FP2 Won't turn on or charge - See first post for troubleshooting

Shame not to use your warranty!! But I’d guess you and I both need new bottom modules (the bit with the charger socket in it). The battery should last more than a few months - a little bit at least!!

The most likely reason for your issue is a broken USB cable. Look for a good quality data (4 threaded) cable.
If you tried many different cables, the next most likely reason is the USB socket, but unless you tampered with it you don’t have to buy a spare part yourself but get a free replacement.
If different cables didn’t work fast track your support request by posting the request number in the #supportrequest::tag topic.

I can assure you it is NOT a broken cable; I have several and all work fine on other USB charged items (one of which is working right now on my old Moto Defy + with it’s end of life 2hr duration battery and water damaged screen!). My best guess is that it IS the USB socket, but I have to get FP support to agree with me and send a new bottom module … and then a whole new phone when that doesn’t work maybe.

I wonder is there is scope for some local agents around the world who could keep a small stock of spares to allow quick module exchange for diagnostic and repair purposes. Waiting for a small overloaded team in Amsterdam to agree, find one, box it up and send it to the UK isn’t going to be quick. That or everyone needs to buy TWO FP2s to provide a full replacement stock :¬)

If I remember correctly all the warehousing is outsourced (there some delays a couple of months back when they switched company), so that part of the process should be quick! Calling them used to get the quickest response, though I think more people caught on to that - making the lines quite busy.

You could check to see if there is a localcommunities near you and if someone lets you use their bottom module for testing. We, the austrianfairphoners actually had the same idea as you and now we have a small stock of spare parts.
Back to your issue: If it’s not the cable(s) (just because they work with other devices doesn’t necessarily mean they work with the FP2) then it is very likely that it’s the bottom module and I’m sure the support team will come to the same conclusion quickly.

As you can tell from recent events, we brits are not very community minded!!! There doesn’t seem to be a fairphone community anywhere near … maybe I need to start one :¬)

… anyway after your suggestion to post for support on the #supportrequest forum… I got really quick support and new parts will soon be on their way, so we can see which one needs changing (likely a bottom module fault).

and better still you get to chat with a real person who has a knowledge of the device and an interest in the company and its aims … instead of a faceless offshore call centre. Thanks Paul and thanks FP. Just hope the parts fix the problem!

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My fairphone 2 is one week old and while down loading at 21% the screen went black and no contact possible. Can’t get it started. Took the battery out and in again, recharging meanwhile the battery but no light shows it does work and no activity when I try to start it. Help! ,

I moved your post to this topic and I hope, you’ll find a solution in here.

Meanhwile, my FP2 is fixed. Booted and charging with its new bottom module and battery.

It could well be that the main problem was USB socket failure (I’m guessing poor joints between socket and PCB).

Whilst my FP2 was broken I was forced to by a cheapo Moto G … the ONLY thing on that which can be replaced is the USB socket!

Seems a shame I needed a new: Microphone, vibration motor, speaker, usb socket and surface connector just to replace the socket. I got the module apart to see, but the pcb is glued down to the plastic case, so no hope of repair :¬( Also found a small number of tiny surface mount descrete components; could be any of those of course.

my charger has 5v and 1,5am and it isn’t working, only sometimes, like a very secret energy or karma thing :wink:

Hi
@Simon_a85, @nicka and all the others, has anyone of you found a solution for the problem? Do your phones work again? Did you all have to exchange the bottom module or how could you solve the problem?

At the moment I am encountering similar problems. I have my phone for almost 6 months now and I had never any problem with the battery. Suddenly it crashed and for some days it was stuck in the rebooting process. But now it is not turning on or charging at all. When I plug the phone in, sometimes the red light blinks for a few minutes and sometimes the phone does not react at all.

Hi Moritz
I have a similiar problem as your mom encountered a few months ago. I just saw your post and was wondering how you fixed it. [quote=“Moritz, post:77, topic:11760”]
was inserting the battery about 3-5 seconds after switching on the phone. It then went to the charging screen, I left it there for about 15 and could then turn it on again
[/quote]
So you pressed the power button without the battery inserted? Did the phone react to that?
I tried the same, but my phone just stays black if I press the power button without the battery inserted. It also stays black if the battery is inserted.
And was your phone plugged in or not?

Hi Langa

As posted earlier, my FP2 is working just fine again. Once the replacement bottom module was fitted, the battery started to charge again. Probably something as simple as a USB socket fault.

If the charge socket is working correctly, turning on the phone with no battery inserted will cause the Fairphone flash screen to display briefly; at this point put in the battery and it may start to charge (the “filling battery” screen shows). If the charging circuit is screwed and the battery is flat the phone will not do anything - except maybe pulse the red charge LED.

If you can’t get the battery to charge get onto fairphone support; once you get their attention they are very helpful and very quick to send spare parts.

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Hi @nicka

Wow, thanks a lot for your quick answer! I am sorry, I must have overread your second post :frowning:
I guess I’ll have to contact the support then. I was trying to avoid that, as they already seem to be overloaded with requests. But I really can not find another way to turn on my phone.

Have a nice evening,
Lannga :slight_smile:

Ok I set up a thread here for UK based users United Kingdom Facebook Community, hope it can help to link people up to test each others phones.

Tried the above tips regarding letting battery cool down, then plugging cable in without battery, putting battery in when Fairphone screen comes up, tried different cables and chargers which worked fine before. Getting to screen where the blue battery charging shows up but it does not have any indication of percentage and it turns itself off after a few seconds.

I will try cleaning the bottom module and if that fails luckily I spotted a friend with a Fairphone so will try

  1. His charger and my mobile and battery - this will show if my chargers suddenly became problematic
  2. His battery charged in my mobile with his charger- to see if maybe there are issues with charging itself and not the battery
  3. My battery in his mobile and charger - as above to find out if maybe if the battery is charging in his mobile and then works in my mobile the bottom module is broken and is the reason why my battery is not charging.

Will keep you posted.
If that will not work I will be contacting support for replacement parts as I will have tried all the tips.

Hi Nicka, join in here

Did you get to try this yet?

My phone stopped charging in Thursday, but the battery charges fine in my friends phone (using the same charger), so I guess the usb module might be the problem. However, in addition to the phone not charging, the battery drains very quickly (from 40% to 0% in less that 30 minutes), so I started thinking it may be something else? Anyone also experiencing this?

I already called support, and they just told me to send a request online – which I understand, but I’m leaving to a country where FP doesn’t ship next week (and only coming back for Christmas), so it would be sooo good if they at least had some input on whether it might help to order a usb module. So I’m pretty close to giving up the whole Fairphone.

This indeed sounds that the problem is likely related to the bottom module, actually it could even be so, that just the contacts are a bit loose, also causing the rapid draining of the battery. If taking out and re-assembling the bottom module didn’t help, there may also something be wrong within the bottom module.

Hi, I took it out, checked for dust but all clean and sits very well in the space intended. It did not help unfortunately so I have sent today a support request with the actions I have already taken requesting a new bottom module is sent out asap under warranty. Hope your problems can be alleviated in the same way.

Sorry, I’ve discovered this thread after creating mine here :

Looks like I have the exact same issue as others here. Battery is charged at 4V but phone won’t switch on, except for few seconds after leaving the battery out for more than 1/2h.
I will try to clean the bottom module tonight and use some more charger/cables… I’m running out of ideas.

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