My journey to a deteriorating USB port fix - Samsung Galaxy Nexus

Hi guys,
I had my Gnex for more than a year and thought I was one of the lucky ones without USB wake problems. That is, the USB port thinks it's being plugged in or unplugged causing the screen to turn on and subsequently kill your battery. Unfortunately, I started noticing the phone turn on occasionally. Then, it progressively got worse over the course of about 6 weeks to the point where it had to be plugged in several times a day.
One of the tricks that helped in the short-term was to move nudge/coax the contacts in the port in an upward direction. So, with your phone facing up insert something very thin (ideally plastic or paper-based) between the bottom of the port housing and the nipple thing that sticks out that has all the copper contacts on it. There is almost zero room, so you'll need to search for a suitable tool. Once you put a bit of pressure in an upward direction for a few moments you'll find your phone doesn't wake up at all, or as much. Unfortunately, that only helped for a while.
I'm not sure what the cause of problem is. I hypothesize that corrosion occurred when I left my phone in the washroom while I had a steamy shower every day for a few months, but who knows.
I found no suitable software workarounds.
I didn't want to junk the phone, so I ordered a replacement part for only $5.99 + shipping. You can find the part here: Witrigs. Given the price, I suggest you order two. I don't recall the shipping, but it wasn't expensive. Delivery was around 7 days to Canada (from Hong Kong). Website is definitely legit. Maybe add some other parts to your order, if you feel so inclined.
The install wasn't too bad. I'm a dummy and thought I would skip steps that I didn't think were necessary, like removing my sim card. Don't skip steps! The iFixit instructions I followed don't seem to be around anymore. There are guides on YouTube etc that are helpful but they make it look way too easy. Expect to struggle with removal of the screen from the casing. Be careful when you're jamming around into the edges because there are many delicate sensors and buttons which can be broken. Credit cards work well. Overall it's safe, just use your common sense.
Overall, the replacement wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the replacement part was IDENTICAL to the outgoing port. I was hoping there was a revision, but no dice. I'm glad I bought the second replacement port, just in case I have the same problem in the future.
Anyways, I did this a few months ago and am trying to remember the best I can. I hope this might help somebody.

MikeMurphy said:
Anyways, I did this a few months ago and am trying to remember the best I can. I hope this might help somebody.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for sharing your experience,MO and advices; I can remember several that had the issue and some fix it by just working around the usb port with a suitable tool, others tried to replace the part without sucess, and others with sucess;
Offtopic: I think this thread belongs in General, no question here. Reported.

Replaced my charging port + flex board yesterday. Ordered the replacement from Aliexpress for $3.something and free shipping! Took around 2 weeks to reach me, but the part works perfectly and you can get faster delivery by paying for express delivery.
The iFixit guide is still there:
1. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Samsung+Galaxy+Nexus+Teardown/7182/1
2. http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Repairi...+LTE)+Micro+USB+Charge+Port+&+Main+Mic/9641/1
Also looked at various youtube videos before I finally undertook the replacement.
Cheers to everyone who fixed their own phones!!

Related

Epic 4g, Repair Options.

