Database Develop

Defective light sensor

Hi all,
I picked my nexus 7 up yesterday and had a play around with it in the afternoon at work. When I got home it wouldn't turn on though. It appeared as though it was booting fine but the screen wouldn't turn on after boot.
A little googling around and I found a few threads describing the same situation blaming the problem on the automatic brightness settings.
I've reset the device to factory twice and even flashed the factory firmware again in hopes that it was a software problem. Alas nothing has fixed it. When the device is in dim lit areas the screen refuses to turn on. If the brightness is set to manual then there isn't a problem with the general use of the device although I did notice that the global brightness settings didn't seem to apply to some apps (Google Movies) and the screen liked to turn off while watching videos.
Anyway just wanted to put it out there that I believe this is another hardware problem that some people may dismiss without too much thought and use manual brightness.
Regards
stidnam

Literally the same exact thing happened to me. Contacted google and they're replacing it

I have the exact problem!! At least you can initialise your device when unbox
I don't even have a chance to do that, as the screen light always turns off!!
I have contacted google for replacement, but it just takes me long time for a further response!
How disappointed!

Hmm, I would run GPS Status and Toolbox and test out the light sensor with that. If there is a hardware issue, the sensor probably won't detect light change at all.

I think had this problem, took it back to the store I bought it from the next morning
When I turned the screen brightness down manually, at a certain point and below, the backlight doesn't seem to be on?
The sales guy said it was a backlight issue and had no issues replacing it straight away
Got another one no problem, and tested in store and its behaving fine

[Q] odd bright flash when waking phone

I bought a new note 3 yesterday and I am noticing when I wake the phone I get a very quick bright flash of the screen before the lock screen appears. I believe the phone is trying to find the correct brightness level. When I turn auto brightness off the flash does not occur. Has anyone else seen this or could it be an issue with my hardware? any info would be greatly appreciated.

Hi,
I have the exact problem with my N900A as well. I don't have a solution either.

bschai said:
Hi,
I have the exact problem with my N900A as well. I don't have a solution either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it is just a software issue with auto brightness. If I turn auto brightness off it does not give the bright flash. I wonder if alot of people have this happening or if its a defect.

Yes I only have that issue with auto bright turned on so I believe that's the cause

Weirdest black screen issue, tried everything ....

Non rooted, T mobile branded 3 month old note 8. No water damange, no drops etc.
Using chrome one miniute, set the phone down to watch a movie on my tablet, picked up the phone to check messages and boom. Screen is off. The phone works, I can even answer calls because I know where the answer button is on the screen, haptic feedback works, all indicator lights work. The phone screen remains off.
Tried a soft reset (tried hard reset too the best I could being I cant see the screen) and the phone seems to reset based on the vibration and indicator light patters but the screen remains off. It's as if a physical connection between the screen and the brains of the phone has been severed. Literaraly the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a decade of Android phone ownership.
Googled all the black screen issues with these phones and most of them are resolved with just a soft reset... some said that the phone is in it's lowest dimmed state and go to a dark room and i'll see it faintly and then can increase brightness... no luck...
Has anyone experienced this?

I would say it's a warranty job, just tried turning my brightness to zero and you can still see the screen.
I did have a similar problem on an old note that had root and custom rom though but I had somehow set the volume rocker to control brightness and it had lowered itself to minimum in my pocket

KEVIN88GT said:
Non rooted, T mobile branded 3 month old note 8. No water damange, no drops etc.
Using chrome one miniute, set the phone down to watch a movie on my tablet, picked up the phone to check messages and boom. Screen is off. The phone works, I can even answer calls because I know where the answer button is on the screen, haptic feedback works, all indicator lights work. The phone screen remains off.
Tried a soft reset (tried hard reset too the best I could being I cant see the screen) and the phone seems to reset based on the vibration and indicator light patters but the screen remains off. It's as if a physical connection between the screen and the brains of the phone has been severed. Literaraly the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a decade of Android phone ownership.
Googled all the black screen issues with these phones and most of them are resolved with just a soft reset... some said that the phone is in it's lowest dimmed state and go to a dark room and i'll see it faintly and then can increase brightness... no luck...
Has anyone experienced this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try pressing and holding Volume down and power button for 5 to 7 seconds to force power off, then try to boot to download mode Volume Down + Bixby + Power button and see if the download mode screen shows......if not then probably a bad screen.
Sent from my God Mode 8

Tried it......nothing.....warranty job it is.... Bummed to have some refurnished phone in exchange for a Brand new 900 dollar phone just a few months back?

