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Comment by corney91 | Hacker News Reader

The bottom module has been out of stock for a while[1], and is also the part that's probably going to break first due to the amount of use it gets when charging daily. As someone who needs to put their FP3+ in _just_ the right position for it to charge, I'm very tempted to buy a new phone so I don't have to deal with the anxiety of wondering if it's properly charging when I go to bed.

Before anyone says: yes, I have cleaned the USB port out. Cutting a triangle off a credit card and using the corner worked the best in my experience.

I still would pay for the other "fair" aspects of the Fairphone, but until I can actually repair it I'm not going to consider it a repairable phone.

[1] https://forum.fairphone.com/t/fairphone-3-bottom-module-avai...

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> Before anyone says: yes, I have cleaned the USB port out. Cutting a triangle off a credit card and using the corner worked the best in my experience.

Are you sure you got all of the lint out?

I'm asking, because I thought I had, and my phone still wouldn't charge reliably.

As a hail Mary (I was ready to buy a new phone anyway) I tried a thin metal needle. I couldn't believe the amount of gunk I got out of the port.

In my attempts to get it charging I had compressed the lint so hard that none of the other softer tools I'd tried before could get it out.

While I didn't try your method specifically, I'm quite sure a credit card would've be too thick and soft to do it.

Hey, thanks for the suggestion. I've tried all sorts, from compressed air (useless) to toothpicks (not quite small enough) to thumbtacks (really hard to do carefully). You've reminded me that the other successful tool was a SIM eject tool I found lying around, but even then it's still not reliably charging. It's better with the USB cable one way round compared to the other, which makes me wonder if I've managed to scratch it with the thumbtack.

The irony is one of the main reasons for buying this phone was I didn't want to have to get a new one and transfer everything due to some tiny problem with it. The latest ETA is end of October so I guess I'll wait at least that long before giving up...

Just experienced the exact same thing! Performed the miracle on the phones of several family members. I used the sharp end of a push-pin to lift it out, and was in awe of how much material had been compacted in there. Now my phone has that satisfying "click" when you put the cable in again.

I had the same issue and found floss picks worked well, but after a while the pins just became too worn. Thankfully my new phone has wireless charging.

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