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What to do when half of screen on HTC Bolt went black?

Today while at work my phone was fine all night but I went to turn it on towards the end of the night, half the screen was black. I can't see that part of it, it's literally cut in half right down the middle to the edge of the right side going portrait-ways. I can still touch that side and select apps or type letters in that are on that side but can't see it at all. It's all black. I just got this damn phone on nov. 28th of last year (2016) so this is ridiculous that it's already ******* up. I've factory reset it TWICE and both times it stayed half lit even through the factory resetting screens and the restarting process!! After the first time it did temporarily become whole for a moment after I made a call but went back to being half lit quickly after. It doesn't flicker and i haven't seen it go from fully lit to half while on, it only happens after I push the power button to activate sleep meaning that's the transition. It isn't when its active only when it goes from awake to sleep. Although I could be wrong and it could have went half lit while I was holding it and looked away for a moment. Either way, this is a problem and I don't know what to do. I don't know what the warranty is on this phone, I am paying it off in installments for credit building purposes and have only gotten one bill so far since its so new. I didn't get the $13 insurance because I didn't expect the phone to **** up literally a month after owning it. What is the sprint/htc policy with device malfunctions not caused by the buyer? And this phone is water resistant and Dust proof supposed to be quite durable and shockproof and I haven't dropped it more than a couple times and not from very far off the ground, and it hasn't been submerged in water. It has an ip53 rating. What do I do????




SlapHappy

A light slap to the screen actually works, clearly there is a loose or faulty connection in the HTC Bolt. Thanks for the advice.


Brad

My problem:  Right half of screen went black.  Read somewhere to tap on the top right side with my knuckle.  Tried it and it came back on.  I kept doing this until it was happening all the time and the"knuckle trick" no longer worked.


My solution:  I was resigned to sending it to a repair shop to have the screen replaced for about 1/2 of what I paid for the phone, and wanted to delete my data first.  I went to settings and selected "factory data reset" but not delete my data.  The phone did it's thing and when it came back on, the right side of the screen worked.  It has now been 3 days and it is still working. 


Good luck.  Other option is to take the phone to someone and pay them about $120 to tear your phone apart  and replace the screen. My guess is some shops may keep it for a day, do what I did, wipe off the screen, tell you they replaced it and charge you $120. 


NISI

Thank you Jon, I had same problem half the screen went black suddenly and when I slap it hard on both side it worked.


Skeedn

I had my HTC Bolt in my inside vest pocket.  Pulled it out for a text message and half of the screen was black.  The left side was fine (vertical orientation), but the right side of the screen was blacked out.  The phone still worked fine other than not being able to see anything on the right side (or bottom if turned to landscape mode).  I did some Internet research and read that some people have tried hitting the phone on something to get it working.  I did not want to break it, so I just did a quick light hand slap to the front display and was amazed to see it actually worked!  Must be a bad connection somewhere inside.  Anyway, I thought I would share my success for others to try.  Just be careful not to go overboard and cause more damage!  :-)


Jon

This just happened to me day before yesterday, the right half of the screen went black.  I also have been having the whole screen blacking out and from doing a little research I see that is a common problem and it seemed to correct itself if I just left the phone alone for a few minutes.  But this 1/2 screen blackout wasn't going away.  I restarted.  I powered off.  I totally charged the battery and nothing worked.  I was getting ready to take it in to the service center when I remember a "fix"  I had read about for the iPad went the colors went haywire in the display, the "fix" was to give a shift hit to the back of it.  Surprisingly, it worked.  

So I tried it with the Bolt, gave the back of the phone a shift hit....it didn't work.   So,  probably more out of frustration than science, I gave the front of the phone a good slap....It went totally black and I thought I might have bricked it.  But no, I just restarted the phone and it worked fine and is still working.  Still, you shouldn't have to do this to a supposedly top of the line phone, but this worked for me.


Martin

I'm having the same problem but I haven't done anything yet about it because I read all the stores about how long it takes and the horror stories that go with it. Does anyone know if they are going to recall this peace of garage or not???


ojd

Why does Sprint continue to sale this defected product?  Am i missing something?


SillyRabbit

Let me follow up with we switched carriers and picked up two LG V20 phones, the Bolt isn't even in the same ballpark, the LG V20 is light years ahead in all respects.  And after only 5 minutes on the LG V20 I realized how horrid and slow the Bolt was even on it's best days. Didn't want to leave Sprint over this but now have no regrets the Bolt was a huge mistake and Sprints lack of addressing the failure of the Bolt is unacceptable!


