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USB charging connector worn out.


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Guest digitaltoast
Posted

My ZTE Blade has had a good innings - bought October last year, the screen is cracked (but useable) at the top, and it's spend a fair few hours bouncing around in my pocket gently irradiating my testicles or nearly melting with heat on the dashboard as it guides me to my destination.

But now, the charging socket has almost totally died. It's gone all wobbly - too much use has caused it to become slack and worn. This is why I call my phone Kerry Katona now.

Anyhoo, if I tape the charging cable at exactly the right angle, I can just about get a charge overnight, but satnav is now a no-go.

Is it worth even trying to repair this? Or what next if not? To be honest, £99 for 13 months of phone isn't too bad. But I don't want to be spending > 200 on the next one, and I'd want SIM-free to use with my most excellent and satisfactory £10/month lots of everything Tesco SIM.

Guest t0mm13b
Posted

My ZTE Blade has had a good innings - bought October last year, the screen is cracked (but useable) at the top, and it's spend a fair few hours bouncing around in my pocket gently irradiating my testicles or nearly melting with heat on the dashboard as it guides me to my destination.

But now, the charging socket has almost totally died. It's gone all wobbly - too much use has caused it to become slack and worn. This is why I call my phone Kerry Katona now.

LMAO! :lol: +1 for that...description, and... it coincides with your handle 'digitaltoast'... :D

Anyhoo, if I tape the charging cable at exactly the right angle, I can just about get a charge overnight, but satnav is now a no-go.

Is it worth even trying to repair this? Or what next if not? To be honest, £99 for 13 months of phone isn't too bad. But I don't want to be spending > 200 on the next one, and I'd want SIM-free to use with my most excellent and satisfactory £10/month lots of everything Tesco SIM.

Ask WAWA72 on the forum, he'll may be able to help you, may charge you tops, 40 euro to get the entire board replaced (he'll may even replace the screen).... just saying...

Am not sure exactly what would be the best handset to go for, now, through the grapevine I heard that the Huawei Ideos X5 is being scrapped and replaced with a Pro version, so maybe, might be able to get the Huawei Ideos X5 (non Pro) version at a cheap price...

Guest ejhollin
Posted

My ZTE Blade has had a good innings - bought October last year, the screen is cracked (but useable) at the top, and it's spend a fair few hours bouncing around in my pocket gently irradiating my testicles or nearly melting with heat on the dashboard as it guides me to my destination.

But now, the charging socket has almost totally died. It's gone all wobbly - too much use has caused it to become slack and worn. This is why I call my phone Kerry Katona now.

Anyhoo, if I tape the charging cable at exactly the right angle, I can just about get a charge overnight, but satnav is now a no-go.

Is it worth even trying to repair this? Or what next if not? To be honest, £99 for 13 months of phone isn't too bad. But I don't want to be spending > 200 on the next one, and I'd want SIM-free to use with my most excellent and satisfactory £10/month lots of everything Tesco SIM.

Isn't it possible to get and external battery charger? I have seen new batteries coming with one on eBay (see here). The you'd have a spare battery and charge one while using one. Swapping them out is a pain though, especially since battery life is so poor. You could transfer data over using wifi using Dropbox or a similar app. It's all extra hassle though....

Guest julianpaul
Posted

But now, the charging socket has almost totally died. It's gone all wobbly - too much use has caused it to become slack and worn. This is why I call my phone Kerry Katona now.

You did try a different cable right? My blade is nowhere nearly as worn as yours but the stock cable was pretty wobbly from the start and the nokia short cable which i usually use is pretty snug.

Guest digitaltoast
Posted

+1's all round - thanks for some useful ideas. Only just seen all the replies as I seem to have trouble with email notifications from this particular forum. Anyway...

Ask WAWA72 on the forum, he'll may be able to help you, may charge you tops, 40 euro to get the entire board replaced (he'll may even replace the screen).... just saying...

Yeah, sounds interesting - but I'd still have an old phone with no guarantee. If it was, say, a £400 phone out of guarantee, I'd certainly go for that.

Isn't it possible to get and external battery charger? I have seen new batteries coming with one on eBay (see here). The you'd have a spare battery and charge one while using one. Swapping them out is a pain though, especially since battery life is so poor.

That's actually quite an interesting idea, and one which I didn't even think to look into as mobile batteries used to be ridiculously expensive. What do people think about this item, which is 2x1500mAh batteries and a charger, posted from Hong Kong for about £7? Under the postage VAT level, so might be worth a punt? Or do these things have a tendency to explode? I could get a single 1250mAh battery from Liverpool for £3.99, but I can wait the postage time from China as I can still just charge the phone.

You did try a different cable right? My blade is nowhere nearly as worn as yours but the stock cable was pretty wobbly from the start and the nokia short cable which i usually use is pretty snug.

Yeah, Mrs Toast has the same phone, she's tried putting hers in my worn out slot, it didn't work, then things just got a bit weird. Pass the Lurpak...

Guest julianpaul
Posted

That's actually quite an interesting idea, and one which I didn't even think to look into as mobile batteries used to be ridiculously expensive. What do people think about this item, which is 2x1500mAh batteries and a charger, posted from Hong Kong for about £7? Under the postage VAT level, so might be worth a punt? Or do these things have a tendency to explode? I could get a single 1250mAh battery from Liverpool for £3.99, but I can wait the postage time from China as I can still just charge the phone.

If i'm not mistaken some (chinese?) blade models came only with an external battery charger and not a usb one. Saw it on this very forum i think.

Yeah, Mrs Toast has the same phone, she's tried putting hers in my worn out slot, it didn't work, then things just got a bit weird. Pass the Lurpak...

Err, i think this is a public AND family forum :-P

Guest digitaltoast
Posted
Err, i think this is a public AND family forum :-P

What DID you think I meant?! It's 5pm - time for a break and Marmite on toast. Hence the Lurpak, innit :)

  • 2 weeks later...
Guest digitaltoast
Posted
That's actually quite an interesting idea, and one which I didn't even think to look into as mobile batteries used to be ridiculously expensive. What do people think about this item, which is 2x1500mAh batteries and a charger, posted from Hong Kong for about £7? Under the postage VAT level, so might be worth a punt?

Well, I took a punt, it arrived in 9 days, even came with a free multi adaptor plug. Yes, that's 2 batteries, a charger, a "UK to multi" adaptor and postage from Hong Kong, for £6.93. And the batteries seem to hold a good charge and haven't even exploded yet.

Got to admit, I could get into this "buying from China" lark. The only time I did it before was when I needed a screen protector and I heard about

mistranslation and thought "I've GOT to get myself that packaging", and sure enough, I did!

Worth every penny, I'm sure you'll agree...

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