"Liquid or debris in the USB port?" notification

[StK]

Dear all,

My wife bought a Fairphone 5 last year and is also experiencing the (phantom) debris/liquid bug (alert on/off) and the main problem is that apart from charging extremely slowly, the battery also empties very quickly. actually, the situation is so bad, that she can‘t even perform a back-up, as the battery drains so quickly. no new cable, adapter, plug or even the second battery helped. Given that she is quite desperate and would really like to avoid a full factory reset and waiting for weeks for a repair, I wanted to ask:

Does anyone know of potential software hacks? We tried several we saw on the web (switching plane mode on and off quickly, restarting the phone in safe mode), but none worked. Some users suggested empting the usb setting cache, but this appears not to be available in the FP’s android settings. also, stopping the android system app did not help.

Anything we could try (esp. if it resets the usb-warning) would be great, as my wife depends on her phone for several ID-confirmation apps (also for work).

Thank you!!

ps: this is not a great promotion for Fairphone, but from what I read other android phones can have the same issue.

[yvmuell]

Try to run in safe mode info here dic:safemode

If this doesnt help you can try to replace the bottom module. If this neither helps a Factory reset and repair ist avoidable

[StK]

thank you for your reply. the safe mode restart did not change anything and the battery is draining so quickly, you can watch the phone dying. it will now either be a warranty case or she will have to buy another, new phone. what a shame…

[Volker]

Did you already try to replace the bottom module/USB port (as proposed above)? This rather sounds like a HW problem to me.

[wmevius]

same here - replaced the USB port and the battery, no luck. Only had the phone since february.

Don’t really fancy going through the warranty process, especially since I bought it from my mobile network provider

I think going FP was a mistake (I switched from Samsung)

[StK]

The phone was just repaired by Cordon Electronics in France and the following two parts got replaced: „FP5_SECONDARY_PCB_BOTTOM_V1“ and „bulk - FP5_USB_C_PORT_V1“. I will report back, when received and hope this does the trick.

[wmevius]

Little update: sent it back to the network provider to get it fixed under warranty, and got the phone back saying oxidation was detected, which doesn’t fall under warranty.

I now spent 600 or so on the phone, 150 on a replacement USB port and battery and 200 on a cheap replacement phone while the Fairphone was out for repairs (I actually had to buy 2 as the first one was total rubbish and unusable - my fault). All since February.

And now it looks like I have to buy another proper phone. Won’t be a Fairphone, I can guarantee you that.

Can’t really blame them: a company is essentially just about making as much money as possible, and they’re doing it by pretending to be ecological and ethical, but of course in the end it is all about the bottom line.

[wmevius]

I literally walked in the rain once with this phone (it doesn’t rain very often over here), which caused all the issues.

I did have it on a lanyard around my neck, which probably doesn’t help, as it exposes the fragile USB port to the elements.

[yvmuell]

While its always an issue when they find red indicators for water ingress… Have you seen Cordons repair quote? Why would thwy have to exchange the core module instead of the bottom PCB as others reported?

[wmevius]

Looks like they didn’t even try replacing the bottom PCB. They just had one look and sent the phone back.

[Meaghan]

While it won’t help now unfortunately, I usually put the silicone insert into the USB port just to protect it against dust and humidity.

[yvmuell]

@anon76468197 those examples are the reason for my question

@yvmuell

How are warranty cases handled when one can request a repair on their own?

@yvmuell

when I can send it in for repait without support, Cordon is the first instance to check and given the past (Despite Suppport involved Cordon e.g. wanted to repplace the core module instead of flashing the system new), thats something I would consider difficiult…

@yvmuell

far CS decided about what is being sent to Cordon, now user do it directly which might give more “power” to Cordon, who did strange things in the past.

Cordon seem to have not enough room for diagnostics or isnt using it properly and is offering a core module exchange too fast.

[Betamine]

Hello

Sorry but I don’t know what they did to repear m’y FP5.

Regards

[WitCgn]

Hi @StK did you finally find a way to fix the problem, or did you just send the phone back to Fairphone and they`ve fixed it?

[WasteWarrior]

Hi everyone!

So the infamous notification got me too. I’ve been charging my 2-year-old FP5 with always the same charger (Xiaomi 67W QC3) and cable. I know the charger+cable is working 100% because it’s been used to also charge a Redmi Note 12 Pro which shows the speed of charging. For the sake of troubleshooting I tried differente cables and connect to pc - nothing worked, always the same message and no charging. Also did the Service test: FAIL. Contacted support and got the response that “using incompatible chargers and cables, such as Xiaomi’s SuperCharge, can cause permanent damage to the USB-C port.” and I’m really suprised by this because I thought the only issue of using this charger was just maybe charge I bit slower because it is QC3 and not QC4?! Can the USB-C port really be damaged for using a QC3 charger??

The charger info:
POWER ADAPTER | Model: MDY-14-EW | Input: 100-240V~, 50/60Hz, 1.7A | Normal Output: 5V, 3A, 15W | Fast Output: 5-20V, 6.2-3.25A (67W Max) | QC3 symbol

Thank you