FP3 does not charge after heavy rain

Yesterday I was out bicycling, on very small roads out in the woods (avoiding the highway and some more exciting bicycling), approx 150 km from home (I had that distance in my legs) and I was having help from google maps regarding the direction. It suddenly started to rain very heavily. I had the phone in my pocket on the back of my bike shirt and I got totally soaked. It became very difficult to use the phone at all.

When arriving at the hotel approx 1-2 hours later, I discovered that my FP3 did not charge at all. It discovered when the cable was connected, but did not charge. I opened up the back and there was some moisture, which I dried with some paper, but no difference. Realised I would need to unscrew the phone to let more moisture out, but I did not have any screwdrivers small enough, since I only brought tools for my bike…

A day later, at my partens in laws place, I managed to find a screwdriver small enough, but I did not have the torx available to remove the motherboard. Ran heavily with a hairdryer but with limited success. At startup, it says it’s charging, but it does not, and keeps restarting.

Question: Do you thing it’s the motherboard or bottom bracket that is faulty? (I suspect the motherboard, since FP3 detect the cable but does not charge. Also, the camera stopped working last night, but is up n running now. Connection to battery is close to camera module, there might be a reason why these where faulty at the same time, since it’s in the same physical area, but not sure.)

Sorry for a long story here, but I’m grateful for any advice :slight_smile:



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It may be the bottom module, it may be the motherboard, or even perhaps the battery, the symptoms you describe aren’t enough to know for sure.
Perhaps you could contact a #fairphoneangel to check spare parts and test.
Perhaps you could try plugging your phone without the battery, if you can see a pattern with Fairphone logo, vibration, red LED, (I think, something similar) the battery may be the problem. If you don’t, you have a problem with bottom module or motherboard.
Otherwise, I suppose you could contact Fairphone support and send your phone in for repair, if you still have the warranty.
(Btw., you checked the #waterwiki I suppose?)

And thanks for the nice photos :slightly_smiling_face:

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Most importantly: Always turn your phone off immediately if it gets wet and don’t use it for a couple of hours until it is 100% dry. Turning the phone on while it is still wet can irreversably destroy it.

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Because electronic devices nowadays never turn off completely, I recommend to take the battery out as well to remove the power source.

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You could try to charge the battery with an external charger.

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Also, the hairdryer (or put-it-on-the-heater) -methods are very bad for your phone. Heating up a battery to over 40° is very bad, this also applies to the rest of the phone components.

Putting it in rice is btw a don’t too. The “rice dust” will enter the phone and make it very dirty which could harm it too. Use silica gel instead (the stuff that is shipped in the small white “do not eat” bags when you order stuff online).

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Then I do not understand why the SoC of my FP2 sometimes has temperatures of more than 60 °C…

Thanks! :slight_smile:

Read the waterwiki, and as mentioned in the beginning maybe a bit too late :wink: I might buy a replacement bottom bracket, since it’s not that expensive. However, motherboards does not seem to be available at all? They used to be available for FP2 right?
Without the battery, nothing happens when connecting the charger. My wife has a universal battery charger she used for her previous FP1 a year or two ago. I’ll see if I can use that one when I’m back home again.

Added the pics just to get you an idea of what type of environment it was :slight_smile:

Motherboards are not available, but you can send your phone in for repair, here is the repair price list (why did I think you could have warranty after a water damage :roll_eyes:)

Problem is either with motherboard or bottom module then.

There isn’t any in your vicinity?

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Yep. But sometimes it’s about you or the phone, right :wink: (I was not close to a life threatening situation, but the least I could think about at the time was weather the phone could cope with the whether or not)

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I’ll try that! Thanks!

Didn’t heat the battery at all. However, I did heat the rest with a hair-dryer, which I know can destroy it, but I also thought it might fix it. After reading the waterwiki, maybe i shouldn’t have done so.

No problem. I know I haven’t been very careful… I have been using the FP3 without special care since I bought it approx one year ago, and it has been working very well (compared to the FP2 I used to have)

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Nope. My sister in law has a FP3. Maybe I’ll ask her if I can borrow some parts very temporarily from her next time we meet.

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After a few days the phone started charging when turned off (not when turned on though). This way I was able to use it again.

Meanwhile I had been ordered a bottom bracket, and after that replacement, the phone has been working like before :smiley:

Thanks everyone for the replies and suggestions.

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