I thought that. It would have been much cheaper and more environmentally friendly (not to mention vastly more convenient for everyone concerned) just to send me a new screen and let me fit it myself. It looks from the paperwork like there was a software fix too, but you’d have thought that could be done remotely.
It seems really inefficient, but I wondered if perhaps they wanted it sending to the repair centre so they could gather more information about the faulty device. Fair enough if so.
Thats how it was in the past for the FP2 and is no longer since the FP3…and to do that you must be sure what the root cause is else you will create a lot electronic “waste” and might run out of stock earlier then planned (as it happened with the FP2 Bottom Module).
I bought a new screen myself to fix the ghost touch issue but that did not help. the new screen also has ghost touches.
Then i sent in my FP4 for repair with the new screen and according to the invoice this screen was replaced. and i didn’t have ghost touches since. (4 weeks)
I contacted support to get my money back for first faulty screen. but support would not do that since the cool of period had passed.
Then i said that i would like to exchange my first faulty screen for a new one under warranty
That also was not possible according to support as the said, i quote: “this issue was related to the software and not the hardware”
They did however offer me a 50euro gift voucher, and advised me to sell the original screen or keep it as backup
I guess the ultimate test now is to place this original screen back in the FP4 and see if the issue stays away.
ps. i run custom ROM so i wonder what software has been updated ? must be a very low level driver
So I guess what they rather meant was: custom rom is the root cause… Are you sure they installed another screen, or did they just reflash FPOS tested it without issues and send it back, indicating software, however meant Custom ROM?
Normally you dont get help telling them you have a custom rom installed and you have to re-install FPOS and test before sending in…
No the Custom ROM is not the root cause. That would only be possible if everyone having this issue runs a Custom ROM. Also customer service told me that the Custom ROM was not the cause.
So it def cant be software else everyone would have the issue running FPOS, which is not the case…so either way the explanation provided does not at all sound reasonable to me with the information currently available.
Just remember that not all software has to sit on the main flash memory. There are probably lots of NOR or other low-level firmware storages on the board.
Did that fix it? Otherwise I suppose we can mark this thread as solved? Either send it for repair to FP or void the warranty and reseat the screen yourself. Assuming that will void the warranty of course, I saw a few mentions in this thread about that.
Fairphone is marketed as a completely user repairable phone… tightening some screws (or re-seating the screen) won’t void your warranty… But I do understand better now that for issues like the ghost inputs, they prefer to have a professional service look at the phones.
Update from my side:
I contacted support and sent in my phone for repair. I got the same non-fix that @the-coding-owl got in comment #163. After complaining again, I was offered a full replacement, which I accepted. Now the issue has reappeared with the replacement phone after 10 weeks. It looks like this is an issue with the entire design, not just with some batches. I will contact support again and also try the foam pad fix.
Flaws in product design happen all the time, but I am not happy with the way Fairphone deals with this issue. Clearly it would cost quite a bit of money and reputation to publicly acknowledge an issue and provide free fixes, but the long-term reputation damage is far greater when the issue is not acknowledged at all.
Today a video that I needed and only had 1 take to make…got deleted by the ghost
Yesterday while sending a message to someone on a buy and sell platform my ghost send this person a payment request for €3333333333333 ( did not make the negotiations any easier)
It’s getting freaking hard to stay positive about this device.
They need to fix it…
I swear in the (not so) long run this can and will kill this brand!
It wont help you much that I agree with you as FP isnt caring about this issue. they sent me a new phone now (my third FP4 after the first two suffered from ghost touches). they say that over 12 month after the first complaints happened they found a fix for the issue - hilarious.
I am currently again spending several hours setting everything up. if any additional flaw comes up in future i will return the phone.
uff, really also your replacement phone has the ghost touch issue?! so after @Dajo and myself you are the third case I know. that means statistically it’s pretty likely that it’s a significant amount of FP4 which suffer from this issue.
@all, if you received a replacement pls. comment on when you got it and whether it’s still OK.