Nexus 7 BAD screen flicker!

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trothmaster

Member
Oct 15, 2007
33
3
I had Google replace my first nexus 7 because of touch screen glitchiness where it would not register touches-....
The replacement I got doesn't have the touch issues but now has the screen lift and the terrible flickering on low brightness.......
I am so dissapointed-.....so much potential here but 2 bad units, I Think I'm just going to get a refund....
 
P

potentiality

Member
Jul 24, 2012
40
4
People, can you please post your csn. I have a theory that the only ones that don't flicker are the first run. The only people who have gotten them back working their csn was from an earlier date. No one has come forward with this new batch claiming they work. My replacement certain lay didn't and it was from thE new batch.

I can honestly see a Class Action Lawsuit with Asus and Google as defendant's.

http://www.topclassactions.com/complaint-form
 
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T

TheHighlightGuy

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2011
526
131
Austin
Mine isn't really a screen flicker... It looks a lot like stuttering. It's like a few straight lines of pixels going out momentarily. It usually seems to happen when I'm reading articles from the Engadget app. Anyone else experience this?

Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
 
P

potentiality

Member
Jul 24, 2012
40
4
I just got off the phone with Google, they are going to replace this replacement unit and the guy specifically called the team handling it to tell them to explicitly make sure the device is working before sending it. Not sure how they can test this particular issue since it only happens at low levels and not always right away. I also inquired since this will be the third strike if the newer unit fails, that even though its past the 15 day grace, could I get a refund. He assured me they would work with me on such if the need arose. Lets hope it doesn't come to that so I don't have to test the truth of that claim.
 
M

matthewr87

Senior Member
Mar 6, 2012
259
31
London
I recently returned my 4th device for screen separation. However, it did not exhibit any screen flickr. SSN started with C70K
 
P

potentiality

Member
Jul 24, 2012
40
4
My current replacement starts with c70kbc06**** as well which makes it a July build by earlier in the month. It still has the flicker. Knowing my luck the new unit might not suffer the flicker but have the separation or ghosting...

---------- Post added at 10:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:33 AM ----------
TheHighlightGuy said:
Mine isn't really a screen flicker... It looks a lot like stuttering. It's like a few straight lines of pixels going out momentarily. It usually seems to happen when I'm reading articles from the Engadget app. Anyone else experience this?

Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

That's unrelated and more software with screen redraw. Its what the people who go on about all Tegra 3s having this screen flicker (which they don't since this is tied to the backlight), confuse it for.
 
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T

TheHighlightGuy

Senior Member
Jul 23, 2011
526
131
Austin
potentiality said:
That's unrelated and more software with screen redraw. Its what the people who go on about all Tegra 3s having this screen flicker (which they don't since this is tied to the backlight), confuse it for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Thanks! Mine hasn't had any issues other than that and I was hoping I wouldn't have to exchange like others here

Sent from my Nexus 7 using XDA Premium HD app
 
R

rhltechie

Member
Jul 26, 2012
6
0
Hi all,

I posted earlier about my screen flicker issue. I did have my unit replaced. I received the replacement and so far, it has shown no signs of flicker. BUT! if they have indeed fixed the issue, they have done so by screwing with the wifi. The new one I received loses its wifi signal in my home where the last one worked perfectly fine. Other devices work perfectly fine....i'm at a loss. I assume from the constant searching for wifi or maybe just another "issue", but the battery life on the new one is horrible.
 
P

potentiality

Member
Jul 24, 2012
40
4
rhltechie said:
Hi all,

I posted earlier about my screen flicker issue. I did have my unit replaced. I received the replacement and so far, it has shown no signs of flicker. BUT! if they have indeed fixed the issue, they have done so by screwing with the wifi. The new one I received loses its wifi signal in my home where the last one worked perfectly fine. Other devices work perfectly fine....i'm at a loss. I assume from the constant searching for wifi or maybe just another "issue", but the battery life on the new one is horrible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Can you please give the serials? Doesn't help us to figure out which batches are bad without.
 
A

Alimunium

New member
Aug 4, 2012
1
0
My Nexus 7 also came with some screen flicker (brightness random fluctuation) at low brightness. However, I noticed that while I was fixing my other problem (left side screen lift), when I left the back cover off the device there didn't appear to be any screen flicker! I tested by using gMaps on 10% brightness with WiFi on.

If anybody else who has the screen flicker problem would also try this method and report their results, it might help to isolate where the problem is or maybe even contribute to finding a fix.
 
