Terrible rattle all of the sudden

[TheMrPatrick]

Hi, my Lumia 930 has started making a bad rattling sound whenever it is vibrating. It started this afternoon without any reason. It seems to function perfectly fine and the camera also doesn't seem to be affected by it. Is anyone familiar with this problem? I have uploaded a video where you can very clearly hear the noise it makes when vibrating. And this noise is only made when the phone is vibrating, it doesn't rattle when I shake or tap the phone, aside from the regular vibrating you hear from the OIS.

 

[gpobernardo]

That is just distracting, but it's interesting to note how the frequency of the vibration changes depending on the orientation of the phone: from the video, it seems to be at the lowest frequency when the phone is "face up", while it is at its highest frequency (and loudest) when it is "face down". This difference in frequency and intensity could give us hints on what's going on.

My initial guess was that the vibrating motor/rotor assembly is loose, but the difference in frequency in the face up and face down positions does not seem to agree with this (since the orientation of the rotation of the motor would be the along the same plane in both positions).

This leads me to my second conjecture: the OIS isn't "docking" properly when idle. However, the vibrating rotor may not be large enough to cause the OIS to rattle as loudly.

We may need to run more tests:

1. Try observing the changes in frequency and intensity of the vibration noise in the following positions: face up, face down, power button down, power button up. You could take a video of it as well and share it with us.

2. Not sure how this would be possible, but the goal is to let the phone vibrate while the camera/OIS is active.

Let us know your findings.

 

[Smart_S]

The vibrating motor is loose. I have the same problem since I got it from the repair shop. I've opened it to check it out and it was slightly unglued. I applied pressure to the motor while it was vibrating and it got quieter.
Though it doesn't change the sound when rotating my 930.

 

[Pl4ub]

Repair shop broke my vibrate motor also when they changed the screen. They took my phone back and changed the motor.

 

[Smart_S]

Repair shop broke my vibrate motor also when they changed the screen. They took my phone back and changed the motor.

How long did it took to get it repaired?

 

[Pl4ub]

Maybe two days, can't remember.

Edit: Found it, it actually took 7 days.

 

[TheMrPatrick]

I have taken off the back cover today and I am not seeing anything out of the ordinary as far as I know. I have made a video of the vibration motor whilst it is running. The sound does seem to be coming from the vibration motor itself. The camera itself seems to function fine, when I have it recording something I can see it slowly moving around as I would expect an OIS element to do, and when it's turned off the camera seems to be "docked" fine, it doesn't move around anymore.
But in the video you can see that the not only the rotary bit is moving, but the motor itself also seems to be vibrating, but I don't know whether this is unusual or not.
The first part of the video is a recording of the vibration motor, at 3:00 I have recorded the camera element and 4:00 I start pushing down the plastic cover that's above the vibration motor. I don't know what to make of all this.

 

[gpobernardo]

I have taken off the back cover today and I am not seeing anything out of the ordinary as far as I know. I have made a video of the vibration motor whilst it is running. The sound does seem to be coming from the vibration motor itself. The camera itself seems to function fine, when I have it recording something I can see it slowly moving around as I would expect an OIS element to do, and when it's turned off the camera seems to be "docked" fine, it doesn't move around anymore.
But in the video you can see that the not only the rotary bit is moving, but the motor itself also seems to be vibrating, but I don't know whether this is unusual or not.
The first part of the video is a recording of the vibration motor, at 3:00 I have recorded the camera element and 4:00 I start pushing down the plastic cover that's above the vibration motor. I don't know what to make of all this.

Thanks for this video, now we can be certain that it is indeed a lose vibration motor.

From the angle you shot your video, it seems that there is a small space in between the motor and the plastic material (the one you pressed down). You could try inserting something in between these two, like a folded piece of paper, such that the motor would be "fixed snugly" in place. Note, however, that if you later decide to take your phone to a service center you would need to remove this piece of paper, so make sure you leave enough of the piece of paper exposed to be pulled out with a tweezer.

Let us know if this works.

 

[TheMrPatrick]

I believe I have fixed the issue. All I did was push the clear plastic that's on top of the vibrator abit into the phone with a set of tweezers, after that the rattle was gone. As far as I can tell it sounds completely normal again. Saved myself from being without my phone for six weeks :grin: And I really appreciate the help gpobernardo. I also have made a video of the fix if anyone ever runs into the same problem:

 

[gpobernardo]

That's great news! You're welcome, TheMrPatrick, and thanks for sharing this video with us - it surely will be useful to those who might encounter the same problem in the future.