Fairphone

English

FP1 deterioration continues - now screen won't respond

Help FP1
#1

Getting somewhat fed up now.

First the headphone socket died - didn’t bother me, I now use bluetooth earphones which I prefer, but not brilliant to have happened.
Then the power socket gets harder and harder to connect to - I can now only use one cable and that’s a bit sketchy too.

Now, today, the screen has stopped responding. I can’t get my PIN number entered, I can’t answer calls, I can’t do anything.

I’ve tried restarting, holding down the power button, removing battery. Nothing.

Is there something else I can do to bring it back?

#2

The only thing that occurs to me right now ist that you could connect a mouse via USB OTG cable to your phone. Then you can do everything with the mouse. I know that it’s not comfortabe, but at least you can backup your data etc.

#3

I thought about that, but as the phone is currently locked, my laptop isn’t picking it up. My photos at least are on an SD card, so that’s a small blessing. Just quite disappointed by the FP though…

#4

I just realised you said something different from what I answered - sorry.

Interesting idea, I’ll see if I can do that. Thanks.

#5

Yes, you can simply unlock it with a normal USB mouse as if were your finger.
These cables are really cheap 3-5€.

And if also the buttons don’t work anymore, you can add software buttons, for example with this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.appspot.app58us.backkey&hl=de3

Interchanging camera button with power button
#6

Is your entire screen unresponsive or just parts of it? Have you performed a touchscreen test?

#7

Hi
I didn’t know about the test - thanks for that.

Developments in the saga of my phone are that it came back to life for a bit after I unsuccessfully tried to disassemble it, but then today the screen went unresponsive again. Since taking it apart once seemed to have an effect once, I did it again, and again it worked.

Now, a few hours later it has stopped working again, and nothing I’ve tried is getting through to it. I conducted the screen test just now and there was not a flicker of life in it.

I’m not sure if the fact that it is intermittent means it is a dodgy connection somewhere, dodgy software or what, but on top of the other failures I’ve had to contend with, and the lack of any response from FP support thus far, makes me feel like it might be time to leave the FP community.

I spent so much I could ill afford on this, that I’m loathe to just give up on it, but I need something I can rely on.

#8

If you want a faster response, you’d have to call them. E-Mail responses can take about a month.

This has happened to me too. Some local repair shops can repair this for as little as 40€. It won’t help you much though, if your screen doesn’t work…

That said, are you sure, you put all connections back together tightly, when you reassembled the phone? (Here is the iFixit guide.) If yes, then the only chance to let this story end satisfactory for you, would be to get hold of Fairphone support and let them give you some options regarding hardware replacements.

#9

Thanks Stefan
Got to say, I think a month to respond is pretty poor. And the alternative being an international call, doesn’t tempt me.

I’m pretty confident that I reassembled it properly. I only unscrewed 4 screw before getting stuck - the 5th screw wasn’t there but that location seemed to be bolted together somehow I couldn’t undo, so I just put 4 screws back in. It worked for a little while after that, then stopped, started again and has now stopped completely. No amount of rebooting and disasssembling seems to make the slightest difference.

I need a phone, and can’t wait forever to get it sorted, so am looking around already. All I hope is to be able to get back in the phone at some point and check for any unique data there.

Pity. Glad to have been a part of it at an early stage, and I hope things improve and FPgrows, but for me I think I’m done.

#10

This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.