Phone fixed but now screen issue... — Nokia Nseries S60 5.0 phones (Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 mini)

Gerco 28 Dec 2009, 12:13

Hey all,

I shipped my N97 back to Nokia for the poor GPS reception, and the lens scratching issues. Also the ear speaker volume dropped down where it became impossible to call in noisy environments.

After 3,5 weeks I received a notice from Nokia that they wouldn't repair my phone but I would receive a new one. Picked it up, restored my stuff on it, seemed to work a lot better! I checked it first whether it was an old version, but it came with v20 out of the box, so I guess it is a quite newly produced phone.

Using this one, I noticed that navigation went a lot smoother, no real mispositioning anymore. However, I noticed two new things that I did not have with my previous N97. Do they sound familiar to anyone of you out there?

1. Phone freezes for a few seconds every now and then
When I am using the phone, opening menus, sending SMS or whatever, so now and then the phone stops responding for a few seconds.

2. Screen burns in
When I have a screen opened for some minutes (either using navigation for longer time, or even when using Nimbuzz for 10 minutes) the screen burns in. When the screen changes, I can clearly see the old screen still as some ghost image, as if it has burnt in. However, after a while this effect disappears (fortunately). But I have had screens visible for longer time on my old N97 and have never seen this effect. Anyone else confirms this behaviour? Is Nokia using new different screens now?

Anyways, I was happy with the swap so far. The phone can be used for navigation now and this time I left the protection plastic on the screen to prevent scratching. Even though some tests showed that the N97 screen was rather scratch resistant (by either rubbing keys or coins on it), I managed to get scratches on there by carrying the phone in my pocket without any other items in it.

Ah well...I always seem to skip 1 version (N93, N95, N97), I am already saving for the N99... 😉

rdcinhou 28 Dec 2009, 13:34

I've been reporting the "freezing" of the screen since the N97's introduction. This behavior is still present in v20.

It's not that the processor stops, but just that the screen update is frozen.

I determined this by using the Bubbles application (you touch the screen and bubbles rise from an underwater gravel bed). If the Bubbles process had stopped, when it resumed you would start with the same bubbles at the time you had frozen resume their rising--but when the screen does resume its updating, the bubbles are in positions which agree with where they would have been if the screen had continued to update.

So...the problem is in the screen updating.

As far as the burn-in...I have not seen this, but I have seen "flashes" of portions of other screens which make me think that there is some sort of timing issue with the screen updating routine.

Either that or this is the *NEW* theme transition from Nokia. ;-v

Gerco 28 Dec 2009, 15:43

Hehehe... I'll check whether there's a difference when I switch the transition effects off... 😊

Anyways, for me both items are new as I did not notice them on my old (at the end also to v20 upgraded) N97...

BanziBarn 28 Dec 2009, 16:13

I've had a new screen and now get screen burn too!

I also have an intermittent faint corduroy effect which fades in and out, most noticeably on light grey backgrounds.

Do you get the corduroy too?

Gerco 28 Dec 2009, 16:41

Yep, I can see the corduroy effect too, though it is not that disturbing. But that's probably because I still have the screen protector on it, as I noticed that the previous screen scratched quite quickly.