Fairphone 5: A Coutionary Tale for a "Repairable" Device

kugiigi

Sadly, this is the reality for us who buy devices that aren't officially supported in our region regardless if it's very repairable or not.

I actually didn't know they don't sell mainboards. That's good to know so I will have to avoid any damage to it
I would assume the IMEI is a legal thing that they have to comply?

In any case, I hope you still find a way to fix it. I think someone in the community has the tool and capability to do this. Not sure where they live though.

wgarcia

@Futura To be fair, one has to say that they clearly state in their web page what parts they have for replacement. Not too many, apart from the screen, from memory, the USB port, the camera and the USB port. But those are the ones that break most frequently, at least for me.

gpatel-fr

@Futura

FYI a repair guide exists for the Fairphone and the word 'EDL' appear in a schema so finding the points on the motherboard to trigger this mode is probably doable. Knowing how to use it is another story of course. The 'special cable' is also proposed on the Internet but it seems expensive

mango

This post is deleted!

Futura

@kugiigi
Right, this is the reality of living outside of the serviceable area, I had not anticipated the parts to not be sold at all though.

Yes, they have to comply with EU law with IMEI thing, I don't see how buying a device with a new IMEI differs at all from buying a part with a new IMEI can they not just register it the exact same way. Its activated and registered that way with my mobile carrier.

Thanks, I am looking into a parcel forwarding service, I had fully accepted the fact that I am outside of the service area and my warranty would be void. That is not at all what my issue is with this situation. Its the whole we are not going to supply the part that has CPU/RAM/Storage soldered to it and is the common failure point of internal electronics.

@gpatel-fr
I went down the rabbit hole as far as setting up a Win10 VM, UBS pass through, installing the qualcomm drivers, booting windows into test mode and having the device (qualcomm low level firmware) fully recognized via type-c to type-c cable.
Main issue is, as you said figuring out how to use that tool, and needing the files to flash onto the device which Fairphone does not supply to anyone aside from the repair facility. At least from what I have read with anyone posing about their FP5 stuck in EDL mode.

Basically the /e/OS corrupted the bootloader and recovery partitions on the device and its stuck in a low level emergency flash state from my rough understanding.

MrT10001

@Futura The low level flash tool doesn't work with a VM, even with USB passthrough. You need a Windows machine, running windows as the OS. The EDL cable is handy, but not really necessary.

Futura

@MrT10001
Setup a w10 install on a spare drive and repeated the steps above.

Currently using "EDL utility" from here https://www.temblast.com/edl.htm
The device is detected but I keep getting a can not open device

Completely open to suggestions if anyone has any please lmk!
Going to continue troubleshooting

MrT10001

@Futura Doing a bit of research, Fairphone seem to have been strangled by Qualcomm with the use of EDL, unfortunately you have to send it back to them to repair - another reason I won't buy a Fairphone as that part is just not "fair" - you should be able to repair your own device!

gpatel-fr

@MrT10001 said:

Doing a bit of research, Fairphone seem to have been strangled by Qualcomm with the use of EDL

Hello

I'm interested by this, do you have some links ?

Futura

@MrT10001 said:

@Futura Doing a bit of research, Fairphone seem to have been strangled by Qualcomm with the use of EDL, unfortunately you have to send it back to them to repair - another reason I won't buy a Fairphone as that part is just not "fair" - you should be able to repair your own device!

I could not agree more with you there! I even said to a rep "well that is not very fair" after they told me I cant just buy a replacement part that would fix all of my current problems. And really the main reason I wanted to make this post. Things I wish that I knew before I spent a lot of money on a device that is now a paperweight.

sixwheeledbeast

I'm all for repairable devices and empathise with your situation.
It does make sense that you can't replace the mainboard, at that point your not repairing the device your replacing it for a new one.
I would say you've been had by the reseller and Fairphone have been pretty fair with you considering the situation.
It's probably been too long but I would take it up with ebay.