My fairphone screen is having some issues. I am trying to figure out if it is just the screen, or if there is something else wrong.
It started this morning when the screen stayed black after I turned on the phone (I assume. It vibrated as usual).
When I connected to power, the screen came to life, and it stayed normal for a little while even after disconnecting power. Connecting to power a second time did not help.
I charged for a while (even though it had just charged all night), and that gave me 5 minutes of screen time, then it was back to black.
Changing to a spare battery got me a lot of colored pixels, but no other signs of life. A second attempt with the spare battery got me something like the normal logo, but with a lot of horizontal colored lines.
None of the above tricks give me any results anymore, except I will occationally get to the first fairphone logo, which will either turn straight to black or give me colored horizontal lines before turning black.
I have tried cleaning the screen connector. No luck…
Any ideas? My first guess is a broken screen, but it seems strange that fiddling with the power (changing batteries, connecting power) will affect the issue. Is that normal behavior for a broken screen?
Do you still have warranty (2 years)?
With such a complex issue it’s probably best to send the phone in for support to figure out what’s wrong.
You can also try to see if there are #fairphoneangels near you who might be able to help you figure out which part(s) are defunct by switching modules.
Have you tried pressing down on the screen, or (carefully) flexing the whole device? If the screen comes back when you try something like that, it’s probably a connection issue - which may not immediately point to a solution, but at least it would narrow down your options.
there are other threads with similar issues (I found when looking for the solution to my erratic screen). What seems to have helped me is turning down the brightness.
