Black screen and phone not responding to button presses

[Plup]

Hi there,

I get some strange behavior with volume and power buttons. It looks like I have a loose contact but it might come from the powerbuttons module itself. Nothing happens when I press volume Up button but sometime I can see the volume increase when I’m not pressing it.

Plus the power button refuses often to lock the screen. Is there any way to replace the block buttons itself ? Or anybody fixed this kind of issue by other means ?

–
Simon

[anon9989719]

Hi
Have you tried dismantling and checking the contacts and the buttons are clean?

Fairphone 3 Teardown

Removing the motherboard, we discover a bunch of spring contacts, which connect to the fingerprint sensor, the volume and power buttons, and a few antennas.

[Alex.A]

@Plup

Is there any way to replace the block buttons itself ?

No, not really. They are integrated in the motherboard and it would require dismantling the phone. I would leave such repairs to professionals or to the FP repair centre. Mind that removing the motherboard voids the warranty and might cause irreversible damage to your device.
I wouldn’t exclude either that the issue could be due to software.
Does pressing the Power button for a long time (i.e at least 20s) makes it reboot? Does this always work? If yes it might indeed be software.

[anon9989719]

@anon9989719

Removing the motherboard,

Removing the motherboard isn’t the same as

@Alex.A

opening the motherboard

but check with support@fairphone.com it may just be dislodged springs? I haven’t taken my phone apart and I haven’t found more detail on the ‘springs’ etc.

Anyway the phone is under warranty so Fairphone may well sort it for you.

[Alex.A]

You’re right, I changed it. Removing the motherboard does void the warranty. Messing anyhow with the motherboard voids the warranty.

[anon9989719]

Ok so no checking the springs then

@Alex.A Is there any Fairphone docs that clarify to what degree dismantling is acceptable without voiding the warranty ~ still looking for it ?

[Alex.A]

You can still look if you want though! I just thought warning would be better.
Also, if the phone is under warranty and hasn’t suffered any damage, I would let FP take care of repairing it.

@anon9989719

Is there any Fairphone docs that clarify to what degree dismantling is acceptable without voiding the warranty ~ still looking for it ?

Fairphone 3 Warranty - What is a warranty and how does it work?

The Modules are not made to open or take apart. The Fairphone smartphone is a device that can be repaired by replacing Modules. However opening and/or taking apart the replaceable Modules themselves may cause damage and is not covered by this Warranty.

The core-module (containing the motherboard) can be considered as such a module.

[anon9989719]

@Alex.A

The core-module (containing the motherboard) can be considered as such a module.

After reading the following topic and the related official repair definitions, it seems the motherboard is the core module and therefore may be user managed.

Can I change the FP3 frame? (around phone, not the back)

I suppose that this is about the Core Module, not the Rear Module (see “around the phone, not the back” in Milou’s original post). Which would be far more expensive, of course.

Fairphone 3(+): Repair Price list and FAQ Cordon Repair Center

Core Module Motherboard housing SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 632, SIM cards slots, SD card slot

Rear module Rear housing, NFC sensor, Fingerprint sensor, main antennas

I think if that is the case then the Rear module will house the buttons and be accessible.

I’ll try and get an answer from Fairphone to confirm this

[Alex.A]

I think you can consider modules user-manageable without voiding the warranty only if sold in the shop and if they have an iFixit guide as shown here

[Plup]

Thanks for your help. My main issue is I’m out of Europe for months so sending my phone to repair and get it back will be a pain. I’ll try to open it and see how it goes.

[anon9989719]

Have fun, take care and let us know how you get on

[Plup]

Thanks. My phone stopped displaying anything before I even start myhardware investigation… I guess the topic isn’t about button replacement anymore…

I open it to check and I can’t see anything wrong in the internals. When I press the power button for 10s it makes the quick vibration and I can even see very briefly a normal boot logo and then it goes black again.

On the system side, I have the debugging activated but for some reasons I can’t connect through adb because my key isn’t recognize anymore.

$ adb devices
List of devices attached
A209FYM90201	unauthorized

But of course, without the screen I can’t authorize it. Is there any know way to workaround that ?

[anon9989719]

You can change the topic title if you like

Do you think the phone is on, do you have an led light? I don’t know if adb can read an ‘off’ device.

By unauthorised you mean you can’t use your security pin?

Do you have a lot of data you don’t want to loose by a factory reset?

Do you have an SD card that is formatted as internal storage?

You may like to read

Dictionary Entry: Recovery Mode

Recovery Mode Not to be confused with dic:testingmode or dic:safemode Recovery Mode is a menu on your phone where you can do things like apply an update from dic:adb and perform a dic:hardreset . You can reach it by turning off your phone, unplugging all cables and pressing power and volume up at the same time. In case of the stock Android recovery mode: In Recovery Mode you navigate by: Power to open the menu Volume down to move down Volume up to select / Power You can also end up i…

Dictionary Entry: Safe Mode

Safe Mode Not to be confused with #dic:recoverymode Safe Mode lets you boot up your phone without any third party apps. Sometimes you might end up in Safe Mode automatically, but you can also do it manually to check whether an issue you are having is software related. Note: On FP1 the popup doesn’t say you’ll reboot into safe mode, it only says “reboot”. Another option to get to safe mode is to power off your device and, while powering on again, hold down volume up and volume down until …

[Plup]

I’m sure the phone is one. In very rare occasion I can even see the log screen in a blink.

I have some data I would like to keep but my last backup isn’t very old so I could live without them. It seems I can get to fastboot “in blind” but then I don’t see anything:

$ fastboot devices
A209FYM90201	fastboot

By “authorizing” I mean allow the adb connection from the phone. To do that you need to validate a popup on the phone itself but without the screen…

I don’t have SD Card on the phone but I can get one if there is something I can try that way.

[anon9989719]

No ~ the issue with the SD card is that it can cause issues when formatted as Internal

Have you dismantled and reassembled yet up to stage 7 of the IFIXit?

Maybe it is just a screen connection issue?

[Plup]

Yes I dismantled it entirely and put it back together cleaning the connection pins but no luck. I still have a black screen. I think my only next possible move is to send it back to the constructor.

Thanks for your support !

[Alex.A]

@Plup

When I press the power button for 10s it makes the quick vibration and I can even see very briefly a normal boot logo and then it goes black again.

Well probably it’s indeed software then…

Authorizing adb without the key isn’t impossible, if your bootloader is unlocked, you can try the following tip from recovery mode:

How to authorize and accept ADB RSA key with broken touch screen on Android

Also, you may want to check with a fairphoneangel or another FP3 owner if you wouldn’t have a defective screen (Edit: I’m realising if you’re not in Europe it’s going to be rather difficult I guess)

Btw., I changed the topic title accordingly.

[Plup]

Thanks !

I never leave my bootloader unlocked. So it might be complicated to try a system override.

But I got an opportunity today to authorize the connection through ADB. Don’t know why but at a point my phone started to make loop noises then crashed. And as I left it on the desk right next to me, shortly after its last reboot I got enough screen time to allow the connection.

I backed up the data. And I can now try to investigate from the system. I don’t really know where to start though.