about 2 days ago my phone fell from a table flat into the floor, it now has a dead pixel and a vertical blue line going across the screen, the blue line does not show up on black background but when it displays other colors it is very prominent. I've searched the forums and while I feel confident I can replace the screen myself I wanna know if I have any "cheaper" or price comparable options from the sprint/manufacturer/warranty side before I attempt a DIY. my phone as it happens is only about 1 month old but has been rooted and flashed at least twice.
so the question is: what are my options?
Take it in to the Sprint Store. I don't remember pricing but while Sprint strongly recommends do not root your phone, it's not a policy they enforce. Might cost you $35, if you have TEP it might cost you nothing.
Just take it in and say it fell off the table and show them, then ask how much.... worth a try a least.
There's another thread here with some repair options, you can check them out too.
Edit: Here it is.
If you tell them it fell off the table they will charge you $100 for a replacement if you have insurance or tell you you have to buy a new phone if you don't. You would need a SUPER friendly tech to offer to fix it....which the odds are severely against you.
sweet, i'll try that today, I know a girl on my sprint store that fits the super friendly bill.
Good luck. I wouldn't mention the fall though.
Sent from my PantechP4100 using xda premium
If Sprint doesn't fix it for you, try checking the connection between the screen and the phone.
The bottom of my phone's display looked corrupted and I fixed it by reinserting the ribbon cable connecting to the screen. I guess it somehow loosened on its own.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk 2
YES, loose connection!!!!
Etirkca, thank you SO much for tossing your experience in at the end there!!! You've given me a quick shift from despondent and grasping to very optimistic and focused! to
My screen went completely dead today (and has stayed that way) at some unknown specific point but following a series of pretty hard-hitting drops of late. I quickly noted that the sound was still functioning when I tried to restart what I initially thought was a phone that had simply powered itself down. Felt like I was deducing in the right direction when I observed that the LED indicator appeared to be non-functional as well. Anyhow, cutting to the chase, had come up with power supply problem to the top-half of the phone as my leading theory before I headed over here to look for some answers/help and was directed to this thread as my very first hit and with your post at least confirming the possibility/likelihood I've got a minor problem, not the potentially huge, expensive one I'd feared.
So, thanks again, but thought I'd hit you up to see if there's any quickie web page you can direct me to which'll show me how to get at that connector. I've no doubt I'll be able to find drawings/instructions on my own, if necessary, but since I'm full newbie to this site and very much an average, amateur tinkerer (as opposed to legit tech) it seems worth asking you and the group for direction on my next step.
Thanks again and in advance! --
--Laz--
There are tons of great vids on how to take the phone apart... google it and watch the video.... its really pretty simple... if you know how to take the phone apart it will be very obvious as to the ribon which may have become disconnected
Follow up/Resolution
Just wanted to close the issue in case anyone should run across this thread in the future and my experience can help them find a solution.
Was actually looking forward to taking my phone apart and giving a fix a try but my lazy/practical side decided to pop into my local Sprint store just to see if there was any chance I could get them to take a look without charging me for anything. Surprisingly, the rep I spoke with took the phone to a tech on the spot and the tech dropped what he was doing to open it up and take a look. Ten minutes later the tech handed me my fully-functioning phone and said the ribbon had been torn completely in half! He said this situation was not uncommon after a year-and-a-half of sliding the keyboard open and closed, again and again. No charge, didn't even write up a ticket as far as I know. Probably got lucky in going into the store about an hour before close on a Thursday night. I'm CERTAIN (based on previous Sprint experience) I wouldn't have received that sort of service if I'd happened in at a busier time.
But worth noting that the ribbon had ripped completely through without any particular drop or other incident and with no prior intermittent performance or any indication something was about to go seriously wrong.

[Q] Inc2 Not charging reliably, sometimes not at all.

Before you all jump down my throat for not searching the forum, I did, and did not find anyone with a similar enough problem to warrant not posting.
I have a HTC incredible 2, I've had it for around a year, and it currently has the Aeroevan CM9 with his custom kernel installed. I pulled it apart and cleaned out the usb-micro port, and reflowed the solder on all connections. All of the pins in the micro-usb port have continuity to the flex cable pads as well, so it does not appear to be a hardware problem with the charging port assembly. It still refuses to charge right now. Sometimes it will charge for 10 or so minutes, but the percentage will not really go anywhere, and it will drain it back to zero and shut itself off. edit: I've tried 4 different usb-micro cables, and none work.
This seems to be somewhat of a common problem for this device, and I'm wondering if any of you have had the same problem, and if you fixed if, how. Most of the posts I've seen on the verizon question board were with people who still had phones under warranty, so they were just given replacements. My warranty expired around a week or two ago. I might pick up a new battery to see if that works. Otherwise, the upgrade (which is only available because one of the other people on my plan has one available) costs $130. I'm in college, and can only afford that if it is an absolute necessity i.e. there is no easy or feasible solution.
Thanks guys.
Dude its a known issue with the phone. You will need to replace the micro-usb port. Sorry to be blunt, but its happened to quite a few. It happened to my nephew and he needed to get a new phone.
here you go
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-Power-C...onnector-HTC-Incredible-2-S710e-/170734676910
I guess what I don't understand is that, electronically, the assembly is fine. Oh well, I was going to do that anyway.

[Q] Help! Wont charge, usb port is the probable culprit.

