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Help Soft Lights Not Glowing Up

A

aaq84

Lurker
I'm new to this forum, so first of all, thanks for such great forums, it's very educational and helpful to see people of a phone same as my own to discuss things about it so much. Helps a lot.

Now, to the problem. Well, I bought a used no-warranty HTC Desire HD, everything else seems to be working fine, except for the 4 soft buttons (home, menu, back and search) lights. The buttons work just perfectly fine, but the problem is they are not lit, as they should be in dark, so I just press them out of my memory, and not by seeing them in dark properly. I realize there must be an option somewhere to turn their light off, but my problem is hardware one. I've reset my phone to factory settings as well. So, I took my phone to the official HTC Sales and Service center in Islamabad. They said it's without warranty so they can't help. So I took it to an unofficial phone repairing store, they said that they'll open the phone up, and if the LEDs are not working, they'll replace them. Hardware wise, above the LEDs are 4 plastic extensions that beam the light upwards to reach the exact soft-button location. And the person at the workshop told me that maybe my phone's plastic-extensions that beam and direct the light upward from the LED, maybe those plastic-extensions are missing, since according to him, this phone seems to be repaired already (he said the touch seems changed, and maybe with the touch installed in the repairing time didn't have the extensions)

:/ Sad, I know, but what do I do? Any hardware guys here, who can suggest me if the workshop person is being honest, or should I try something else? Is there actually such a mechanism underneath the soft-buttons for lights? Also, what if the LEDs themselves aren't working, will I need to replace only the LEDs or the whole board that LEDs may be pasted upon?

Any feedback would be helpful. :) Thanks in advance.
 
It could be that, or simply the photosensor is damage. On the right of the earpiece, there is that little hole. It is a proximity/photosensor that, when exposed to light, will shut off the 4 soft buttons.

If that is damaged and is constantly sending a signal to turn off the touch buttons, that could be why as well.

Do a test: Put automatic brightness on, and put your finger over the hole, then take it off. If the screen changes brightness, it isn't the sensor then.
 
Hey aaq84, welcome to the forums, I'm glad you've found us useful and like what you've seen so far. :)

Hardware wise, I can't really answer, sorry. There's a video floating about on youtube showing you how to take the phone apart, you might be able to see for yourself there:

HTC Desire HD Disassembly Video - YouTube

Weren't HTC willing to touch the phone at all? Even if they charged you for it? If it was my phone, I'd prefer to have it looked at by HTC as opposed to one of the repair shops you see about town.
 
aaq84 said:
(he said the touch seems changed, and maybe with the touch installed in the repairing time didn't have the extensions)
Click to expand...

I guess it's also possible that the LEDs or those extensions were damaged during the touch screen repair.
 
Thank you very much for the quick replies.

Saltine713: Thank you, I just tried the proximity sensor you mentioned. I turned the automatic brightness option on and the Screen timeout to Never. And then tried it multiple times, it is not changing the screen brightness when I put the finger on the proximity sensor or put it infront of light. I think you are right, it may be the sensor. But one question, the soft buttons seem to work out fine, just not lit up. Perhaps because the phone thinks, it is in daylight and turns the lights off but keeps them working. (Just a side thought, shouldn't the lights be permanently on if it doesn't work and phone thinks it's constant dark, or it can be damaged in the way that the lights remain permanently off and phone thinks it's constant daylight?)

El Presidente: Thank you. Yes, they just referred me to a third-party repair shop, even I wanted the HTC people to take a look at it, because I'd pay them good money if they were willing to help me, because I think official guys would know it better than the common phone mechanics. But well, I guess they don't bother with the phones after the warranty. Also, thank you for the video, it's great help.
 
I can't remember specific cases, but I'm pretty sure others have reported that the keys won't light up if the sensor isn't working.

If it is broken, then the phone doesn't necessarily think that it's constantly dark/light - it probably isn't receiving any signal at all and so it defaults to having them off.
 
Xyro, that's what I asked, shouldn't the default state be constantly on, instead of being constantly off?
 
Hey!

where is the htc service center in isb/rwp located? I recently bought my HTC Explorer new but it fell a few times and now the touch wont work properly :( repair ppl at singapore plaza say the touch has no problem as they tried a new touch pad as well but still the same issue. There is calibration but difficult to unlock the ring, answer a call, txt, etc ...the basic problem is tht you touch right and it touches left n vice versa :mad: whatever you try to do, even type a letter while txting; it would touch some other letter...so difficult to swipe/unlock the ring:confused: just dunno what to do ...am just too fed up! any solution ???
 
Hey buddy. Trust me, I feel ya. Well, the HTC place I went to is in blue area, I'll get you the proper address in a while, but tell me have you had your fone fixed already, or what's up with it.
 
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