+1 or -1 should I say.
I’m very disappointed with my FP3. Never thought it was a great powerful phone but it did its job until sudden death last month and I’m next-to-absolutely sure the wame scenario is involved.
I’m fed up with fake “environmental-concerned” companies and I won’t spend anymore penny sending my dead phone to hear I have to pay the fee of a new device to have mine repaired.
That is just not acceptable from a company claiming such durable values.
I’ll go back to a poorly-conceived but still more durable device.
(My 2016 Samsung J5 is back up and working, my 2012 Sony Ericsson is still up too in case of backup needed).
For somebody so much interested in green values according to your two almost identical messages, I think you are doing green washing about yourself. Why? You have two perfectly working phones but you bought an FP3…
Like many other people , I am the happy owner of an FP3. I am sad for your problem but you cannot just accuse without proof.
Hey Alain,
Yes, you are right, I have 2 phones BUT, as this world is as cruel as it can be, they are actually out of date, which is another problem with phones; they turn obsolete also because manufacturers don’t update them.
To be very practical, my Samsung J5 works fine but it’s stuck in. Android v7 while Android v13 or v14 is running now. That results in lots of applications I daily use not running on my old phone (not even telling about the 2012 Sony Ericsson).
My work involves a lot of technology and I quite need these applications. Had my J5 been able to update to Android v13, I might have considered keeping it (except it’s also quite slow).
I hope your FP lasts for some time, I really do, but being aware of what can happen, I advise you backup your data regularly and take care of it as in avoid using it under the rain or in very dusty situations.
And again, it’s a shame to have a phone die for no cheap reason so early, their policy being what it is.
That’s necessary for every PC, Tablet, Smartphone, SSD, HDD, memory card and so on you own, which contains valuable data. Nothing special for a Fairphone.
Accidents can happen, to accuse Fairphone to do that on purpose (planned obsolescence) is inappropriate. However, a discount for the repair of a FP3 with this fault after end of the warranty period, would be nice.
Hi,
I’d like to share my experience as well.
I bought a brand new FP3 in januari 2021. I installed /e/OS. Everything worked perfectly until end of November 2023 when it suddenly stopped working. I tried a new battery, a new bottom module, let it to a local repair. None of it worked.
And the, I reflowed as well the motherboard as explained by @HolosericaCaligo and it works perfectly now!
I could so retrieve various photo’s and sound record I haven’t on my last backup (6 month old)
Same here: FP3+ died last week with no warning, a little less than 3 years old. No immediate drop or accident involved, it was just in my pocket when it happend, with the battery at 70%. However I must admit that the phone had to endure quite a large amount of drops in the months before (favorite amusement for our child at the moment is to grab phones and throw them around).
Unfortunately, my backup HDD was faulty and the last working copy was more than 1 year old. (Remember not only to backup, but also to check the integrity of your backup!)
I was able to boot into OS (LineageOS) a day later once, but it only took 1 minute to die again. From then on, either no reaction or just a few seconds of the Fairphone logo and then black again. From what I read here, I was quite sure that the motherboard was the problem. So I tried the baking solution.
The side with the majority of the spring contacts facing upwards, supporting the two spring contacts on the other (bottom) side with a few layers of baking paper. Remember to remove all connector cables and the protective plastic film below them.
First I tried 10 minutes at 180°C, but that did not work. Then I gave it another 10 minutes at 200°C, and that did the trick. (You have to let it cool down in the oven without moving it.) It smelled a little weird when I opened the oven door, so you should ventilate your kitchen after the treatment, and propably also clean your oven after the procedure.
It’s working for more than 24h now, but I don’t really trust it. But even if it’d die again tomorrow, it gave me enough time to recover my data.
Thanks to @HolosericaCaligo and all others for sharing your experiences!
Hello, unfortunately the sudden death also caught me this morning - I was using the cell phone normally - it was almost fully charged - and suddenly it went out - I couldn’t start it anymore, it doesn’t charge, no lamp lights up and a USB connection to the computer doesn’t work either.
I opened it up once, cleaned everything (more out of desperation - no real plan). When I turned it back on, it suddenly worked again - I was quite pleased - only to realize after a few minutes that it was off again and nothing was working…
Sounds a lot like the sudden death phenomenon, except that I somehow managed to delay it a bit.
Last chance: probably this oven trick. I want to try it, but I don’t know anything about it. Hence the question of understanding - the motherboard, is that the entire lower part in the photo here?
