Accessories Screen Smudge/LCD Stress with VZ Extended Battery

[rkrasny]

I noticed the appearance of a linear smudge or streak on my DX last week seemingly out of nowhere - about 3 cm vertical x 0.5 cm towards the left side of the central part of the screen - clearly between the front glass layer and something below it.

It looked like water damage but the phone never got wet - perhaps parts of the LCD screen became separated? I dropped the phone once but did not notice this after this event. This would cause some trouble in using the touchscreen occasionally whereby things I selected would highlight the "smudge" but not where I was pressing. I now believe this to be related to my extended battery - if you are curious, please read below for what happened to me.

I took the phone to a VZ store and the tech examined it a while, confirmed there was no water damage and ordered me a replacement (which he said would be a new DX since they don't yet have any refurbs). The new replacement arrived and I put in the extended battery, fired it up and restored my apps. As soon as I fired it up I noticed a similar but slightly smaller screen smudge with identical characteristics to my original phone.

After swapping batteries between the phones (native 5x and extended 6x) and exchanging battery doors (tight fitting 5x and normally fitting 6x) I was able to reproduce the smudge on both phones ONLY while the extended battery was installed, sometimes after 30 minutes or so of using the phone, but inevitably it would appear on whichever phone had the extended battery - regardless of which battery door was used. Both phones appeared normal with the regular battery every time it was inserted.

I'm going to go back to VZ and show them the two phones and have them exchange the extended battery (purchased from them) and see if I have a defective battery or whether I have two unlucky phones or perhaps this is a bigger problem??

Anybody else have any thoughts or have a similar experience?

 

[rkrasny]

I also put Froyo on the replacement phone - couldn't think of a better time with it stock out of the box. I have tried it for severla days and have been under the subjective impression that it hangs much more frequently and I have had two episodes of an unresponsive phone requiring battery removal - for me it didn't seem ready for primetime.

Does anyone think there is any risk in sending back a froyo loaded phone to VZ? I can't imagine they do anything with the returned phones but reload everything and fix them if feasible??

 

[HookEmHorns*UT*]

I also put Froyo on the replacement phone - couldn't think of a better time with it stock out of the box. I have tried it for severla days and have been under the subjective impression that it hangs much more frequently and I have had two episodes of an unresponsive phone requiring battery removal - for me it didn't seem ready for primetime.

Does anyone think there is any risk in sending back a froyo loaded phone to VZ? I can't imagine they do anything with the returned phones but reload everything and fix them if feasible??

IMO I think if you sent it back that is a very shady thing to do. Verizon didnt mess up your phone you did. You should use asurion and pay for what YOU did!

 

[thirteen113]

I would look into having them swap the battery, could be out of spec or something like that.

I have a feeling they would have an issue with the Froyo being on the phone. I'd at least revert it to the 2.1 sbf. From there it's my opinion that it is the same phone they gave you.

 

[vr4]

IMO I think if you sent it back that is a very shady thing to do. Verizon didnt mess up your phone you did. You should use asurion and pay for what YOU did!

What was done was install a battery designed for the phone and find out it didn't fit. I don't see anything wrong.

 

[HookEmHorns*UT*]

What was done was install a battery designed for the phone and find out it didn't fit. I don't see anything wrong.

Originally Posted by rkrasny
I also put Froyo on the replacement phone - couldn't think of a better time with it stock out of the box. I have tried it for severla days and have been under the subjective impression that it hangs much more frequently and I have had two episodes of an unresponsive phone requiring battery removal - for me it didn't seem ready for primetime.

Does anyone think there is any risk in sending back a froyo loaded phone to VZ? I can't imagine they do anything with the returned phones but reload everything and fix them if feasible??

No they put an unofficial Froyo release on it and wants to exchange it.

 

[rkrasny]

IMO I think if you sent it back that is a very shady thing to do. Verizon didnt mess up your phone you did. You should use asurion and pay for what YOU did!

Maybe you misunderstood what I have done? I'm just asking if I should bother putting 2.1 back on the phone when they are likely to nuke it as part of their normal processes when receiving a phone back before they send it back out to another customer - I'm fairly certain they wouldn't take any phone back from the wild and just slap a new label on to someone else.

I think the better part of valor is to put 2.1 back and not worry about it. I still can't imagine what would be construed as "shady" in anything I am doing or have done - I'm troubleshooting a problem with VZ's extended battery and my VZ phone and giving them back their replacement phone since I have discovered my phone might not be defective, just the battery. Seems unshady to me.

 

[rkrasny]

I reverted the phone back to 2.1/update1 in identical condition to how it was sent to me. Good practice and clearly the high road. I also guess I am alone with the odd screen smudge issue and my extended battery...

 

[farrellcollie]

I have not had screen smudge issues with my extended battery that I use with the new back that came with it.

 

[DX120386]

I had the same issue, almost exactly what you said happened to me. I called Verizon and Motorola and I was told that it wasn't the battery and if by chance it was then when 2.3 comes out tomorrow that it would fix it...Im not sure how an update would fix a problem like that...

 

[chmodx]

Weird that it does it on 2 phones.