My verizon gnex usb charging port was acting wonky for a bit, so I had to angle the cord a certain way for the phone to charge. I saw the thread on here (via lifehacker I think) that said to bend the "tab" thing that can be seen inside the port upwards. That actually helped and the phone was charging fine for a week or so. Then a few days ago it just totally went kaputt and wont charge at all.
I called verizon and they wont help at all since my 1 year manufacturers warranty was up in december. And their customer service is really just a sales team as their first suggestion was to buy a new battery and "try" that, then they suggested I buy one of their used samsung galaxy stellar (Never even heard of it!) for $250.
So does anybody have any suggestions on how I could repair/replace the port myself, or get verizon or samsung to fix it?
sd0070 said:
My verizon gnex usb charging port was acting wonky for a bit, so I had to angle the cord a certain way for the phone to charge. I saw the thread on here (via lifehacker I think) that said to bend the "tab" thing that can be seen inside the port upwards. That actually helped and the phone was charging fine for a week or so. Then a few days ago it just totally went kaputt and wont charge at all.
I called verizon and they wont help at all since my 1 year manufacturers warranty was up in december. And their customer service is really just a sales team as their first suggestion was to buy a new battery and "try" that, then they suggested I buy one of their used samsung galaxy stellar (Never even heard of it!) for $250.
So does anybody have any suggestions on how I could repair/replace the port myself, or get verizon or samsung to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Edit: do they make a 3 pin charger? How bout an external battery charger?
You can buy a charging port off eBay. I bought one there for $16 with free shipping. Had to come from China, but I had mine in less than a week. Directions for procedure can be found on ifixit.
kyoteqwik said:
You can buy a charging port off eBay. I bought one there for $16 with free shipping. Had to come from China, but I had mine in less than a week. Directions for procedure can be found on ifixit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, I just found that ifixit article in the meantime. There are no reassembly instructions though which turned me off. I consider myself pretty capable at following instructions but dont have much experience in electronics. How difficult was it for you?
I was able to get mine working again, so I haven't actually replaced mine yet. I used a needle and cleaned all around the charging port, and also gently scratched pins with needle. Would recommend pulling battery if you should try this. It has been about a month and so far no more problems for me.
I have had the phone apart a few times and it doesn't look too bad though.
My USB port has been bad for at least six months. I tried fixing it and ended up shorting something inside the phone. Even the 3 prongs won't charge my phone. Says it is charging but battery won't charge. My solution. Bought two extra batteries and external charger. Love it. Battery dies and just throw in a new one and instantly at 100 percent. You could find a cell phone repair place and they can change the port. No soldering needed on this phone. Just make sure they order the vzw port and not the GSM. They are not the same.
thank you!
kyoteqwik said:
I was able to get mine working again, so I haven't actually replaced mine yet. I used a needle and cleaned all around the charging port, and also gently scratched pins with needle. Would recommend pulling battery if you should try this. It has been about a month and so far no more problems for me.
I have had the phone apart a few times and it doesn't look too bad though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far this solution has worked for me. I pulled my battery and gently scratched the top of the pins. The phone now charges like it is supposed to. The port must get I build up of gunk in there.
Thanks for your tip

Screen replacement?

Hey guys,
So I actually upgraded from my G2 about a year ago because of a hardware issue with the phone. I basically developed problems with the screen and it turned out the problem was the power ribbon between the keyboard and screen. Luckily, I was able to salvage my data from the phone before I basically (and unintentionally) killed the screen by poking the power ribbon to try to fix the screen issue. So for the past year, it's kinda just sat in my desk and I just feel really bad about letting a perfectly good phone go to waste if I have the chance to fix it. Only problem is that is that I don't want to drop tons of money on an expensive screen replacement so I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction with buying a replacement.
I don't want the cheapest option. I just want the best option (and preferably some instructions too!) for a screen and/or ribbon replacement and I'll gauge whether I want to restore my phone or not.
Thank you and kudos for those who are still using the phone! I miss it so much.
Can't really say how much it will cost where you live, but I find LCDs for about 20 and and flex cables around 30 where I live. Usually eBay is a good place to pick these up, being the flex sounds for sure bad I would start with buying that.
Instructions can be found with quick Google or YouTube searches
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I HAVE FOUND A SOLUTION FOR THE LG G4 BOOTLOOP ISSUE *Story & Tutorial*

