Defective touch screen after water damage

My phone recently suffered water damage and stopped working. I put it in a bag of rice for 48 hours and hey presto, it could start again. However, the touch screen function doesn’t work anymore which is kind of fundamental to using the phone. Does anyone know of a way to fix this without having to send it back to Fairphone for repairs? Many thanks in advance. Stefan

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The rice approach is advised against in this forum (see some recommendations here).

Anyway, with the modular build of your FP2, you don’t need to send in the phone and can buy and replace your display module yourself:

On your FP2, this doesn’t even require any tools – other than your hands. :slight_smile:

If your FP2 has a two-part Slim Case, this is how to open and remove the case (both parts!):

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Thanks for the response. Presumably this isnt covered even if I’m in warranty?

Right, water damage voids the warranty.

I’ll add another display replacement instructions link in my first post.

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You might even disassemble the phone again and leave it to dry a few more days, so the water really is gone.
You can find additional infos on the iFixIT page:

And here’s on the rice problem, that @urs_lesse so rightfully pointet out; even though it’s kind of too late now.


and here as well:
https://www.ifixit.com/Wiki/Don’t_Put_Your_Device_in_Rice._Here’s_Why

Plus more:

In case you prefer English, you can switch to the english language setting on the iFixIT- page in the top right-hand corner (the [DE] field is clickable); so the links by @urs_lesse are good for english-spoken users as well.

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So I left the phone to dry a little longer and the screen still didnt work though the phone was switching on and I was receiving messages. I then did what seemed the most logical, which was to buy a new screen from the fairphone website. This promptly arrived but now the phone doesnt switch on at all even after a night of charging. It’s so frustrating. It seemed to work perfectly well apart from the screen and now I have a new screen the phone has died on me. Any ideas?

Is there no LED either? Or is it just the screen staying black?

Have you kept the OS (operating system) updated? Fairphone’s current FP2 display modules won’t work if Fairphone OS wasn’t updated since appr. mid-2017.

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There is a red light in the top corner when I have it charging but the screen stays black. The same happens when I use either screen, old and new. The operating system was regularly updated as far as I remember.

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Then it may be a problem with the core-module, which was damaged by the water as well.
Did you try starting without any modules? I doubt it’ll change anything, but you never know.

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So starting without any module? Isnt the battery attached to the core module? You mean by unscrewing bits from the core module? Probably best to send it back to Fairphone right? If I am no longer in warranty I’d still rather send it back to have it looked because I am sure it can be repaired in some way. I really dont want to buy a new phone, not just because of the the cost of it but also it just seems like such a waste…

You can open up the phone and take the different modules away. I was talking about taking the camera, top and bottom modules out of the phone, putting back the screen and the battery in and starting the phone. There are guides on the iFixit page on how to open up the phone.
If you don’t feel like it, indeed, please contact support (and anyway if you want your phone repaired it’s probably the best thing to do).

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So I opened up everything and put it all back together and the phone switches on again, but the screen doesnt work whether its the new screen or the old one so the issue is obviously something else. The support team arent responding to my messages though. Ideally I would like to send the phone back for repair but obviously I need someone at Fairphone to respond. How long do they normally take to respond? Is there an alternative method to contact Fairphone, by phone presumably?

You can file a request for your phone to be sent in for repair here. Just fill in the fields :slight_smile:

https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us

Phone

Our opening hours are 13:00-17:00 (CEST) Monday-Friday
+31 20 788 4400

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