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Help Black bar on bottom of screen!

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Dan Davies

Member
My S7 has been very good for many years, but just yesterday a black bar appeared on the bottom of the screen! It is only about 1/2cm wide and the full width of the screen. It covers anything that would normally appear in that part of the screen, though it still seems responsive to taps.

No new apps, no setting changes, not dropped or banged. Compared to another S7 and all settings seem the same.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Dan
 
Thanks for the quick response!
That is the answer I was afraid of! I assumed that it was hardware, but I am not an expert in this area so I thought I should check with this forum. I was hoping that I was wrong. We tried restart, reset, checking settings - no good.
 
I have figured out the replacement, but we usually get 3 - 4 years out of a phone, and this is slightly less. Not sure about the term 'daily driver', but if you mean is this my regular phone, yup - not used heavily, but regularly.
 
Hello. (Samsung Galaxy S7) I have the same problem. All of the sudden this black bar appears at the bottom of my screen, ... doesnt bother me except can't see bottom of the icons on text messages. My phone and battery are fine, and internet is fine except this black bar. The phone is about 4 years old tops and works good.... Just feel like I did something to cause this black bar and want to find a solution. Thank you, Barb
 
Batteries are pretty easy to replace on the S7. Anyone telling you to replace the phone instead of the battery must own stock in phone makers and has no respect for our environment. Plenty on places on net to see instructions and buy the inexpensive parts.
 
Card Tech said:
Batteries are pretty easy to replace on the S7. Anyone telling you to replace the phone instead of the battery must own stock in phone makers and has no respect for our environment. Plenty on places on net to see instructions and buy the inexpensive parts.
Click to expand...
for you maybe. i do not have the fingers nor the tools necessary to remove a non-replaceable battery.
 
It's not something that I'd care to attempt. I had to replace the solar charged backup battery in my weather station. Like a phone, it was not meant to be replaced. Weather sealed made it near impossible to access then it was a matter of unsoldering wires to open the unit enough to access the battery. Then soldering each wire in sequence as I joined the top back to the bottom. It was far less complicated than a phone yet the project was very time consuming. I only attempted the project because a new weather station was expensive and there was no fix it shop that I'm aware of to have the battery replaced.
 
I did mine. I understand that many people cant change a tire. It is not hard just follow the instructions and no heavy lifting. Use the plastic tools that come with the kit. There are many places that will do this for much less than the cost of a phone. Batteries only last a couple of years. To discard a fully functioning phone because of a $43 part kit (w all tools) is not good advice.
 
I suppose it would be an interesting project if you were willing to gamble on your repair ability and were prepared to replace the phone if things went South. I'd be more inclined to take it to a repair shop if I thought the phone was worth the additional expense. But that's me.
 
Card Tech said:
I did mine. I understand that many people cant change a tire. It is not hard just follow the instructions and no heavy lifting. Use the plastic tools that come with the kit. There are many places that will do this for much less than the cost of a phone. Batteries only last a couple of years. To discard a fully functioning phone because of a $43 part kit (w all tools) is not good advice.
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It's a s7 with an old os. Some apps will not run on an s7. Sure you can make phone calls and possibly hop on the internet. But don't expect a lot of things to work properly.

I replace my phones every 2-3years......I have the z-fold 4. I'll probably be getting the fold 6 when it comes out next year.

shoot even my mom realized that her s8 was slow and she got a new phone.

And again $43 or not, I'm not going to replace my batteries by myself.
 
I've been using Google phones for a while. You trade your old Google phone in for recycling. I had a couple of older phones a Motorola, and a Zenfone and I recycled them at the EcoATM

A lot of old phones are posted here. It's not like we are throwing them in the trash

Nostalgia - Phones From The Past
 
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I apologize. I'm happy that many people want to accessorize with the latest phones. I thought this was a tech advice site. ;)
I am a little curious what apps wont run on my S7? Heck I still use my old HTC Vivid (just Wi-Fi no phone service) for a back up Direct TV remote (still scans and operates all receivers and genie), guitar tuner, metronome, chord library, camera, calculator, webcam, inclinometer and notepad. It's battery is easy to replace (its "replaceable") haven't even updated the apps. I'm not suggesting others should but to consider my S7 as old trash is beyond me. What fabulous function am I missing out on with the S7?
 
There is tech advice here. Since you have a Samsung S7 that came with Android 6 upgradable to Android 8, I'm sure you could help a lot of people that pop in here with question on Android 6 to Android 8, but you probably aren't going to be a lot of help to somebody with Android 14.
 
