This is my personal experience, and in no way a guide to solve a dead FC5. Its only a description of how I revived my FC5.
Over the last couple of months, my FC5 has become more and more unstable, especially when sync with my Iphone it when dead. But also, suddenly it shut off (no response when tapping the screen), and the only way to bring it online again was to connect to the charger.
Battery life was OK about 3-4 days when:
GPS: off
Screen Wake: Manual
Notification: off
Brightness: dim
Firmware: 57.200001.149.11 (so no need to update the firmware)
Model: FB421
About 3 weeks ago it went completely dead, even when charging did not wake the FC5, did the 3 pressing on the charger cable did not help, normally it would show the Fitbit logo.
So, what to lose, I thought either it will stay dead or it will become unusable.
Question: Will it blend???????
Bjarne (me) was angry and was already window shopping for a Garmin Forerunner 55 as a replacement: Therefor I placed it in the freezer for about 6 hours even without putting it in an airtight plastic bag, again what could possibly go wrong. (I normally would have left it in for about 24 hours). So, I was excited to see what will happen.
I believe that every electronic gadget can have a soul, an you need to understand this soul or spirit. Don’t forget that each person in the assembly line day in and day out for maybe 18 to 20 hours a shift, 7 days a week, put their heart and soul in each and every product they produce (thank you Wue Lee Chang, mother of 8).
After the 6 hours, I took the FC5 directly out of the freezer and put it on the charger, with the result that the screen woke up at showed med 16Mill. colors out for the possible 256 colors 😊and all kind of dots and lines. Even a brief look of the battery % was shown.
About 15 sec. later the Fitbit logo was shown, but did not disappear for the next 2 to 3 hours, maybe because it was still frozen at -18 degrees Celsius. I disconnected the charger and left it to warm up for 5 to 6 hours.
At some point the logo had disappeared, and I connected it to the charger where it vibrated short an showed the logo 2 times followed by the charging %.
So, after it was completely dead, it has now shown me “I want to live”.
I feel that the battery life has been extended a bit, and in the 3 weeks since this procedure it has not gone dead, only 3 to 4 times when sync to Iphone, and it starts up again when charging.
Disclaimer:
I do not recommend putting electronic equipment in the freezer, I only did it because I was looking for a replacement- and the fact that my Fitbit account will be closed sometime in 2024 (you will then need an google account, which I don’t have.) make me look for new smartwatch which will not be a FitBit.
