Help LCD Burn-in

[irishdroid]

Has anyone else found that there's a fairly faint outline of the battery charging progress indicator in the centre of their Galaxy screen?
The problem emerged about two months of owning the phone. I'm pretty certain that its a case of LCD burn-in: The battery charging animation plays non-stop while the phone is plugged in.
It's only a cosmetic issue, but when you pay this much for a phone, its pretty annoying. It's most visible when the background is white, like in the browser.

I read here that it may be possible to improve the problem. This is something I'm going to try, but I'm wondering if there's any way of removing the battery charging progress indicator from the phone somehow?

I'd return the phone to the good people at Samsung, but they mightn't be impressed by the fact I'm running GalaxHero 1.1.

EDIT: This might be a case of image retention rather than burn-in: Regardless of what it is, its real!

 

[Member12446]

doesn't it only do this when it's turned off? Why not charge it when it's turned on?

 

[irishdroid]

I didn't actually think of that. I'm used to turning phones off at night! I'll definitely leave it on when charging it in future.
I suppose there's always a chance that the pixels will 'forget' the battery indicator image over time.

It still seems ridiculous that with a screen technology (AMOLED) susceptible to this kind of problem, Samsung didn't think better of having the screen filled with a mostly static graphic when charging....

 

[Lucifer]

Try to turn off Stay Awake (screen) in Settings, Application Settings, Development. I am not sure it will work when phone is off.

 

[irishdroid]

Thanks for the tip Lucifer. The option was already turned off. The solution of leaving the phone on when charging it will have to do!

 

[Rastaman-FB]

whats odd aout this though is my phone jusr ran out so i put it onto charge and the big battery icon is only on the phone for 30 seconds then the screen goes black while charging (powered off)
so im not quire sure whats going on with yours

 

[irishdroid]

Hmm. The plot thickens.

Are you charging it there via the mains or USB? I'm talking about mains charging myself.
Just tried it again there myself. (The battery is fully charged)
What's happening is that when I turn off the phone and plug it into the mains, the battery indicator icon appears, first as an empty battery, then as a full one, then the screen goes blank for a few seconds..and finally, the process repeats.

The only thing even slightly unusual about the way I charge my phone is that it's a German phone being used in Ireland, so I'm using a 2-pin to 3-pin adaptor. Unless there's something weird going on with voltage levels or something like that, I can't work out what's going on.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

im charging via mains, its not full yet. ill report back when it is and i reconnect it

 

[screaminbug]

On what firmware is your Galaxy, Irishdroid?

I can confirm what Rastaman said. My Galaxy also turns the screen off while charging after 30 sec (when it's off). The screen doesn't come back on again until a button is pressed. When any button is pressed, the screen goes on (showing big animated battery) for 30 sec and then back off. (II5 firmware) Looks like yours is doing the same thing, only you are not pressing any buttons (I suppose).

Regarding voltages. If I'm not mistaken, Ireland also uses 220V power network so that shouldn't be a problem.

I guess this might be a software issue.

 

[irishdroid]

Thanks for checking that out, screamingbug. This must be a software issue, then. I'm running II5 on the GalaxHero 1.1 rom, but the phone did a similar thing under previous firmwares, too. I presumed it was normal.
If it's not in the firmware, then where could the problem be?
That said, it's not a major problem-Seeing as I can charge it when it's on from now on so as to prevent the battery indicator from showing up, I'm more concerned now about how to get rid of the residual image from the screen now!

 

[screaminbug]

This must be a software issue, then.

Unless it's a charger problem. Now I doubt the software thing, because mine has the same firmware and ROM.

It just occurred to me. Maybe the charger itself is malfunctioning. When your phone is on and charging, does it go to sleep after 30 sec (or whatever time the timeout is set to)? (EDIT: Make sure that the Stay awake option in Application Settings-->Development is disabled) If it doesn't it could indicate a charger problem. Every time the charger is connected or disconnected (while the phone is on) the phone wakes up (at least mine does). So if the charger isn't providing constant power as it should, the phone will always be awake.

And the thing I did right now. Turned off my phone. Plugged in the charger: battery animation goes from battery empty to battery full. Disconnected the cable, the screen goes black. Reconnected the cable, screen shows again: batt. empty, batt. full. Just like you described. But if I just press a button, only one portion of the battery indicator is blinking (my battery is almost full).

Do you have a possibility to try another charger? What happens when you plug it to a USB on your computer?

 

[KlaymenDK]

Has anyone else found that there's a fairly faint outline of the battery charging progress indicator in the centre of their Galaxy screen?
The problem emerged about two months of owning the phone. I'm pretty certain that its a case of LCD burn-in

Well AMOLED is susceptible to wear, but it's supposed to be able to last for something on the order of 5 years at 8 hours a day -- at least. If you're seeing burn-in effects already, consider making use of your warranty.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

i think one of the buttons is slightly pressed down or is making a connection when it shouldnt therefore keeping the screen awake.

whats your battery life like? do you see more than 24hrs?

 

[kam187]

the only other thing it could be is your bootloader. The leaked ik4 (and H7 before that) had bootloader updates in them.

 

[irishdroid]

@screamingbug
I don't have any other microusb chargers knocking about, I will try and find someone else with one and give it a shot.

@rastaman
I'm pretty sure there are no buttons being pressed down. I'm reasonably happy with battery life, it's lasting me a day with moderate use (2g,calls,texts,browsing,some gps).

@klaymenDK
I presume that rooting and installing custom roms voids the warranty (never actually read it!) If I were to unroot and reflash an old firmware would they actually be able to tell in the samsung service centre?

@kam187
I'm curious, how could the bootloader possibly be at fault here? I never used ik4 in any case. Far as I know, never had H7 either.

Thanks for all the suggestions! Honestly, I'd have given up on this phone months ago if it wasn't for this forum.

 

[Rastaman-FB]

@rastaman
I'm pretty sure there are no buttons being pressed down. I'm reasonably happy with battery life, it's lasting me a day with moderate use (2g,calls,texts,browsing,some gps).

something is wrong
mine lasts 2 days with 3g txt, 1hr of browsing, about 3-5 5min calls each day and 2.5-3hrs of music playing each day (without the case)

and still have time to get home and charge it

 

[KlaymenDK]

@klaymenDK
I presume that rooting and installing custom roms voids the warranty (never actually read it!) If I were to unroot and reflash an old firmware would they actually be able to tell in the samsung service centre?

I've looked into that (had the same concerns), and I didn't see anything that said you weren't allowed to update the firmware -- which makes sense, really. Further, there is no mention of custom roms or rooting, so it's not disallowed.

If you know what your original firmware was (say, G8) and you keep a copy of that on hand, you can always flash back to that and do a factory reset, and Samsung should not be able to tell the difference (unless they employ pretty hardcore digital forensics).
Having said that ... you can update your firmware without breaking your "rectools" installation, so you need to take additional steps to back out of that one (but it may be as simple as deleting the rectools tar file from the sd card ).