Solutions for Black Spots and Lines on Smartphone Screens

First you have pixel failures that leave you with those permanent dots. Then you get connection problems and these create lines across your display. Physical damage causes those spreading black areas that everyone dreads. A forced restart can fix lots of display glitches and you can even find apps that can unstick those colored dots that seem to appear out of nowhere. Professional repairs usually run between $100 and $300, though the exact price depends on your phone model and the severity of the damage. The trick is to know which problems you can fix yourself and which ones need an expert touch – because the wrong move could make the situation worse and cost you even more money.

We need to find out what type of screen problem you have and then match it up with the right fix. It’s much easier to tell if you’re looking at a quick 5-minute fix or if it’s time to call in the pros.

Let’s troubleshoot those screen problems and get your phone looking perfect again!

What Causes Your Screen Problems

Your phone screen is actually made up of a few different layers of parts all stacked together. Every layer has its own job. When black areas or lines start showing up on your display it means at least one of these layers has failed somehow. The exact type of failure you have depends on the layer that broke and what caused it to break in the first place.

Dead pixels are probably the most common problem that phone owners run into with their screens. These show up as small black dots on your screen that never change color or light up no matter what you’re displaying. They’re actually different from stuck pixels which are the ones that get frozen on one particular color like bright red or green and won’t turn off. Dead pixels happen when the electrical connection to that particular point on the display completely fails and can’t be restored. Once a pixel dies and goes black it’s going to stay dead forever – there’s no fix for it.

The technology in your screen makes a big difference in what kinds of problems you might run into. OLED screens are what most Samsung phones use now. They can develop something called burn-in where ghost images from apps or symbols stay permanently visible on the display. With LCD screens, backlight bleeding creates these annoying bright patches around the edges of your screen which is especially obvious when you’re watching videos or looking at dark images.

Many display problems start during the manufacturing process. The manufacturer might not seal the display layers properly during assembly and lets moisture slowly creep in between the layers months after you’ve bought the phone. Or sometimes the adhesive that holds all the layers together starts to break down and separate over time from heat and regular use. These problems stay hidden when you first buy the phone and everything seems perfect. Eventually though they’ll start to show up as dark areas or lines on your screen.

Physical damage to your screen operates on a very different timeline than manufacturing defects. You could drop your phone on concrete this afternoon and see no immediate problems with the display at all. The force from that drop can loosen internal connections though and those connections will slowly degrade over the next few weeks or months. Then one morning you wake up and suddenly there’s a black line running across your entire screen out of nowhere. The damage was actually already there from that original drop just slowly becoming worse until it finally became visible.

Your phone’s display contains literally millions of microscopic transistors and electrical connections all working together to create the images you see. When even just a small handful of these parts fail (and I see this happen all the time with water damage especially) you’ll see the results immediately as they show up on that otherwise beautiful display as dead pixels, lines or dark patches that won’t go away.

Which Screen Problem Do You Have

The black marks and lines you see on phone screens actually follow very particular patterns, and each pattern tells you something different about what’s wrong. It’s much easier to tell if you can do the repair yourself or if you need to take your phone to a professional.

Vertical lines that run from the top of your screen all the way to the bottom usually mean that your display connector has come loose somewhere inside the phone. It’ll stay in the same place no matter which app you open or what you do on your phone. Horizontal lines follow the same principle except that they usually point to very different hardware problems. Black marks that get bigger every day are almost always from liquid damage and it means that the water or other liquid is still spreading through the different layers of your display.

A quick diagnostic test will tell you what’s wrong with your screen. Pull up a pure white background first and take a close look at the screen for any dark pixels or areas that seem shadowy. Switch to a completely black background next and any pixels that stay lit when they shouldn’t will be easy to see. You’ll also want to test pure red, blue and green backgrounds separately because dead pixels behave differently with each one of these primary colors.

A pressure test helps you know if you have loose connections inside your phone. With the display turned on, apply some gentle pressure around the edges of your screen and watch how it reacts. If the lines disappear or move as you press on these areas then you have a connection problem on your hands. This type of problem usually happens right at the point where the display cable plugs into the motherboard.

The display problems that only show up when your phone heats up are usually caused by solder joints that are on their way out. These small connections expand and contract every time the temperature changes and eventually they develop small cracks. The problem usually gets worse after you’ve been on your phone heavily or when it’s plugged in and charging.

Photograph every mark and line on your screen first before attempting any repairs. The patterns can move or change quickly and liquid damage in particular tends to evolve very fast. If your DIY repair doesn’t go as planned those photos will give the repair shop some helpful information about what the original problem looked like.

Simple Fixes You Can Try First

Black marks or lines on your screen can be alarming, and I get why they are – screen repairs are expensive and nobody wants to go through that headache. The excellent news is that most of these problems can be resolved at home through troubleshooting steps that have saved tons of users from unnecessary repair bills.

A force restart should always be your first move if you see display problems. What you want is to hold down the power button and the volume button simultaneously for around 10 seconds or so. This process gives your display driver a clean slate to work with and eliminates any temporary glitches that create visual artifacts on your screen. Display drivers are finicky pieces of software and sometimes they just need a reset now and then. Every year, millions of phones with “broken” screens get fixed with nothing more than this restart because the software has just gotten confused temporarily.

