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Screen dimmed and will not brighten back up. HELP!

jungleexplorer

jungleexplorer

Android Enthusiast
I have had my z3 for a couple months now. Yesterday the screen dimmed down significantly and will not brighten back up no matter what I do. I have turned of "Auto Adjust" and all that. I have manually increased the screen brightness to maximum and it does not thing. The current brightness is good enough for indoor use in a area with not much light, but in a bright room or outside I can barely tell what is on the screen. I have powered the phone off and restarted it several times. It's like it is stuck in some kind of battery saving mode that it won't come out of. I made sure that all battery saving modes are turned off. Nothing effects the screen brightness no matter what I do. Please help!
 
Can you see any change in brightness while using the camera ?

If you don't have VLC player yet, install it from the Store and use it to watch a movie or clip and while watching, use your finger to scroll up and down the left side of the screen to see if you can adjust the brightness.
 
Tried the VLC thing. Did not help. I can adjust the brightness, but even at 100% it is only about 1/3 as bright as it used to be at 100%. So now, maximum brightness is only about 30% even though the brightness slider is at 100%.
 
jungleexplorer said:
Not what I am wanting to hear guys. Now, I am gonna go out rioting in the streets because I did not get my way. LOL!
Click to expand...
It's rare to see a faulty backlight on a screen, but it does happen from time to time on phones, laptops, LCD monitors... If you search for screen replacement on eBay you will be surprised to see how popular the sales are.
 
I am posting a screenshot. In the screenshot you can see the brightness slider at the top. The position of the slider button is the maximum brightness of my phone right now. Moving the slider further to the right does nothing and has no effect on the brightness of the phone. Moving to the left does a dim the screen though. This screenshot was taken while the phone was in Safe Mode.





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After a factory reset, the problem persist, so I guess is has to be the screen back light is going out. So, I am guessing a new screen is in order?
 
Oh, okay Well, if doing a factory reset does not fix a software issue, then I don't know how it can be fixed without flashing a new rom to the phone.

But I am 99% certain this is a hardware issue. I am going to get a price for a new screen. I only paid $170 for the phone and I am not in love with it. The antenna is horrible (bad or no reception most of the time), the camera is mediocre, it over heats and turns off constantly and, the built in led flash is so dim it barley works as a walking light at night, much less a flash. Now the screen went out. Sony really screwed what could have been a great phone up.
 
I've seen a Z3 teardown video before, I must say that once you opened it, it's a mess. Those sealed phones weren't designed to be repairable, even if you put a new screen in and reassemble it, it won't be the same phone.

Personally I would sell it as is and buy a new phone, there are some affordable phones with excellent built quality and decent camera.
 
lvt said:
I've seen a Z3 teardown video before, I must say that once you opened it, it's a mess. Those sealed phones weren't designed to be repairable, even if you put a new screen in and reassemble it, it won't be the same phone.

Personally I would sell it as is and buy a new phone, there are some affordable phones with excellent built quality and decent camera.
Click to expand...

Already done. I had the Xperia V before this Z3 and it was a heck of a phone that lasted for years. Actually still working great except for the GPS antenna. It was the reason I bought Sony again. But this Z3 just cured me of Sony. Poor camera, horrible antenna, almost no support anywhere. It is not something I am will to invest in. I called a screen repair place and they said they would replace the screen for $130. I found a used S5 Active on eBay in good condition for $109, so I went with that.
 
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