M

mi7chy

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2008
1,260
301
Alimunium said:
My Nexus 7 also came with some screen flicker (brightness random fluctuation) at low brightness. However, I noticed that while I was fixing my other problem (left side screen lift), when I left the back cover off the device there didn't appear to be any screen flicker! I tested by using gMaps on 10% brightness with WiFi on.

If anybody else who has the screen flicker problem would also try this method and report their results, it might help to isolate where the problem is or maybe even contribute to finding a fix.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I reported this previously that removing the cover makes the screen flicker go away. I returned the affected unit, one out of three, so I can't try it but you can try putting electrical tape over both WIFI contacts on the inside cover and put the cover back on to see. If the screen flicker is still gone you can take it one step further and cover just one of the WIFI contacts. If still gone and you're daring, cut out a small strip down the center of the WIFI antenna tape on the cover as perhaps there's a shorting issue.
 
K

kenyee

Senior Member
Dec 11, 2008
74
4
rhltechie said:
BUT! if they have indeed fixed the issue, they have done so by screwing with the wifi. The new one I received loses its wifi signal in my home where the last one worked perfectly fine. Other devices work perfectly fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

My theory a while back was they could do a workaround by modifying the ROM to lower the power level output by the wifi chip...would cut range and/or speed but the flicker would be gone...
 
S

Sterlic

Member
Aug 23, 2010
11
0
mi7chy said:
I reported this previously that removing the cover makes the screen flicker go away. I returned the affected unit, one out of three, so I can't try it but you can try putting electrical tape over both WIFI contacts on the inside cover and put the cover back on to see. If the screen flicker is still gone you can take it one step further and cover just one of the WIFI contacts. If still gone and you're daring, cut out a small strip down the center of the WIFI antenna tape on the cover as perhaps there's a shorting issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I decided I might as well try this advice and after about 20 minutes of testing this seems to work for me. Took some electrical tape and covered the bottom WIFI contact on the back cover and while I've taken a little hit in signal strength it seems my flicker is gone or drastically reduced.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
 
M

mi7chy

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2008
1,260
301
Sterlic said:
I decided I might as well try this advice and after about 20 minutes of testing this seems to work for me. Took some electrical tape and covered the bottom WIFI contact on the back cover and while I've taken a little hit in signal strength it seems my flicker is gone or drastically reduced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Good job. I had done this test on the GPS contacts which made no difference but forgot to do it for the WIFI contacts before returning it. If you alternate covering just one of the WIFI contacts at a time and the screen flicker doesn't occur then there's a good chance that breaking the loop by cutting out a thin strip with an exacto knife down the center of the antenna tape will fix the issue while retaining the signal strength. Don't cut it too wide as you can further experiment with closing the loop by soldering a tiny surface mount resistor with enough resistance to hopefully mask the short/flicker or zero value resistor to restore to original state. Good luck but you're on to something.
 
W

webad_13

Member
Aug 4, 2012
15
0
Ordered a replacement today due to this issue. Also, left side of the screen started raising a bit as if it was not glued properly. Funny thing is that the guy @Google support knew only of the raised screen issue, says he never heard about the flicker (and started attributing that to the raised left side). Serial is C70KBC0.... not sure if the new one will have any of the issues resolved. I also played around with developers options, to see if that would somehow reduce the flicker but no luck really.

Will give an update for the new one when it gets here.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
 
N

NorthGuard

Member
Feb 21, 2012
49
4
webad_13 said:
Ordered a replacement today due to this issue. Also, left side of the screen started raising a bit as if it was not glued properly. Funny thing is that the guy @Google support knew only of the raised screen issue, says he never heard about the flicker (and started attributing that to the raised left side). Serial is C70KBC0.... not sure if the new one will have any of the issues resolved. I also played around with developers options, to see if that would somehow reduce the flicker but no luck really.

Will give an update for the new one when it gets here.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

When I returned mine last week, the guy didn't know if the flicker was covered by the warranty. He had to go ask his boss, lol. On a brighter note, my new n7 doesn't have any issues :D

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk 2
 
W

webad_13

Member
Aug 4, 2012
15
0
Lol, and what is the starting serial number of the new one? Seems that some people reported C70KCC to work without this issue.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
 
M

mi7chy

Senior Member
Oct 26, 2008
1,260
301
webad_13 said:
Lol, and what is the starting serial number of the new one? Seems that some people reported C70KCC to work without this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Getting one of the new SSN's from a shipment that arrived this week doesn't guarantee a perfect unit. When I bought my 3rd unit SSN C70KBC168xx had flicker while C70KBC163xx was fine.
 
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    Nascar Dog
    Nascar Dog
    New Discovery

    If you have a very strong WiFi signal (All bars lit up) the Nexus 7 will not flicker.

