FP2 randomly stops/reboots

Hi,

my FP2 is having troubles since one year or so, it randomly stops (and sometimes reboots). I could not identify the gesture/conditions that make it stop, it can be while I have it in my pocket, on a table, charging or not or while using it.

It’s not strictly speaking random reboots because sometimes the phone simply stopped. Sometimes, to restart it the power button alone did not help and I discovered that by applying a small pression to back of the phone (near the camera) or by slightly bending it (top-left to the back) made it start. (disclaimer: do not do this if your phone is still under warranty)

I don’t think that the power button itself is faulty since it works flawlessly when the phone is up and running.

It was annoying but usable (at most 1 stop/day)
It started to be extremely annoying just recently, I could no longer trust my phone, when I take it out of my pocket or from the table it was almost always stopped.

I decided to open it to see if I could spot a loose connection.

Symptoms:

  • it stops randomly (very often, nearly unusable): the phone is almost always off when I want to use it but I did not stop it
  • it reboots randomly: when I want to use it I need to re-enter my sim card pin, I can feel it vibrate in my pocket (sign it has rebooted).
  • it’s sometimes stuck in a reboot loop (vibrate 0.5sec -> logo) and may start to vibrate endlessly after 2/3 reboot loops.
  • if it stopped on its own the power button does not work I need to apply a small pression to the phone or slightly bend it to make it start, it has happened that I needed to remove and re-add the battery. It’s still unclear if there’s a special pattern here, what almost always work is to slightly bend the phone while pressing the start button.
  • if I stopped it manually I can use the power button to start it

Here is what I tried to narrow down the issue (I use android 6 with the latest fairphone OS 18.04.1) :

  • disassemble/re-assemble the phone
  • reproduce the issue with and without the slim case
  • with and without the simcard (I don’t have any sdcard plugged)
  • with and without wifi (plane mode on/off)
  • with or without charger plugged
  • I did the drop test to test if the battery was moving, the phone did not stop
  • Reset the phone to factory defaults
  • Temperature does not seem to be related, it happened many times during the re-install process when e.g. I had to enter my google credentials.
  • Tried to put a little piece of paper below the battery to make it connect strongly to its socket
  • Use another battery

Strange behaviors (sometimes):

  • reboot loops, sometimes the phone just gets stuck in a reboot loop (vibrating a bit, showing the logo)
  • endlessly vibrate (if I don’t stop this reboot loop the phone may start to go crazy and start to vibrate endlessly)

Things I noted when opening the phone the first time:

  • extremely hard to pull off the screen
  • most of the screws were very loosely fastened (I did feel a very low resistance when opning them)
  • 2 screws of the core module (TORX head on the left under that metal plate) were half fastened (no resistance at all I could even fasten them one or two more loops).

(note that I already contacted the support, went through their questions and they said the core module needs to be replace but my phone is out of warranty but I can’t afford the price of new core module).

I would like to open the core module because I’m almost sure now that something is loosely connected there but it does not seem openable the 2 screws left are stuck behind the screen connector which seems glued, did someone ever tried to do this?

Thank you.

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Are you using Facebook?

Hi,

No I don’t have a facebook account, the problem happens without any apps, it happened even many times while I was setting-up android after the hard-reset.

Thank you.

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Hi,

Sometimes it seems that wifi may be the problem, have you seen this thread?

Hope it will help…

Hi,

Your problem seems hardware-related since it also happens after a hard-reset and since pression/bending has an effect.
You should try to see if there is a Fairphone Angel living close to you. This way you should be able to check module after module if there is something wrong, before you touch the core module.

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How warm is your phone at the place of the SoC at the time of reboot?

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It’s not particularly hot, I just tried without the cover and my finger on the plastic next to the camera where the inscription is marked and it was close to skin temperature.

Thank you.

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Did you check another OS like LineageOS, SailfishOS or Ubuntu Touch.

If you still have reboots and stops with a different OS it’s maybe really the hardware and not solvable with software.

Best,
Christian

Have you already tried putting a piece of paper under the battery to improve contact? For me this solved almost all reboots.

Yes, this was my first suspicion but this did not help sadly, thank you.

Unfortunately I have joined your club. :frowning:
Except for the reboot loop and continuous vibrating I experience the same behaviour; I just have not tried bending the phone or applying pressure.
I have become used to regular reboots, that happened at irregular intervals. When they happened, the phone seemed so sensitive, that even placing it gently on the table could trigger a reboot, while it on most days worked flawlessly even after being dropped from 30 cm.
But now there’s not just the reboots, that keep reoccuring, the phone simply switches itself off without any obvious reason.

More often than not, the battery shows a 10 to 15 % lower level after rebooting or switching the phone on again after it went dead. But when I take out the battery for a few minutes and restart the phone, the level is back to normal.

What I have done is turning back to my old FP1 (first batch) as the primary phone.
Sorry, no solution for everyone. :wink:
And I already opened a support request for the increased rebooting.
For illustration: I was online this morning (about 6 am), thus syncronizing the “hiccup app”.
Since then the phone states 19 crashreports not yet uploaded.

I am really hoping for Android 7.

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I’m sorry to hear this…
Could it just be the battery that’s going crazy?
I cannot test this myself because I don’t have a spare battery.
I’d be curious to know if someone having the same “random stop” symptoms can fix this issue with a new battery.

@chrisse was so kind to give you a hint who could provide some help (a battery for testing). Feel free to take a look into the map.

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I lent my phone to another FP2 user, I should know more on wednesday if swapping batteries made a difference.

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Swapping the battery did not help.

@Antoine I see that you are around Montpellier do you still own a FP2 and would you be up for a repair session to actually confirm that it’s my core module the culprit, Thanks!

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I’m giving up, (many thanks to Antoine for his time btw).

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