[lumia540user]

it's nothing but black. whenever I do soft reset, there's only gray screen with black gradient by every side of my screen after the vibrate, and then nothing. What seems to be broken? Is it the LCD itself already? should it already be replaced?

[xandros9]

My wager is that the LCD has gone. It doesn't need to be physically cracked to be damaged as I discovered long ago with a PDA of my own.

I'd say just the LCD needs replacing but these days, the panel is often fused to the glass these days so the entire assembly probably has to go.

There's an off-chance a connection just went south, which probably would be best, but I wouldn't really bet on it.

[lumia540user]

it got soaked in the rain a year ago. we disassembled the unit, and found rust on the display connector. sprayed anti rust lubricant on it until it was gone. but it did nothing on the current condition of my phone.

[xandros9]

it got soaked in the rain a year ago. we disassembled the unit, and found rust on the display connector. sprayed anti rust lubricant on it until it was gone. but it did nothing on the current condition of my phone.

Hmm, now that previous water damage has entered the picture and corrosion was found on the interior, I would proceed with caution. We may be looking at the beginning of cascading failures depending on the condition.

I would bring device replacement onto the table now.

The display or maybe even some other circuitry may be all you need to replace, but water damage is a fickle beast.