Something is wrong with the TFT screen on my EFM32 Leopard Gecko Development Kit (EFM32LG-DK3650). No matter what demo I run, the screen always remains white. Is my board damaged?
Your board is most likely fine.
There are two things you need to do that solve most display problems on the Development Kit (DK).
Refer to the Knowledge Base article EFM32 Development Kit gets stuck in a loop before powering up and make sure you are running the most recent firmware. Simplicity Studio v4 will let you know if an update is available on the Launcher screen after you have plugged in and powered up your DK:
If a firmware update is available, apply it, and restart the board to see if the white screen persists.
The TFT LCD display is connected to the mainboard via a fine pitch flex cable. Some DK mainboards were shipped with the flex cable not fully inserted into or otherwise properly aligned in the connector. To see if this is the case with your DK, carefully lift the TFT module from the board. It's attached with hook and loop tape strips and can be lifted up about an inch so that you can tilt it back and access the connector. Here's a mainboard where the display cable is not properly inserted into the connector:
Using tweezers or your fingers, carefully unlatch the cable from the connector by sliding the black tabs away from you. Re-insert the cable. The gold contacts will be almost completely inside the connector. Pull the black tabs on the connector towards you to lock the cable in place. You'll probably want to do this with your fingers so you can do both tabs at the same time as trying to do them individually can result in the cable being misaligned again.
Once you've done this, you might also want to do the same with the 4-conductor ribbon to the left for the touch controller. As you can see in the picture, it is slightly misaligned and might not be making good contact with the connector. Both flex cables should look like this when inserted correctly:
With updated firmware and properly inserted flex cables, the LCD will look like this when you power on the board:
32-bit Knowledge Base
Why is my EFM32 Development Kit screen always white?
Something is wrong with the TFT screen on my EFM32 Leopard Gecko Development Kit (EFM32LG-DK3650). No matter what demo I run, the screen always remains white. Is my board damaged?
Your board is most likely fine.
There are two things you need to do that solve most display problems on the Development Kit (DK).
If a firmware update is available, apply it, and restart the board to see if the white screen persists.
The TFT LCD display is connected to the mainboard via a fine pitch flex cable. Some DK mainboards were shipped with the flex cable not fully inserted into or otherwise properly aligned in the connector. To see if this is the case with your DK, carefully lift the TFT module from the board. It's attached with hook and loop tape strips and can be lifted up about an inch so that you can tilt it back and access the connector. Here's a mainboard where the display cable is not properly inserted into the connector:
Using tweezers or your fingers, carefully unlatch the cable from the connector by sliding the black tabs away from you. Re-insert the cable. The gold contacts will be almost completely inside the connector. Pull the black tabs on the connector towards you to lock the cable in place. You'll probably want to do this with your fingers so you can do both tabs at the same time as trying to do them individually can result in the cable being misaligned again.
Once you've done this, you might also want to do the same with the 4-conductor ribbon to the left for the touch controller. As you can see in the picture, it is slightly misaligned and might not be making good contact with the connector. Both flex cables should look like this when inserted correctly:
With updated firmware and properly inserted flex cables, the LCD will look like this when you power on the board: