Buttons don't work

Problem with Moto Razr where nothing works and either one of the following happens:
- voice record thing keeps popping up
- volume keeps moving
- none of the keys work except power off?

Here’s what’s going on:
The phone has these three silver buttons on either side of the flip. They internally have soldered connections, and those connections are getting triggered either due to water, or due to lint accumulated in your phone (yes that’s what happens when you keep it without cover in your pocket and bags). The lint and muck gets moist with humidity (rainy weather etc) and causes the same. It’s something like a ghost sitting somewhere continues to click a button. Why the power off works is because that is the only button that overrides all others.

I had the same problem and was able to fix it. It’s nota fluke, because post that I have fixed 2 more phones with similar problem, which were lying dead-unused with friends because the service center was asking for more than the phones weight for fixing it.

What to do:
Don’t try this at home until left with no other option, because opening the phone yourself is.. Anyway here goes:
Use same opening procedure as slotdoctor did in his post:
First things first –
1 - Take out the battery.
2 – Allow phone to dry. At least the water that entered it from the rain, tub, pot, or your baby’s saliva. If you don’t have access to sun, place it overnight next to the fan exhaust of your laptop and leave the virus scan or disk defrag on (to keep the fan running what else)

Get cracking it:
On the LCD side, you need to take the top apart. Take the 4 front tiny rubbers from the big LCD, one in each corner then you will need a special STAR screw driver, if you don’t have one, buy/beg/borrow/steal. Then you will need to use a blade of very thin flat screwdriver to insert in the thin area on the sides of the panel (where the silver buttons are located). I saw a YouTube demo of the same, don’t remember the link though, but you can find it. While you try and open it, think like opening an oyster if you have seen oneJ.

Clean it:
Once you succeed opening it, you will find that the three that is done, you will see that the back of your LCD, some connecting bus wires (and a lot of lint all over). Don’t touch anything. Use a clean soft makeup brush to get rid of all lint. While you do that, the silver buttons will fall off! That’s ok. Then you’ll find small electronic click buttons exposed where the silver buttons fell off from. Total 4 such buttons (the volume silver buttons has 2 electronic buttons underneath). Notice 4 soldered legs/terminals on each of these click buttons, and identify the terminal pair that has stuff between those terminals, most probably the one that was making the ghost clicks. Use a wooden toothpick to clean. No alcohol or water. Then blow away the scrapings (no spitting). You’ll be tempted to, but don’t go about poking the tooth-pick all over to try and clean every speck. And don’t even think about trying to clean all terminals. Just concentrate on the button that was giving ghost clicks.

Test!
Before you start re-assembling: test. Put back the battery, switch on, and hopefully the ghost clicks are gone.

Reassemble
If you remember what you took off, assemble back.

- UK

I had the same problem with a razor Motorola flip phone only the on/off key worked solution # 1 was the best had to take the top apart, and clean the connector with alcohol. It does not mention how to do it, so I'll explain a little.... First you will need to take the 4 front tiny rubbers from the big LCD, one in each corner then you will need a special STAR screw driver, ( I used a tiny flat one carefully not to strip the head), then you will have to pry the back open with a small flat screw driver. find the connector close to the camera, I think only one comes apart and clean it with a q-tip and alcohol, I had to try it like three times, then finally it worked.

This is a problem that happens pretty often. What you want to do is open up the top part of the phone, there you will find two flex connectors, one for the camera and one that connects the lcd to the rest of the phone. carefully detach this connector and clean it really good with Alcohol and a brush. let it dry and re-install.

Good luck.

If the phone has been in any humid area whether its the bathroom when you are showering or the climate is more humid than usual try taking the battery out and letting it sit in a dry area for 24 hours. That should solve the problem, at least it did for me.

No the dot on the phone doesnt need to be red it doesnt take a lot of moisture just the humidity in the air can cause it so do what above says and it should fix your problem.

