Screen dying already?

[dsimic]

It never suffered water damage but sometimes use it when having bath . I do think it started after that, so it may be humidity related. Almost switching to it as daily driver, I would say using it 5 out of 7 days as main phone. I'm happy that it is fairly affordable to replace, hoping it isn't too much of a job to replace screen.

I don't think that using or storing a PinePhone in an area with elevated air humidity, but with no actual water ingress, should trigger degradation of the glue that bonds the screen.  However, I'm really not an expert when it comes to different kinds of glue.

There are some videos and instructions on how to take the PinePhone apart and put it back together in the Pine64 wiki.  I haven't done that myself (yet), but it should be rather straightforward, requiring use of some basic tools.

[raph]

I'm afraid I'm having the same problem. Mine is the batch with the Manjaro logo on the back. Delamination around all borders, roughly 1 to 2 mm wide. I will order a spare screen but think you guys need to be aware of the issue.

I'm sorry to see that.  Just checking, has your PinePhone ever suffered some water damage?  Are you using it as your daily driver?

I also have the same issue. Also the Manjaro batch. I don't think the phone suffered water damage (it may have taken the rain once or twice while texting, not more than a few seconds though because it is really painful to write a text under the rain). I use the phone daily (it is my only phone). I'm not going to replace the screen because even if it is a bit unsightly, it still works perfectly.

[dsimic]

I also have the same issue. Also the Manjaro batch. I don't think the phone suffered water damage (it may have taken the rain once or twice while texting, not more than a few seconds though because it is really painful to write a text under the rain). I use the phone daily (it is my only phone). I'm not going to replace the screen because even if it is a bit unsightly, it still works perfectly.

I'm sorry to hear that.   At least the screen still works.

We're trying to pinpoint the root cause of this issue, which may or may not be the CPU thermals, so providing additional details would be helpful:

• Have you, by chance, monitored the CPU temperature on your PinePhone over time?  If so, what were the averages?
  
• Roughly speaking, how warm has the phone been to the touch, especially the upper third of the screen?
  
• Have you used CRUST, i.e. has your PinePhone been suspended to RAM when left unused?  It saves power and allows the phone to cool down.
  
• Using the phone as your daily driver, how long did it take for the screen delamination to become visible?
  
• Could you, please, provide a couple of pictures of your delaminated screen?
  

[raph]

I also have the same issue. Also the Manjaro batch. I don't think the phone suffered water damage (it may have taken the rain once or twice while texting, not more than a few seconds though because it is really painful to write a text under the rain). I use the phone daily (it is my only phone). I'm not going to replace the screen because even if it is a bit unsightly, it still works perfectly.

I'm sorry to hear that.   At least the screen still works.

We're trying to pinpoint the root cause of this issue, which may or may not be the CPU thermals, so providing additional details would be helpful:

• Have you, by chance, monitored the CPU temperature on your PinePhone over time?  If so, what were the averages?
  
• Roughly speaking, how warm has the phone been to the touch, especially the upper third of the screen?
  
• Have you used CRUST, i.e. has your PinePhone been suspended to RAM when left unused?  It saves power and allows the phone to cool down.
  
• Using the phone as your daily driver, how long did it take for the screen delamination to become visible?
  
• Could you, please, provide a couple of pictures of your delaminated screen?
  

Sure.

• No, sorry. I can monitor from now on if it helps, when the phone is plugged.
  
• Usually not very hot, but the upper third of the screen regularly gets warm. It got quite hot when I was trying the convergence feature, when I received the phone. By the way, the phone was discharging even though it was plugged. It also gets hot when I occasionally try something heavy like for the phone, like FreeTube or Pure Maps, or when evolution-alarm-notify gets stuck. This is occasional, not day to day.
  
• Yes. I think there was a time when the PinePhone was suspended after a few minutes, now it is 1 minute. Once or twice I temporarily needed to make sure the phone didn't go to sleep and forgot to restore the setting right away, but not for more than a few days.
  
  However, I usually leave the phone plugged the whole day and then it does not suspend. It might get hot without me noticing but I don't think it is usually the case (I would have noticed I think).
  
• Sorry, I don't remember well. I first thought it was a problem with the screen protection and haven't much thought at first. It started before this thread was posted, probably in February or March, so probably 4-5 month.
  
• I don't have any device to take convincing pictures right now, but here's one attached. It first started at the top-right corner. Then it spread across the upper edge of the screen and then on the left edge, starting from the top and spreading to the bottom. Quite like the picture given in the first post. It has now spread on the whole bottom and right edges of the screen. I noticed today that a second "layer" has started spreading at the top-right corner. I hope it won't spread too much, it is manageable for now but if the entire screen gets affected it will probably be a bit tough!
  

Feel free to keep asking question, I'm happy to help.

[dsimic]

No, sorry. I can monitor from now on if it helps, when the phone is plugged.