Once you’ve tried a restart without success, pixel-fixing apps become your next line of defense. These apps work by fast-cycling through different colors across your entire screen and these color changes unstick pixels that have become frozen displaying a single color. Computer monitors have dealt with this exact same problem since way back in the 1990s, and the fix hasn’t changed much since then. As an alternative to downloading an app, plenty of websites host videos that accomplish the exact same objective – just let them run for a while and see if your stuck pixels come back to life.

Debris that’s stuck under your screen protector can also fool you into believing your screen is permanently damaged. A microfiber cloth with just a bit of isopropyl alcohol should work – gently wipe down your screen and focus on the edges since that’s where dust loves to hide. Screen protectors are terrible about catching little bits of dust when they’re first put on and those small specks create dark marks that look identical to dead pixels.

Moisture damage is a bit more complex. Even though some users have had success with the freezer bag trick, it’s a last-resort option. The process means that you’ll seal your phone in an airtight bag and place it in the freezer just long enough for moisture to condense and then allow it to warm up slowly over time with silica gel packets absorbing the condensation. The physics behind it makes sense. But the chance of causing more damage to your phone’s parts is pretty significant if the timing or temperature isn’t right.

Display problems aren’t always about broken hardware – sometimes the software is actually the culprit and manufacturers can fix these bugs with an update. Remember the iPhone X fiasco where thousands of users suddenly had green lines running down their screens? Apple looked into it and realized that the display driver had a software bug. They pushed out an iOS update a few days later and almost everyone’s phone went right back to normal – no repairs needed at all.

How Much Professional Repairs Will Cost

Phone repairs can spiral out of control fast and sometimes the damage is not something that a DIY kit from Amazon can fix.

Professional repair shops have equipment that would cost you thousands of dollars to buy yourself. Microscopes are a perfect example – technicians definitely need them to work on the flex cables that are thinner than human hair. These little cables connect your screen to the motherboard and when even one of them breaks or gets damaged you need somebody with rock-steady hands and the exact right tools to fix it right.

The cost of repairs changes quite a bit based on what went wrong with your phone. A basic screen replacement usually costs anywhere from $100 to $400 and it’s a pretty wide range but it has to do with your phone model and where you live. But if the damage extends past the screen and hits the motherboard itself you’re probably looking at $150 to $300 for that repair alone. The reason that motherboard repairs cost this much is that they need micro-soldering expertise – a skill that takes technicians years to develop and perfect.

Warranties are something that you definitely need to think about before you take your phone anywhere for repairs. Most manufacturer warranties become completely invalid the second an unauthorized technician opens up your device. Apple and Samsung are especially strict about this policy. Though if your warranty has already expired anyway, an independent repair shop could save you $200 compared to what the manufacturer would charge.

Another thing that changes the price and quality is the type of replacement screen the shop uses. Original manufacturer parts will cost more but they’ll match your phone’s original display quality exactly. Aftermarket screens can work fine but I’ve seen plenty of cases where customers see small color differences or lower touch sensitivity with cheaper replacements.

Water damage requires a very different approach from other phone repairs. Most repair shops actually have these ultrasonic cleaning baths that can remove corrosion from the small parts inside your phone. The technology is pretty impressive – it uses high-frequency sound waves to clean areas you could never reach by hand. A phone that looks completely dead after it falls in a pool or ends up soaked in a rainstorm can work just fine again once this equipment does its job.

If your phone is already 3 or 4 years old, take a minute to compare the repair estimate against what a replacement would cost. A $200 screen repair probably doesn’t make much financial sense if that same phone only sells for $300 on the used market. At that point you’re probably better off if you put that repair money toward a newer model instead.

Trade Your Old Phone for Cash Today

Those black marks and lines on your screen probably felt like a disaster the first time they showed up on your phone. Now that you have a better idea of what’s actually going on though, the situation doesn’t seem quite as hopeless. Sometimes there’s a loose connection somewhere inside the phone that any decent repair shop can reconnect and fix in less than an hour. The whole situation gets much less stressful and you can make smart decisions about if you want to grab your toolkit and try something yourself or just let the experts take care of it.

With enough advance warning, you can back up your photos, move your files to a safe location and plan your repair or replacement strategy without the panic of a completely broken screen forcing your hand. Display problems are almost inevitable after a couple years of normal everyday use and it makes perfect sense when you think about how much a phone gets tapped, swiped, bumped and stuffed into pockets over its lifetime.

Screen problems might make your phone feel old and worn out, especially if you’ve had it for a while. The great news is that you have a few more options. Maybe you think that the problem is minor enough to just live with for now, or maybe you want to try a DIY fix from the comfort of your couch as you watch repair videos. Or it might make more sense to pay for the professional repair work and get your phone back to perfect condition. Whatever path makes sense for your situation and budget, at least now you have the knowledge to make that choice confidently.

When those screen problems finally become too frustrating to put up with anymore or when repair costs start approaching the price of a replacement phone, we at ecoATM give you a simple way to get some value from your device instead of letting it sit forgotten in a drawer somewhere. With more than 6,000 kiosks scattered across the country, the process couldn’t be easier – just walk to any machine and let it run an instant evaluation of your phone through its instant diagnostic system and walk away with same-day cash or an electronic payment in your pocket. Find a location near you and find out what your phone is worth today as you do your part for the environment through responsible electronics recycling!