KEVIN88GT said:
Tried it......nothing.....warranty job it is.... Bummed to have some refurnished phone in exchange for a Brand new 900 dollar phone just a few months back?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah that sucks, i can imagine..... i too hate the idea of refurbished units being swapped for warranty....bs, should be brand new unit!
Sent from my God Mode 8

so I had it replaced under warranty through T mobile. Refurb phone will come in today. One quesion. Should I let the Tmobile techs do the data/settings transfer from old phone to new one or just do everything myself from scratch (which will obviously take longer).

This happened to my phone twice for the past month or so. (both in Nougat and Oreo - Non rooted) Black screen but phone seems to be responding -- I can receive calls and notifications etc -- And force reboot doesn't fix it. I've also tried drainging the phone when it first happened to me but doesn't work. HOWEVER, it gets okay so randomly. Like I just left it for couple of hours and it just worked when I hit the power button.
I did tried bringing the device to Samsung but what they did is to just manually upgrade/reset the software in their end which I could have done in my part but I just let them do it. They told me to come back if it happens again which is kinda BS.
I can conveniently say this is a Hardware issue. I will wait for it to happen again on my phone and request for a replacement. Phone is 4 months old when it first happened.

I have the same issue with blank screen but phone is working.
It started couple of weeks after i dropped my phone on the ground. There is black dot on my screen and broken glass but phone was working ok and was still pretty usable. But then it started:
Display works fine but when i switch display of, lock the phone or display switched because of its timer it didn come switch on... But phone works, i can use it with blank (black) screen.
I had to do force restart so the display will turn on with samsung logo and booting screen, and keep on till another switch of.
I was trying every setting (but no hard reset) and then i found a little hack:
When you turn on the "Always On Display" (AOD) function you can let the screen switch off or do it manually, wait for 1-2 sec and always on display will come up to the screen. Then when you press home button or lock button screen will swtich on normally. YOu can type pin and use phone witch screen working. But when you try to unlock from "AOD" with your finger or your eyes it unlock but with screen black.
So i was using it like this. everytime you need to wait second untill AOD comes up, but it was working fine.
Problem nu 2 is that now it stop working, AOD is working but when i want to switch screen on from AOD it shows black screen and phone is working on blind.
So everytime after my screen goes black or to AOD i have to unlock the phone blindly and "Force restart" it and have to keep waiting until boot, and then have to never let phone to screen of.
Its not usuable.
¨
Now what do you think? Is it hardware problem or software problem? Because screen is working but randomly. The black dot of dead pixels on the screen is getting slightly bigger in time (about 1 year) but its like 1.5cm round. Maybe this cause the problem? And why hack with AOD was working for half a year and then stoped working? There wasnt any updates right before, but i tried to install some apps (non display related) so ill try to uninstall them.
Hawe you got any idea if i can repair it on my own even if i loose the waterproofability?
Or can it be replaced for free if i have a warranty? (I dont have insurance)
Thanks for your tips guys.

Reprocrastinator said:
I have the same issue with blank screen but phone is working.
It started couple of weeks after i dropped my phone on the ground. There is black dot on my screen and broken glass but phone was working ok and was still pretty usable. But then it started:
Display works fine but when i switch display of, lock the phone or display switched because of its timer it didn come switch on... But phone works, i can use it with blank (black) screen.
I had to do force restart so the display will turn on with samsung logo and booting screen, and keep on till another switch of.
I was trying every setting (but no hard reset) and then i found a little hack:
When you turn on the "Always On Display" (AOD) function you can let the screen switch off or do it manually, wait for 1-2 sec and always on display will come up to the screen. Then when you press home button or lock button screen will swtich on normally. YOu can type pin and use phone witch screen working. But when you try to unlock from "AOD" with your finger or your eyes it unlock but with screen black.
So i was using it like this. everytime you need to wait second untill AOD comes up, but it was working fine.
Problem nu 2 is that now it stop working, AOD is working but when i want to switch screen on from AOD it shows black screen and phone is working on blind.
So everytime after my screen goes black or to AOD i have to unlock the phone blindly and "Force restart" it and have to keep waiting until boot, and then have to never let phone to screen of.
Its not usuable.
¨
Now what do you think? Is it hardware problem or software problem? Because screen is working but randomly. The black dot of dead pixels on the screen is getting slightly bigger in time (about 1 year) but its like 1.5cm round. Maybe this cause the problem? And why hack with AOD was working for half a year and then stoped working? There wasnt any updates right before, but i tried to install some apps (non display related) so ill try to uninstall them.
Hawe you got any idea if i can repair it on my own even if i loose the waterproofability?
Or can it be replaced for free if i have a warranty? (I dont have insurance)
Thanks for your tips guys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're under warranty it will likely be a free repair, unless they find other damage. Like moisture damage.
As far as fixing it yourself, it's just about as cheap to have Samsung do it than it is to buy the parts yourself. It's $229 for Samsung to do it, and you'll maintain the water resistance rating.

