Help Nexus 5: Zombie edition

[peteorpeter]

Here's my weird plight. Hitting the power button does not turn the display on. Actually nothing turns the display on. This began happening occasionally, for a few seconds at a time. Then it became a few minutes at a time. Now it is permanent.

What's truly odd is that the phone seems to be completely working otherwise. It rings, alarms go off, indicator lights flash. It connects to my car over bluetooth and if I plug in headphones and hit the play headphones' action button, music starts. If I hold the power button down, every 5s I get a little haptic feedback, and it appears to reboot if I hold power and volume up (or down, I can't recall), so I know the buttons are working.

I even have a suspicion that touchscreen digitizer is working because I think I've dismissed a few notifications by double-tapping (I'm on Lollipop). Also, I swear I have seen very fleeting, very dim views of the unlock screen a few times.

I should also add that I took advantage of Google's recent replacement policy lenience - this is a refurb I've had for a month or two.

I'm contemplating replacing the screen/digitizer on the theory that this is a broken screen. It feels like the backlight is broken. But I'd rather not spend the $$$ and time if the problem is deeper than that. Any thoughts, oh great android wizards?

 

[Mr. Lucky]

I can't help, but am moving to Nexus 5 forum. Hopefully others there have had this issue and can offer a possible solution or suggestion.

 

[Hook]

Honestly, having only had it a month or two, I'd go back to Google and ask them to make it right.

 

[peteorpeter]

Thanks @Mr. Lucky.

@Hook unfortunately, though I have only had the free replacement phone for a month, I originally bought my first Nexus over 13 months ago, so the warranty period has passed. I didn't think it was worth wading through Customer Service in this case, but maybe I should give it a shot?

 

[Deleted User]

"Incognito Model", cool. If you haven't done it already, back up all your stuff, and try a factory reset. That usually fixes most problems.

 

[peteorpeter]

@grunt0300 Thanks . Did the factory reset already, while it was only happening sporadically. Alas, didn't help

I'm crossing my fingers that somebody else has had this happen and can help me decide if it's worth trying a repair...

 

[Deleted User]

@grunt0300 Thanks . Did the factory reset already, while it was only happening sporadically. Alas, didn't help

I'm crossing my fingers that somebody else has had this happen and can help me decide if it's worth trying a repair...

Just curious...Are you using Google Chrome for your internet browser? If you're synced with that, they do have an "incognito mode". I know it's a long shot, but maybe you put it into that mode accidently?

 

[Hook]

Thanks @Mr. Lucky.

@Hook unfortunately, though I have only had the free replacement phone for a month, I originally bought my first Nexus over 13 months ago, so the warranty period has passed. I didn't think it was worth wading through Customer Service in this case, but maybe I should give it a shot?

You may have to explain carefully, but the fact that the original purchase was 13 months ago is irrelevant. They sent you a replacement a month ago and they should stand by that replacement longer than 30 days. I think it is very much worth a shot.