Fault with charging. Bootloader unlocked, so no warranty. Advice needed please!!

[Guest TescoHudl]

My Moto G has been having issues with charging in the last couple of days. When i'm messing around with the phone, i will usually have it plugged into the electricity because i don't like the battery to get too low. I noticed the other day that the Moto kept disconnecting and reconnecting to the electricity; the battery icon kept blinking, one second showing the lightning bolt indicating that the battery was charging, and then the other, the lightning bolt gone and it not charging at all. 

 

I examined the charger and ensured that the USB connection was tight. I'm using the Tesco Hudl charger, which has been working fine so far. When wiggling the USB connection during charging, there was no change made to the charging state, so this meant that the charger was not the problem.

 

After this, i had a look at the cable. I swapped the Nexus 7 cable which i had been using for my Tesco Hudl cable, and again there was no change to the problem. The cable did not affect charging.

 

Finally i looked at the connection on the phone, and this is when i found out that the port on the Moto was damaged. It must have got bent or something, because the phone only charges when the cable is pushed forward in the socket. To get around this issue, i have to put my Moto face down on the table and Sellotape the cable to the surface to keep it pushed forward.

 

I cannot carry on like this because i always use my phone when it is plugged in. It is impossible for me to use the device while charging at the moment because it keeps constantly disconnecting from the electricity. 

 

Bootloader is unlocked, so i don't have any warranty left.

 

I NEED SUGGESTIONS OF HOW TO KEEP THE CABLE PUSHED FORWARD IN THE DEVICE'S CHARGING PORT, WHILE PLUGGED INTO THE ELECTRICITY!

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers! 

Edited December 16, 2013 by TescoHudl

[Guest tillaz]

hardware faults should still be covered as the bootloader has nothing to do with the cause of the problem, and i'm sure you are covered under uk law regardless,

unless of course they prove the bootloader unlock was the cause of the problem, which we know is not the case with faulty hardware.

 

and not to mention if you bought it from tesco you should be to return it to them with no questions asked as they sold you it to you not Motorola,

so your warranty is with tesco (or at least they need to deal with it).

 

I had a similar situation with Argos, in which i made them refund me as it was them i bough it off (not Microsoft, which they tried to make me take it up with)

i would tell who ever you got it from about this and tell them you want a replacement... what's the worst can happen?  ;)

[Guest Chrisund123]

Take it back to the retailer. Especially if it's Tesco, the girl on customer services isn't gonna know how to check the bootloader ;)

[Guest tcpaulh]

fastboot flash boot lolcat.jpg might render it entireley unbootable so no evidence whatsoever :ph34r:

 

EDIT: This doesn't work

Edited December 20, 2013 by tcpaulh

[Guest TescoHudl]

Thanks for all the suggestions. When i first unlocked the bootloader on my Moto G i was really worried that something would go wrong and i'd be stuck with a non-functioning device, it took me a whole week to decide whether i would go ahead and do it. In the end i decided that i couldn't possibly go a whole year until the warranty expired without rooting, so i went for it. After reading these comments i feel a little less bothered about something happening to my device.

 

Strangely, when i tried using my Moto G cable (I had been using the Hudl and Nexus cables before), i didn't have any problem with disconnecting power at the socket on the phone. However, i've noticed that the power does cut when the USB connection to the plug is pushed towards the right. This means i have to get a weight and balance it on the USB cable while it is inserted into the plug, so that it doesn't lean to the left and prevent the phone from charging up. It's very weird how the Hudl and Nexus leads have issues at the phone end, whereas the original charging lead has issues at the plug end!

 

Anyway, i will keep using this cable for the moment and hope that the problem doesn't get any worse. I think i'll wrap some tape around the plug so that the cable can't move about during a recharge.

 

Thanks guys! :)

[Guest Jake Bullit]

I bought one for my daughter, it wouldn't charge at all on PC USB. Tried a few different lead with out success, so i borrowed a colleagues Kindle charger and it charged straight away.

