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Help Another charging issue!

G

Goodspike

Android Expert
My wife's S4 suddenly started giving a message that it wouldn't charge without the original charger, even when using the original charger (I've tried two original and several others that work with my S4, and connecting it to a PC).

I switch batteries with my phone, and it still won't work.

Since KitKat was sitting there waiting to be installed, I tried installing KitKat, and it succeeded, but still won't charge.

Obviously I've power cycled the phone.

They're sending a recycled phone under warranty, which will arrive tomorrow, but I can find a fix I can refuse the new phone.

Ideas?
 
Samsung has a little circuit in the phone that detects whether the charger is the right one. That evidently failed. The problem is inside the phone. If you're a good circuit analyst and are comfortable working on microcircuitry, you can probably find it by tracing the power leads from the microUSB connector in. (I've had years of experience and I wouldn't tackle a job like that without a schematic, but that's just me.)

Otherwise accept the replacement phone.
 
I'm definitely not going inside the phone! ;-) I'll go inside a computer and pull parts, but that's about it.

I was sort of assuming it was likely a hardware issue, and that this question was a long shot.
 
Imo could be a bent charging port tab (which can happen easily) or other charging port defect. I fixed mine with very similar symptoms (was charging slowly and intermittently....particularly tough to start charging when start with battery below 20% ....other people's"good"battery and charger and cord didn't restore normal charging rate) by clamping down in the center of the cord connector using a needle nose pliers as shown on youtube in order to narrow the gap and make it clamp tighter. Note-even though symptoms pointed toward phone port, the phone port and cord plug work together... and I preffered to tweak the cheap cord plug before tweaking the expensive phone port...and it worked!
 
electricpete said:
Imo could be a bent charging port tab (which can happen easily) or other charging port defect. I fixed mine with very similar symptoms (was charging slowly and intermittently....particularly tough to start charging when start with battery below 20% ....other people's"good"battery and charger and cord didn't restore normal charging rate) by clamping down in the center of the cord connector using a needle nose pliers as shown on youtube in order to narrow the gap and make it clamp tighter. Note-even though symptoms pointed toward phone port, the phone port and cord plug work together... and I preffered to tweak the cheap cord plug before tweaking the expensive phone port...and it worked!
Click to expand...
Can you post a link?
 
Well, if nothing else, this is yet another reason to always buy a phone with a removable battery (and to always have the same phone as my wife). But for the removable battery my wife's phone would have been a brick for 24 hours.

If the phone had not been in warranty, we could have limped by using Samsung's optional phone & charger product for a few months, perhaps waiting for a new model to come out.
 
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