Since nearly 4 years I was happy using the Fairphone without any major problems. About half a year ago I got a new battery (the first one wasn’t bloated, but didn’t last very long) and everything really good again.
About a week ago somehow the screen didn’t turn completely off/black (to standby mode) but it always was slightly illuminated like very dark blue. So especially at night you could see it. This only happened a few times and sometimes went back to normal without me doing anything special to it. But this really happened just recently for a few days.
But 3 days ago I couldn’t switch the phone on anymore (it was switched off), so it didn’'t and till now does not boot at all. I tried a lot, battery out, fully charged, pressing power button + volume up, even this - The screen stays completely black, the phone doesn’t boot.
The battery is well, because if I put it on the charger the red light in the top corner is on and later on even turns green. So the battery is fine. But the phone stays dead.
I even try to connect it to the computer via USB - the phone shows loading then (little light in too corner), but my computer cannot “see” the phone, so the drive/SD card is not shown as an external drive.
What could be the problem? Is there any chance to start this phone somehow?
Or do I really have to say goodbye to my beloved Fairphone?
Well, I did try everything without SD, SIM, with/without USB-connection to the computer and so on. For 4 days and loads of trials (it felt like checking this whole forum) nothing worked.
But somehow, later last night, my phone was still connected to the computer, it made a really crazy long beep for about 10-20 seconds. I’ve never heard that before. I couldn’t stop the sound, but after a while it stopped itself but the phone still seemed dead. But then a few minutes later suddenly the screen lit up and showed the Factory Mode and so I could reboot the phone and now it is working well as if nothing had happened at all.
I don’t understand it all - but I’m really happy and I hope that my Fairphone stays alive without such hassle for much longer. But still I’m afraid of completely switching it off. I think I prefer to put it on silent or flight mode now instead of turning it off…
I had such a behaviour a long time ago with one of the old versions of the operating system. In these cases you can only hope that the phone somehow comes back to life.
Ok, my phone is still working now. I didn’t switch it completely off since I managed to reboot it a couple of days ago.
But unfortunately something with the screen is not completely right: The screen never goes 100% in standby mode, meaning not turning completely black. There always stays a tiny illumination, can only be noticed when it’s dark around. And when I want to turn on the screen by shortly pressing the power button, at first the screen shows a “snowstorm” for a split second before it properly shows the screen.
Does anyone know this problem? Is there anything to fix it? Or might this be a sign that my FP1 really starts dying now…?
No, I haven’t been at a local repair shop, cause there is none in Stuttgart, Germany (at least as the Fairphone map says). And I didn’t try any other repair shop yet, asking if they have any idea about Fairphone in general and my problem in particular.
I was just wondering first, if anyone here had this before…
Talking from experience, try to backup everything NOW, on a computer if possible (b/c SD cards can fail, too, and also depending on the formatting of you SD a computer running a particular system not be able to read it). Stop using the phone and get help by someone who is versed in Android flashing and the peculiarities of the FP1(U), or at least willing to invest the time to learn said peculiarities.
My phone failed while doing a backup. I am still trying to access it, but I am not successful so far
