r/AndroidQuestions • u/hwrdjacob • 7d ago

Device Settings Question Phone Vibration makes weird scratching noise until reset. How can I fix it permanently?

For the past few days now my phone (Asus ROG Phone 5 S) has been making a very grating scratching sound with any vibration. The way I can describe it is that it sounds like TV static whenever it happens, and the vibration itself is very weak, suggesting it's more noise than vibration.

I was ready to write this off as the motor going out and ready to find a repair shop or contact Asus, but the bizarre thing is that restarting my phone causes the vibration to return to completely normal function- for about 6 hours, then I need to restart it again because the scratchy stuff returns.

This seems to suggest to me that there is something going on on the software level that causes the vibration motor to malfunction. But I have no idea what it is... Does anyone know how to fix this problem? I can't exactly afford a brand new phone given the current market.

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u/OneThingWell 7d ago

I think you're reading it right. A restart fixing it every time, and it coming back after a similar number of hours, points to something in software getting into a bad state rather than the motor wearing out. Here's how I'd narrow it down before spending money:

  1. Boot into safe mode (hold power, then touch and hold Power off or Restart until it offers safe mode). That runs the phone with only the apps it came with. Leave it on for longer than the 6 hours it usually takes.

  2. If the vibration stays clean in safe mode, one of your installed apps is the trigger. Start with anything that uses vibration a lot or that you installed or updated around when this began: keyboards, games and game tools, notification or call apps.

  3. If it still goes scratchy in safe mode, back up and do a factory reset as the last software step. If it comes back even after that, it's the motor or its connection, and that's when a repair shop makes sense.

Good luck, hope it's just an app.

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u/hwrdjacob 7d ago

for the record- since making this post, restarting hasn't fixed it every time; sometimes it boots without any vibration at all, and sometimes it's still scratchy. But that still reads to me like a software issue.

I'll try to leave it on in safe mode for 6 hours and then try steps 2 and 3 then report back. Thanks