FP1U switching off on its own

I have a FP1U. A few weeks ago it started switching off by itself. It happened once or twice within a couple of weeks. When I switched it back on, it only showed a pale blue screen and would not start. The only way to make it work again was to remove the battery for an hour or so, then put it back in and charge it.

It is not entirely clear to me if the phone was actually switched off every time when it appeared off, as one of those times I pressed the on/off and volume down buttons and made a screenshot. As the phone was unresponsive, I had to take out the battery, as described above, and only later did I see that the screenshot was simply of the locked screen.

A few days ago the switching off started happening more often and taking the battery out did not always work the first time around. At about the same time, one of my SIM cards (Danish Sonofon) stopped connecting to the network. Switching cards would not help, neither would changing from a 3G network to a 2G, the SIM card would not connect to any network. I do not know if the two problems are connected.

The phone is off now, I have tried taking the battery out again, but that trick did not work. I have not tried again so far, as I am afraid of pushing the battery too far.

What can I do?

How old is your battery? Is it showing signs of becoming bigger (“bloating”)? (In that case stop using it immediately, it’s dangerous!)

If the battery is new and not bloating, it seems that the hardware is simply failing. Are you still in warranty? If yes, report the issue as soon as possible because the date of reporting counts for warranty repairs.

The battery is as old as the phone, a couple of years. I have tried replacing it with a younger battery from a different Fairphone, but that did not help.

I have been writing back and forth with Fairphone Support and one of the things they suggested was performing a hard reset. I did the hard reset a couple of weeks ago and at first it seemed to have done the trick, but the phone was dead again after less than a day.

Since then I have been unable to get into recovery mode, if I turn on the phone, it only shows a blue screen with some artefacts, mostly lines.

A few days ago I received a message from Fairphone Support, saying that they have been experiencing supply issues and cannot get repair my phone at this time.

I am not even sure if the problem is software- or hardware-related.

If the hard reset hasn’t done the trick, then the problem is a hardware failure. I’m really sorry for you and your FP1!

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