same has happened to me
KEVIN88GT said:
Non rooted, T mobile branded 3 month old note 8. No water damange, no drops etc.
Using chrome one miniute, set the phone down to watch a movie on my tablet, picked up the phone to check messages and boom. Screen is off. The phone works, I can even answer calls because I know where the answer button is on the screen, haptic feedback works, all indicator lights work. The phone screen remains off.
Tried a soft reset (tried hard reset too the best I could being I cant see the screen) and the phone seems to reset based on the vibration and indicator light patters but the screen remains off. It's as if a physical connection between the screen and the brains of the phone has been severed. Literaraly the weirdest thing that has happened to me in a decade of Android phone ownership.
Googled all the black screen issues with these phones and most of them are resolved with just a soft reset... some said that the phone is in it's lowest dimmed state and go to a dark room and i'll see it faintly and then can increase brightness... no luck...
Has anyone experienced this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has just happened to my note 8 too. I was about to update it and had started it. set my phone down and picked it up and phone screen is black but can hear the haptic feedback.

I can only see the lock screen and the notifications. Everytime I try to unlock my phone I only get to see a glimpse of the notescreen and then the screen turns black. Even when I try to go to camera through the lock screen the screen goes black too. When I charge my phone it heats up so I haven't really charged it as well. Has this also happened to anyone? It seems as if the phone's sensitivity still works in all places but when I unlock it the screen just goes black.

I also have problem of freezings and always rebooting. Tried soft and hard resets/factory reset. Still same problem. This phone has hardware issue. Do not buy.

I realize this thread is quite old but I have this exact same issue now. I have managed to discover some other information by playing around with various settings which are noted below. To begin with, I was able to used the AOD hack posted above for a while but it no longer works. The only way I can get my screen to come back is with a soft reset - but as soon as the screen times out or i turn it off, it goes black, with or without AOD enable. All the on screen buttons still work as well as the haptic feedback - I just can't see anything.
Now on to what I have found:
One thing I have found is if I turn off adaptive screen brightness and crank the brightness slider to the right, when it goes black I can faintly see some of the buttons - enough that I can turn the phone off or restart it from the power menu (If I switch the default setting to night that also helps to see the buttons a bit better). Also, if I enable night mode I can also see the brightness slider faintly but when I slide it left, it just makes the screen completely black and when I slide it right, it only returns it to the very faint brightness level.
So at this point I am stuck. To summarize the issue:
1. When the screen either times out or turns off, it is still "alive" but goes black. It will not return to normal brightness.
2. Turning off adaptive brightness and cranking brightness slider to right allows you to see faint buttons after screen times out but won't return to normal brightness.
3. Enabling night mode helps to see the faint buttons, in particular the brightness slider a bit better. However the screen still cannot return to normal brightness.
4. The only way to get the screen back to full brightness (albeit temporarily until the next timeout) is to turn off the phone or reset from the power menu; or soft reset holding volume down + power simultaneously.
Hopefully someone else has figured out a way to recover this. I am on Android 9 with Samsung UI 1.0
Phone is completely stock, never rooted and completely out of warranty.

Automatically lower brightness

I have k 20 pro Indian variant, full stock, no root ,etc, i have a problem, my screen brightness automatically lowers whenever i exit the game mode and sometimes randomly too ,i have disabled auto brightness option as well as DC dimming option;
I also noticed that the screen is on warmer side, i have nokia 7 plus and i opened white wall paper on both the devices, and k20 pro shows warmer image, and nokia 7 plus is showing a proper white image, i have tried all 2 colour modes in display settings, but its still showing warmer image.
I tried hard reset also.
Can anyone tell is these things are hardware fault or its just software problem with everybody device.
K20 pro, MIUI global 10.3.3.0 stable

I assume it should be a hardware related issue.

As far as I am concerned, brightness change could be related to software. For me it happens since I installed Xiaomi EU beta. Of course this shouldn't even happen in your situation but who knows.
Warmer images, as Anand_theGeek says, this should be related to hardware problem.

