FP3 suddenly died, cannot start or charge

Hi, I also emailed support, but thought I´d post here as well in case someone has a solution. Could not find exactly this issue when searching, please link if you know of a thread with this issue reported.

The problem: FP3 (not +), about a year old, suddenly went black. Cannot start, putting in charger does not light up led light.
-It was not wet (has never been).
-It did not suffer any damage, I had it in my pocket.
-It was not low on battery, and I have not had any problems charging it.
-It has not happened before, really has not had any problems until now.
-Stock installations, latest update installed, nothing special installed on my own.

I have tried a ‘kickstart’, as seen in other threads: Remove battery (also removed all cards, sim and sd, for good measure). Press “on” button for a long time (30+s). Put in charger, leave it (30+min). Put in battery, leave it and let it full charge (I left it over night). This did not help. I have tried other charger, chord, connecting to PC, but no help from that (and the charger worked fine just hours before phone died, so…).

Unfortunately I don´t have a spare battery to try. So I guess it could maaaybe be the battery malfunctioning? But it seems strange to me that it would go from working very well to suddenly stop working and be totally dead, that sounds more like something broke with actual phone, not the battery. Any ideas?

Came here because I have exactly the same symptoms with my Fairphone 3 since last night. Today I had the opportunity of trying it with a fresh akku from a colleagues Fairphone and it did not help.

I see. Well, that is interesting. Same error, at the same time. Did you also Contact support? I’ll update here if anything happens.

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Sorry for answering so late. Yes, I contacted support and have not received an answer yet :frowning:

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they got back to me today and I answered some questions. We’ll see …

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Have you already tried to boot into the bootloader with pressing volume-down & power button together for about 5-10 seconds?

It may still get moisture from being in a pocket close to the body, especially if in trouser pockets.

What did support ask ? and suggest, maybe dismantling and reassembling ??

Same problem here with the same pre-conditions as described by Torvid. I will let Support know as well.

After several iterations of questions (which were short to answer, since everything’s, well, just black and not working) I was asked to send it in.

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Hopefully it’s not the virus.

Any updates on these dying Fairphones?

What and where are these dying Fairphones? Have you a problem with your FP3, what ails it from your perspective?

Did you send it in already? I understand that the people at Fairphone want to have a look and find out what causes this issue.
On the other side, if this would happen to me: It would feel a bit weird to send the device back, without the chance of deleting the data before. I would be uncomfortable sending it back, with all my personal files on it, saved passwords, contact lists, all conversations, etc. Not sure if the lock gesture or PIN for unlocking the encryption is enough to keep all data safe when it goes back to the manufacturer.

This is even more important as people usually store passwords on a smartphone, credit card informations, vaccination QR-codes, maybe private keys and lots of other stuff that needs to be kept safe.

Did Fairphone hand out any privacy statements or commitments about how they treat data when getting back the device?

Yes, I sent it in. That was the fastest part of all the process, after weeks of explaining the problem that it’s dead, I just sent it in and it came back extremely soon. As expected, the mainboard was dead and it had been replaced. I do not remember really, I think there was something about treating my data right, but at that moment I was just glad somebody would repair my phone …

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