FP3+ suddenly freezes and switches off

Help Fairphone 3
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Today my FP3+ (3,5 yo) suddenly switched off in my pocket. Tried to turn it on again, no response. Plugged in charger, no response. Pulled the battery and put in back in, no response. Plugged in the charger again, and suddenly there was a vibration. Few secconds later, there was a response to the on/off switch as well: the phone was starting up again. Battery was charged to 65%. It worked for a minute or so, then the screen froze but stayed lit at first. Few seconds later it turned black again.

Did the whole excercise again, and after a few minutes it turned on again. But unfortunately, this whole loop repeats itself every time. Each time I have to pull the battery and wait a while after replugging it, before the phone will turn on again. And after a few minutes it freezes and dies again. I’ts pretty laggy as well, in the few minutes it is working.

Anyone here who experienced this before and has a solution?

Update: when I keep the charger plugged in untill the phone freezes and turns black again, the charging light will stay on. Even if I unplug the charger. Only after pulling the battery, the charging light will turn off. So it seems there is still some activity in the background, although the screen stays black and there is no response to the screen, buttons or fingerprint sensor.

Update #2: Unfortunately it take’s longer and longer for the phone to get switched back on, with each time I try, Also it freezes quicker and quicker, each time it does switch on. Sometimes it freezes and blacks out even during startup-procedure. Fortunately I was able to get acces to a few apps/services for wich my FP3+ is needed in 2-factor authentication, but now even that isn’t possible anymore…

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Update #3: This morning I wasn’t able to get the phone working anymore. I took the whole phone apart and cleaned all connections with cleaning alcohol, but that didn’t work either. Phone stays dead, no response at all.

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Based on you last post, it sounds like (a not so) “sudden death” to me. Quite a few FP3(+) users have reported similar on this forum. I reported here recently that it a pal of mine had his FP3 die out of the blue. I will relieve him of it late September when we next meet up.

If you do a search for sudden death in this forum, you will see a several items appear. There is also a suggestion to put the bare core module in the oven. Some report success, others report failure and others report it worked for a limited time.

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Hi!

After collecting many testimonies about the “sudden death” affecting the Fairphone 3 and 3+, it seems to me that it’s a manufacturing defect and that FAIRPHONE should be held accountable. It is misleading advertising to sell a phone as durable when it actually has a manufacturing defect.

As for me, I paid a lot of money for this phone, and I can’t believe it died after just 26 months of use.

I suggest that everyone experiencing the same situation join together to send a collective letter to FAIRPHONE, asking them to cover the repair of our phones since they sold us a product with a manufacturing defect.
If you are affected and interested, please share this post and contact me.

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If it was me, I’d contact Fairphone support and explain to the agent your situation, and hope a compromise can be reached (ie. a discounted repair). You are only just outside the warranty period after all. While you shouldn’t get your hopes up, better rule out the easier and potentially amicable option before trying to prove there is a manufacturing defect.

We all know there is a problem with at least some of the FP3 and FP3(+) core units, but extracting blood out of a stone would be easier than getting a venture capitalist company to admit that I’d have thought ???. I’m not hot on consumer rights law, but I do know that here in the UK the onus is on the claimant to prove that a manufacturing defect exists. I’m guessing you bought your FP+ from Fairphone not a third party seller?

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Tonight Fairphone Angel @Lidwien and I checked if the problem was in one of the swapable modules. Unfortunately we had to conclude that it wasn’t. It seems to be a defect in the core module.

Because of the age of the phone (way beyond waranty) and the fact that I was already thinking of replacing it for a newer one, I’ve made the decision to say fairwell to my FP3+.

So for anyone in the south of Holland that is looking for spare parts (everything but the core module): please check with Lidwien, as I’ve donated all the reusable parts to her, as an active member of the FP community. That seemed to be the best way to make sure all parts wil be reused one day.

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@Karim_K I can understand your feelings. It seems to be a manufacturing fault indeed. For me that was a risk I was willing to take when I bought my FP3+. In the hope that FP would realy be able to change the smartphone industry to a more durable standard. During my FP-experience I found out that it’s not only in the hand of the phone manufacturer. Theres so much more factors in the whole chain that are of influence.

Mine lasted 3,5 years, and that is already longer than all the smartphones I’ve owned before. Only my not so smart Nokia 3210 lasted longer. Not the lifetime cycle that I hoped for when I bought my FP3+, but good enough for me given the circumstances.

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Mine just died too. Is there a way to at least recover the data on the device?

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Not that I know off. You might try to bake the core module, but make sure you have all the plastic parts removed before you put it in the oven!
In the best case your core module will be working again for a while.

I was lucky to have an SD card in my phone where I stored all my data on. My Google account had a recent backup of all my apps, bookmarks etc. And all my passwords were safely stored in an online password vault account. I had the whole thing up and running on a new phone again in a few hours.

Hope you’ll be able to recover all your data, good luck!

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