Fairphone 3+, Dead in 3 years

He Nibor,
The other way around.
With the side visible on the pictures facing downwards.
That way the pogo pins are facing up.

Good luck!

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UPDATE:
3 days after fixing my phone by reflowing the motherboard in the oven, another sudden death happened.
I put twice in the oven again but it sadly didnā€™t workā€¦

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Good to know, but at least it would be enough time to get some un-backup data, that might still be on the phone!

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+1 or -1 should I say.
Iā€™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 Iā€™m next-to-absolutely sure the wame scenario is involved.
Iā€™m fed up with fake ā€œenvironmental-concernedā€ companies and I wonā€™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.

Iā€™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).

Farewell UnFairP,

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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 FP3ā€¦

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.

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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Yes, you are right, I have 2 phones BUT, as this world is as cruel as it can be, they are actually out of date, which is another problem with phones; they turn obsolete also because manufacturers donā€™t update them.
To be very practical, my Samsung J5 works fine but itā€™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 itā€™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, itā€™s a shame to have a phone die for no cheap reason so early, their policy being what it is.

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Thatā€™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.

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Hi,
Iā€™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 photoā€™s and sound record I havenā€™t on my last backup (6 month old)

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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 180Ā°C, but that did not work. Then I gave it another 10 minutes at 200Ā°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.

Itā€™s working for more than 24h now, but I donā€™t really trust it. :wink: But even if itā€™d die again tomorrow, it gave me enough time to recover my data.
Thanks to @HolosericaCaligo and all others for sharing your experiences!

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I had the same sudden death of my FP 3+ last week.
Did the oven treatment to my motherboard (12 minutes at 220Ā° C) and it works perfectly again.

Thank you all for sharing your advice and experiences with this!

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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 couldnā€™t start it anymore, it doesnā€™t charge, no lamp lights up and a USB connection to the computer doesnā€™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 workingā€¦

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 donā€™t know anything about it. Hence the question of understanding - the motherboard, is that the entire lower part in the photo here?

grafik

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+1 , mobile died like everyone elseā€™s in so many threads. @MMGA please count me +1, Iā€™ve seen youā€™ve been doing a lot of work saying the company is not managing this right out loud. Already tried the oven trick, didnā€™t work :frowning:

Yes, that is the core module/motherboard.
Just be sure to - carefully - remove the antenna cable and other plastic parts.

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@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 :smiley: ), then it died againā€¦ 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.

@MMGA Seems, like you are doing a count ā†’ +1

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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 donā€™t know if this is available in stock Android.

How would fast charging break solder? For me the assumption its related to bending seem more likely.

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Instead of telling a frustrated user, tell Fairphone for reliable statsā€¦

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I could imagine some things:

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 ā€œhotter temperatures lead to aging electronics with a shorter lifetimeā€ and ā€œdifferent temperature within one device may lead to more tensionā€.

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.

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They seems to be not very ā€œtransparentā€ about thatā€¦

Iā€™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.

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