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After only two weeks, the HTC Evo’s micro-USB power port failed, maintaining a connection only when I press on the connector in one specific position. I can pay Sprint $120 for a new phone (They won’t cover this kind of damage, even though the problem is an obvious factory defect or design flaw.), or I can send it to HTC for repair (paying for outbound shipping and waiting up to 10 days to get my Evo back). How difficult would it be for a non-expert to resolder the connector?
If you can push on it and temporarily resolve the problem, it sounds like a bad solder joint or broken trace. If it is either of these problems, buying a new socket isn’t really going to help the problem and will only add unnecessary work. Prior to buying a new socket, try reflowing the solder on the existing socket. Perhaps add a little more solder if there doesn’t appear to be enough to hold the socket properly. Remove the motherboard from the phone. Clean the board around the socket and solder joints good with Isopropyl alcohol that is at least 95% pure (or as close as you can get to that). Flux is your best friend for this type of work. It pulls the contaminants away from the joint and existing solder. It is the contaminants that prevent proper heating during the soldering process. Apply flux to all the solder joints of the socket and reapply as necessary to each pin. As you work your way around the socket, heat the joint until you see the solder “wet”, then remove the soldering iron from the pin. Clean the flux off the board and socket with either isopropyl alcohol or water depending on the type of flux you used. If it is a bad trace, carefully clean the “shellac” (coating) off the copper trace on either side of the break. Use a silver trace pen to connect the 2 ends. Test. After you are satisfied that the trace is repaired, use an overcoat pen or a small amount of clear fingernail polish to cover the exposed trace so nothing can short it in the future.
i have a question to add to this thread. i’m not a “NOOB”, per say, but i’ve never dealt with a partially working charge port. my evo will charge all day, and fully at that. my problem is that when connected to my pc, it charges, but does not recognize that a computer is supplying the power. could this be a bad power inlet? i’ve tried several different cables, to no avail, and i’m very tired of shutting down the phone to put new files on the sd card, and my neighbors are getting annoyed that i keep using their internet. any help would be greatly appreciated. good luck to all of you on your problems.
Ok guys,I have been repair micro usb ports on the Android phones for a while which is an easy repair.The only problem on some Android devices even replacing the port may not fix the problem,because some device has resistor that control the charge circuit,so if the resistor has a bad reading it will not accept a charge.
I went on ebay and bought a few “Micro USB B Female 5Pin SMT Socket Connectors” for about $5. I’m now in the process of soldering the new connector on. I find that the hardest things to do are:
getting and keeping the connector aligned while solderingpositioning it so the connector has a good connection with the motherboard.
Don’t be fooled into buying a new soldering iron with a smaller tip. Yes, it would make it easier but it is not really necessary unless your current soldering iron tip is a medieval sward.
There are external chargers for the evo so charging is no longer an issue, the problem is I still want to be able to sync it with my computer.
I got a micro USB female socket from mouser electronics for a whopping 43 cents. lol It was “wave soldered” during assembly, so forget about conventional soldering . Im an electronic technician, engineer, and a ham radio operator… and this is one tall order. The way to kill this bird is not with a soldering iron, but with a heat gun…and not just any heat gun…one specificly for tiny surface mount electronic repairs. The one I used was attached to the end of a butane fired soldering rig, and keeps direct flame away from target area. Heat the metal jacket gently while lifting the socket assembly upward, away from board surface. When solder melts enough, it will let go. Then clean gently and inspect the board surface for debris or any “bridging”. Since the thing was wave-soldered originally, chances are there wont be satisfactory amount of solder left for installing the new socket. What I did was prep the socket terminals (freekin tiny row of 5 little brass stubbs) with a thin application of fresh solder…after warming it up and applying raw soldering paste (rosin) 1st. This prevents bridging, and is almost guaranteed to screw you up if you dont rosin it up 1st, as the little pins (stubs I call em) are so close together and will cause too much solder (as in, a speck more than the one speck required, lol) to cling to them, causing … (drum roll) … bridges….(another drum roll) … and failure. So all thats left after pre-tinning the new socket pins, is placement againt the PCB and then take a little (tiny) vise clamp, or any tiny metal clamp (alligator clip worked great) to squeeze the socket down against the target area while re-heating assembly again in a reverse operation of the dis-assembly. Then , after maybe some prayer, or meditation, or … for some folks .. a sacrifice of a small animal or three, … You can test your work. I recommend not neglecting to make sure that on each side of this socket assembly you manually solder a decent bead of “mechanical solder support” on both sides (right and left) This is required for “mechanical” stability of the plug itself, and not really an electrical connection, besides the fact that it does indeed provide a ground for the outer metal sheild. If you dont solder the two corners down, you can count on the other tiny little heat-gun bonded solder joints you took so much pains to do correctly, absolutely peeling back off the PCB the 1st time you stress that socket with a USB plug or charging dongle. If you cant comprehend the layman terms used in this description (or you have never soldered anything small before) …totally forget even contemplating this kind of repair. You will fail before you even start. Update Mouser electronics part number - 649-10104111-0001LF price (43 cents)
Wow! I know you’re gonna believe this (bc its not unbelievable) but I opened up my evo & placed a piece of an eraser from a pencil on top of the usb thingy and it works fine. Only cost me $6 from buying a torx screwdriver set. It’s set firm and doesn’t wiggle anymore. woo-hoo! smb htc & sprint!