Same happens to me. This is a F******g sh****t
It is a problem with EU beta

I also noticed that front camera is making face red while clicking selfie, if i cover my face then camera is showing actual colours, but when it recognizes face in the frame it automatically turns the face red, i also disabled all beauty footers but seems there is something wrong with camera software, because gcam port is not showing red face in front camera, can anybody confirm if they are also facing this issue.
Sent from my Nokia 7 plus using XDA-Developers Legacy app

CoñoWilly said:
Same happens to me. This is a F******g sh****t
It is a problem with EU beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ç
It happens to me too

CoñoWilly said:
ç
It happens to me too
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, after 2 days I suddenly noticed the display has a rather warmer white tint.
Compared it with my Poco, and there is a substantial difference between the two phones, whereas the MI 9T PRO, almost has a yellowish white.
I did noticed that, when rebooting, the display is "normal" for a second,and then turns to yellowish.
Still on stock rom, bootloader locked.
Edit: it is gone, suddenly the whites on my screen returned to normal. I was already thinking it had something to do with the automatic brightness combined with the Night Mode settings.

you guys using auto brightness mode ?

Aimara said:
you guys using auto brightness mode ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes yes

mikey1975 said:
Same here, after 2 days I suddenly noticed the display has a rather warmer white tint.
Compared it with my Poco, and there is a substantial difference between the two phones, whereas the MI 9T PRO, almost has a yellowish white.
I did noticed that, when rebooting, the display is "normal" for a second,and then turns to yellowish.
Still on stock rom, bootloader locked.
Edit: it is gone, suddenly the whites on my screen returned to normal. I was already thinking it had something to do with the automatic brightness combined with the Night Mode settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here. Sometimes even if I use cold colours in display settings, I get verey very yellowish whites. And sometimes not. Using increased cotrast is the same thing
I'm not using DC Dimming, auto brightness, reading/night mode. It is very strange..

Still no solution for this??

CameraLightSensor

Anyone having CameraLightSensor battery drain?
Edit: it is 4g Exynos model, latest firmware

I just checked and I do not see it on mine at all. T-mobile version.

No battery drain on mine either.

Possibly disable the face unlock, its going to save alot of battery for you.

coolmaster121 said:
Possibly disable the face unlock, its going to save alot of battery for you.
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Click to collapse
Don't have it enabled, it seems it is auto brightness

Off topic: could you tell me what kind of SoT you're getting? There are no replies yet in the official thread and I'm interested in the Exynos version.

Pufanu said:
Off topic: could you tell me what kind of SoT you're getting? There are no replies yet in the official thread and I'm interested in the Exynos version.
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Click to collapse
4 hours sot max

dzontra83 said:
4 hours sot max
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Click to collapse
Ouch! That's on 120hz, I assume. I was half-expecting that. Thanks.

Pufanu said:
Ouch! That's on 120hz, I assume. I was half-expecting that. Thanks.
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Click to collapse
Yup, will report tomorrow with auto brightness turned off, because today CameraLightSensor was running in the background for almost 9 hours.

dzontra83 said:
Yup, will report tomorrow with auto brightness turned off, because today CameraLightSensor was running in the background for almost 9 hours.
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Click to collapse
That's definitely not right. Hope you get it sorted out.

Pufanu said:
That's definitely not right. Hope you get it sorted out.
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Click to collapse
I know, don't know where to start, so first step is to disable auto brightness....

dzontra83 said:
I know, don't know where to start, so first step is to disable auto brightness....
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Click to collapse
It definitely seems to be auto brightness, I turned it off, charged the phone to 100%, and today CameraLightSensor it not showing in the battery usage at all.

dzontra83 said:
Yup, will report tomorrow with auto brightness turned off, because today CameraLightSensor was running in the background for almost 9 hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing on my T-Mobile model - 3.1% over 9 hours. I have not checked my unlocked model, as its still in the box.
Have you noticed the 'ring" of pixels around the camera changing color to black when using the phone? I notice it mostly when browsing the web, or on a phone call.
Hard to describe what it is, but a "ring" about 5 px wide turns black or dark grey around the front camera just for a second. Is that the light sensor thing?
---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------
Interesting - I read an article about samsung using the camera instead of a sensor in new phones to detect the ambient brightness. The phone will take a picture, adjust the brightness, then the picture is permanently deleted. I guess that flash of the ring around the camera is the phone doing that to see what the light levels are in the room.
I turned off auto brightness and that ring flashing has stopped.

