differend kinds of damages on different stuff.
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zackariah said:
I see what you are saying however it would be nice to have an idea of where any chip/bus is that may be damaged to see if it xan be fixed or is replaceable.
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Yes, you are 100% right but there's another thing.
In the present times, in a rush of miniaturization, there's a little chance of such reapair to be profitable. The chip/bus may be damaged but in fact not only one thing may be dead... I'm talking about tiny little resistors, capacitors, diodes, transistors (if there are any on the motherboard...) which are many. I'm not saying it won't be possible to repair the phone but without a proper diagnosis what is damaged... I'd be like looking for a needle in a haysack and everyone can tell you that only replacing the whole motherboard will be worth the time.
But still... this is an interesting case of malfunction... I hope you'll find a solution for this or at least someone else will do it for you for a reasonable price.
Related
My device fell down and now my camera misbehaves.
First all camera apps just crashed, screens black.
Then there were just still pictures, sometimes false color or just one color, like magenta all over the screen.
Sometimes picture split in strange ways, doubled and so on.
Now if I smack the phone with the top softly to some hard underground whilst the cam app is running the camera sometimes works.
Sounds if something is loose to me?
But I looked at disassembly on iFixit and I can not see any cables.
Is it fixable? What do you think?
DarsVaeda said:
My device fell down and now my camera misbehaves.
First all camera apps just crashed, screens black.
Then there were just still pictures, sometimes false color or just one color, like magenta all over the screen.
Sometimes picture split in strange ways, doubled and so on.
Now if I smack the phone with the top softly to some hard underground whilst the cam app is running the camera sometimes works.
Sounds if something is loose to me?
But I looked at disassembly on iFixit and I can not see any cables.
Is it fixable? What do you think?
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It is definetly fixable. HTC fixed mine, even tho i was running a custom rom, they didn't care. As for fixing it yourself: It has something to do with the logic board. I heard they could be quite expensive.
Yeah sure the manufactor could fix it, but I have no warranty left and might probably be expensive.
Thought more about fixing myself. Logic board...yep guess the cam sits on it and I have to exchange it.
Maybe not worth it too
I broke my screen last week , it fell and was damaged, and the camera stopped working too. I fixed the screen, but the camera is still offline, tried to change the rom, but no changes., i am getting the "Error, camera not available". When i click on camera icon, it shows a black screen after some delay and then right away an error message pops up with "Error! Camera not available". When i load this from any application, such as snapchat or instagram, it crashes the application. Has anyone dealt with such issue before? Give me some hope, what could be wrong.
The camera was not working even before i replaced the screen. (The screen repair was good, i made sure nothing was touched that should'nt be touched.
The phone's proximity sensor seems to be a bit off too, the phone also vibrates ( like it received a text message) randomly.
Unrelated issue: the screen i install has a round ring that appears if i press the screen to hard at a certain spot. it's not too annoying but it is there.
Broken flat cable, broken camera. Physical damage.
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Free mobile app
electrash said:
Broken flat cable, broken camera. Physical damage.
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Free mobile app
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Ah! what do you think , can it be saved DIY?
marksee said:
Ah! what do you think , can it be saved DIY?
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Well i didnt opet Z1 before, so i dont know if you can only replace flat cable (if that is problem) or you must replace whole camera module.
Best bet is to give to service center, probably they will put new module on it, and its best in my opinion.
electrash said:
Well i didnt opet Z1 before, so i dont know if you can only replace flat cable (if that is problem) or you must replace whole camera module.
Best bet is to give to service center, probably they will put new module on it, and its best in my opinion.
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Most likely put a new module in there as the modules are machine made are probably solid.
Status Update
So i opened the phone again, and seems like i was able to fix the screen issue.
Issue of camera remains. I removed the camera from the socket, and disconnected its wire from the motherboard. When i accessed camera without wire connected, it straigth away went to "ERROR. Camera not available. Earlier, when wire was connected, it took about 5 seconds and then outputted the Error. Flash/ Front camera are still not accessible or usable even when front camera was plugged out.