It would be very useful if you could, please, monitor the CPU temperature, using the commands described in this earlier post.  For now, it would be good enough to pull the values manually every 30 seconds or so while using the phone, and immediately after the phone exits the suspend, and put the values into a textual file or a spreadsheet.  I hope this isn't too much to ask you for.   If you find that a nuisance, I can write a script that pulls and saves the values automatically.

After we get a rough baseline established that way, we could apply some thermal-related configuration to your phone, after which you could do some more measurement and a general assessment of the thermals and the perceived performance, for both low and high CPU loads.  This would provide a very valuable, independent insight into the effects of the general configuration that will be applied to the phone by the userspace thermal management daemon I'm working on.

Usually not very hot, but the upper third of the screen regularly gets warm. It got quite hot when I was trying the convergence feature, when I received the phone. By the way, the phone was discharging even though it was plugged. It also gets hot when I occasionally try something heavy like for the phone, like FreeTube or Pure Maps, or when evolution-alarm-notify gets stuck.

As we know, the upper third of the screen is the area under which is the A64 SoC, which is the primary source of heat in the PinePhone.  Consequently, increased CPU load heats up that portion of the screen, simply because the CPU cores generate more heat under load.

Did you use the HDMI port on the official dock while trying it out?  Using the DP-to-HDMI bridge IC inside the dock makes the dock use additional power, which may end up with the dock providing no power to the phone.  However, it's a bit strange that the phone kept discharging despite the charger being plugged into the dock, if I got right the setup you used; what kind of charger did (or do) you use, and what was (or is) its current rating?

Yes. I think there was a time when the PinePhone was suspended after a few minutes, now it is 1 minute. Once or twice I temporarily needed to make sure the phone didn't go to sleep and forgot to restore the setting right away, but not for more than a few days.

However, I usually leave the phone plugged the whole day and then it does not suspend. It might get hot without me noticing but I don't think it is usually the case (I would have noticed I think).

I'd suggest that you keep the phone suspended to RAM when unused even while a charger is plugged into it, because suspending the phone allows it to cool down.  As a side note, you can always initiate the suspend to RAM "manually", using this command:

Code:

echo "mem" > /sys/power/state

Sorry, I don't remember well. I first thought it was a problem with the screen protection and haven't much thought at first. It started before this thread was posted, probably in February or March, so probably 4-5 month.

Roughly speaking, it should then be safe to say that the screen delamination started after a prolonged daily use, if you agree.  In our world, filled with short-lived smartphone models, four to five months of daily use is usually considered "prolonged use".

I don't have any device to take convincing pictures right now, but here's one attached. It first started at the top-right corner. Then it spread across the upper edge of the screen and then on the left edge, starting from the top and spreading to the bottom. Quite like the picture given in the first post. It has now spread on the whole bottom and right edges of the screen. I noticed today that a second "layer" has started spreading at the top-right corner. I hope it won't spread too much, it is manageable for now but if the entire screen gets affected it will probably be a bit tough!

I'm not even remotely close to being an expert when it comes to the glues and screen lamination, but this sounds like a rather serious development of the issue.    As a note, no picture was attached to your last post.

[raph]

> It would be very useful if you could, please, monitor the CPU temperature, using the commands described in this earlier post.  For now, it would be good enough to pull the values manually every 30 seconds or so while using the phone, and immediately after the phone exits the suspend, and put the values into a textual file or a spreadsheet.  I hope this isn't too much to ask you for.   If you find that a nuisance, I can write a script that pulls and saves the values automatically.

I'll look into it, and write a guide to set this up. Feel free to ping me if you don't here from me soon. I plan to write a systemd task that runs post resume, and a cron task that runs every 30 seconds when the phone is on and not sleeping.

> Did you use the HDMI port on the official dock while trying it out?

Yes

> Using the DP-to-HDMI bridge IC inside the dock makes the dock use additional power, which may end up with the dock providing no power to the phone.

That's probably what was happening

> However, it's a bit strange that the phone kept discharging despite the charger being plugged into the dock, if I got right the setup you used; what kind of charger did (or do) you use, and what was (or is) its current rating?

I was using the Lenovo P2 charger with the provided red cable. It's a USB-A charger with Qualcomm's Quick Charge, which I don't expect the PinePhone to take advantage of and which is incompatible with USB-C. Charging the Pinephone with it is quite slow, it takes several hours to charge the phone. I think It's defaulting to 5V. The CPU was used as its maximum.

> I'd suggest that you keep the phone suspended to RAM when unused even while a charger is plugged into it, because suspending the phone allows it to cool down.  As a side note, you can always initiate the suspend to RAM "manually"

I need the phone to be awake: I'm often displaying chatty remotely using ssh X11 forwarding. I also want it to be quick to notify me of calls and texts. But I'll try to think of letting the phone sleep during the night. Or even better, run a cron task at night that suspends the phone if the screen is off and nothing is playing.

> Roughly speaking, it should then be safe to say that the screen delamination started after a prolonged daily use, if you agree.

