Monday, Aug 20, 2018 at 11:00
Quite a few of the Toshiba laptops suffered a similar problem. A lack of strength in the mounting arrangement of the charging socket often led to the socket breaking free and being pushed inside the body of the laptop.
The phone repairer idea is good. Unfortunately, good phone repairers are like good signwriters - you've got them today, and they're gone tomorrow.
The cost of commercial
shop rents drives most to operate from their homes today.
I had an episode last year where I smashed the screen of my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and I needed a replacement smartphone urgently.
For a quick replacement, I bought a Samsung S4 off Gumtree for $30, that had a cracked screen, and which wouldn't boot up properly.
I knew from studying up on the problem, that dirt under the power and sound level control switches, is a common problem with many smartphones - and it causes boot-up problems.
I stripped the S4 down, tested the power switches (they're nothing more than an ordinary press-button, on-off switch, just smaller), and found the main power switch faulty.
They're available from eBay for $5, they just need to be unsoldered and the new one soldered in.
However, with my eyesight and hand steadiness not exactly as superb as it was 50 years ago, I preferred to get a phone repairer to replace the switch.
That's when the problems started. I went to 5 different phone repairers in shopping centres, pointed out the switch I wanted replaced on the stripped-down phone motherboard - and all 5 of them declined to replace the switch, stating they couldn't supply it, or they wanted $150-200 to replace the entire assembly - stating they could only guarantee the repair if they did the entire assembly replacement.
Finally, I found a little Asian bloke in Piccadilly Arcade in the city who was happy to supply and solder in the faulty switch for $45. He traded as Phone-Ezy.
What was even better, he called me and said he'd replaced the switch and the phone still wouldn't work. I went in to see him and he was pleased to advise me that he'd found one of the other switches was also faulty - and he'd replaced that too, and the phone now worked 100%! Even better still, the cost was still only $45!
I re-assembled the phone and it worked a treat and got me out of trouble while I waited for a new screen for the Note 3.
I replaced the screen myself on the Note 3, then sold it, and bought a new Note 4.
Typically, with my innate ability to destroy many delicate things, I dropped the Note 4 last month, and cracked the glass screen on that.
Even worse, the drop damaged the earpiece speaker, so I was unable to use the phone.
The glass screen is usually easily replaceable on most smartphones - but it's getting harder, as the LCD digitizer behind the glass screen is getting harder and harder to separate from the glass screen, with each new model (it's only glued on with a heat-sensitive glue).
Each phone repairer I visited in shopping centres only wanted to replace the entire Note 4 LCD digitizer at $245 and upwards.
Not one of them was even remotely interested in just replacing the glass screen (as the digitizer is undamaged).
These shopping centre phone repairers are now all just "major component replacers", intent on sucking the maximum amount of money, in the shortest repair time, from the punters who have dropped their phones.
I thought I'd try my Phone-Ezy mate - only to find he's gone, the business has new owners, who have moved further up, and to the opposite side of Piccadilly Arcade - and they wanted $245 to replace the entire Note 4 screen.
Dispirited, I ordered a new LCD digitiser from eBay for the Note 4 (because I wasn't sure I could replace the glass satisfactorily), replaced it myself inside 1/2 hour (there's so little holding your smartphone together, you'd be stunned if you knew just how much the phone manufacturers rely on a swag of glue) - and I bought a new earpiece speaker off eBay for $7 and replaced that as
well, while I was doing the LCD digitizer.
Bottom line is, you will be struggling to find a phone repairer who is prepared to put in the effort to replace (solder in) simple components, such as a damaged charge port.
They are practically all just "major component replacers" (like so many of todays car mechanics).
I wish I could point you to a keen little Asian phone repairer, who would simply and quickly replace your charge port at low cost - but I haven't found one, since my Phone-Ezy mate vanished.
I have little doubt the enormous cost of commercial rents, saw him sell out, or close up
shop, and work from
home somewhere.
It's amazing the range of electronic components that are available from the likes of Jaycar, Altronics, and eBay - and they are cheap - it's just a matter of either tackling the repair yourself, or finding a keen little electronics repair man who is happy to replace small components at modest cost.
Cheers, Ron.
FollowupID:
893229