Blank screen, lcd cable bust?


pixl

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I haven't used my pandora for a couple of months, and today when i tried turning it on, the LCD was completely dead, save for the backlight. I have the OS installed on a SD card, but no amount of restarting, with or without the OS card, makes a difference. I have tried to charge the battery and even tried with external power only, but it still wont work. I can tell its booting from the activity leds, and even the wifi led comes on after a while.


I must admit i have had it open once when i got it to fix the wobbly shoulder pads with a few pieces of scotch tape and super glued a broken screw hole (i am guessing from a overtightened screw, pretty sure i didn't break it). Anyway i am sure thats not the cause as the unit worked for months without problems, and i did the fix when i got it. It's one of the first units, around nr. 40, according to the serial, so im guessing its the lcd cable as the first 100 had problems with those? Or do you think its something i can fix myself? I don't really care if its fixable under warranty, i just want the little guy to work again. :)
 
Hm, usually, when the LCD cable dies, it does this slowly. First you get the purple haze and then it gets worse until at the end the screen is black (like yours).


It might be the cable has slid out a bit of the connector.


You can open the back to check that out, no need to remove the board.


I can also replace your LCD cable or you could buy one and fix it yourself, if you're brave enough.
 
Hm, usually, when the LCD cable dies, it does this slowly. First you get the purple haze and then it gets worse until at the end the screen is black (like yours).
The chance his LCD is busted is very low yet imho.


@gaffagnu : are running lastest HF ? (there was a bug in prior fixes where the brightness was set to 0 and not restaured in some situations)


I would recomand that you turn it off. remove the battery for a few minuts and start it again ;)
 
The chance his LCD is busted is very low yet imho.


@gaffagnu : are running lastest HF ? (there was a bug in prior fixes where the brightness was set to 0 and not restaured in some situations)


I would recomand that you turn it off. remove the battery for a few minuts and start it again ;)


Yes if it is the screen bug he'll need to login blindly, pressing enter to reach the password and enter after, then possibly fn+I to boost the brightness again. Fingers crossed!
 
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I tried a blind login and it makes no difference, and that is both when booting from internal NAND (can't remember HF version) and from my bootable SD card which im pretty sure is HF4. I tried multiple times restarting by removing the battery so thats not it. Any other advice? Is it possible to do a "blind" firmware restore to rule out the screen bug, or is that too risky?
 
The screen bug is where the backlight is set to 0. If you hold the screen just right, you can still see the image. What you are describing is one possible symptom of a broken (or loose) LCD cable. If you very carefully unscrew and remove the base, you can see the ribbon cable going into the board. Make sure it is fitted tight and the black holder lever thing is flipped down. If it is, close it up and send it back, because that's almost assuredly broken cable.
 
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