OK AugieTN, are you going to respond to Barb2023's Sept 5th question? Could it have anything to do with Samsung pushed updates? My S7 stopped connecting to my PC (for file transfers, video, audio) via usb cable, right after Samsung's Oct 19th forced update. Also got the above described fade to black strip across the bottom. Does Samsung use the GKI or do they cook up their own? I cant seem to make much sense of the kernel version displayed on the phone. Samsung support said the displayed name doesn't correctly update. Does Samsung overwrite the GKI? does the carrier (ATT)? Is there any apps that will allow me to see the build and kernel version without unlocking? I'm not planning on tinkering but would like to be able to compare and speak to it when I get ahold of Samsung Monday. I appreciate your help.
 
I have tried Safe mode, forced boot and recovery mode with no effect on the usb issue but it did make the fade to black strip go away for a few hours. Lowering the brightness level has had the best results on the strip going 8 hours +now. A way to confirm the load and kernel version would be much appreciated.

I understand the apprehension with the glued assembly especially for those accustom to screws nuts and bolts but keep in mind this is not super glue or epoxy. This is an engineered adhesive intentionally designed to allow this disassembly. Nothing is harder than something you don't try.

Thanks for any help you can provide.
 
Card Tech said:
OK AugieTN, are you going to respond to Barb2023's Sept 5th question? Could it have anything to do with Samsung pushed updates? My S7 stopped connecting to my PC (for file transfers, video, audio) via usb cable, right after Samsung's Oct 19th forced update. Also got the above described fade to black strip across the bottom. Does Samsung use the GKI or do they cook up their own? I cant seem to make much sense of the kernel version displayed on the phone. Samsung support said the displayed name doesn't correctly update. Does Samsung overwrite the GKI? does the carrier (ATT)? Is there any apps that will allow me to see the build and kernel version without unlocking? I'm not planning on tinkering but would like to be able to compare and speak to it when I get ahold of Samsung Monday. I appreciate your help.
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the black bar is most likely a hardware issue with the screen. it can be replaced by a professional.....or......you can diy it by going to Fixing the world, one gizmo at a time. | iFixit News but it much easier to just get a new phone.

as for your issue with not connecting, have you tried other cables? also is your drivers up to date as well?

i do not know too much about GKI other than it is an attempt from google to stream line fragmentation of the android kernel....i believe this was implemented in android 11? i think it is cooked into android and does not have to do with carriers or manufacturers. i could be wrong on this.

i found this link informative:

The Generic Kernel Image (GKI) project | Android Open Source Project

source.android.com source.android.com
 
HW issue would be my first guess for the screen if it wasn't for the USB issue and forced update all on the same day. Still its likely. Probably coincidental timing. But I would like to be able to roll back the update and see and fix the USB issue perhaps. If it comes to changing the screen, I will try that myself but I do a lot of that kind of thing. (I have a toaster oven just for surface mount :))

There are several articles on recovery mode and factory reset but its not clear;
Does a reset to factory actually roll back the build and kernel or just data and settings.? I suspect its the data and settings but I still don't know.

After running the graphics test from the recovery mode, I am more convinced the display issue is HW. I'll let you know how the replacement goes.

The USB issue was caused by forced updates to both the Samsung S7 build and Windows 10 that occurred in the last week. While the two communicated flawlessly prior to these update, after the updates the connection would occasionally work but often would not show the device at all, show directories as empty or show partial file lists. I believe the, perhaps intentional, effect was to drive customers to interface through their cloud services. You can come to your own conclusions on why they would do that.

The solution to the USB issue is to install , in Windows 10, "Samsung Android USB Driver for Windows" which can be found at " Support | Samsung Developers"

While this driver is described on the site as; "You need the driver only if you are developing on Windows and want to connect a Samsung Android device to your development environment over USB", It does not appear to grant root permission or provide any more access to the phones files than was previously granted. I have seen this driver on non developer sites as well. Still I would warn anyone connecting trough USB with or without this driver to not delete or alter files or directories you are not familiar with. You wont harm anything by looking.

For those unfamiliar with the mobile phone file layout;
There are generally two devices listed in the "Galaxy" device on windows; "Phone" (the standard phone memory) and "Card" (the extra memory card you added).
Depending on your settings, the files you are probably interested in could be on both.
On my phone, My Documents and Downloads can be seen from the root. for pictures and video, look under DCIM/Camera.

Thanks
 
correct factory reset does not roll back software. it only does data. so the update will stick. and i think the same goes for flashing an older firmware.....but i could be wrong for that.
 
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