FP3+ got really hot and now isn't working anymore

Help Fairphone 3
1

Hello there

My father and I both have a Fairphone 3+. A few days ago, he took it out of his pocket and it was really hot (and it is cold where I live, so it has nothing to do with the outside temperature). Ever since, it doesn’t work anymore. I tried to use his battery for my phone and it worked so that isn’t the problem. I also used my battery for his phone and it got really hot again and my battery lost like 30% within minutes (and again, the phone isn’t working so no screen usage or anything). The place that gets very hot is the place where the GPU and memory are.

I am aware that many people already posted about the FP3 heating up, but I couldn’t find a case where the phone stopped working after that.

Now I am wondering if I should continue changing parts between my phone and his to find the problem or if I risk damaging any of my working parts. Also, one can’t buy the ‘raw’ phone without any of the components right?

Thank you for the help and we are open to suggestions!
: )

2 Likes
2

Hi,
Welcome to the forum, unfortunately there are numerous referrals to sudden death of FP3(+) around 3 years to be found such as:
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fp3-sudden-death/100733?u=aspergerguy

3

Correct.
The core module is only available via a repair job by the repair center … https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360035880131-Fairphone-3-Repair-Price-list-and-FAQ-Cordon-Repair-Center.

4

Any sign it boots or is it getting hot without trying to start after the battery change. Does the charging LED work?

5

Hi
Thank you for the welcome and the fast reply. I did see that thread but since no one mentioned something about the phone getting really hot, I was hoping that there is a cause behind this case instead of just ‘sudden death’. Anyway thank you I will read through it again and maybe try the things they mentioned.

1 Like
6

I just put the battery in, then it starts getting hot immediatly (without touching any buttons). And no, the LED is not working at all.

1 Like
7

Did you try another battery ? Maybe the battery is broken.

8

Thats indeed weird and not very promising… Still taking apart and cleaning contacts with a bit isopropyl alcohol is worth a try.

1 Like
9

Yes they did, see above

10

Did the FP3 had contact with water ? Maybe there is a short on the mainboard.

11

which contacts? just between motherboard and display or all of them? I did take it apart once but that didn’t help. But i will swap displays now to see if there might be a problem.

1 Like
12

No, there was no contact with water.

13

At the end when its in pieces I would just clean all.

14

ok nice thank you I will try that and let you know

15

So I took everything apart and cleaned it. But before I placed everything back, I connected the battery and it still got very hot. So the problem really is in the motherboard… what a shame.

Thank you all for the support

4 Likes
16

It does seem to mean the end for that FP3+, if Fairphone accepts the suddenly departed, there is something for Fairphone to learn here.

17

Mine also got very hot for no reason and then stopped working. I have reported the issue to Fairphone via their customer service but they declined to acknowledge the problem and said that it is only a handful of us who had this issue. I suggest writing to them, you may get a better response.