Vibrate rattle.

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alodar1

Senior Member
Aug 6, 2007
1,347
90
Auburn, WA
Microsoft Surface Duo
Haha yeah way to focus on the silver lining! I only wish I was able to do the same.

I'm not sure the vibrate rattle will be "fixed" any time soon, it might be related to a hardware design issue or supplier issue, in which case we won't see something solid for a while, and you'll have to rely on getting "lucky" devices that magically don't have the rattle. I've gotten used to it at this point; the only thing I'm worried about is whether or not the rattle can cause further loosening or degradation of the parts involved in the rattle, or any parts that may be getting abused physically when the phone vibrates.

If I can be sure the rattle is purely a noise, and not hardware loosening or degrading, then I can live with it. However, I don't know what it would take for me to have confidence that it's true. I'm not sure a statement from M$ or Nokia would do it, as I've had the wool pulled over my eyes by manufacturers before (*cough* Crapple *cough* Samsuck *cough*).

Yeah...we'll spend the rest of our phone buying days pulling wool I think. Its a choice I made to play...so can't complain too much.

I found I only hear the clang clang vibrate on restart of device. Regular vibrate is ok. Don't know why that would be. I also got rid of the Purple-ish screen with a hard reset. I only saw it when brightness was on automatic. Switching auto off made it go away....to me, that doesn't a problem fix. So, I hard reset once again...and it no longer showed up on Auto.

Another thing I ran into...I've had 4 WP devices in the last 3 months...a 710, Focus S, and 2 900's. I ran out of device space in marketplace...couldn't reinstall apps. I had already took a device off to get the first 900 on board. Wasnt elegible until May 7th. Called MS and they said 24-48 hrs. Bummer.
Got to work this morning and Marketplace was live again...Cool...I only had to live the night with no apps.
 

Seed 2.0

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2010
285
20
OH-IO
Yeah...we'll spend the rest of our phone buying days pulling wool I think. Its a choice I made to play...so can't complain too much.

I found I only hear the clang clang vibrate on restart of device. Regular vibrate is ok. Don't know why that would be. I also got rid of the Purple-ish screen with a hard reset. I only saw it when brightness was on automatic. Switching auto off made it go away....to me, that doesn't a problem fix. So, I hard reset once again...and it no longer showed up on Auto.

Another thing I ran into...I've had 4 WP devices in the last 3 months...a 710, Focus S, and 2 900's. I ran out of device space in marketplace...couldn't reinstall apps. I had already took a device off to get the first 900 on board. Wasnt elegible until May 7th. Called MS and they said 24-48 hrs. Bummer.
Got to work this morning and Marketplace was live again...Cool...I only had to live the night with no apps.

Had same issue, I always named my phone the same thing so it always seemed to auto update after 24 hrs'ish. However when I couldn't figure out how to get my Live page, Windows Phone page and Zune pages in sync (all so the same active phones)I used the chat feature on Zune and they fixed them all up for me in minutes.
 

Nissan350

Senior Member
Aug 11, 2010
203
22
35
Crystal, MN
I tried 4 different 900's and they all have the rattle. First one I got off my girlfriends upgrade. Second one I got after exchanging that one for a "green dot" one (which didn't even have the software update pre-installed) third one I got after switching to At&t (Cyan version) and the fourth one was the sales reps.

They all had this rattle. Some worst than others. So I'm beginning to think all Lumia's in revision 1 have this issue. Or at least the vast majority of them.

Hopefully Nokia hears about the problem soon and offers us a new phone from revision 2.

I've complained to them on several of their twitter pages about the problem. Doubt they'll do anything but hey, it's worth a shot!
 

MPerz

Member
Mar 30, 2011
5
0
Vibrate...

Mine does this as well. I like to think of it as the trunk rattle when the bass hits.
 

arcspeak

Member
Feb 1, 2010
20
5
Rattle comes from hardware buttons and is harmless

I'm quite sure that the rattle on my Lumia 900 is coming from the metallic On-Off button and Camera button. There is a tiny bit of free play around these bits of metal, and merely tilting the phone back and forth can reproduce the rattle. Conversely, gently putting a finger on them eliminates the rattle when the phone vibrates.

I'm equally confident that this rattle is harmless. On other phones that can be easily disassembled, the analogous buttons are not part of the switch but are free floating parts that merely transmit the pressure from your finger to the actual microswitch inside.
 

FiyaFleye

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2008
1,167
109
36
Miami
Its not the buttons on mine. My buttons are stiff, they're also secured by my case, and for good measure I held them down. My rattle comes from somewhere at the top of the phone.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express
 

kenikh

Senior Member
Nov 18, 2009
275
45
I hoped that trading in my cyan for white would resolve this, among many other issues. The rattle is the only problem that wasn't resolved. Matter of fact, my white Lumia is waaay worse on the rattle than the old cyan phone.

I'm considering opening up my phone, using the instructions from CNET, to see what I can learn. If it is something loose, a dab of super glue should fix it. If it is interference in tolerance between a non-critical component and the vibration wheel, a little Dremel or X-acto action may fix it.

We'll see.
 

hx4700 Killer

Senior Member
Oct 19, 2007
1,281
274
Texas
So interestingly......

I have always noted the Vibrate module sounded a bit "flimsy" or perhaps cheap. Because of that I always assumed I had one of the vibration modules that eveyrone is complaining about.

Last night I played a game on the phone that I hadnt in a while. "Max and the Magic Marker"

When you touch the screen to "Draw" with the magic marker in an illegal area it turns on the vibrate motor. What it seems to do though is toggle on and off VERY quickly while holding in one of those spots. The vibrate module sounded like it was flinging itself apart. It was far and away the worse thing I have heard coming out of my phone.