Weird vibrations are felt randomly, i am still trying to pinpoint what causes them, but they have decreased significantly.
My question now is, will replacing the camera fix the camera issue? Or is there a deeper wire/motherboard issue here? What would be your next step to investigate it further. Also, can this be not a broken screen issue but a camera issue covered in warrantly?
Additional info: i have tried reinstalling ROM, flashed T-mobile's original ftf file, cleared camera cache, files etc. used 3rd party apps but no success.
#####SOLVED: SCREEN HAS WEIRD FLOATIES WHEN WE TOUCH AREA NEAR THEM
This is caused because of dust between the digitizer and the back of the phone. To fix this, simply open the phone up and remove any dust particles between the digitizer and the phone. Screen will work perfectly after that.
JustPlayingHard said:
Most likely put a new module in there as the modules are machine made are probably solid.
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When you say module? you mean the camera with the connection wire ? or something more than that?
marksee said:
When you say module? you mean the camera with the connection wire ? or something more than that?
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The camera with connection wire
Update: so bluetooth call recieving does not work, people call me, and if i pick it up, voice does not work over bluetooth anymore. music skips randomly too. My question was that will camera module replacement fix this? or is this a deeper issue, such as cable that connects the camera module? what will i need to replace .
I don't think that anybody here could answer your questions. You should take your phone tot a service center.
Sent from my C6903 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
SOLVED it.
Fixed it! The issue was that the back camera module was malfunctioning. Because of that, phone chip that controls camera (also controls vibrations) was not functioning properly. I bought a used camera module from ebay, plugged it in and phone works perfectly now
Feel free to pm me if anyone else has questions about this, or need help dismantling phone. Xperia Z1s I AM BACK!!!
Is it the camera module or some kind of motherboard?
I'm confused it works well from the freezer and I want to replace the faulty part but don't know what the faulty part is.
Opened it up earlier today only damaged the case slightly and it took 10 mins.
vrsdroid said:
Is it the camera module or some kind of motherboard?
I'm confused it works well from the freezer and I want to replace the faulty part but don't know what the faulty part is.
Opened it up earlier today only damaged the case slightly and it took 10 mins.
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The problem is with the Camera Module. HTC confirmed this as a manufacturing defect, they would have fixed it for free.
Anyway to the best of my knowledge the problem was inadequate heat shielding for the Camera Module. Over time heat from the phones internal components (Processor, Battery etc) damages the lens inside the Camera Module producing the purple hue you see in your images. The warmer the device the worse it looks hence the reason it works ok after being in the freezer.
I sent my to HTC for repair I don't know exactly what they did but it came back good as new and so far the problem has not returned. Maybe they replaced it with an upgraded camera module or the same module but improved the heat shielding. Or maybe they just put the same module back in and the problem will return although I've never heard of it coming back after a HTC repair, only time will tell I suppose.
if you removed the back you can lift the camera and insert a thermal insulator , without having
to take apart everything ; you can put a thin plastic .
i could put a small circular magnet behind the camera myself when i was trying to fix the focus problem ,
there is some room.
Also put your phone in power saver it could help for the high temps.
Thanks for the replys, I did try lifting the camera even inserted something to the back of it and left it hanging out it still had the problem so I guess it just needs replacing May aswell replace the battery while I'm at it!
Thanks again
Quick update, I jjust replaced the camera module and it still has the pink tint now I'm lost anyone have any idea what's going on?
Does anyone know what is going on? perfect camera during the day but still pink/purple at night or dark I thought this would have been fixed after changing the module but obviously not is there anything else i can try?
And for those who have taken apart the camera module whats with the little sensor type thing on the camera modules ribbon? is that where the problem lies? a little square box lies beneath the copper heatshield it looks just like a megapixel sensor but is completely covered up.
