Noisy coloured pixels on my Fairphone 2

When I first had the phone I had the same issue with the screen and we couldn’t set the display off then either. I read about connection issues in the forum and slightly twisting the phone to fix it. Maybe dropping it has misaligned the same thing again?

Because the video still displays the old cover, but you have the new slim cover.

There isn’t really a video on how to take off the slim cover, but here is a video on how to put in on, so just do that in reverse:

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Thank you I will give that a try and then follow the instructions for taking off and replacing the display. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Thank you so much that worked great. It looks like one of the clips was open from last time I had a similar issue (and couldn’t get the display off) so no wonder it went wrong after being dropped!

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6 posts were split to a new topic: :de: Rauschen am Bildschirm

I had the same issue - first intermittently, then one day I couldn’t get out of it.

Yesterday I found this topic and cleaned the contacts - haven’t seen the issue anymore since. Here’s hoping it will stay away!

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I had the same problem and here’s what I tried:

Twisting the phone helped for some weeks
Dismounting/rebuilding didn’t work
Cleaning the screen connector with some special spray did help a lot
Add some cupboard to pressurize the screen connector helps too

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Could you share which special spray is that? My brother has this issue occasionaly and this is the only thing we’ve not tested yet.

Hi @letrollpoilu. Please specify which spray you used.

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You mean “cardboard”, right? :slight_smile:

(We have had a Fairphoner in our FB group who successfully tackled the screen and core module connection losing contact by inserting some padding under the core module’s contact area. – Warning: This is not covered by warranty.)

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Hey guys,

yes I mean cardboard.
I live in Germany, I just went to a local store and he gave me this:

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Hi folks,

Since Tuesday I’m having the same Problem with my phone.
So far all my attempts to fix the problem were without success :frowning:
Here is what I’ve tried:

  • I Got in touch with support - they think it must be the Core Module and it should be replaced. A new display module would stop working as well after about one month. As warranty is expired I would have to pay about 380€ for the repair.
  • I tried Cleaning the display connector
  • I disassembled the phone into its modules and wiped all connectors with a dry cotton tissue - this helped for a few minutes
  • I used contact spray (different brand than @letrollpoilu) - this also helped for a little wile
  • I inserting multiple layers of insulating tape on the metal framing on the opposite site of the PCB to create some pressure onto the contacts. This seems to work a little but I noticed that too much pressure starts to bend the connector. So at the moment I am trying to find out the right amount of layers. But this is a very slow process as I need to unscrew all modules and reassemble the phone for every try. So I would be curious how you used the cardboard @letrollpoilu ?
  • One more thing I want to give a try: Test with a new display module. @Stefan is so kind to offer me this possibility this week.

Well, now I will give the tape a new try …
Greetings, Alex

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Well, if a new core module should indeed be necessary, you can save a few Euros here (at currently 339,90 EUR + 14,90 EUR shipping to the EU and the rest of Europe) …

https://www.vireo.de/fairphone/zubehoer/8632/fairphone-2-core-modul

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Thank you for this link! I didn’t know spare parts are sold at other places than the Fairphone store.
I don’t think I will pay that much for repairing an old phone but invest the money into a new phone with more recent hardware. Maybe a Shift Phone (or something unfair)…

For my experiments with the insolating tape and cardboard:
I didn’t have any real success so far. It seems to be important that the pressure is applied very equally. It only takes one pin with bad contact to scramble the signal.
Does anybody know how these spring loaded pogo pins work? Do they need to be pressed a certain down a certain distance to create contact?

I’ve used the same “Kontaktreiniger” to fix display connector problems and it has also helped a lot.

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@ElKrasso doesn’t recommend contact spray:

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Today I met with @Stefan and we tried with swapping screens etc.
We didn’t got the screen working, but we are convinced that the problem is not the screen itself.
It must be the connector.

The weird thing is that sometimes when pressure is applied behind the connector the screen works.
I did a little research about pogo pins. They are actually made to compensate uneven surfaces and vibrations. So it shouldn’t be the distance between the screen and the core module.
So my guess is: the problem is inside of the housing of the pins.

This is why I propbly made a big mistake this evening:

I can confirm this.
Back home I tried again with some spray (maybe too much) and it just made things worse! Nothing worked anymore. I had some success with blowing out the liquid with compressed air, but still the screen is not behaving well.

I don’t know if there is anything to fix these pins?

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I can confirm that the Problem is not the screen. I was thinking it was and openend a request. But yesterday I received a new screen and the problems stayed ecxactly the same…

Jep. My screen was working perfectly with @Stefan’s phone and his screen didn’t work with my phone.

This will be the reason why Fairphone Support replaces the Core Module in this case.

Yesterday night I had a look at the pins of the back USB connector. They are just standing and soldered onto the PCB. The black surrounding is just kind of a frame. (I can take a picture later this day if someone is interested). The display connector is not that easy to take apart, so I won’t do that.
So there is nothing going on in the black part.
The solder points of the pins shouldn’t be a problem as they are quite sturdy.
It rests the contacting inside the pins (they are basically a spring loaded pin inside of a tiny pipe) - no idea how to fix this.
Or it is the PCP: one or more of the conductive pathes might be broken. This would explain the strange behaviour of the screen workingwhen the PCB is bent…

The only thing that worked for me so far was cleaning all contacts with a dry cotton fabric. But not for long either… :confused:

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Edit by @moderators: :warning: This post contains instructions that can cause severe harm to you. :warning:

So welcome in the club of broken pogo pins :wink:
I am lucky that I only have trouble with these pins at work.

There is one thing you could try before you swap your core module.
It is a dangerous action, but if you do not have anything to loose it is worth a try.
I guess you have (a) broken solder joint(s) on the pogo pin(s). Resoldering by hand would be hard, moreover most people do not have access to professional soldering equipment. But you do have an oven in your kitchen I guess.
So the melting point of solder tin is around 200°C, so you could try a self soldering session.
Dissemble anything you could from your core module. Heat up you oven to 220°C and put the core module with the pins up (!) in the oven for ~10 minutes. (! = You do not want the pins to get lost by the gravity if you put your module with the pins down, smaller parts, like resistors will be hold by the surface tension of the tin).
To check if the solder melted in the process time, you can use a pen on an empty solder joint before you put it in the oven. When it was melted the marking should be gone. If it is still there leave it for some more minutes in the oven.

Caution:
When the core module is hot and you take it out of the oven, beware shocks to the module. the solder is liquid and the parts are swimming on the liquid solder. If it will fell down it will be unusable due to the parts are shifted. Then you successfully made a Fairphone to a Shiftphone :grin:

I know it is a little nerdy to “cook” your phone to function, but there are some circumstances where that helps.
You could try a google search for more feed.

Edit by @moderators: :warning: This post contains instructions that can cause severe harm to you. :warning:

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