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Help Black Screen

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hollowpoint

Newbie
At first I thought it may be caused by user error. Being a novice to smart phones it was the logical assumption.

Lately my HTC Evo V will not wake up out of its sleep-mode when I get an incoming phone call. This makes it necessary to press the on/off button in order to bring the phone out of its sleep mode; which also automatically hangs up on the incoming call.

Also, after it's sat in the sleep-mode for about a half hour or longer, I can't bring the home screen back up by pressing any of the buttons on the phone; including the on/off button on top.

The lights on the bottom of the phone will come on but, the screen itself remains black. While in this condition, I have to push the on/off button to put it to sleep again and then re-press the on/off button to get it to come on so that the home screen is actually visible.

I spoke to one of the tech support people with this carrier. Her thick accent made it very difficult to understand what she was saying at times but, (Virgin Mobile) she suggested a number of things to try; which I did.

It may have been just a placebo effect but, after doing the suggested trouble shooting things the phone seemed to function as it should for a while.

Now it's back to the Black Screen when I get an incoming call and having to press and re-press the on/off button in order to get the home screen to display.

Is there something I can do to remedy this problem? Have any of you more experienced Evo V smart phone users ever encountered this type of problem?

Your help would be sincerely appreciated.

HollowPoint
 
I don't know what a "ROM" is but, the phone itself is basically in the same condition as when I took it out of the box new. I haven't added or subtracted anything from it other than updating the Profile, PRL and Software; and it was doing the same thing before I did the updates.

I also did the "Reset to Factory Settings" thing as part of the trouble shooting suggestions of their tech support.

I'm not sure what other pertinent information I could give you. Let me know and I'll give it a try. I'd like to get this problem solved without having to send the phone back for repairs. It's the only phone I have; it's my business phone.

HollowPoint
 
Yeah exchange it for a new one if you can.

What it sounds like is a malfunctioning proximity sensor. That sensor turns off the display when the phone goes into your pocket or against your face when you are talking. Unless you have a phone case covering the upper portion of the phone next to the earphone speaker grill, and you aren't covering that with your hand by accident then you need to return it for another.
 
Get Z Device Test from the Play Store, it's free and will allow you to test all of your sensors on the phone instead of going through the hassle of replacing the phone just to find out that there was nothing wrong with it. Gives you helpful information on a lot of items on your phone.
 
OverByter said:
Get Z Device Test from the Play Store, it's free and will allow you to test all of your sensors on the phone instead of going through the hassle of replacing the phone just to find out that there was nothing wrong with it. Gives you helpful information on a lot of items on your phone.
Click to expand...

I'll have to give that "Z Device" app a try. I hate like heck to be without my phone. That's why it took me so long to take the plunge and change to a smart phone.

I dreaded being without it because it's not only my only phone, It holds all of my work and business contact.

I feared encountering problems like the one I'm having now with this phone.

So this "Z Device" app only helps you identify a problem sensor? It doesn't do anything else like actually fix the problem?

HollowPoint
 
hollowpoint said:
I'll have to give that "Z Device" app a try. I hate like heck to be without my phone. That's why it took me so long to take the plunge and change to a smart phone.

I dreaded being without it because it's not only my only phone, It holds all of my work and business contact.
So this "Z Device" app only helps you identify a problem sensor? It doesn't do anything else like actually fix the problem?

HollowPoint
Click to expand...

If it is a defective sensor then no an app wouldn't be able to fix it, it just identifies any hardware issues that may exist including much more than just the sensors like gps, screen, sd card, wifi, blue tooth and many more . As far as your contacts go just make sure that you have them synced within settings to your Google account , also another free app that you might find useful is sms backup and restore. In case you end up needing a replacement phone your contacts will be backed up to the cloud and your messages will be backed up on your sd card. Good luck and let us know how you make out.
 
I down loaded the Z Device app this morning. I went directly to the Proximity sensor test.

If I'm reading it correctly, there's a green bar near the top of the list of items that says, "100.0%."

I guess that means there's nothing wrong with the proximity sensor; or does it?

What other sensor might cause the symptoms I mentioned?

I thought this new app itself might have some unwanted effects on my phone. It went dead on me without me knowing it and I couldn't get it to turn back on.

When I plugged it into the charger I was able to get it to turn back on. It gave me a message that stated the battery had gone to zero. While it was on I checked to see if there was anything running that I didn't know about that might have caused my battery to drain.

I noticed that the Bluetooth was on and the 4G was on. I don't know if these two items would cause my battery to drain through out the day or not but I turned them off just in case. If my battery dries up again I'll uninstall the Z Device app.

This just keeps getting better and better.

If the problem still persists tomorrow I'll drive over to the BestBuy store and ask one of their tech-support people for a hands on check of this phone. Hopefully they'll know what to look for.

As for me, I barely know how to describe the problem let alone find the cause. I'm just grateful you guys here are willing to try to help.


HollowPoint
 
The app doesn't run in the background, just when you launch it, I've had it installed on my phone for months without any issues. When you select the proximity sensor it should cycle between the minimum and maximum value as you alternately cover and uncover the sensor itself. The proximity sensor is located on the left side of the earpiece grill.
 
I made it over to the nearby BestBuy store to ask their one of their tech support people if he could shed some light on the symptoms I've been experiencing with this new Evo V 4G.

I got the impression from this guy that he was basically as clueless as I was but, being that he was working the Cell Phone area he tried to appear to be knowledgeable.

In a nut-shell, he stated that the Black Screen was just one of the quirks of the android phones. (You guessed it; he was an i-phone user)

I don't know what to do now. I'm starting to get a sinking feeling like I just may have bought a lemon.

HollowPoint
 
I talked to another of Virgin Mobile's tech support people today. They decided to send me a replacement phone.

The frustrating thing was that the tech support gal had to put me on hold while she processed the information.

It took about two or three minutes for her to do so and while she was doing whatever she needed to do my smart phone went into its sleep-mode. When she came back online to finish the call, I couldn't bring my phone out of the sleep mode to reply to here questions. I could hear her but she couldn't hear me.

I had to press the on/off button to get my screen to light up and when I did that it caused the call to disconnect.

When I called them back I had to go through the whole process again with a completely new tech support person. I know they don't plan it that way but it sure is frustrating.

Anyway; I now have a replacement smart phone on the way. I'm hoping that my replacement phone gives me the trouble free operation that this current phone wasn't able to do.

On a side note; These tech support folks have a very thick accent. I could have sworn it was an Indian accent. Just out of curiosity, I asked one of them if they were speaking to me from India. This one particular fellow stated, "No, I'm in Nicaragua."

They appear to be very knowledgeable (and courteous) if you can understand what they're saying.

HollowPoint
 
My new replacement phone arrived yesterday. So far, everything appears to be working without the gliches or symptoms that were displayed by my original smart phone.

Kudos to Virgin Mobile for sending me this replacement. With any luck I won't have any more problems.

HollowPoint
 
Glad to hear it, having a smooth working smart phone is like being in heaven. When the don't you feel trapped in hell :D

My guess is they outsourced Support to Asia... when I called a couple weeks ago, the person I talked to had a heavy indian accent and said he was in Oklahoma. Possible I guess, I know there used to be alot of call centers in the mid-west, but the reason for that was the LACK of speaking accents :)
 
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