Diagnosing common phone issues

Problem 1 — Won't charge or charges intermittently

Almost always one of three things: the cable, the charge port, or the battery. In that order.

• Try a different cable AND a different brick. Bad cables fail constantly — rule them out first.
• Shine a flashlight into the charge port. If you see lint or pocket fuzz packed inside, gently clear it with a wooden toothpick (never metal). This alone fixes maybe a third of 'broken' phones.
• If the phone only charges at a certain cable angle, or the cable falls out easily, the port itself is worn — that's a port replacement.
• If charging is slow, drops fast, or the phone dies at 30% — that's the battery, not the port.

Problem 2 — Ghost touch (screen taps things by itself)

The phone opens apps, types random characters, or scrolls on its own. Usually the digitizer (touch layer of the screen) is failing.

• Restart the phone first — eliminates a software glitch.
• Remove the screen protector. A cracked or lifting protector is the #1 cause of fake 'ghost touch'.
• If the screen has any cracks, ghost touch is almost certainly the cause — replace the screen.
• No cracks, no protector, restarted, still happening? The display assembly needs replacement.

Problem 3 — Black screen but the phone seems on

Phone vibrates for notifications, makes sounds, but the screen stays black. Two main causes.

• Force-restart the phone first (different combo per model). A frozen software state mimics this exactly.
• If a force-restart fixes it once but it comes back — could be a failing display or a logic-board issue.
• Phone makes sounds and vibrates but never shows anything, even after force-restart and a recent drop → display assembly failure.
• Nothing at all, no vibration, no sounds → likely battery or logic board, not the screen.

Problem 4 — No service / SOS only

Bars are gone, calls fail, or the phone shows 'SOS only'. Most of the time this isn't actually a phone hardware problem.

• Toggle airplane mode on for 10 seconds, then off. Forces the radio to re-register on the network.
• Restart the phone. Sounds dumb, fixes it constantly.
• Check carrier outages in your area — Florida storm season knocks towers offline more than people realize.
• Try the SIM in another phone. If the other phone also loses service, it's the SIM or carrier. If the SIM works elsewhere, it's the phone's antenna / modem — and that's a real repair.

When to skip the DIY and just bring it in

If the phone has been dropped recently and now has any of these symptoms, the diagnostic is free — let us look at it before you spend money on parts that may not be the problem.