[Guest _hifi_]

@Jake Bullit: +1

I have a Sony Dreamstation which was perfect charger for all my previous phones till Moto G. Now it isn't  :(

[Guest Rusty!]

fastboot flash boot lolcat.jpg might render it entireley unbootable so no evidence whatsoever :ph34r:

 

Whilst that would stop the phone booting, it wouldn't hide that the bootloader is unlocked.

[Guest tcpaulh]

Whilst that would stop the phone booting, it wouldn't hide that the bootloader is unlocked.

Just to confirm, do you mean it wouldn't just leave the phone with a blank screen and no adb? Or are you referring to their unlock database?

[Guest irishpancake]

Whilst that would stop the phone booting, it wouldn't hide that the bootloader is unlocked.

And you cannot expect a retailer or manufacturer to stand over a device sabotaged by a user.

That is not what any warranty is for, and undermines whatever case a user may have.

Edited December 19, 2013 by irishpancake

[Guest irishpancake]

Thanks for all the suggestions. When i first unlocked the bootloader on my Moto G i was really worried that something would go wrong and i'd be stuck with a non-functioning device, it took me a whole week to decide whether i would go ahead and do it. In the end i decided that i couldn't possibly go a whole year until the warranty expired without rooting, so i went for it. After reading these comments i feel a little less bothered about something happening to my device.

Strangely, when i tried using my Moto G cable (I had been using the Hudl and Nexus cables before), i didn't have any problem with disconnecting power at the socket on the phone. However, i've noticed that the power does cut when the USB connection to the plug is pushed towards the right. This means i have to get a weight and balance it on the USB cable while it is inserted into the plug, so that it doesn't lean to the left and prevent the phone from charging up. It's very weird how the Hudl and Nexus leads have issues at the phone end, whereas the original charging lead has issues at the plug end!

Anyway, i will keep using this cable for the moment and hope that the problem doesn't get any worse. I think i'll wrap some tape around the plug so that the cable can't move about during a recharge.

Thanks guys! :)

To be honest, I would return that for exchange.

It does not seem to be fit for purpose or of merchantable quality.

Having to wrap tape around a cable to allow the device to charge would be unacceptable to me, particularly in the long term.

[Guest tcpaulh]

And you cannot expect a retailer or manufacturer to stand over a device sabotaged by a user.

That is not what any warranty us for, and undermines whatever case a user may have.

Meh, the retailer certainly wouldn't know and neither would the manufacturer without some forensic debugging which seems...unlikely. You've certainly got the moral high ground ;-) but I'd argue that it's sometimes 'ok' to engineer a solution rather than have to take people to court over rights. If you absolutely know you're in the right (manufacturing defect) and suspect they're going to be funny about the unlocked bootloader then I'd do it. Dodgy or not. :o /my bad.

 

My only real concern is whether it would leave the device in the state I think it would leave it in ie a brick.

 

Edit: I knew this would be controversial. I wont go on defending it. Horses for courses etc.

Edited December 19, 2013 by tcpaulh

[Guest irishpancake]

Meh, the retailer certainly wouldn't know and neither would the manufacturer without some forensic debugging which seems...unlikely. You've certainly got the moral high ground ;-) but I'd argue that it's sometimes 'ok' to engineer a solution rather than have to take people to court over rights. If you absolutely know you're in the right (manufacturing defect) and suspect they're going to be funny about the unlocked bootloader then I'd do it. Dodgy or not. :o /my bad.

 

My only real concern is whether it would leave the device in the state I think it would leave it in ie a brick.

 

Edit: I knew this would be controversial. I wont go on defending it. Horses for courses etc.

 

Do you really think this is a good solution for the OP, who has a device which has an obvious  manufacturing fault, which could not have been caused by an unlocked bootloader, by any stretch of the imagination.....