SillyRabbit

Having the same kind of issues with out two HTC Bolts, we have been a loyal Sprint customer for nearly 20 years...  Our phones are LEASED devices from Sprint and after visiting a Sprint store in person and having them spend over an hour 'looking' at them to see if there was 'water damage' (they found no user damage) they said that they could give us a replacement for $75 each and/or we could contact HTC and have them fix or replace the phones...  When I explained that they were leased phones owned by Sprint and inquired why it was my responsibly to contact HTC and/or pay $75 each to replace a Sprint owned defective that I lease, phones that they now admit failed because of no fault of my own, they just repeated that I needed to contact HTC or pay $75 for another phone...  They also would not provide 'rental' phones meaning we would be out two phones for several to many weeks, that is unacceptable as we need our phones for business as well as family...  So we went home and contacted Sprint customer support online and they repeated over and over again that we needed to contact HTC and have HTC fix the issue...   We repeatably told them that we were not going to deal with HTC over this and expected Sprint to make this right for 'us' their customer...  Sprint's response was to repeat  that we needed to contact HTC, they repeated this not once, not twice but 5 times before we finally just hung up on them as it was clear the only remedy they were offering was for us the contact HTC...  It became clear that Sprint has zero intent to support their customers over this HTC phone and instead wants to pass everything off to HTC while leaving their customer high and dry with no phone...  So come tomorrow morning I will be taking my 20 years of dedicated 4 lines of service to the local T-Mobile store who after a call tonight to clarify what they can offer in regards to a buyout of our existing plan, have offered me a superior level of customer service already and I'm not even a customer...  My advice to HTC Bolt owners, is to bolt from Sprint and find a new carrier and be sure to let it be known why..


RobFrost

 I had the same issue with the HTC Bolt today, and this is only 1 week old. Also, this is my second Bolt phone from Sprint, the first one was super glitchy. So today I went to Sprint again, and they gave me a new HTC 10 instead. Hopefully, this one will be better. HTC bolt sucks!!


Robbie

Same thing happened to me yesterday half of my screen went black, took to sprint store was told I had to call HTC, they said I have to send back to them 7-10 days no phone they don't give loaners, my wife has same phone just waiting for hers to mess up too, will NEVER have another HTC  and just joined sprint they are horrible to deal with also!!


Daniel

I am baffled that there has been no recall on this phone.  Half the screen sporadically blacks out on the right side, but it is still responsive to touch.  There has to be a better solution by now than waiting weeks or months for a new phone.  It shouldn't even be an insurance problem!  All of the issues I hear/read about are not from neglect or damage.  Sprint needs to get in front of this asap.  Otherwise I sense a serious withdrawal of customers who feel spurned


Steve

**Update**Sent Phone to HTC. They kept it for 2.5 weeks and are sending it back "Repaired" no cost. Fingers crossed. Tech Support # (866) 449-8358


Josh

My phone did that as well. Didn't do anything to it and while I was typing, it stopped working. I dropped it on a table and it started working again. My advice: drop your phone on a table!


Mph

This phone blows. Unfortunately this was my first smart phone. It worked fine for the first two months then out of the blue the display just stopped working. The phone was on but I couldn't see any thing. Calls would come through but I couldn't answer them. It almost costed me my job! They need to get this fixed ASAP.


Aaron

I am on my fifth one, now and it just started getting to hot to touch and screen flicker just like the rest, this is hands down the worst phone. I've ever owned. Had each phone for less then three weeks.


Jose

If you put pressure on the top right hand side of the phone screen left of the volume buttons the screen comes back on. The connector inside may have come loose for the right side of the screen.


Jacob

*Update* after spending several hours on the phone with sprint someone in customer retention say they would see me a different phone. Long story short my "replacement " phone came I  the mail yesterday and it was another bolt. Spent 3 hours on the phone with them again and they are trying to solve the issue, the person that 8 talked to Saturday never put in the order for a different phone e, so they are having to go back and listen to the recordings to make sure I'm not lying to them.


rich

Same here. Shame on you Sprint. Selling a faulty product and taking no responsibility to right your wrong. The same exact thing happened to me this phone the Bolt is a lemon. Shame on Sprint. Make it right or you lost this customer. 


Steve

Same here, first one lasted 1 week and the second lasted 33 days which is past the 14 day in store replacement period at Sprint. Attempting to get a hold of HTC to see whats next.



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