Yotaphone 2 e ink blank row problem

[lexman941]

Some days ago my Yota started to restart on its own. It happens once a day usually.
The biggest problem i noticed is that on the e ink screen now a white row is present and does not refresh anytime.

Firmware is 1.87a eu, original, not rooted. Anyone has experienced it? I hope there is a fix cause I do not have time to go to a support center and leave phone there to get fixed.

Cheers

 

[keeeper]

Some days ago my Yota started to restart on its own. It happens once a day usually.
The biggest problem i noticed is that on the e ink screen now a white row is present and does not refresh anytime.

Firmware is 1.87a eu, original, not rooted. Anyone has experienced it? I hope there is a fix cause I do not have time to go to a support center and leave phone there to get fixed.

Cheers

I bought my Yota about 2 weeks ago and firstly epd was completely fine then I noticed horizontal blank stripe few pixels wide that does not refresh. Then another one appeared, this time vertical and only 1px wide. Today I got third (next to the 2nd, also vertical).

I don't know the origin of those, as had 2 ebook readers before and never experienced such a thing. Wonder if it's a software issue or some failure with the device. Tried to Google it but it looks like it's not a common problem. Thinking of flashing the 1.99 rom - maybe it will help.

 

[Grimus07]

Systematic HW issue with yotaphone

I bought my Yota about 2 weeks ago and firstly epd was completely fine then I noticed horizontal blank stripe few pixels wide that does not refresh. Then another one appeared, this time vertical and only 1px wide. Today I got third (next to the 2nd, also vertical).

I don't know the origin of those, as had 2 ebook readers before and never experienced such a thing. Wonder if it's a software issue or some failure with the device. Tried to Google it but it looks like it's not a common problem. Thinking of flashing the 1.99 rom - maybe it will help.

I am sure that this is a hardware problem. I have my third Yotaphone now (because I love the concept). One I got replaced because of the EPD showed some lines. Another one has a fine vertical line, another one a fine horizontal. They are on different software releases. one on Middle East, one on European SW. No difference. The places are very different. So, a hardware issue.

 

[George white]

I am sure that this is a hardware problem. I have my third Yotaphone now (because I love the concept). One I got replaced because of the EPD showed some lines. Another one has a fine vertical line, another one a fine horizontal. They are on different software releases. one on Middle East, one on European SW. No difference. The places are very different. So, a hardware issue.

Hi! Yesterday I have got the same thing - dead horizontal stripe appeared on the e-ink screen. Please, give an answer, based on your experience - what will happen with the screen soon? Can the screen work for a long time in this condition, or is this a sigh of a soon total failure? Thanx 4 answer.

 

[lexman941]

Hi! Yesterday I have got the same thing - dead horizontal stripe appeared on the e-ink screen. Please, give an answer, based on your experience - what will happen with the screen soon? Can the screen work for a long time in this condition, or is this a sigh of a soon total failure? Thanx 4 answer.

Based on my experience it should go on working as usual, but the stripe won't disappear. Speaking about it with a friend of mine, he told me that this is a common problem with all e-ink displays. So if it is still on warranty my suggestion is to send it to be fixed. If it is not, do not panic, should be fine, at least I hope. Mine goes on without any problem , exception made for the stripe.

 

[keeeper]

Based on my experience it should go on working as usual, but the stripe won't disappear. Speaking about it with a friend of mine, he told me that this is a common problem with all e-ink displays. So if it is still on warranty my suggestion is to send it to be fixed. If it is not, do not panic, should be fine, at least I hope. Mine goes on without any problem , exception made for the stripe.

Won't be fine, sorry to say that. There will be more and more lines until the screen will start to behave weird in total (inversion of colors, no refresh, not working yota mirror..). I'm 99% sure that's overheating problem and plan to open my Y2 to find out soon.

Had 3 other devices with eink screen before (2 nooks, 1 Motorola phone) and haven't seen this issue yet.

Better use your warranty before it is too late.

