FP3: Display died / blackscreen

Hello, I got my FP3 a few days ago. Everything was fine.
But then, for no reason, the display went black while I used Google Maps for navigation. Maps further talked to me, but the display remained black. I guess its not a software problem.
I disassembled and assembled the screen, but it does not fix it.
Booting into safe mode did not help.

On Thursday I contacted the support (Request #326444). So far no answer!
I really need the phone for business. Its not fun to wait!
Hopefully the small screwdriver is not the only Fairphone-Support!?

How long does a repair usually take?

2 Likes

Perhaps it’s an idea to call Fairphone Support on Monday.

4 Likes

While I share your concerns about the support, any phone may break at any most inconvenient time, and support may take their time dealing with it across the board of phone vendors.

If you are reliant on the phone, instead of waiting it’s time to activate your backup plan. You surely have one, citing business.

2 Likes

hi,
just fixed my phone. perhaps this may help you
see here: Fuzzy Touch Screen or Touch Screen not working. Solved

3 Likes

Hey, thanks for the tip. Unfortunately this does not help.
I have now bought another backup-phone (a used Nokia from Ebay).

The Fairphone-Support is incapable. So far no help for my problem.
I payed a lot of money. I really expect appropriate support from a company that calls itself fair.
Very sad…

2 Likes

@Jan_Felber I am sorry about your situation. Could you talk with the support?

I faced “the display remained black” issue possibly too. I got a first answer from the support at 3rd December after 2 days I contacted to support at 1st December.

1 Like

Hi Junaruga. Sorry for the late answer. Now, over 1 month after the blackout, I got a new FP3 replacement after sending it to a repair center in France.
What happened with your display?

1 Like

I got a new FP3 replacement after sending it to a repair center in France.

Hi Jan, congratulations for your new FP3.

What happened with your display?

After I turned on the FP3 device, the Android system update page after the logo page repeated resume and stop downloading data, I turned off at the page. But after that, the display has always been black screen. Even factory reset (power button first and the volume up button right after) does not work.

Fortunately I was able to send my FP3 to the repair center in France after communicating with the FP support last week. Now I am waiting the progress.

1 Like

Hi

As I can see the only way to solve the problem is to send it back?
Because this is even my second fairphone 3. The first one had the same problem and now this one got it again.

I also use the phone for work and it is just not acceptable for a phone - that is so expensive and should be fair - to not work after a couple of days/weeks.

If someone has any ideas how the phone would work again.
I have it since a couple of days and normaly it works again after a couple of minutes but now it is blackscreened since 8 hours.
I couldn’t work the whole day and now i have an old phone of a friend.

Thanks for responses.

1 Like

Hi @cleo

@Squeeze sharing how he fixed above.

just fixed my phone. perhaps this may help you see here …

In your case, having a cheap back-up phone might help you.
I was considering Nokia 2.2 (removable battery) as a back up phone.

Fortunately I was able to send my FP3 to the repair center in France after communicating with the FP support last week. Now I am waiting the progress.

I got new FP3 from the factory. And the 2nd FP3 works now.

1 Like

The tl;dr for this post, which ended up going on a bit: if you’re experiencing a dead display and haven’t tried disconnecting and reconnecting the screen, I recommend giving it a go. It worked for me.

Anyway, just to add another data point: I got my FP3 two days ago and have had intermittent problems with the display not coming on, although it would start working again if I left it for a few minutes. (In fact the very first time I tried to power the phone up I just got a black screen, although that resolved itself after I opened the back and put a SIM in, so I didn’t worry about it as much as maybe I should have.) I’ve also had a few instances of the screen glitching: showing odd colours and patterns, not updating in response to actions, or only partially refreshing.

Eventually the screen died and stayed dead for hours, no matter how much I attempted to restart it. It seemed like a fault that could be caused by poor connection between the screen and the main unit, so I followed @Squeeze’s example and disassembled the phone (following Fairphone’s simple “How to replace the display” video instructions on YouTube), cleaned the contacts (not that they looked like they needed it), and reassembled it, tightening the screws nearest the display connector first to try to ensure a good contact.

It’s too early to say whether this has resolved the glitching problem and intermittent display blackouts, but the screen has at least come back on again. If you’re experiencing similar symptoms, and you have any confidence at all that you could follow the steps in the video, I’d give it a go before shipping it back to Fairphone for repair.

Good points about this experience:

  • It’s a genuine pleasure/relief to be able to fix the display problem myself, so well done to Fairphone for designing the FP3 for easy maintenance.
  • And for providing clear video instructions.

But bad points:

  • It’s a bit worrying that the display failed so quickly. It didn’t seem to have been assembled poorly and I have no reason to believe that I’ve put it back together any more securely than it was before, so there’s every chance that it will go again soon. I’m really hoping that I’m not going to have to reattach the screen every few days or weeks. (I could maybe tolerate every few months.)
  • A couple of the screws were difficult to get out; they didn’t seem to “bite” in the anticlockwise direction, as if the edges had been worn slightly. I don’t think I’d have been able to complete the disassembly with just the little screwdriver provided in the box. That’s another reason that I’m hoping not to have to repeat this too often.
  • It’s a shame that the support pages on the Fairphone site don’t guide you towards attempting this repair instead of going straight to a form to report your problem to their support team. But I guess maybe the FP3 is new enough that they’re still trying to gather information about common faults and their solutions.
4 Likes

Two days ago the display stayed black, so I removed all of the 13 screws and the display. Then, after putting all together, the display works well!!!

3 Likes

Got the same issue with a FP3+ 2 days old. After reading this thread, I disassembled all 13 screws and the FP3 worked as it should. After reassembling all screws the displa stays black again. Sry that´s not the way I want to handle a phone for 467€. My ticket isn´t answered since Wednesday this week also…

I´m not really satsified.

Hi,
I dropped my FP3 (includes protecting cover) and my display turned blacked.
I disassembled and reassembled the display, it works again.

As Neale said:

  • it’s great to self-repair in 1h instead of having to ship somewhere
  • the support page should suggest trying to disconnect and reconnect the display, which in many cases would solve the issue (specially if the cause is a drop). This would reduce the overload of the support staff.
  • 1 screw is quite worn out already after 1 disassembly. I’d love to buy new screws from the official shop so that repair experience keeps being seamless next time
1 Like