[GUIDE] Fix Display Flickering, Overheat and Constant Rebooting

[IngJulian_RVLX]

Hello and Welcome to this Guide!!!

As anyone know so far, the LG G3 is anything but reliable, mostly because it's constant tendency of overheating.
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The Main Reason:
-Poor Manufacturing (Remember the LG Bootloop Fiasco with the G4/V10/V20/Nexus 5X??)
-The Huge Square Gap between the SoC and the Frame (Who the h*** designed this phone anyway?)
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The Consecuences:
-Screen Dying or Flickering
-Rebooting,
-+60° Overheating
-Wi-Fi Loss (Not turning on or MAC displaying zeros)
-SIM Loss (IMEI displaying zeros or not displaying at all, or SIM not recognized)
-G4/G5/V20/Nexus 5-Style Bootloop
-Infrared Remote not flashing
-Etc.
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So I made a simple (or more reliable) solution: Aluminum Foil Heatsink

Since this is a Hardware Issue, I research over the time about homemade "solutions" like:

-"Card on SoC" and
-"Paper Below Rear Camera"
-(And my favorite)"Put a Thermal Pad between the SoC/RAM and the Frame"

Useless and Ridiculous Solutions if you ask me...

Reason 1: To dissipate heat you need and energy conductor, not an insulator!!!!
Reason 2: Thermal Pads are garbage, They insulate more than it can conduct heat.
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Now, before anyone has any complaints regarding using a little of Alluminum Foil inside the phone, let me clarify some comments about it:
-The phone frame is metal too (Surprising Right?? :silly
-The antennas are on the opposite side of the SoC, and on the bottom of the phone, so this WON'T interfere with network signal.
-Alluminum (as well as the other metals on the Frame and PCB) can ground, but since we are using the Stock EMI Shield, this fix cannot touch anything inside the EMI Shield. So there is NO RISK in doing this.
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We going to need:
Thermal Grease (I recommend Arctic MX-2 for this fix and to do Computer Maintenance)
Allumium Foil (You sould have a roll on the kitchen right??? Basic stuff to have at home right????...)
Screwdriver (Seriously, Do I need to explain myself???)
LG Electronics G3 D85x (Obviously) [My device is an T-Mobile variant: D851]

First, The Main Problem (At lease in my case); The Screen Dying:


YouTube or IFixIt has the dissassembly tutorial, to avoid wasting time part by part, i just put the back plate off


Here's what we got:


Here's what we need:


You have to bend it until you have a litte square that can fits the SoC space but can have a little height



All right; Like the third photo: You have to put thermal grease on both SoC and Display Chassis, and put the square on the chassis or the SoC (better on chassis when assembling)...
View attachment 4053916

Carefully you reassembly the Motherboard starting with the upper zone, reconnect and DONE!!!!!


Results:
Before (With Thermal Grease):


After:


Information:



(Remember, This may o may not fix the problem at all; It can be temporal or not, depending the dissoldering status of the SoC/RAM)


(May 2023 Update: I replaced this phone for a PH-1, then a Xiaomi Mi 9, and now I have a Samsung Galaxy S20+; the G3 was dying anyways, so glad LG stop making unreliable POS devices)

 

[Ivannoe]

Nice idea, I will try when I get de Arctic MX-2

 

[Duckscreen]

Thank for sharing.
I was do this on my Nexus 5x and its make my devices hotter hahaha.
Ps i was had an G3 its screen flickering and bootloops i fixed by reheat the EMMC it work for a week then its come back.

 

[no14me]

How about GPS signal strength?
Did you try with thermal pad?

 

[IngJulian_RVLX]

Remember Thermal Grease.

Thank for sharing.
I was do this on my Nexus 5x and its make my devices hotter hahaha.
Ps i was had an G3 its screen flickering and bootloops i fixed by reheat the EMMC it work for a week then its come back.

You may put thermal grease on the SoC and Chassis to avoid the overheating, because if you use only aluminum it just make pressure, but not transfer at all...

Reheating may do the trick, but only if it can't be temporally fixed using this method. But the eMMC doesn't have problems at all comparing the SoC; mostly because the eMMC has an EMI Shield on its top, and the SoC has the RAM and nothing to dissipate in the latter...

 

[IngJulian_RVLX]

How about GPS signal strength?
Did you try with thermal pad?

GPS on Maps, Waze and WhatsApp still great, because the GPS antenna is on the opposite side as the SoC (Back Plate).
I was on Baseband v30 on the D851 and I have Bluetooth issues, but when I go back to v20, everything back to normal...

