Dead FP3. failed motherboard?

[Failquail]

My FP3 died on the way to work this morning.

The alarms on it woke me up as normal and the phone seemed fine then, but when I took it out of my pocket when walking to work it turned off.

Much fiddling with removing and connecting the battery got it to the initial fairphone splash screen twice, but after around 10secs it just powered off again.

I suspect it’s the internal storage on the motherboard that’s died/failing.

Before I buy myself a new phone, are replacement motherboards available to buy? (sadly it’s about 4months out of warranty)

[DonFnord]

@Failquail

Much fiddling with removing and connecting the battery got it to the initial fairphone splash screen twice, but after around 10secs it just powered off again.

I suspect it’s the internal storage on the motherboard that’s died/failing.

Hi Failquail

my first guess by what you explain would rather point towards an issue with the battery itself - since you describe it powered off again after short time and at least after a few attempts.

What´s pointing from your point of view towards internal storage?

@Failquail

Before I buy myself a new phone, are replacement motherboards available to buy?

We had that question in a german section of this forum where @Incanus gave the feedback that mainboards (Edit: Mainboard for FP3) never were sold stand alone.
(source: 🇩🇪 Fairphone 3 lädt nicht auf - #11 by Incanus )

Unless you´re fully sure it´s because of the internal storage I´d recommend to reach out to a Fairphone Angel if this is possible for you.

Best
DonFnord

[yvmuell]

As long as there is some booting life seen, I would also try first all other options. Which OS do you use? FPOS or any Custom ROM? Do you use a SD card and how is this formatted? Maybe take out SIM card and SD and try to Boot? Take out Batterie for 30 min? Is there any charging sign when you plug in?can you Boot into recovery and or bootloader?

[waldie]

@DonFnord

We had that question in a german section of this forum where @Incanus gave the feedback that mainboards never were sold stand alone.

However that statement is only true with respect to FP3 and 4.
Mention of FP1:

Can you build a fairphone 1 with all the spareparts from the shop?

Hi, I would like to know if somebody already ordered all spare parts and built the phone at home? Is it possible from the parts? If yes is it possible without any instructions? Thanks! Ralf

external reference of price 118,65 (I think FP1U MB)

Fairphone 2 hands-on: Modular phones are finally here

Thread for FP2 concludes availability after request ~320€ directly at FP. However it was combined with the frame/IMEI imprint

(Why) Was the Core module (n)ever available in the online shop?

Continuing the discussion from Can we build a Fairphone 2 by purchasing all its parts?: The core module never was available in the shop. At Fairphone they of course do have those modules. They just don’t sell it. As to why, I could just offer some guesswork, like every other user. if your core-module needs to be repaired, you have to return it to Fairphone. Edit (2018-04-02): I didn’t know, but he module is available

[Failquail]

@DonFnord

my first guess by what you explain would rather point towards an issue with the battery itself - since you describe it powered off again after short time and at least after a few attempts.

What´s pointing from your point of view towards internal storage?

Couple of things, being that the battery is the newest component in the phone as i replaced the old one (about a year old, phone over 2years old), the battery condition was great and it was at around ~85% charged.

@DonFnord

I´d recommend to reach out to a Fairphone Angel if this is possible for you.

Sadly no, closest is about 4hours train ride away. I brought my brother a FP3 though, so i can try his battery later.

@yvmuell

As long as there is some booting life seen, I would also try first all other options. Which OS do you use? FPOS or any Custom ROM?

I got the splash screen twice out of about 50 attempts, i’ve not gotten the splash screen since, even with no SD/sim. Phone is using the stock OS. no charging activity is happening.

[Volker]

@Failquail

Before I buy myself a new phone

Anyway you might try to get it repaired by Cordon repair center.

[Failquail]

After sleeping on it overnight I splurged and brought a FP4.
The 5year warranty on that plus the fact that the USB-c port is a module sold it for me (the USB port was getting quite unreliable on mine)

[AnotherElk]

@Failquail

the USB port was getting quite unreliable on mine

You might want to consider using magnetic adapters. At least they help against dirt and against the strain from connecting/disconnecting all the time.