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Help Odd Charging Issue

Hillis1877

Hillis1877

Lurker
Hi Chaps, so let me explain as simply as I can.

My phone stopped charging with every single charger that I own in the house. Every one of these chargers work with every other device in the house, except this particular Samsung Galaxy S4.

My natural conclusion: The charging port has packed in, or the battary cannot draw charge.

I head down to the local repair shop, give the guy the phone, and within an hour he is calling me back telling me that there is nothing wrong with my phone... I explain none of my chargers work, but he doesn't believe me..sigh.

I decide to take 4 of my chargers down to him, he concludes that they are all broken...aha, I also took my Hudl and another Galaxy that I have. All of the chargers work.

So he waddles off into the back office and spends a good 30 minutes there, he comes back and says I know why. Your charging port is working, otherwise it wouldnt work at all, however, your phone is getting a bit old and the only chargers that will work are ones which deliver a 2amp+ output.

He seems to be right, so 2 questions here:
1. Why? Surely the phone draws charge as oppose to receives it from the charger.
2. What is the part I need to replace, surely something is broken here? Port or battery to resolve this?

Thanks guys/gals :)
 
Need a bigger charger is bilge water. :p

What happens if you try charging it while turned off?

And if it works with a 2A charger, it's definitely the port - and I would guess that it's because of a cold solder joint on its way out for good.

Check out "Ampere"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gombosdev.ampere

As current is definitely drawn, if the 2A charger does work, it's not a punchthrough effect - it's an output resistance difference unique to the 2A charger.
 
If it is turned off, it vibrates every 2 or 3 seconds randomly, but other than that is apparently does nothing. Doesnt give the big green charging battery animation, either. Absolutely nothing. When you turn it on after 10 minutes of this, no change in bat%.

However, my new 2.1amp charger seems to be okay when it is off as well, and other than needing a wiggle to get it started, it seems to work fine.

Maybe this is a point to add here: As far as I know the phone is not damaged, it was getting rather hot whilst using it the other day and used a fair bit of juice in the process. I rebooted to close anything that might have been causing that, and from that point it wouldnt charge.

Phone still works perfectly fine as well should I say, and the overheat seems an isolated incident, sinced I recharged it again with the big charger you would never know it had any issues at all.

Cheers for the reply :)
 
Cool, anywhere you recommend to buy a port online? I will check out that app too! thanks.

I suppose it might be one of those things where i will need to do it myself :( Could do with the dexterity exercise, club fingers here!
 
Another EASY and CHEAP way around this is just to buy an external battery charger if your battery can be removed and charge it that way! Here in Spain I got one for six and a half Euros and it totally eliminates all the cable, charger, and port issues!
 
hiredgun said:
Another EASY and CHEAP way around this is just to buy an external battery charger if your battery can be removed and charge it that way! Here in Spain I got one for six and a half Euros and it totally eliminates all the cable, charger, and port issues!
Click to expand...
That and a spare battery could end up cheaper and less risky than a repair.

Plus you can transfer any of your data wirelessly - never plug in to the port again.

Very good food for thought.

Thanks @hiredgun! :)
 
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