Yes

> In our world, filled with short-lived smartphone models, four to five months of daily use is usually considered "prolonged use".

Yes...

 > As a note, no picture was attached to your last post.

Arg. I forgot to click on "Add attachment". Here it is but I'll try to take a better picture if I have the chance.

So, yes, it is worth to notice that because it is slow to charge and discharges quite a bit when unplugged, my phone is plugged and not sleeping most of the time.

The phone is currently plugged, has been charging for more than an hour (39% charged), not sleeping, running chatty over ssh, on a couch (to which it is probably dissipating heat). Its current temperature is:

cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
36718

Which does not seem quite hot actually. Is it possible that the dock was drawing power from both the phone and the charger?

[dsimic]

I'll look into it, and write a guide to set this up. Feel free to ping me if you don't here from me soon. I plan to write a systemd task that runs post resume, and a cron task that runs every 30 seconds when the phone is on and not sleeping.

I'll also have a take on a simple script that would pull and record the values automatically.

I was using the Lenovo P2 charger with the provided red cable. It's a USB-A charger with Qualcomm's Quick Charge, which I don't expect the PinePhone to take advantage of and which is incompatible with USB-C. Charging the Pinephone with it is quite slow, it takes several hours to charge the phone. I think It's defaulting to 5V. The CPU was used as its maximum.

As far as I can see, that USB charger should be able to provide 2.1 A at 5 V, which should be good enough to charge the PinePhone.  You can check the charging current limit negotiated between the phone and the charger, together with other interesting parameters, using the following command:

Code:

cat /sys/class/power_supply/axp20x-usb/uevent

Arg. I forgot to click on "Add attachment". Here it is but I'll try to take a better picture if I have the chance.

This looks exactly as you've described it: a two-stage screen delamination, so to speak.

The phone is currently plugged, has been charging for more than an hour (39% charged), not sleeping, running chatty over ssh, on a couch (to which it is probably dissipating heat). Its current temperature is:

cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
36718

Which does not seem quite hot actually. Is it possible that the dock was drawing power from both the phone and the charger?

Quite frankly, that's unexpectedly low for the load you've described.  Under similar circumstances and with the CPU thermal throttling left at its defaults, I've never been able to achieve CPU temperatures below 55-60 oC or so.  Have you modified the CPU thermal throttling parameters?

[dsimic]

I'll look into it, and write a guide to set this up. Feel free to ping me if you don't here from me soon. I plan to write a systemd task that runs post resume, and a cron task that runs every 30 seconds when the phone is on and not sleeping.

I'll also have a take on a simple script that would pull and record the values automatically.

Please, have a look at the attached PHP script.  The MD5 hash of the file is 795e913de490230719c0cecaeb982603.

Once started from the shell or even from a systemd unit (it doesn't need to be started by the root user), the script remains silently in the foreground and collects the CPU temperature every 30 seconds, storing the daily log files in /var/tmp by default, which can be easily configured as desired.  The script should detect and log appropriately all events of the phone resuming from the suspend to RAM.  Please note that I haven't tested the script a lot, so there might be some unforeseen issues.

Of course, everybody else is welcome to test out and use this script.  Please, report any issues you've encountered.

---

Edit: I've improved the script a bit, so it detects the resume events better.  Because the detection is based on how long it takes for the internal poll loops to execute, it was possible to have false positives.  The improved version is attached now, replacing the previous version.

Edit #2: I've improved the script a bit again, so it avoids "wraps" or "creeping up" of the polling time points at the second level.  Those "wraps" produced no ill effects, but the resulting time points were unsightly.   The improved version is attached now, replacing the previous version(s).

[MirceaKitsune]

As I'm planning to order a Pinephone next month (150$ version) this concerns me a bit; It's unlikely I'd know where to reliably repair the screen or feel comfortable leaving my phone at any shop to do so. Since the new version in stores is now the Pinephone Beta edition over the older Community Edition I'd like to ask two things:

1. Have any changes been made to how the screen is glued since this was reported, in hopes of reducing such occurrences?
   
2. A previous post in this thread mentions changes to the kernel in order to reduce heading and the maximum CPU usage. Does the Beta edition ship with those changes, or will they become available after installing the first updates upon receiving the device (sudo pamac -Syu)?
   

[kron]

Just wanted to report in that this is also and issue for me, in hopes that we can get to the bottom of the problem. In addition to this issue, the touchscreen on the sides of the screen has stopped receiving inputs. I am not 100% sure if these issues are related. If anyone knows differently let me know because I would like to fix that.

I don't think the phone that I have (Manjaro Convergence) ever reached temperatures that would cause the adhesive to fail. My braveheart edition, when first released, would get far far far hotter and the screen on it still looks great. In my case, it started de-laminating in the top left corner and slowly spread around the edges of the screen. Now that it has done a full circle around, it seems to be spreading into the center. This all happened of the course of a month or so. Then today I tossed it onto my bed and the touchscreen no longer seems to be working properly.