Pro Tip: Beware of hot light sources

Hey guys! Just a heads up and a stupid reminder of a situation that happened to me a few days ago…

I basically damaged the display of my FP2 pretty awkwardly, so I’m posting this in order to hope that no one else will have this happen to their phone/display.

Here goes storytime:
Some days ago I was relaxing on my couch at home, after a long day of school/work. I have this kitchen light bar thing (those things you screw under wall cupboard) around on a ledge behind my couch, had it left over from my kitchen that I bought used and just had it there. They apparently get really hot, which until that day I failed to realize.

It happened that my phone was lying on top of the sofa, at some point I must have accidentally knocked it off and it landed display first on the hot light. No clue how long it was being tortured by the heat, but when I noticed it I had a mixed feelings, kinda a bit of hating myself and self-pitty.

You guessed it, the heat had done it’s evil work on the screen, leaving a big black spot on it, while making the phone go crazy because of the heat. Obviously I instantly turned it off, took it apart and let it cool down.

A few minutes later I reassembled it to assess the stupid damage I had done. To my fortune the phone and display did still function like it was supposed to… touch input works, screen worked, even at the spot where the heat had done it’s deed. Seems like the part of the backlight there died. Disaster somewhat averted. (I’d guess that there is probably no way of repairing it.)

Here is a picture of what it looks like:

Well… seems like I have to spend 90€ as sort of “lesson of life” for a new display soon. Just hope they will be back in stock soon. (Until then I have to live with the black spot of shame.)
(Don’t think a household content insurance covers for such things… should I try contacting them?)

Anyways, that’s it for now. A lot of you will probably facepalm when reading this, but eh, bet everyone has done something this stupid in some way. I also hope this will prevent other people from being as stupid as I was. :smiley:

Cheers!

TL;DR Phone on Couch, fell down onto a hot light and damaged the display pretty badly

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I think they only pay if you damage someone else’s belongings.

Nah, that’s the “liability insurance” you think of. Household content insurance is about the things in your home, e.g. when they get destroyed by a fire or flooding or such. Not sure tho about damage you stupidly accidentally done yourself.

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There may be bright side …um sorry :wink:

If it was that warm it was most likely an incandescent or fluorescent bulb… now you know that, it would probably be significant savings to find a LED equivalent which in addition to not outputting a ton of heat, would also use probably half or less electricity.

Thanks for posting and hope u get a fixed screen soon…

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I was referring to the German word “Haushaltsversicherung”, which literally translates to “household insurance”, but indeed probably means “liability insurance” in English… :upside_down:

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Hm, I just had a thought about my display and how possibly the heat damage is only on the outer glass. Why I think this is because when I shut off the screen the spot goes darker as well.

I did not find anything (e.g. tests) about what heat damage on gorilla glass is supposed to look like.

But going through the hassle to try and switch out the glass is probably not worth the effort, if alone possible without easily breaking the display module itself.
And getting a replacement glass only also.

From what this looks like, I wouldn’t conclude it’s the glass. I’d even guess the glass is more resistant to heat than anything else inside of that display. It’s more likely the transistors in the TFT structure got killed by the heat.
Furthermore, it’s normal that the dead spot goes darker if you turn off the backlight, as the crystals in the LCD can never block 100% of the backlight from getting through.

Hey, sorry for the late answer.

Anyways, the picture I posted is not doing it a favor. When I look closely at the black spot I can still see the individual display pixels working as intended. I’m not a hardware guru when it comes to that TFT displays, but to me it seems they are intact.

Once I get a replacement screen I will do some tinkering with it, trying to separate the glass from the screen. Until then I’d rather not try that, since I like using 2 SIM cards and my old Moto G 1st Gen I have around only supports one.

In the mean time I might write the support and ask them about when displays will be back in stock, or if there is another way to get hold of an replacement display.

OK, the pixels appear to still work then. But something seems to “block” the backlight to get through to the pixels. Some kind of problem with the diffuser foil?

You might be able to get a display from one of the resellers .

That’s probably it. As i said, once I have a replacement I will take apart the module and experiment. Who knows, maybe I’ll be able to repair it?

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I once put my bare arm on a hot lightbulp… That was even more stupid :wink: imagine you’d did this with a new iPhone… 900€ instead of a 90€ Display :wink:

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And have you replaced your light bulb by a LED one? So that won’t happen again?

It Happened when i was a child. There were no LED to buy. But nowadays, yes, most of them are LEDs right now :-)
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In fact, LED lamps can get quite hot, too. That’s why many of them are built with extra heatsinks.

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