Hot battery and now won't boot or turn on

Hardware Librem 5
1

Had the phone for a year or two now, but found it won’t turn on. I left it on charge this afternoon for an hour or so, as the battery never makes it through.

I went to look at it, and it was very hot. I unplugged it and left it for a bit. I put it in the fridge to cool down when I got home later, then tried charging again.

I won’t boot. I’ve also tried plugging in with the battery out.

I get it sitting there with a faint red pulse of the LED. Or, I get yellow/green LEDs, then it goes RED, buzzes, and goes around again.

Any thoughts? Is it toast?

1 Like
2

Have you already checked this page in the docs?
https://docs.puri.sm/Hardware/Librem_5/Troubleshooting/LEDs.html

1 Like
3

Sounds like the Librem 5 was still turned on during charging. Putting it in the fridge likely affected the charging port with humidity, so you will not be able to immediately charge it after bringing it back into room temperature.

I doubt it. Come back in 12 hours and retry again.

1 Like
4

So now it seems to charge for a bit, red light, then the red light goes weird and dim. I have emailed support, as I am worrying its toasted its battery or charging circuit.

1 Like
5

Okay, you can use the opportunity to replace and/or purchase additional batteries if an RMA is required.

6

Follow the Evergreen instructions for “Charging Problems”:

  1. Unplug the phone from the power supply.
  2. Enable all kill switches to cut power to the modem, WLAN, camera and microphone.
  3. Remove the battery.
  4. Press the Volume Up button and hold it.
  5. Plug the provided USB C charger into the phone. The indicator light should flash red.
    If the light remains off, try repeating steps 1-5 but with the USB C cable plugged into the phone in the opposite orientation.
  6. Carefully insert the battery.
  7. The indicator light should be a constant red and should not flash.
  8. Wait 1 second then release the Volume Up button.
  9. Unplug any USB device that might be connected to the phone
  10. Wait at least 1h for the battery to get some charge
  11. Press the power button untill the green indicator light shows and then release the power button

Does that fix it?

2 Likes
7

Hi mate, ah ha thank you for those steps! I tried with the charger that I used when it got hot … nothing with the plug either way around. I tried another charger I had at work, and the red LED is now lit, so hopefully its charging?

I’ll report back in an hour!

Thanks again mate!

1 Like
8

Its been an hour, tried holding the button down, but nothing happens, just solid red light.

Do I unplug it then try it? Or maybe just give it another hour?

EDIT - Tried unplugging it to turn it on, green light and buzz which seemed good, then it died again. Have gone back through the steps above and will leave it for a few hours this time, see if maybe it didn’t get enough juice.

1 Like
9

So I have tried this a few times this morning, and the red light goes off after a while.

I was quite hopeful but now stumped again.

1 Like
10

You have tried using the official, included charger, right? (It’s not clear if you have done so, from what you’ve posted so far.)

Other chargers may not deliver enough power to charge the L5.

1 Like
11

I’m not actually sure which charger came with the phone. I’ve got a red lead, but not sure if that came with the Pinephone or Librem5, either way, its hopefully a good one.

I had a look on the Purism shop to see if the charger has a picture, not sure which one it is. What does it look like?

1 Like
12

You can see it in this image (two pieces: cable + brick/plug):

image
image364×551 56.7 KB

1 Like
13

My Purism-supplied charger has the Purism logo on it - so it shouldn’t be too hard to work out whether I am using the official charger! My Purism-supplied cable (USB-C M to USB-C M) is black, not red. But I guess I can’t rule out that they changed livery / colour at some point. (The battery also has a Purism logo on it.)

I’m not saying “don’t use third party equipment” but if you were, say, looking for warranty / repair with Purism, I think you have a moral obligation to test first with all the official equipment.

If you can lay your hands on a USB power meter that supports USB-C then that is a way of verifying power negotiation even when the phone is as yet unable to boot.

1 Like