Unfortunately, this is a common problem for that model phone. The micro usb is a poor design in my opinion. I would be content with mini usb connectors. Anyways, if you know someone who is experienced with soldering you may be better off getting a new replacement. Just in case the USB is not defective. By the sounds of it the inner pins could be bent if you had to push it a certain way to get a connection. You can get a replacement connector herehttp://cgi.ebay.com/USB-CHARGING-SYNC-PO… Still I would only recommend someone who knows how to use a solder iron or heat gun perform the repair. It may cost a little bit but it will likely be way cheaper then $120.
== STOCK HTC CHARGER i had been using another charger for my phone other than the one that came with the phone, well i had mindlessly plugged in my usb charger into my phone to transfer songs to my itunes, as soon as i remembered that my port was broke, the option screen pops up weather to tether, usb drive, charge only ect… i was stoaked, but before getting totally excited i pulled out the wall adapter and plugged the usb cord and it still worked. I had tried 3 store bought chargers pryer and non-worked. being absent minded for a second saved me $100 lol. ==
had the same problem with the port breaking. bought an extra battery and a battery charger so i just swap the battery when needed. if needed i have a sd adapter to put the micro sd card right into my laptop to down load pictures.
I’ve had the same problem with my HTC EVO 4G, the usb port actually broke off of the logicboard. I opened the phone to see if I could fix it and it simply fell out! For anyone who needs to charge the batteries there is a way around it that has worked well for me. However, the phone MUST BE TURNED OFF WHILE CHARGING. If you turn it on while using this method it might fry! Also, I wouldn’t recommend walking away from it while it is charging, because the battery will get very hot and if left for too long could explode, catch on fire, etc. Basically you take a usb cable and strip it(not the end that goes into the computer, keep that intact), you will see 4 wires inside - Red, Black, Green and White. You can cut the green and white off, we are only interested in the red and black. Red is positive, black is negative. On the battery you will notice a positive and negative symbol. If you are looking at the back of the phone with kickstand closer to you, camera away from you, the far left prong is positive, the far right is negative. Simply remove the battery, place the red wire in the far left and the black wire in the far right(MAKE SURE THEY ARE ONLY TOUCHING THEIR RESPECTIVE PRONGS!) put the battery back in then plug the usb into your computer. Some have warned not to use a usb charger that goes into the outlet, however the outlet works best for me, it gives me a full charge in about 10-15 minutes! The usb port on a computer will take an hour or two. It is clearly safer to use a computer, if you use an outlet, watch it carefully!! Using either can cause excessive heat on either the battery or charger, so again, monitor it carefully! Your phone’s charging light will not come on, but trust me, the battery is charging. This is definitely a MacGyver/Survivalist way of charging your phone and quite frankly is pretty !@#$ ghetto, but it works for free. It’s very simple but use caution, I suggest plugging into a computer to be safe instead of the outlet and again, do not leave it unattended or leave it on for too long(no more than 2 hours from a computer, or 15 minutes from an outlet). And if you need more instructions simply search youtube for “charging an htc evo without a charger” and a few decent videos should pop up. Hope this helps someone!