I decided to bite the bullet and go to the store and see about an exchange. I tried two demos and 3 of the employees phones and they all sounded exactly like mine with the diag test. I had also tried my wifes 900 and it sounded like mine in diag vibra test mode as well. They didnt have the game so I couldnt test that.

In the end I decided not to because I wanted to reconfigure a new phone so soon after buying this one about as much as I wanted to put a hole in my head and it seemed that there would be no difference.

So now I am wondering if mine is actually "normal" and there are worse sounding vibra modules because I find it hard to believe that mine is a "bad one" when others have taken their phones in and have found better units but I tried 6 that sound the same as mine.

As to what the problem is... My money is that part of the module is in contact with something that is transferring the vibration directly to the unibody thus causing teh resonance we are hearing.
 

kenikh

Senior Member
Nov 18, 2009
275
45
Try this: shake your phone in hand close to your ear. Mine, I can hear a rattle. I am almost certain it is not the motor, but something else causing the buzz in these phones when they vibrate.
 

hx4700 Killer

Senior Member
Oct 19, 2007
1,281
274
Texas
Try this: shake your phone in hand close to your ear. Mine, I can hear a rattle. I am almost certain it is not the motor, but something else causing the buzz in these phones when they vibrate.

Yeah its there when I shake it. I have also observed additional "noise" when I tap the screen more than just lightly.
 
G

GuestD0608

Guest
As mentioned in some other threads, the rattle comes from the auto-focus component of the camera. The best way to test it is to go to the camera app, and switch between picture and video. If you have auto-focus enabled (which by default you should), you can hear the auto-focus clearly go on and off when you switch between modes.

As for my phone, if I shaked it in my hand, I couldn't hear the rattling, but it's there when you start the vibration test with the diag tool. I ended up exchanging my phone due to this, and the "purple" tint others have said about the screen at the lowest brightness.
 

kenikh

Senior Member
Nov 18, 2009
275
45
As mentioned in some other threads, the rattle comes from the auto-focus component of the camera. The best way to test it is to go to the camera app, and switch between picture and video. If you have auto-focus enabled (which by default you should), you can hear the auto-focus clearly go on and off when you switch between modes.

We have a winner! Interesting.
 

madgalaxy

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2006
176
24
Tampa
I have the rattle as well, very annoying. I wish I could turn off vibrate all together, but that is not an option.

I went into the ATT store and all the demos and the employee phone had the rattle, so I did not want to go through the exchange process.
 

kenikh

Senior Member
Nov 18, 2009
275
45
Here's a long overdue follow up.

I finally cracked open my Lumia 900 after breaking the screen and needing to replace it. I had nothing to lose since AT&T wouldn't cover the phone's screen and insurance deductible was the same price as the part...anyhow...

The rattle is 100%, unequivocally, without a doubt and with 6sigma certainty coming from the vibrator mechanism soldered to the main board. This mechanism sits directly to the side of the camera mechanism.

With the phone 100% disassembled, I was able to manipulate the parts in my fingers and test each and every parts the culprit. It is the vibrator motor and it cannot be fixed without extreme measures, like desoldering it from the board for inspection.

The cause is as simple as a crappy part Nokia OEMed from someone else.

BTW...totally different mechanism from the 800. After having been inside both, its pretty clear to me the 800 is a MUCH higher overall quality device than the 900. If the 800 had LTE and FF cam, it would kill the 900.

Anyway...bottom line: if your phone rattles, it is not user serviceable. Take it back.

If anyone wants pics, lemme know and I'll post them.
 
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tai4de2

Senior Member
Feb 10, 2008
497
37
Got a white one in Asia this week with a manufacture data of 6/20/2012. It is perfect, not a hint of the rattling I experienced on an AT&T white one right when they came out.
So, whatever it was, it's been addressed in later manufacturing runs.

Sent from my Lumia 900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
 

xxxrichievxxx

Senior Member
Jul 10, 2010
808
180
Notting Hill, London
www.facebook.com
Like someone said, It's the camera lens.

i had this same issue with my iPhone 4 when i had it about 5 months ago, I didn't like the noise. Tracked the noise down and when i tap on the camera area the iphone would make a noise. If you tap near the camera area of he Lumia 900 it will start making a rattling noise. thus = camera lens.
 

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    Nokia are pretty good at fixing hardware issues.. someone should bug them on their NokiaUSA fb page and also their twitter account. If they get enough complaints, hopefully they will do something about it.

    Also, start a thread here:

    http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/t5/Nokia-with-Windows-Phone/bd-p/Nokia_with_Windows_Phone
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    Here's a long overdue follow up.

    I finally cracked open my Lumia 900 after breaking the screen and needing to replace it. I had nothing to lose since AT&T wouldn't cover the phone's screen and insurance deductible was the same price as the part...anyhow...

    The rattle is 100%, unequivocally, without a doubt and with 6sigma certainty coming from the vibrator mechanism soldered to the main board. This mechanism sits directly to the side of the camera mechanism.

    With the phone 100% disassembled, I was able to manipulate the parts in my fingers and test each and every parts the culprit. It is the vibrator motor and it cannot be fixed without extreme measures, like desoldering it from the board for inspection.

    The cause is as simple as a crappy part Nokia OEMed from someone else.

    BTW...totally different mechanism from the 800. After having been inside both, its pretty clear to me the 800 is a MUCH higher overall quality device than the 900. If the 800 had LTE and FF cam, it would kill the 900.

    Anyway...bottom line: if your phone rattles, it is not user serviceable. Take it back.

    If anyone wants pics, lemme know and I'll post them.