Multiple problems lately

[lachi]

I have a refurbished phone and everything was working fine but lately multiple problems occurred.

The first problem I noticed was total unresponsiveness. Randomly, when playing games, the phone just freezes and does not respond to anything, not even the power button. The only way to fix this state is opening the back and removing the battery.

The next problem was the quality of phone calls. Calls with the second SIM became impossible because of very bad connection. I had no problems with connections in the office prior but now the connection indicator of the second SIM is very low most of the time. But it seems to be random, because it can change from almost no connection to more then half full without moving my location.

Battery life became a problem recently. The battery would drop from 40% to shut down within 15 minutes. I guess removing the battery ever so often messed up the internal battery gauge so I tried to reset the battery following this guide (✏ A little Guide to ... Fairphone's Batteries (FP1 & FP2)). It seems to be better already but it’s dropping too quickly still.

While resetting the battery I noticed another problem. Randomly, after restarting the phone, the phone does not recognise any SIM cards, so I had to restart the phone again. Once, only the second SIM was recognised and this messed up all my settings. I even missed a train because I could not go online to buy the ticket. Even the ring tone broke, so I missed some calls but I am not sure if the happend because only the second SIM was recognised or every time the phone does not find the SIMs.

So what can I do? The second SIM is my business number and I cannot afford to miss calls also I don’t want to tell people to call another number because of bad connection. I can do this once but I get bad reputation when this happens multiple times. At the moment I don’t use my phone to make business calls because I fear bad connections so the phone is basically useless for its prime usage.

[paulakreuzer]

At least two if not all of these issues could be caused by an old SIM card.
First thing I’d try is getting replacements for both.

Until you find a fix try pressing the power button for 10+ seconds if the phone is stuck. This is more gentle to the device and the battery than taking the battery out.

[Yue_Ang]

I have also been having similar problems with my Fairphone 2.

I have a 24-month contract with this phone since 11/18. It has been only 10 months and its function is very limited.

The bottom module has a problem where the microphone seems disconnected. To have a phone conversation I had to squeeze the bottom screen, scratching noises and cracking sounds are all it could manage. Recording voice messages on Whatsapp is frustrating as squeezing the bottom of the screen exits the programme. Again, the cracking noises overpowered my voice.

Lately, my phone has been heating up and the battery drains very quickly. Charging the phone is slow and sometimes it goes hours on charge without any progress and dies within minutes in the day.

As I rely on this phone for work, this phone frustrates and delays my performance. I do not have the resources to get another phone and I have gifted my old phone prior to this one to my friend.

I have reached out to Fairphone support. However they are very strict on the proof of purchase when purchased through a reseller. I have also contacted the reseller for help. However, I would like to know whether these issues can be fixed ASAP.

Many thanks.

[AnotherElk]

@Yue_Ang

However, I would like to know whether these issues can be fixed ASAP.

Installing the Fairphone 2 from scratch in case of failure / Komplette Neuinstallation des Fairphone 2 im Fehlerfall

Updates could go wrong, upgrades could go wrong, own experiments could go wrong, any given thing could go wrong … and the Fairphone 2 doesn’t boot anymore, doesn’t update anymore, doesn’t do any given important thing anymore. Updates können schief gehen, Upgrades können schief gehen, eigene Experimente können schief gehen, irgendetwas anderes kann schief gehen … und das Fairphone 2 bootet nicht mehr, updatet sich nicht mehr, oder tut irgendetwas anderes wichtiges nicht mehr. If even a factory …

[lachi]

@paulakreuzer

At least two if not all of these issues could be caused by an old SIM card.
First thing I’d try is getting replacements for both.

Thanks, I have replaced the first SIM recently but I will replace the other one also.
But how could this happen so suddenly. How can a SIM card get old?

@paulakreuzer

Until you find a fix try pressing the power button for 10+ seconds if the phone is stuck. This is more gentle to the device and the battery than taking the battery out.

I tried this every time but the phone just does not respond at all.

[lachi]

I have replaced the SIM but it did not help. I also switched the SIMs to see if it could be a mechanical problem with the SIM bay.
Randomly one or both SIMs lose the connection to the provider.

Another problem arose recently. I think the bottom module broke again because the callers cannot hear me when I talk. I have to either switch to the speaker mode or plug a headset to make calls. This is very annoying but I don’t want to buy another bottom module if the phone is breaking apart anyway.

Edit: I just experiences another occasional problem. The WLAN does not refresh, so when go from home to the office, it will never update/refresh the list of connection points. In the office it will still show the same list. It does not help to turn off the WLAN and then turning it on again. Even Refresh in the WLAN settings does not help.