My Nexus 6 seems to have an issue from day one and is still present with the 5.0.1 update and the most recent camera update. I'm unlocked and unencrypted.
When using the camera, any camera app, the viewfinder and ultimately the photo/video comes out blurry when shooting in landscape. If i shoot in portrait, the viewfinder and the photos are sharp.
In landscape is starts clear and sharp and then quickly changes to being blurry. Even resting the phone on a still surface it is always blurry. Lighting conditions or shooting mode don't make any difference.
I attached two photos showing the difference, both handheld.
It's almost like something is wrong with the OIS in landscape. Hardware issue?
did you touch to focus or did you just point and shoot?
simms22 said:
did you touch to focus or did you just point and shoot?
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touch to focus... it actually begins to focus and then it looks like the sensor is shaking on the screen and shows up in the photos. I have no issues at all when in portrait mode.
This even happens when the camera is sitting on a still surface so its not my hand shaking.
This is with the camera sitting stationary on my desk and a 10/sec timer
mine did the exact same thing. the OIS never fully settles due to a hardware defect. i got a new one from T-Mo and returned my defective one and the problem has gone away.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=57450996&postcount=78
Lucke said:
mine did the exact same thing. the OIS never fully settles due to a hardware defect. i got a new one from T-Mo and returned my defective one and the problem has gone away.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=57450996&postcount=78
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Thanks for the info and helping verify its a hardware issue. guess I will be calling T-MO then. Where they hard to convince in replacing it?
drwolcot said:
Thanks for the info and helping verify its a hardware issue. guess I will be calling T-MO then. Where they hard to convince in replacing it?
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i was lucky to call and complain about it within the 14 day buyers remorse period so they could send me a brand new one instead of a possible refurbished one, but it was like pulling teeth with them. i had to explain that it was a hardware issue several times before they agreed to send me another one. after several phone calls later in the next few days, i finally got someone who was willing to do it then and there while on the phone.
good luck :good:
I have about the same problem with my more then 1 year old Nexus 6. After my nexus 6 fell of my bed (with a tpu case and no visible damage) it seems that i can only get the camera to properly focus while holding it at 90 degrees (so with the camera sensor towards my right hand) and while holding it at 180 degrees (so upside down) 0 and 270 degrees (camera towards left hand) the camera focusses, during the focussing it's focused for like a fraction of second and then the blurriness/vibration starts, in both camera and video mode.
So thanks for this topic, i guess i'm ordering a replacement camera module.
Replacing the camera module has fixed my focusing problem. The module itself was around 13 dollars on aliexpress. For anyone that's facing focussing/ois problems with the camera, you can easily replace the module yourself.
Hello everyone, I'd like to say thanks for checking out my thread :good:
About a week ago, I dropped my phone into a ceramic floor with the back facing down. The drop sounded loud however the phone looks intact.
A few checks later, I can confirm the phone is OK, except for both cameras and the flash.
The back camera doesn't work (the Camera app just crashes, Diagnostic shows Camera Not Connected), the front camera doesn't display anything (Diagnostic shows completely black picture) and the flash does not turn on.
I'm currently sourcing parts for testing, but I'm wondering if it's possible that the software may be the cause as well?
Although the phone didn't restart (it still worked fine, minutes before it dropped) I wanted to make sure.
Also, as a double check, I tried OpenCamera and it shows black. There's no "switch camera" option so I think it's showing the front camera.
Once again, thank you for checking my thread
Your motherboard is toast. I have a Z2 with water damage. At first it seemed like the camera module got damaged, but on closer inspection, it has the same problem as your Z3+, all things camera related stopped working. There's no easy fix, you either re-ball whatever chips got loose or replace the motherboard.
Maybe you need to replace only the camera, because I had approximately same problem
I had the same problem, it was enough to replace the camera module for me.
hi I know this is old thread but I just have the same problem,have you fix this?
replace the back camera will solve this problem or must replace both front and back camera?