Sometimes owners of Android smartphones/tablets face the problem of a blinking display. To avoid taking your gadget to a service center, you need to know the possible causes of the problem. As well as ways to fix them at home.
The causes of blinking or flickering display can be several. The malfunction can be either software or hardware. It would help if you analyzed the operation and behavior of your phone to find out the cause of the failure and blinking display. I will not bore you with many unnecessary steps to find out the cause. From practice, it is complicated to diagnose a hardware malfunction, and it can depend on many factors. It starts from the condition of the battery, internal defects, and the device’s temperature. Here is what I recommend doing first. Of course, I can’t guarantee that you will be able to diagnose the problem quickly, but you can try it because it’s free and requires a minimum of effort.
What causes screen flicker on an Android device
As I said before, screen flickering can be caused by a software glitch or a hardware malfunction. I’ll go into a little more detail about why these problems can occur.
Screen flickering due to software glitches.
Software glitches, as you understand it, the phone does not work as it should, a software conflict. Often such problems are caused by applications if you like to download them from Google Play and run them on your phone. The fact is that Android is quite an open system and many people develop different applications. In addition, many phone manufacturers, especially Chinese brands, like to visualize Android by installing software add-ons or upgrading Android to the point where it becomes a separate OS; for example, Xiaomi uses its Android-based OS, MIUI. There can be conflicts between apps and the operating system.
Android screen flashing due to a hardware malfunction
Anything can happen with such a malfunction. For example, I once had a Meizu phone in which the screen did not blink; it just did not turn on, the backlight worked, but the image did not, and this manifested itself only while turning on the screen; the image never disappeared while watching videos or while working with the phone. I had to turn the screen off and on several times before the image appeared. In the end, it was the screen’s fault; after replacing the screen, the phone worked as it should.
Here’s what can cause the screen to blink
- Faulty or damaged screen – the symptoms can be quite different.
- Problems with the battery and insufficient voltage to operate the phone. Pay attention to the charging time and how quickly the phone discharges.
- The problem with the video controller is assembled on the same chip as the processor; in case of malfunction, you need to change the entire phone mainboard.
Find the cause of the blinking phone screen step by step.
Here’s what to try to determine the cause of the blinking screen or fix the blinking.
First step
Reboot your phone; if the screen flicker is affected by an app downloaded to it, it will not be active after rebooting, and your phone should work fine. If restarting your phone doesn’t work, go to the next step.
Second step
There may be a problem with the brightness sensor on your phone; it may not be working correctly. On some phones, this feature is called auto brightness. Disable this feature in your phone’s settings.
Step Three.
Factory reset your phone, and think about what information you need to save so you don’t lose it. A factory reset will delete all the apps you’ve installed and return your phone to its factory settings.
If that didn’t work, chances are your phone is faulty and needs to be repaired. But I will give you some advice here: if your phone is in the budget segment, it will be easier to buy a new phone than to repair it. It also makes no sense to repair a 3-4-year-old phone; only if it is a high-end phone can it be repaired. You will only waste your money.. Why do I recommend just buying a new phone?
Look at how often you change your phone; statistically, a phone changes after 3-4 years, and there’s a good reason for that.
Battery: Today’s smartphones have lithium-ion batteries rated for 500-1000 charge cycles. In 3-4 years, your phone’s battery will use up its life, and you’ll notice that it has started to drain faster.
Ultra-high frequency (UHF) elements in the phone – namely radio modules, their lifetime is 5-7 years, depending on the intensity of use. Moreover, they lose their properties; the reception sensitivity decreases, and so on; it is a natural process of aging of microwave elements. You may not notice anything, but you may notice that your phone loses connection to the network more often, and the mobile Internet works worse. Here is a summary of what I wanted to say about the flickering phone screen.
