Fairphone 2 not starting up

I’ve been trying to fix my wife’s Fairphone 2. The battery had not been providing much usage for a while, perhaps just a few hours at a time, but it did work. The other day she brought it home from work, I noticed with the power lead still attached, and it would not work.

Plugging it in led to, I think, the following cycle: slow red blinking light, constant red light, splash screen (without vibration), repeated ad infinitum. Maybe a few times I saw the battery-charging screen.

I took the battery out for 30 minutes, and tried different chargers and leads. No change.

So I thought the battery had died. I found someone locally who had a battery they could lend me. She said it wasn’t very well charged, but that it did work. Initially it did not. Then I put back in a small piece of paper at the battery base to help it fit, and the phone came on. It worked for a while, though it said the battery was at 0%; I opened an app or two. I went out and left the phone plugged in, but when I came home it was dead again. Now all the phone, using the supposedly better battery, will do is: slow red blinking light, charging screen (briefly), red constant light.

I currently have the phone connected to my laptop via USB and can periodically hear the Windows sound that indicates that a USB device is being unplugged.

I’m wondering if the USB socket was damaged by a knock while the lead was left plugged into it in my wife’s bag? Can I replace that part easily, or should I buy a charger to charge the battery with? Presumably neither of these is a guaranteed fix? I see no Fairphone Angels nearby.

Jason

Could you ask the person nearby to recharge the battery or exchange the bottom module with you?
You might also try to clean the battery contacts (maybe at the phone). This might also help as more pressure to the contacts at least helped a bit…

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Hi Jason,
could you solve the problem meanwhile? I have the same issue & I’m currently traveling by bike to Turkey (at the moment in Bosnia) so no faiphoneangels around…

Hi, sorry to be slow to reply. I found someone local - not a Fairphone Angel, but someone on a local mailing list - who lent me her battery. That worked fine and we could use the phone again. I think that the bottom module is damaged, but I had trouble getting it out when I tried. I managed once to recharge the battery in the phone, but not again. So perhaps a new bottom module will fix it (though I don’t think you can buy these any more), or an external charger, which I see can be bought. This is probably the route that we will take, since then the phone can still be used - but the battery probably cannot be charged via the phone itself. Hope this helps. And thanks for your advice, Volker!

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