How to repair Camera? Camera Failed.

[Brovashift]

Hi all,

The camera on my S4 stopped working last week and I have tried all sorts to get it working again;

cleared cache / data / forced stop
Started phone in safe mode
Downloaded camera apps from the marketplace (but none work, all displaying camera failed message).
Cleared cache partition
Did a factory reset

Tried a fresh install of Lollipop 5.0.1 from carrier 3 network, thinking that a fresh rom install would get everything going from 0, fresh, but no! same error.

Removed camera from the phone and tried swapping it with another spare S4 I have with a working camera. The camera removed from the faulty phone worked in the other S4, and the camera from the working phone failed when put in the faulty phone.

So.... the fault cant be with any applications on the phone, nor any particular software (rom), nor the actual hardware (camera) itself. So now Im thinking could it be something on the pcb board?

I have noticed recently that I have been having an overheating issue with the phone, and I mean OVERHEATING! ridiculously hot to the touch when tethering 4G especially, as well as when streaming videos for extended periods on e.g. YouTube etc. for 30mins - 1hr. After looking for solutions online, simply updating all apps (even ones I done even use) seams to have fixed that issue. Although the number of apps is now greatly reduced as its a fresh rom install and Ive not bothered to installed all my personal apps yet.

But could the pcb have been damaged by the overheating and caused my camera to fail? If so, does anyone know how to test / what part of the pcb / and how to fix (if possible)? I did read that overheating can damage things like capacitors etc. Or is it a case of getting a new pcb (is that the motherboard) and replacing the whole thing?
I have got a spare S4 here but dont really want to strip that of parts if I can fix this, otherwise I'll end up without a working spare.

If anyone can help, pictures / diagrams, tutorials etc. it would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[FoxKat]

Your troubleshooting is quite extensive and done well, swapping known good parts with known good pcbs is one way to assure the condition of a particular component. I'm confident the camera is not the cause. I'm almost convinced the failure is on the motherboard. Yes, heat is a alligator state component's worst enemy. The overheating you've experienced could have easily caused this failure. Replacement of the motherboard is the obvious solution as evidenced by your parts swapping.

Google galaxy s4 teardown to find the best information about how to safely open the phone.

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[cr6]

Is the device stock or rooted? Rooted stock? If rooted/rom, what rom?

S5 tap'n

 

[FoxKat]

Removed camera from the phone and tried swapping it with another spare S4 I have with a working camera. The camera removed from the faulty phone worked in the other S4, and the camera from the working phone failed when put in the faulty phone.

This is evidence enough to me that the problem is a hardware problem and that the problem is a motherboard failure on the failed phone. Otherwise the working camera in the failed phone would have failed, or the non working camera would have remained non working in the working phone.

Yes heat can do terrible things to components, but the heat you experience may not be a cause of the failure, but as a result of a failure. When components fail they can typically do so in one of two ways. They either burn through and become an open circuit, meaning like if you cut a wire with a pair of dikes, or they can shunt internally (or short, like touching two hot wires together), and heat up rapidly as excess current now flows freely through the internal resistance causing friction of the elections. This then can destroy other board components down the line as they are suddenly faced with having far more voltage and current pushed to them than they were designed to handle.



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[FoxKat]

Is the device stock or rooted? Rooted stock? If rooted/rom, what rom?

S5 tap'n

Yes, you mention a reflashing of the ROM but is it a stock Samsung ROM? If it's a custom ROM the swapping of cameras to a failed ROM can simulate a failed motherboard. The fact that it stopped suddenly still has me suspicious of a hardware failure. If it were a ROM failure, it would have most likely failed from the start.

What is this carrier 3 network s4 ROM you mention?

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[Brovashift]

Both my S4's had stock roms installed. I only installed new roms in the main phone after the camera failed. The spare S4 I tested the camera in is an original stock rom.

I forget where I downloaded the roms from now, but they were both stock. One being i9505 international, and the other was a H3G (UK carrier) stock rom.

I dont know if it helps but here the .md5 file names of the 2 roms I tried:
* I9505XXUHOD7_I9505H3GHOD1_I9505XXUHOD7_HOME.tar
*AP_I9505XXUHOA7_CL3996895_QB3867680_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar

I used odin to flash the device and the second rom also had the BL, CP, CSC .md5's.

Im guessing a hardware failure myself due to the excessive heat.

Thanks for your help guys.

 

[FoxKat]

Both my S4's had stock roms installed. I only installed new roms in the main phone after the camera failed. The spare S4 I tested the camera in is an original stock rom.

I forget where I downloaded the roms from now, but they were both stock. One being i9505 international, and the other was a H3G (UK carrier) stock rom.

I dont know if it helps but here the .md5 file names of the 2 roms I tried:
* I9505XXUHOD7_I9505H3GHOD1_I9505XXUHOD7_HOME.tar
*AP_I9505XXUHOA7_CL3996895_QB3867680_REV06_user_low_ship_MULTI_CERT.tar

I used odin to flash the device and the second rom also had the BL, CP, CSC .md5's.

Im guessing a hardware failure myself due to the excessive heat.

Thanks for your help guys.

Great deductive work, Watson!

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