Fairphone 3 not starting / display most of the time black / how to find out what's broken?

Help Fairphone 3
1

Dear Fairphone community,

since yesterday I have some issues with my Fairphone3 which is suddenly not starting anymore. The evening before it still worked without any problems. A friend unfortunately dropped it to the ground, but I think it was not a too hard landing and the phone worked without any issues afterwards until it turned off a few hours later because of a low battery.

Now when I want to start the phone the following happens:

  1. I press the ON/OFF button until the phone vibrates
  2. The display stays black (it looks as if nothing happens)
  3. No LED is blinking
  4. Now there is two possible scenarios which happen
    • A. In most of the cases the display stays dark and nothing happens.
    • B. In some very rare case the display after some time (~2 minutes) suddently shows something. Until now I have seen either
      • A. A login prompt to enter the PIN or
      • B. The “boot” screen / the Fairphone logo and then after some time the login prompt.
        In both cases if the displays is showing something it seems to not react on any touching. If I click the volume buttons I see how the volume-level is adjusted, but besides this the phone does not react on anything. I also tried to remove sd-card and sim card. But both did not changed anything.

Now I would like to understand what’s the problem with the phone.
But I don’t have any clue how to start. Is there any way to find out if any of the modules is broken? Should I disassemble everything clean the contacts and assemble it again? Can anyone maybe give me some guidance?

BR, mezorian

2

Welcome to the Community Forum :slight_smile:

Have you checked if there are any visible gaps between the display and the main body of the phone (on the slim sides of the phone)? If yes, carefully press them together so they click back into place audibly. This sometimes helps to stabilize the connection.

2 Likes
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Hi @urs_lesse ,

thanks a lot for your reply! I just double-checked but I did not find any gaps.
Anyway I now tried to press the edges together everywhere but couldn’t here any “click” and also couldn’t see any difference afterwards.

BR, mezorian

2 Likes
4

Hi and welcome to the forum.

The next thing i would try would be to dismantle the phone and remove and replace the screen.

There some benefits

  • Other modules get reseeted
  • You can visually see if any module contacts are dirty or otherwise out of shape
  • You can check the water/dampness indicators.

Will update with links if needed. Else search for iFiXit and ‘red square’

All the best

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