Help [SOLVED] Urgent! Screen fried, can't enter PIN

[MoodyBlues]

My helper's Samsung freaked out [after being dropped one too many times...without a case], and its screen is basically fried. It's squished down to about half-size, and it's flickering.

It restarted at some point, and now needs her PIN, which she can't enter on the screen.

We have a USB-to-USB-C adapter; using it, we plugged in one of my desktops' keyboards, but I guess the phone's power wasn't strong enough to make it work--nothing happened.

I don't have any wireless keyboards, but I do have wireless Trackman trackballs. I thought MAYBE the phone would recognize that and she could use its pointer to enter her PIN. Nope! No such luck.

Any ideas on how to do this? She just needs to enter her PIN, but the screen is unusable.

 

[kate]

Did you check if the phone supports OTG for the USB keybaord?

Also try a USB mouse?

I just tested entering a PIN with a USB mouse and keyboard and both worked.

 

[Hadron]

A few years back I unlocked a phone with a failed screen using a keyboard and an OTG adapter, but the lockscreen didn't recognize the number keys or the numeric keypad for this - I had to use the cursor keys (plus I think "enter" to select). It's possible that is the problem here.

The trick of course was getting the cursor into a known position before starting, so that you could navigate the lockscreen keypad blind. I used my own phone, where the screen was working, to practice with and get the hang of it (I think it I tapped up and right a few times it reliably put me in the top right corner - this was a couple of years ago). I had the advantage that my own phone and the one I was trying to recover data from were both HTC, so I was confident that the lockscreen would be similar on both, but I guess these things don't vary much.

(Yeah, this one's screen wasn't flickering, it was dead. Adds to the fun...).

 

[MoodyBlues]

Did you check if the phone supports OTG for the USB keybaord?

No. We were hugely rushed, and were just grabbing anything handy that might work.

Also try a USB mouse?

I think I have a wired Trackman trackball stored....somewhere around here... We'll try to find it.

I just tested entering a PIN with a USB mouse and keyboard and both worked.

Okay, that's good to know! Thanks.

 

[kate]

the screen is unusable.

If you can not even swipe to show the Enter PIN screen...

Keyboard: press the Menu key. (Enter key after typing the PIN.)
Mouse: click and hold then drag.

That works on mine to unlock without touching the screen at all, hopefully it's universal.

 

[MoodyBlues]

(Yeah, this one's screen wasn't flickering, it was dead. Adds to the fun...).

Sounds like too much fun!

Thanks for the input, @Hadron. She's not here right now, and the minute she gets home, we're off to take Joy Noelle to the vet. Later, depending on where we get with trackballs or keyboards, we may give your method a whirl.

Your blind method reminds me of how I used to boot one of my desktops. It's rarely used, and no longer has its own monitor. I used to have an A/B switch that let me pick which of two computers to display on the one remaining monitor. But the switch broke, and I didn't bother replacing it. So on the rare occasions, like after a power outage, that it needed to be booted up, I did this contortionist act of pressing one hand on its case, to listen/feel for a certain point of the process. Then, with my other hand on its keyboard, press the down arrow key 4 times and then hit [Enter], to pick the right GRUB entry. Fun!

 

[MoodyBlues]

If you can not even swipe to show the Enter PIN screen...

Keyboard: press the Menu key. (Enter key after typing the PIN.)
Mouse: click and hold then drag.

That works on mine to unlock without touching the screen at all, hopefully it's universal.

Thanks for the helpful info.

 

[MoodyBlues]

Problem is resolved! While she was out, she tried another keyboard, and it worked.

Thanks for the great and speedy help.