Basically what happened, was on Friday, my phone got stuck in a boot loop. It would get to the "Optimizing Apps" screen and shut off again. Other people may just get to the Verizon screen, or even just the LG screen. I looked it up and found that it was a major issue affecting many people, so I just filed for a warranty and received my new phone today. Well, on Saturday night LinusTechTips, a popular tech YouTube channel(You should really check them out, they are great), released a video on how they fixed a dead Graphics Card and PCI-E SSD by heating them up past the melting point of solder and then testing them. For them, it only worked on the GPU. As I was packing up my seemingly dead phone to ship back to LG TODAY, i decided to give it one more shot. I disassembled the device to the point where I could take out the logic board. I took the logic board and wrapped it in one layer of parchment paper and two layers of tinfoil, shiny side facing in(FYI tinfoil has two sides, shiny and matte). I then placed this package into a barbecue. I turned on the left and middle burners and left the package with my logic board inside on the right side to the grill so it wasn't receiving direct heat. After 10 minutes, I took it out, re-assembled my phone and it booted. I was able to get all of my pictures off of it. This has only been confirmed to work on my phone, but seeing as this SAME issue is affecting thousands of people, It's definitely worth a shot. If you are going to use an oven, PLEASE, make sure it's above 385 degrees Fahrenheit and that you don't plan on using that oven for food ever again, this may release some toxic chemicals etc. I plan on using my grill again, so I just made sure to leave the grill open for 24 hours and I'm going to clean it before I use it next. If you have any questions let me know!
P.S. My LG G4 was the Verizon model.
I highly recommend doing this ONLY if you have no other option. Remember that heating a logic board to high temperatures can release toxic fumes. Don't use an oven you use for food preparation! Toxic fumes can leave residue in the oven and will be re-released upon reheating over many cycles!
Assuming LG's press release regarding the issue is correct and it is really a loose contact, this "fix" could actually work. Of course, only if the loose connection is a soldered connection. Though, it's controversial. You have to remember that the melting point for SMD solder is around ~350°C, or 662°F. So 358°F, or 181°C, is not nearly enough to actually re-solder a loose connection. My guess is that the loose solder point is only expanding due to the heat. There is no real reconnect. It might only be a matter of time until it also breaks. If you could locate the actual loose connection you could really re-solder it and have it fixed permanently.
I've done this on many many devices, including graphics cards, smartphone logic boards, PC mainboards etc. It only works if a soldered connection has a crack small enough that heat expansion is enough to gain reconnection. If there is a loose contact on the PCB or the "crack" in the solder is too big, it does not work. Also, if you really have a dead chip, this trick also won't (always) work.
I read a similar story on reddit. The guy put his main board in the oven, reassembled it, and the phone started working. The last update I read was 3 days later, still working.
I fixed mine temporarily by heating up the emmc chip using solder hot air gun. It seems to be just the emmc chips connection.
Failed again after a fortnight when the phone got too hot. The connection seems to break when the g4 gets hot.
One option to try is to boot the phone inside a freezer. I found that worked too.
Pretty poor quality control on lg's part.
I'm going to try again and see if I can fix permanently.
Worked for me too
I have a LG G4 H815 with serial number starting with 507. It died yesterday night. The bootloop escalated quickly to full death. Even the freezer trick did not work.
I followed the OP instructions. I heated up the grill to ~250 degrees Celsius and cooked the motherboard for 10 minutes.
Magically the phone has been working for a couple of hours since and I have been able to backup files to the external SC card.
I wonder how much more will it work.
Thank you for help OP!!!
Word of advice to other LG G4 users. Backup your phone regularly. Use an external SD card. Set the camera to save images and videos to the SD card. At least at doom day you will have them saved.
Cheers
Silverdace said:
I'm going to try again and see if I can fix permanently.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
any more info on this? Looks like my phone bit it the other day, no boot...just dead...
I'm going to take her apart to see if I can find a bad solder, luckily I still had my G2 lying around.
NFN, I sent mine back to LG US in Texas for a full warranty repair. 10 days RT, no cost at all, shipping included.
No unfortunately. I managed to overcook it and it stopped booting altogether
Do you have the address and info Re your communication w/ lg
metropical said:
NFN, I sent mine back to LG US in Texas for a full warranty repair. 10 days RT, no cost at all, shipping included.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have the address and info Re your communication w/ lg, I'd like to send mine back for repair due to this same issue.
http://www.lg.com/us/support/repair-service/schedule-repair-us
they did a **** job. touch screen peeling and failing. Phone slowing down again after about 6mos. Looking for a new phone, but the choices are so limited.
My phone is 2 years 4 months old....never bootlooped
Feel bad for u guys
deltadiesel said:
My phone is 2 years 4 months old....never bootlooped
Feel bad for u guys
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine made it just about the same but died from other causes.
deltadiesel said:
My phone is 2 years 4 months old....never bootlooped
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is the beginning of your phone's serial number?
Hi bro kindly tell is it worth to install custom rom kernal with root to prevent the cpu to clock high speed so it will not go into bootloop? My is also 2 years old thanks
250 degrees F for 6 minutes and brought the phone back to life. We'll see how long it lasts.
Actually it worked on BOTH G4s I have. I first just went dead and I bought a used one for $100 on eBay and it worked fine until the bootloop showed up.

Categories

Resources