As strange as this sounds... the *#9999# code worked. I didn't think it would, because the #, * and 1 keys were the ones that weren't working. So the first time I entered the code, what showed up was just 9999. Then I just cleared it out (didn't hit send or anything) and entered it again. This time, only 9999 showed up again, implying that the # and * keys still didn't work. So I cleared it out again, shut off the phone, and when I turned it back on.... magic. It worked.

ok, my sprint katana has the same problem! BUT.... mine had some little water damage (hardly a few drops) so i tried the codes the taking apart and so on then nothing happend...i was mad and banged it against my knee in stress and PRESTO!!!! Now it works fine!!!!

I had the same problem. After looking at other sites to get information about the firmware or whatever, I tried to use the same key combination. It unlocked the keypad. I did the following code twice.

*#9999#

honestly, what worked for me was hitting it against my knee a few times

WOW!! typing in #9999# twice then turning your phone off and back on really does work!!! amazing!

I got mine to work!!!
What I did was charge the phone entirely.  Turn it off.  Take the SIM card out.  Then turn it back on again and let the battery run out.  Keep turning it on until the battery is entirely out, like 3-4 more times.  Then unscrew the back of the phone with a star bit.. BE CAREFUL to not strip the screws.  Then use an aerosol air and spray away the dirt and particles in inside the phone.  Or you can just blow with your mouth, that's what I didn.  You may have to improvise getting the phone apart.  Try turning the phone on again, even though the battery is dead.  Then slide you SIM card back in and charge the phone for until it will turn on.  For some reason it worked for me.   I had water damage previously on the phone but I got it working again.  Then out of know, I did nothing to it, it just froze up and none of the keypads worked, only the power button.  Give it a shot, its worth a try at least.

Hey i had the same problem with my phone! Only the on/off button works. The other keys would work on some day and wouldn't on other. Currently only key 3 and four work, the rest don't. I took it in and they guy was like its water damage, but I never dropped it in water???

I cooked my phone. :) and yes it worked.
My 6 month old son had chewed on my wife's phone and I guess saliva went into the phone. The keys stopped responding. After trying banging against the knee and drying with a blower to no success, I put the phone on the electric stove for about 3 minutes at medium high temperature. (no battery and no SIM , back cover open)
After that I turned on the phone again and the keys started working.

here is how you fix this problem.
1. remove the back of your phone

2. remove the battery

3.bang the part of your phone directly below the battery about five times.

4. put the battery back in.

5. put the cover on.

I removed the top cover i.e. screen side with a small screw driver and I could not believe myself how much dirt I had in there.
anyways cleaned it with compressed air can and alchohol and taking the connectors on both sides of camera worked for me.

I wear hearing aids and I use water absorbing pellets to dry out my hearing aids from daily humitiy (we live in florida Lotz there!) I have fixed 6 phones. That have been fully submerged in water. Its not always garrenteed to work too. Its said if you leaeve your battery in it, it can damage the curict borads. I am 18 and I thought it would be a great experiment to make.

any questions you can email me @ bobby072089@aol.com

robert noren

this could either be a damaged flex cable or you simply need to have someone flash a keypad flex file onto to your phone and that should fix it. just reply to this if it doesn't work and I'll see how I can help you further. Also motorola does have a software upgrading software that could help as well. Just go to motorola.com

I had this problem today. I just put the phone in the freezer for 20 minutes and now it works!

I might try to clean it anyway.

My husband had the same problem that kinni is having; he could answer his calls by flipping the phone open but could not dial any number (in fact, only the on/off key was working). The solution was rather simple (and was found in Motorola's FAQs): the phone's keypad was locked (apparently by mistake); the fix: "To lock and unlock your keypad press Menu then * (Star)". Hope this helps.

i typed in the the code #9999# 4 times took the battery out of the phone blew on the back then put the battery back and turned it on there were a few gliches then the phone started to work again.a few hits on the knee are pretty good too!!

tried banging it against my knee, no immediate change.
i thought the *#9999# code wouldn't work for me since none of my keys worked except the power button to turn it on.  it didn't work like 4 times nothing showed up at all, but the 5th it worked and my phone is back 100%

well, my buttons stopped working to, so i hit it on my knee after drying it with a hairdryer, nd it worked, not for long though! however i did it again and now it works fine, hopefully it will be better 2mro as it may have recovered from whatevers going on!
thankyou for your help.


