Mogul Issue: Boots Up with Black Screen

XGuard04 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-05-2009, 06:52 AM

When my phone boots up it has a black screen. The phone boots up properly in terms of software since active sync can still connect to the phone. However I cannot view anything on the screen. I have tried reflashing the ROM (to the 3.56) and nothing has changed. I do not believe that I did anything to induce this behavior, it just happened this past night.

To all the many PPC geniuses out there, any insight on how to resolve this?

If no one can resolve, I would like to hear opinions on how the Touch Pro compares to the Mogul since I am now considering buying one (even though I should be upset with HTC at this point!)

Thanks.

*EDIT* Root cause determined in post #10 below.

**shaggylive** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-05-2009, 06:57 AM

if you can activesync, try mymobiler.
also try a good ol hard-reset, sometimes doing that again after flash fixes weird issues.
mymobiler will tell you if its the screen or not. could be broke or just disconnected inside.

XGuard04 · #3 (**permalink**) 07-05-2009, 10:54 PM

I tried at least 30-40 times to turn it off and on to the screen to work and it wouldn't turn on. Then I met this random guy and he wanted to get my number so we do the I'll call your phone and you save my number thing. But I try to tell him that my phone is broken and the screen doesn't work, as I show him that it's not working the screen turns on! Since I just flashed the ROM it went through customizations and then rebooted. On reboot the screen wouldn't turn on again! This made me look like a complete idiot and liar in front of the guy...

Needless to say, now that I am home, whenever I try to turn the phone on again I get a black screen! I believe that this has to be a hardware issue because it is happening intermittently, but I could be wrong, I have no knowledge of the hardware of this phone so I am making a guess. I tried a hard reset and that did nothing. Tried to get to bootloader and the same thing...I am stumped!

WitnessX · #4 (**permalink**) 07-06-2009, 05:17 PM

Try this. Pop the keyboard out, and turn on the Mogul. Do you see any illumination, despite it being a black screen? If so, try this. With the Mogul in landscape mode - keyboard exposed, try bending it gently - gripped like you're going to snap it in half, seperating the keyboard from the screen. There's a chance the screen will suddenly work - do variations of what I've outlined.

This has happened to my Mogul. Sadly, it is hardware. It's time to upgrade. In a way, I think HTC builds their phone to function for 2-3 years, then it craps out on you so you can upgrade. :/

XGuard04 · #5 (**permalink**) 07-08-2009, 12:21 AM

Sadly I think WitnessX is right. I tried bending the phone *a bit* but it didn't do anything. I think I might have dropped it, maybe, and a component came loose or the flex running from the phone to the screen might have gotten ripped. Either way I've given up on debugging this issue and decided to just purchase a Touch Pro (on eBay for $250). It comes in tomorrow so hopefully this will be able to last me a bit longer than the mogul did...

**tokuzumi** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-08-2009, 11:30 AM

My mogul started slowly taking a dump beginning on Friday. It started with the d-pad not working in portrait (thread on this forum). Then, the d-pad stopped working altogether. Yesterday, the earpiece stopped working, and I had to use the speakerphone to hear the caller. Now, the phone won't display in portrait mode. I have to be in landscape mode, with the keyboard out. New (refurb) coming to me tomorrow. I have insurance, so I'm not too concerned, so if you have insurance, put in a claim. Either way, it's time to get a new phone. Just bury your phone in the back yard, and hold a small ceremony. Pull the plug on the life support.

XGuard04 · #7 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tokuzumi

My mogul started slowly taking a dump beginning on Friday. It started with the d-pad not working in portrait (thread on this forum). Then, the d-pad stopped working altogether. Yesterday, the earpiece stopped working, and I had to use the speakerphone to hear the caller. Now, the phone won't display in portrait mode. I have to be in landscape mode, with the keyboard out. New (refurb) coming to me tomorrow. I have insurance, so I'm not too concerned, so if you have insurance, put in a claim. Either way, it's time to get a new phone. Just bury your phone in the back yard, and hold a small ceremony. Pull the plug on the life support.

Wow that is amazing, I have the exact same symptoms:
1. No D-pad functionality (it started with this problem)
2. Then the ear piece stopped working (only speaker phone)
3. My phone doesn't display anything most of the time but when it does it won't work in landscape but does display in portrait. In landscape I get vertical lines of scattered colors (like a rainbox effect) through portions of the screen.

Only I have no insurance so hopefully the Touch Pro works better.

Maybe HTC pushed an update to our phones to screw us. Pretty coincidental that this happened to both of us at the same time...

**tokuzumi** · #8 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XGuard04

Wow that is amazing, I have the exact same symptoms:
1. No D-pad functionality (it started with this problem)
2. Then the ear piece stopped working (only speaker phone)
3. My phone doesn't display anything most of the time but when it does it won't work in landscape but does display in portrait. In landscape I get vertical lines of scattered colors (like a rainbox effect) through portions of the screen.

Only I have no insurance so hopefully the Touch Pro works better.

Maybe HTC pushed an update to our phones to screw us. Pretty coincidental that this happened to both of us at the same time...

It is ironic. It's HTC's way of taking over the world.
[Jaws Music]Dum dum. Dum dum.[/jaws music]

**drewcam888** · #9 (**permalink**) 07-09-2009, 09:12 AM

They arent sending your phone updates they cant do that. The cheap mogul is just dieing like most of them are.

XGuard04 · #10 (**permalink**) 07-10-2009, 07:13 PM

Haha...I know, I was just kidding. For those of you who will be searching through this thread in months/years to come when your mogul does the same, I have determined the cause below:

ROOT CAUSE:

I figured out what happened to the phone and why this issue is occurring. Since I already ordered a Touch Pro I decided to take part my mogul since it isn't working anyway. I looked inside and saw that the flex that runs from the base of the phone (the half with the QWERTY keypad) to the other half with the display was torn. (This is the orange flexible piece with lines on it.)

I believe that what happened was a year or so ago I remember dropping my phone, this caused the bottom half (with the dpad) of the top half (with the display) to become slightly shifted off alignment when the phone was closed. This must have caused shear stress on the flex whenever I opened and closed the phone to access the QWERTY keypad. (This would also explain my lose of functionality of the Dpad!) First the tear started on one side where the Dpad traces ran, then it eventually got larger and started ripping the display traces.

Overall conclusion: The orange flex ripped after repeated opening and closings of the phone.

I worked for Motorola designing phones for a bit and got pretty good at identifying hardware failures!