 

[qprmanadam]

I purchased my Yotaphone 2 in June 2015, in August 2016 a horizontal line appeared about 1cm down from the top of the screen, then about a week ago a short vertical line appeared, just off centre going from the top of the screen down about 2cm. I asked yotaphone and they said to take it to their service centre but this isn't very convenient for me. I am hopeful it won't get worse! Interesting to see other's experiences, it is clearly a common problem!

<<edit>> The two dead lines are 1 pixel wide, the horizontal one is light grey in colour, the vertical one is white.

 

[George white]

Three days passed, second line is dead.
It's about 1 mm from first one.
No warranty, unfortunately... Screen replacement costs abous 120 USD. I'm sad

 

[keeeper]

Ok, so I opened my Yotaphone to find out what's causing the dead rows:

 

[George white]

Ok, so I opened my Yotaphone to find out what's causing the dead rows:

Thanks for photos! My horisontal rows are at the same place as yours. Furthermore, this situation is very and very common, many people have rows at the same positions.
If it is not hard to remove the screen, we can replace them ourselves: my idea is to order new screen from China, it costs about 60 USD there (at AliExpress).
The bad thing is that the new screen can be also defective.
Please explain how you removed the grille at the bottom of the device.

 

[keeeper]

it's simply glued, all you need is to get some pincers and pull carefully. You can follow this guide:

 

[George white]

it's simply glued, all you need is to get some pincers and pull carefully. You can follow this guide:

To your mind, is it possible to change only the display without replacing the glass? Now it is very easy to buy used phone with a broken rear glass, but the working e-inc display.

 

[keeeper]

the epd screen is embedded in the plastic case below the glass, if I wanted to disassemble it I'd have to rip the poor thing apart

 

[Rastignak]

Hello everyone,

Just to let you know that a recent french buyer (that's me) of an YD201 discovered after 3 days of use 3 lines out of order... the very same place...

I'm dealing with the seller efoxtienda.com to get a solution. I paid with Paypal in order to benefit from protection...

For now on, the lines are 1 pixel wide... so that's not a real matter... but I don't want to wait till it gets worse.

I will share the issue of the negociations.

Enjoy.

 

[TheArt.]

I ordered one from GearBest (Y201) and I really hope that it is without hardware issues.

 

[George white]

I ordered one from GearBest (Y201) and I really hope that it is without hardware issues.

Dont forget to make a video of unpacking...

 

[keeeper]

Because of the EPD, my phone is getting worse:

-it very rarely refreshes itself, and if it does then looks like above..
-the battery drain is terrible (50% loss in about 2 hours, mostly screen off)
-the heat of the previously mentioned capacitors gets scary
-phone reboots itself once a while

I've decided to disconnect the EPD (almost) completely and see what happens:

Digitizer (1) and EPD (2) are disconnected now, but there's some link at (3) and can't be unplugged. Not sure what it does.

Beside physical changes, I used Titanium Backup to freeze all EPD apps I've found (altogether was 39 apps) - especially Organizer and Counters were stopping themselves just after the reboot, very annoying. Will give you info about how it works in several days, as for now the only difference is around 2sec delay* between pressing the power button and turning on/off the screen.

PS. The good news is that, now I don't care about destroying the EPD, so perhaps after new year will have some fun with capacitor replacement

(*)EDIT: It's good now, just don't freeze Back Screen Manager app

 

[George white]

I do not understand about (3)...
How can I change the screen if (3) can not be unplugged?

PS How much time has passed since the first row appeared?

 

[keeeper]

I do not understand about (3)...
How can I change the screen if (3) can not be unplugged?

PS How much time has passed since the first row appeared?

Sorry, my bad - I took another look at the Y2 disassembly video - (3) can be disconnected, although it looks like soldered to the mainboard. Didn't try.

I bought my phone in the middle of September, first line appeared few days after.

 

[TheArt.]

Dont forget to make a video of unpacking...

Sure, but why?