fncd said:
Same thing on my T-Mobile model - 3.1% over 9 hours. I have not checked my unlocked model, as its still in the box.
Have you noticed the 'ring" of pixels around the camera changing color to black when using the phone? I notice it mostly when browsing the web, or on a phone call.
Hard to describe what it is, but a "ring" about 5 px wide turns black or dark grey around the front camera just for a second. Is that the light sensor thing?
---------- Post added at 12:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:27 PM ----------
Interesting - I read an article about samsung using the camera instead of a sensor in new phones to detect the ambient brightness. The phone will take a picture, adjust the brightness, then the picture is permanently deleted. I guess that flash of the ring around the camera is the phone doing that to see what the light levels are in the room.
I turned off auto brightness and that ring flashing has stopped.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Definitely when you turn off auto brightness, the CameraLightSensor is not working in the background. But it must be a software glitch, it should be active only when the screen is on, it shouldn't be active while the device is in sleep.

dzontra83 said:
Definitely when you turn off auto brightness, the CameraLightSensor is not working in the background. But it must be a software glitch, it should be active only when the screen is on, it shouldn't be active while the device is in sleep.
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Click to collapse
I spoke too soon. Even with auto brightness turned off, the flashing ring of pixels around the camera still persist. ?
Edit: Sent in an error report along with two of them about the screen sensitivity issues.

Just checked my S20 FE 5G variant and it too has the CameraLightSensor draining at 2.8% for a total background usage of 8hrs and 28 minutes
(Snapdragon)

dzontra83 said:
It definitely seems to be auto brightness, I turned it off, charged the phone to 100%, and today CameraLightSensor it not showing in the battery usage at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How many hours SOT after auto-brightness is turned off please?
My country will only have the 4G Exynos type too.

fncd said:
I spoke too soon. Even with auto brightness turned off, the flashing ring of pixels around the camera still persist.
Edit: Sent in an error report along with two of them about the screen sensitivity issues.
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Click to collapse
Flashing ring of pixels around the camera???

ChildishSmef said:
Flashing ring of pixels around the camera???
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Click to collapse
Yes - Whether on the home screen, in a call, or in an app, there is a perfect "ring" (if you will) about 3-5 pixels wide around the camera that goes black for a split second or so and then changes back to the color of whatever it was displaying (think background color of a chrome tab, phone call, etc). It's impossible to catch as it happens so quickly. It's almost as if a perfect circle is turning off and then back on. And it has happened on both of my S20 FE, with or without adaptive brightness turned on.
I don't think it's something that screen recorder will even capture since that doesn't show the camera cutout, but I'll try!
EDIT: So I made a screen recording - and I think it was just the troubleshooting I needed to figure out what the problem is (was). . . When recording, the screen never shuts off, so there is no need for Smart Stay to activate (the camera checks to see if you're looking @ the phone to stay on). . . As soon as I stopped screen recording, that ring of pixels turned off and back on as it has been doing. I turned off Smart Stay, and it hasn't happened in the past 10 minutes or so. . .
I wonder if those that are seeing the high CameraLightSensor usage have Smart Stay turned on? It's not on by default - you have to look for it in settings.

fncd said:
Yes - Whether on the home screen, in a call, or in an app, there is a perfect "ring" (if you will) about 3-5 pixels wide around the camera that goes black for a split second or so and then changes back to the color of whatever it was displaying (think background color of a chrome tab, phone call, etc). It's impossible to catch as it happens so quickly. It's almost as if a perfect circle is turning off and then back on. And it has happened on both of my S20 FE, with or without adaptive brightness turned on.
I don't think it's something that screen recorder will even capture since that doesn't show the camera cutout, but I'll try!
EDIT: So I made a screen recording - and I think it was just the troubleshooting I needed to figure out what the problem is (was). . . When recording, the screen never shuts off, so there is no need for Smart Stay to activate (the camera checks to see if you're looking @ the phone to stay on). . . As soon as I stopped screen recording, that ring of pixels turned off and back on as it has been doing. I turned off Smart Stay, and it hasn't happened in the past 10 minutes or so. . .
I wonder if those that are seeing the high CameraLightSensor usage have Smart Stay turned on? It's not on by default - you have to look for it in settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have smart stay off, accidentall touch protection off, face unlock off, and from today adaptive brightness off, and my CameraLightSensor is not working in the background when I turned it off. Auto brightness was definitely the culprit for me.