Hi community,
here I am with my problem… thanks for reading!
So, I bought my FP4 a month ago. Everything was fine until yesterday morning when I noticed it had turned off (the battery was at least 70-80%). At first, I thought I had accidentally turned it off, so I turned it back on. After a few minutes, it happened again, and it occurred at least 6 or 7 times within an hour. However, once turned back on, it worked perfectly. For a few hours, it didn’t turn off again; I made a phone call, took some pictures… I believe the battery was still at least 50%.
Then, in the afternoon, I was simply reading an email, and the screen went black… it had turned off, but this time I could no longer turn it back on. Once I got home, I put it on charge. For a moment, the charging battery symbol appeared on the screen, showing 1%, but then nothing else. I removed and reinserted the battery, checked for dust… I even tried different chargers, but the phone shows no signs of life.
When the battery really was at 1% you should charge for at least 30-60 Mins before you try to start the phone, better wait till fully charged while off.
In the best possible case this is “just” a dead battery. Do you have any chance to try a known-good battery from another FP4? Before sending in the whole phone, this would certainly be something to try.
There might be an fairphoneangel or another user in your area who is willing to help you out.
Have you tried to power cycle the phone. This was a known problem with one of Ninendo 3Ds consoles. It turns out it was just a software bug with the firmware. A good simple way is to manually remove the battery. Then hold the power button for 30 seconds to make sure no remaining power is in the phone. Then replace the battery. If the phone gives a dead battery warning. Just plug it in. This firmware bug should be fixed by power cycling the device. If the phone happens to post. Just be sure to plug it in just in case. The issue could very well be a bug that is causing the battery and the phone to communicate with one another. Usually there is a small chip inside the battery that tells the phone the charge status and how many cycles the battery has been through. I seen a video repairing a laptop battery with the same problem on youtube. It was an old computer by today’s standards with removable batteries and not built in ones today. Hope that helps you fix your phone.
It most likely could still be a corrupt firmware. Just in a different place. More than likely its a faulty ram chip that holds the firmware to run it. That can be why it isn’t posting or detecting the battery. If their is any way of reflashing it via a computer. The only other thing would be a ruined type-c can be the issue. Could you by chance order the part or import it. I found amazon a while ago had a spare type-c for the FP4. I don’t know if its still in stock. I haven’t been able to find a spare one for my FP5 and that is the only lead I can give you. I had bent the port by accident, but somehow still functions fine. I since bought a magnetic type-c dongle adapter to prevent any more damage. I hope that one of these things is the cause. I still think it isn’t the battery. That’s from my perspective. The only time I ever had an issue with one is when a working game controller of mine just wouldn’t charge. I must have somehow blown a fuze while charging from the grid. It was only a month old and practically new device. Things happen. But it rarely isn’t the battery.
I really would not recommend re-flashing anything at this point! It would be a pretty obscure problem that I have never heard of on a Fairphone.
If you can’t diagnose it any further yourself, then I certainly recommend to contactsupport and have them run some troubleshooting with you if you have not already done so. If it’s a warranty case, they should provide repair, parts or replacement to you for free.