HIT IT ;]

so i tried the knee banging thing the *#9999# solution and i was afraid my phone would blow up if i put it in the oven(lol)
so i came up w an even BETTER SOLUTION i call it the go buy a new phone solution
OMG it really workZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi,
Having problem with Motorola RAZR V3? Main problem of Motorola RAZR V3 is hardware problem. Such as won't charge, black screen etc. For solution of these hardware problem just click here.

For any other problem of Motorola RAZR V3 like software problem or other just click here.

if the arrow key up works and the center key you can fix it, go to settings, initial setup and if your desperate go to master reset, if not go to security and see if the keypad is locked, or trade or get phone fixed at your phone provider
-CG

I had my phone out in the rain and it went through the "voice recording" stuff to not working at all, other than being to turn it on. I couldn't always turn off the phone, though.

I tried the knee whacking. No change. I couldn't do the *#99999# thing, since none of the keys were working, although I did try.

I attempted #26; putting the phone in the oven. Last night I took out the sim and battery, heated the oven to warm (gas oven), turned it off, and put the phone in for 5 minutes. After this point, the outside keys on the handset worked. Basically, the camera could turn on, and that was about it. The keypad still didn't work. I tried letting the battery run out and then recharge. No change.

This evening I again heated the oven to warm, then turned it off. I put the phone in WITHOUT sim, battery, and back cover, and left it in for about 5 minutes. After that, I pulled it out, let it cool, put back in the sim and battery and viola! It works.

I just had the same problem. No arrow keys no number 9.

I tried a few things but this worked.

The temp fix.
I broke down the razr, took the key pad face off, reassembled it without the face pad, turned it on and pinched the right side of the phone's housing next to the naked keypad and was able to use all the buttons.
I'm sure this works because the flex cable is faulty.
But I am not going to buy and install a new one. This phone, the razr v3 is a piece of trash.
It was built to fail.

Be carefull as to not scratch the surface of the keypad while using it as I described though.
Although this is in no means a permanent way to use the phone, it will give you access to your phone book and etc so you can copy any needed info to your computer before you buy a new phone and slam dunking your razr into a dumpster.

Nick Neo

I have found that if you call your phone from another phone (have an incoming call), it will work well enough for you to try the #9999# solution. I tried that twice and it worked. ... for the time being.

Razr sucks

This worked great. But since I dont have the right tools I stripped one of the screws. Fortunately it was my voice recorder button that was gunked up and the screw that I stripped was on the OTHER side. So I could take out the screws nearest the voice recorder button, pry it open just a little and blast it with compressed air through that tiny crack and around the button. BINGO. Earlier I tried blasting it around the button without prying it open - no dice.

#2 works great EXCEPT that if you take apart the LCD screen part and clean it and it still won't work, you may need to open up the bottom part and clean the OTHER connection.

This is much trickier as the bottome section is pretty well sealed together around the voice-receiver so there is SIGNIFICANT risk of damaging your phone beyond repair. Once you open your phone you have already voided the warranty, so be warned! You will not be able to pull the whole backing off, but you need to pry it far enough to disconnect the cable connection on the NON-FIREWIRE plug side. As I said, pull too hard and your phone is toast. Cleaned this twise with alcohol and life is good. Oh, and DO NOT remove the little rubber cover on the bottom left of the back. I did, thinking there was another screw, turned out it is an external antenna port, but mine popped right off and screwed up the whole antenna array. Took quite a while frigging with it to set it correctly back into position (sans port attachment). We will see how long this all works.

I had the same problem, none of my keys were working. I thought it was a joke but decided to try it and the banging on the knee actually worked. I now can make and receive calls. I am so relieved and grateful for that simple solution!!