 

 

 I noticed the other day that the Moto kept disconnecting and reconnecting to the electricity; the battery icon kept blinking, one second showing the lightning bolt indicating that the battery was charging, and then the other, the lightning bolt gone and it not charging at all......

 

 

Finally i looked at the connection on the phone, and this is when i found out that the port on the Moto was damaged. It must have got bent or something, because the phone only charges when the cable is pushed forward in the socket. To get around this issue, i have to put my Moto face down on the table and Sellotape the cable to the surface to keep it pushed forward......

 

He lives in the UK, where there is hugely effective consumer protection legislation, via Trading Standards and EU Directives......

 

which can be relied upon to ensure nobody has to resort to what you are advocating, particularly a 17 year old chap.

 

I am not comfortable with advice which advocates illegality, when there exists perfectly good, legal remedies to achieve the same result.

 

There would be no court actions here, either by the retailer [Tesco, I think??] or the manufacturer, believe me, for something which is such an obvious manufacturing  fault.

 

It may be an old fashioned point of view, but I would be surprised if people would not prefer to go about this in a legally effective fashion, rather than relying on a fraudulent method which is simply unnecessary, given the circumstances.  

[Guest tcpaulh]

Scenario: Superior phone shop employee (why do phone shop salespeople often act as if they think customers are scum btw?) says "Oh, I see there's a message on the screen saying your warranty is void"

Scenario2: said employee hears about charging problem and decides customer has yanked the phone while attached to the charger and bent something.

 

I guess there's a third way. Try to get a refund/exchange at some random branch of tesco and if they dont play ball then remove the warranty void message - a lesser fraud perhaps?

 

Anyway, I'm done... :D

Edit: I knew this would be controversial. I wont go on defending it. Horses for courses etc.

[Guest TescoHudl]

As i explained in my previous post, the original Moto G cable seems fine when plugged into the device. The disconnecting occurs at the charger end, where the USB fits into the port on the plug. I have temporary fixed it by using some Sellotape; it's a bit unsightly but it does the job until i can get some stronger and thicker tape. With the Nexus 7 and Tesco Hudl cables, there was no such issue at the charger end, but instead the disconnecting was happening where the lead pushes into the actual phone. 

 

The point is, when using the original Motorola cable there is no problem at the phone's connecting port. I'm using a Tesco Hudl plug (Not meant to be used with this device) which doesn't hold the USB securely. That's not Motorola's fault. If i'm using a charger i'm not supposed to be using that's my fault. 

 

When the charging issue originally started i was getting a bad connection at the Micro USB end of the cable, which made me think that it was something wrong with the phone, hence why i started this thread. But i was using the Nexus 7 and Tesco Hudl cables then, which again were not the original items.

 

So basically:

 

Tesco Hudl cable - Bad connection at Micro USB end when using Tesco Hudl plug.

Nexus 7 cable - Bad connection at Micro USB end when using Tesco Hudl plug.

Moto G cable - Bad connection at USB end when using Tesco Hudl plug.

 

Hopefully that makes it all a bit clearer! Not a problem with the phone; it's because i've been using cables and plugs which should not have been used with each other.

 

Anyway, thanks for all the responses everyone. I now know that if something does go wrong with the phone, i can just take it into Tesco's with the 'Bootloader Unlocked' screen removed (As it is at the moment) and see what happens! 

 

Cheers! :)

[Guest Rusty!]

Just to confirm, do you mean it wouldn't just leave the phone with a blank screen and no adb? Or are you referring to their unlock database?

 

It wont boot to Android, but you can still access the boot loader and there you'll see that it's unlocked.

[Guest tcpaulh]

It wont boot to Android, but you can still access the boot loader and there you'll see that it's unlocked.

I didnt know that. I thought flashing the bootloader itself with garbage would kill it stone dead.

[Guest Rusty!]

It probably would, that wasn't the command you listed though.

[Guest tcpaulh]

It probably would, that wasn't the command you listed though.

Oh, yes, derp, I'll take that as a sign.