Thermal Pad do not make pressure on the SoC/RAM, and when coming in thermal eficiency, are lower than aluminum and thermal grease, I notice that using CPU-Z and another G3 with and pad... So, when you have flickering, screen dying or another issue related with the SoC; may fail and you have to make more pressure.

 

[viktor92]

Can't believe the need of that thick piece of aluminum foil stacked. Maybe could be better to cut carefully a fin of an old pc heatsink and install it with the thermal paste (the arctic mx-2 is great), it's more complex but the result should be even better. I have a G5 almost 2 month ago and never had such a problem and I wish never have one, but this mod can be really entertaining :good:

 

[ronzky321]

Aluminum foil may conduct electricity, so this make it kinda dangerous. And it may mess up signal, or gps, or other stuff. Someone already posted a mod like this before using copper shims. I used thermal pads in my case, which is enough to distribute the heat.

 

[manups4e]

does this solve the yellow shadow on screen?

 

[IngJulian_RVLX]

Can't believe the need of that thick piece of aluminum foil stacked. Maybe could be better to cut carefully a fin of an old pc heatsink and install it with the thermal paste (the arctic mx-2 is great), it's more complex but the result should be even better. I have a G5 almost 2 month ago and never had such a problem and I wish never have one, but this mod can be really entertaining :good:

Well my friend, if you notice: I was having Screen Dying..
SoC was dissoldering, so you need pressure to maintain BGA connections stable, and stacked aluminum foil can't move because make pressure to itself, and the thermal grease avoid shifting out of place...

The heatsink fin may not maintain in position on the SoC block, and also is more thinner and it can't make pressure when things got out of hand... (I make those measures on the normal use and extreme use)...

Maybe your suggestion could work on another device, but the G3 can't work at all with that...

Greeting's!!!

 

[IngJulian_RVLX]

Aluminum foil may conduct electricity, so this make it kinda dangerous. And it may mess up signal, or gps, or other stuff. Someone already posted a mod like this before using copper shims. I used thermal pads in my case, which is enough to distribute the heat.

May conduct, but in this case: Thermal Grease avoid its conductivity at all, and, you have an EMI Shield in the sides; plus, you make pressure on the Aluminum Foil, so it can't shift out of position even with high shock...

Antennas are in the Back Plate and the Bottom; so far, no signal issues (just I have Bluetooth problems when Baseband v30, back to v20 and no issues)...

Copper shims can't make pressure in the SoC when have the Flickering, Display Dying or the Yellow Dot; it just make cooling efficient...

Thermal Pads can or cannot make pressure on the SoC when have issues, but results may vary...

Greeting's!!!

 

[IngJulian_RVLX]

does this solve the yellow shadow on screen?

Yes, and also another issues related. Like the Dying or the Flickering on the Screen.

 

[Ghassane]

OP, in which year was your phone (LG G3) manufactured ? 2014 or 2015 ?

 

[IngJulian_RVLX]

OP, in which year was your phone (LG G3) manufactured ? 2014 or 2015 ?

October 2014

Greeting's!!:good:

 

[ZjemCiKolege]

Hmm i never have this issue on my d855 only when i charge on lineageos i get blue flickering when i watch yt ;p

 

[reggjoo]

Tried this a while ago( even made a tiny heatpipe, out of aluminum), it did work, but it still couldn't stop the dreaded demigod errors. Once in a while, I put it back together, and see how far I can get it to boot. Xenon boots into the os, but after 12 seconds, demigod strikes.

 

[Benik3]

The best would be to use copper plate with exact diameter to fit precisely (on ebay they are for few bucks) + if you fear about shifting of the copper plate, you can use some high quality thermal glue (e.g. Arctic Ceramique 2) to glue one side. Of course use some high quality thermal paste, like Arctic Silver 5
To protect surroundings you can use capton tape

even made a tiny heatpipe, out of aluminum

Don't confuse heatpipe with thermal conduction. Heat pipe works on exchanging of heat threw gas-liquid system (it use high volatile substance).
Also aluminium has pretty bad thermal conduction (compared e.g. with copper), but it has higher thermal capacity...

 

[skidsss]

After the lineage os installation appeared on the screen this problem (It darkening the screen after a few seconds).
with this guide I managed to solve (at least for now it seems so).
I used thermal grease Cooler Master and aluminum foil.

thank you

 

[totalnoob34]

Good job. Still:

- Put WAY less paste.
- If you don't need pressure, stick with paste only, that way thermal resistance is lower than with foil stacked in

 

[bananapeal]

- If you don't need pressure, stick with paste only, that way thermal resistance is lower than with foil stacked in

i thought foil would give thermal mass. you are achieving same results simply with paste? what is paste doing if it doesn't touch anything?

i've only had one random reboot recently. idk if i try this for fun.