+1 , mobile died like everyone else’s in so many threads. @MMGA please count me +1, I’ve seen you’ve been doing a lot of work saying the company is not managing this right out loud. Already tried the oven trick, didn’t work
@HolosericaCaligo Thanks, I have read the answer from @JanHH carefully - and tried it then on my own at the weekend. My phone worked for like 30 hours (seems for me still a bit like magic ), then it died again… I haven`t tried again, but I guess, that for my phone it might be just a short time solution - i need a new phone.
I need an information, how much of you (people with broken motherboard) use normally fast charge?
There is someone here that have a failing motherboard not using fast charge (Quick Charge 3.0)?
Should I prefer USB 5V only in opposite to QC 3.0 whenever possible? I have some old charger in the cupboard. Hint for others: Computers with USB 2.0 often provide just 500mA or 1A @5V which is quite slow.
If QC gets relevant e.g. above 85%: LineageOS offers a (translated from german) charging limiter. I don’t know if this is available in stock Android.
First: Tough the QC tries to keep the battery quite cool, in total using QC could produce more heat on the mainboard in a short time than slow charging. That could lead to a more different expansion of different parts and more tension.
Second: As far as I know: QC is integrated into the Qualcomm CPU. I guess it has a kind of voltage regulator to charge the battery with the lower voltage that is needed by the battery and to get as much power as possible through the cable. The more power the voltage regulator has to transform the hotter the CPU gets in average. Different temperatures in different parts may lead to more tensions.
You should also distinct between “hotter temperatures lead to aging electronics with a shorter lifetime” and “different temperature within one device may lead to more tension”.
In theory one solution could even be to start charging slowly and alway checking the temperature differences in different areas if several temperatur sensors are available, like on some computer mainboards.
After finishing charging the cooling down could also be relevant to the lifetime, if the heat spreading is not very well.
They seems to be not very “transparent” about that…
I’m only analyzing and making supposition, I have not the solution.
I have noticed that when I use QC3 the battery temp and in general the lower part is very hot. I suppose that this can make a difference, maybe. Also @Jens1 the lineage os option limit the maximum charge of the battery, not the amperage used to charge. I use that to limit max charge to 80%, but if I use a QC3 charger I still have fast charge. Also I would point that mine is only a SUPPOSITION. I have NOT any concrete evidence.
Hi, I bought a FP3+ in February 2021 for my partner and 5 days ago it suddenly stopped working, no LED lighht, no reaction to charging… I tried with another battery, cleaning usb port… nothing.
I have read that apparently there is a motherboard problem with some phones sold during that time and, due to the already expired warranty, the only solution offered by Fairphone is to replace the motherboard at some 300 € (I didn’t even try to contact them, as I have no hope). I personally don’t want to put the motherboard in the oven, as suggested by some users:
I ended up losing all the data and buying a normal standard phone with such a pain, as the FP3 was meant to be used for more than 3 years.
I also have a FP3 (which is running ok), and it’s a shame, and makes me really think of what will be the next phone I buy when my FP3 stops working, as I kind of lost trust in Fairphone due to this incident.
It’s so sad, specially after all the good things I’ve spoken about the FP to other people, now having so many doubts…
Why not? You had nothing to lose, and that might at least have given you a few hours of use so that you could salvage your data. See above, post #34.
There’s no need for you to feel bad about having praised Fairphone. I understand that you should be annoyed, I know I would be. But let’s remember that those here on the forum lamenting their suddenly dead phones are presumably a tiny minority. There are tens of thousands of FP3s still working out there, like mine.
To look at this logically: it seems there might be a weak point on the mother board. Fairphone didn’t manufacture that, and other phones have different designs and perhaps different manufacturers, so there’s no reason to suppose that FP4 or FP5 might have similar problems.
If it really is a weak solder point it might be quite easy to repair by someone handy with an iron, given precise instructions (which maybe Fairphone might be able to provide, who knows?)
This is happening to individual units, and may be related to how they’ve been used and in particular, how they’ve been carried around all day, every day. If we could do a survey, we might find that the problem comes from having been regularly sat on in the owners’ jeans back pocket …
Everybody should back up their phones, of whatever model and make, and everything else that’s important. You just can never know what’s going to happen. And nowadays, with secure, reliable and automatic services like Nextcloud or Proton Drive (to say nothing of Google, for those who use them), there’s absolutely no excuse for not doing it
I need an information, how much of you (people with broken motherboard) use normally fast charge?
There is someone here that have a failing motherboard not using fast charge (Quick Charge 3.0)?
I almost never used Fast Charge, because my default charger does not support it. Also not in the weeks before my phone’s blackout. So at least in my case the issue does not seem to be related to charging.
But even if it’d die again tomorrow, it gave me enough time to recover my data.
), then it died again… I haven`t tried again, but I guess, that for my phone it might be just a short time solution - i need a new phone.