    That is why the flicker went away on my Nexus 7 last night. I was sitting in a strong signal location.
    When I went upstairs I had a weaker signal and that is when the flicker was noticeable again.
    Today at work, I connected my newest Nexus 7 to my WiFi hotspot on my BlackBerry Bold 9900 which has a nice strong signal and that is why I thought I had a fixed one.
    When I changed my WiFi to a weak network and only had 1 bar, the flicker was present.

    I connected my old Nexus 7 (that had the flicker problem) to my BlackBerry WiFi hotspot and the flicker was gone.

    So, that tells me the WiFi chip in the Nexus 7 is a cheap piece of crapolla. :mad:

    Can someone with the flicker problem confirm that they do not have a strong WiFi signal when it is flickering?
    View
    3
    P
    presslab
    It seems that on shutdown /system/bin/sensors-config will overwrite /data/lightsensor/AL3010_Config.ini. It must be pulling this data from somewhere else, like a special spot in flash memory where the factory stores the cal data. This implies that my factory calibration is borked, and it's not exactly a software problem.

    ---------- Post added at 08:08 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:38 PM ----------

    Here's how to change the light calibration forever:

    Code: 
    su
mkdir /data/calibration
mount -t vfat /dev/block/platform/sdhci-tegra.3/by-name/PER /data/calibration
echo 880 > /data/calibration/lightsensor/AL3010_Config.ini
umount /data/calibration
rmdir /data/calibration
    View
    3
    Nascar Dog
    Nascar Dog
    igjoe said:
    What box info do we need? I took a pic of mine before I returned my flickering 16gb version. I'm waiting to buy another one until I can confirm there's a way to tell it's a new non-flickering version.
    Click to expand...
    Click to collapse

    Mine has a label on both ends.
    One is English and the other is French

    On the English one there is a Customer P/N a P/N and a Check Number.
    Lets see if those are the same for all users.

    On the one I just picked up at Best Buy in Canada:
    Customer P/N = NEXUS7 ASUS - 1B16 - CB
    P/N = AB NEXUS7 ASUS 18/T3DL/16/1G/Y
    Check Number 0747

    Update
    So far no flicker on this new one. Doing the same things I did on the other one that flickers bad.
    One difference is they changed the initial start up screens a bit. Now after entering your gmail account info it asks for a credit card before giving you the $25.00 Play Store credit.
    My old one automatically applied the credit and sent me an e-mail confirming this. No credit card info required.

    New Discovery
    If you have a very strong WiFi signal (All bars lit up) the Nexus 7 will not flicker.
    That is why the flicker went away on my Nexus 7 last night. I was sitting in a strong signal location.
    When I went upstairs I had a weaker signal and that is when the flicker was noticeable again.
    Today at work, I connected my newest Nexus 7 to my WiFi hotspot on my BlackBerry Bold 9900 which has a nice strong signal and that is why I thought I had a fixed one.
    When I changed my WiFi to a weak network and only had 1 bar, the flicker was present.

    I connected my old Nexus 7 to my BlackBerry WiFi hotspot and the flicker was gone.

    So, that tells me the WiFi chip in the Nexus 7 is a cheap piece of crapolla. :mad:

    Here is the new setup screen:
    Setup.png


    This is new, used to just give the $25.00 credit automatically, now you need to provide a Credit Card before getting the $25.00
    Google%20Play%20Credit.png
    View
    2
    P
    potentiality
    Thank you for your work NASCAR. However we still need an official response from Google. We also need the Android sites to admit this.

    Steps to reproduce for ALL tablets.

    1. Weak WiFi signal.
    2. Backlight dimmed to under 30%.
    3. A program that constantly accesses the net. Such as Google Maps.


    All Nexus 7 units will experience this issue. There is no fix until a newer hardware revision is made. Again, that will take a few weeks. Screwing us over with limited RMA timeline.
    View
    2
    M
    mariolouis
    My xperia x8, x10 mini, x10 mini pro, xperia arc had the same problems initially. They all were fixed every after software update.

    Even Cyanogenmod has settings tweak to reduce flickering when set in low brightness.

    I really believe it is caused by software. Backlighting LEDs are controlled by software via pwm. The pwm may be conking out and not producing enough voltage when there is high current draw from the wifi. But it don't do that when watching videos where the most current draw should be taking place. Probably because of the Tegra 3 energy-saving feature when watching videos, but I really can't tell. I am pretty sure they'll come up with a fix either set hysteresis not to adjust logarithmically, reduce wifi tx/rx power maybe, adjust voltage to pwm, etc. There are many ways to skin the cat so to speak.

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
    View

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