red screen of death, W T F?!?

[CrackedBarry]

My son accidentally knocked our iPad on the floor today. Not a hard knock, it fell from like 10 cm. and it was in a case. "Whew, no visible marks or scratches!" I think to myself, but as I turn it on... THE SCREEN IS RED!!!

Not completely red, but there's like a red tinge to everything. and when you turn it off and the screen is black except for the apple logo, there's this red haze/pattern EVERYWHERE. It's weird, never sen anything like it before.

Now needless to say, I'm stumped, my son is despairing, so in a last desperate effort I try to google it a bit. And come across a suggestion from a guy to... Smack the back of it. I kid you not.

I put it on a soft surface, smack the upper and lower backside of it a bit, but alas, the screen is still red when I turn it on. Desperate and frustrated I give it a good, last whack and ZOMG! The screen went back to normal!

Whew! I've havent been so happy about anything iPad related since... Since... Well since I got it! Typing this on it now, and everything seems fine. Anybody else tried something similar?

 

[Just_Me_D]

I've never experienced anything like that, thank GOD, but if I ever do, I will indeed smack the heck out of my iPad like you did while saying a prayer that it will work again....lol..

 

[Massie]

Sounds like a cable may have gotten unseated during the drop? Not enough to kill the display entirely, but to screw up the color?

 

[Just_Me_D]

Sounds like a cable may have gotten unseated during the drop? Not enough to kill the display entirely, but to screw up the color?

I agree, Massie...Thankfully, it was a simple fix for the OP...

 

[CrackedBarry]

You can say that again Just me!

Weird issue though... So obscure that few people has heard about it, but apparently common enough so that there IS a suggested fix for it out there in userland... I wonder how common or uncommon it is. I mean some of the connections inside an iPad are pretty fragile, from what I recall in iFixits tear downs.

Well, I've done my civic duty as an iPad owner, and put it up here, in case that another unfortunate tries in desperation to search the forums

 

[Peligro911]

No harm in a last ditch effort lol glad it worked


Beamed from my iPad 2 routed and bouncing across the globe on multiple servers and brought to you using Tapatalk !

 

[carene]

This really works!!! Just went into panic mode, my iPad has a case/cover, slipped no more than 20cm to the floor not even a hard landing!! Turned it on and the screen turned red before my eyes, frantically searched for a diagnostic and came across the hitting it on a soft surface. I took it out of the cover placed screen side down on the sofa. Hard tap/hit the back top and bottom and hey presto "good as new" PHEW. Give it a go.

 

[Vickie Jernigan]

I cover the helpdesk at our school. A student with an iPad 3 has the red screen. We tried the 'tap on the back' method (while holding my breath) and nothing happened. He has upgraded to the new iOS7. Anyone had this issue since moving to 7? He had this once before after he first purchased. At that time several hard starts fixed it. He has tried that already with no luck. Replies appreciated!

 

[Geoff Harding]

My wife assures me that her IPad wasn't dropped. However it appeared to be dead so I did the mandatory wake up procedure thereby pressing power and start buttons simultaneously. I tried thus a number of times and of varying lengths of time but still nothing. It could be noticed that there was power in the IPad. I left it on charge overnight even though I was assured that it was fully charged. In the morning after several more attempts I connected it to ITunes on her lap top. Although there appeared to be communication between ITunes and the IPad there was still a blank screen. Finally I resorted to a window on ITunes which offered a IPad Recovery. Once I had updated ITunes I let it do it's job and watched ITunes go through it work. Finally about 25 mins later , I disconnected the IPad still with a blank screen and pressed the power on button and I got a completely red screen with the white Apple icon. After a few seconds the screen came back to life with my wife's screen picture present and the locking unlocking screen. I entered the unlock code and I had something like a normal screen except that everything had a red tinge, but at least it was working of sorts. I then went into Google search and entered IPad Red Screen. Immediately a google response with various web sites all saying the same thing, that is, eg I've dropped my IPad and now I have a red screen? The answers were all similar, that is, drop it from a short distance (10 cms ) or give it a sharp slap to the rear?
I went for the short slap to the rear.......it changed from red screen to blue screen. Another sharp slap and bingo, all back to normal.....???
Why ???? I have absolutely no idea, but it's now working ok !

 

[acostapimps]

I went for the short slap to the rear.......it changed from red screen to blue screen. Another sharp slap and bingo, all back to normal.....???

Details that I didn't need to know, That sounded nasty

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[tony012345123450]

I fixed it by dropping the iPad from the same height or less and its like a big slap in the screen or back.

 

[lizzy8181]

would not have believed this to be true....

my ipad had the red glow after i turned it on today and when i tried to reset it became devil red before shutting down- it had not been dropped
i was holding my breath doing a backup to itunes when i googled red screen of death
i holding my breath even tighter by the time my 12 year old asked did the forum tell you how to fix it
by now im red from holding my breath when i placed the ipad upside down on the couch and smacked it- nothing
i let out my breath and smacked it again
no friggin way- it worked!!!!

 

[DarlaMack]

Lol I know this is 2 years later but I just encountered this problem and before searching I decided to call Apple. The rep had me walk through steps assuming that it was a software issue and while she kept putting me on hold I was searching on my own. She put me on hold again for something and I decided to drop the iPad 2 on the sofa cushion and viola screen is back to normal. She told me that for out of warranty repair is $249... so that kinda helped in how hard I slammed the iPad 2 down