Comments on: How-To: Replace a mini USB port (on your cellphone)

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:58:28 +0000

Great tutorial!
I’m trying to fix a mini-USB connector on my external HDD’s control board right now: found the part on eBay (Mouser is good but shipping to the UK costs a fortune!) and have got the replacement port on firm. Unfortunately, I only have use of a 15W iron with a rather large bit, no spare flux, and it seems that leaded solder is (perversely) harder to get than gold; so trying to pick up excess solder with braid (I’m too poor for a pump) is just about impossible. At present, the solution looks like writing off the whole board and trying to buy a new one from Samsung/Freecom. Damn!

By: Carlos Guevara

Carlos Guevara — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 19:39:46 +0000

I am trying to do is on a wd mybook but the spot where the sheilding legs go has been ripped off. the 5 pins a reok though. I was wonderioing what the sheilding legs are for and if its nessaccery to solder them on.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 03:50:36 +0000

Just replaced one of these on an Akai LPK25 MIDI keyboard.. AKAI wanted $40+shipping for the board it was on. $50 can get me a new keyboard, so I tried this before I just replaced the entire unit. Worked like a charm, the trick is patience and being very, very careful when removing the old component. I’ve never done surface mounts before, but I’ll definitely be doing them again. Much easier than I always thought they would be.

By: Rob

Rob — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:29:14 +0000

LMAO what a terrible job replacing that port. Anyone who sees this, DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. You will almost def ruin your main board. Instead of buying all the soldering equipment bring it to a certified tech. The Cell Phone Repair CPR franchise is a good one.

By: Dan Levold

Dan Levold — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 23:58:19 +0000

Hi, i have a htc hd2 where the micro usb port was damaged. was quoted $350 to get it fixed. I decided not to as it seems like a ripoff. Is the process the same as this original one? I have no experience with this type of thing. ?? Thanks

By: Alessandro

Alessandro — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 22:51:35 +0000

Someone can help me?
I’m not a beautiful girl…i tink my TG01 is dead after a short circuit of a car charger, the pins i shorted were the 2-3, i found that was possible use the trick for some chargers.
The phone do not bootup or power-on,i thik the charging circuit burned..
I want open the phone or do someting, like changing MB or repair the circuit.
What your experience say?

By: Vince Hollis

Vince Hollis — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 20:41:16 +0000

“ChipQuik!!!! http://www.chipquik.com Works great for SMT removal – replaces original solder with very weak solder – item just pops off. Similar to #6 above, but a specifically designed solder for removal. They offer a sample pack if you’ve got just one job…” – Posted at 12:02 pm on Nov 9th, 2007 by Cliff Miller

That ChipQuick stuff looks AWESOME! Thanks Cliff Miller.

By: Angela Brown

Angela Brown — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 03:47:29 +0000

I have a sprint mogul with a damaged mini charging port. I bought a replacement port and took both to a local computer expert. They could not remove the damaged port with any of there soldering tools. The guy said that the mogul was the only one he has had trouble removing. Is there anyone on here that would be able to do this work reasonably? I really love my mogul. Thanks!

By: Dan Boren

Dan Boren — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 03:43:56 +0000

Tech Question:
Q

By: dick

dick — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:46:31 +0000

Thanks

I am too much a novice. I have no idea what magtrix connectors are. Is maplins the source?

What is a polymorph?

Can I buy a miniUSB connector? Where? Then clip off the old connector from the charger and replace it with the new miniUSB connector?

Would that be easy? dangerous?

Thanks though for the effort. Maybe I am too much of a novice.

By: bothersaidpooh

bothersaidpooh — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 19:44:41 +0000

yep. did this on a very expensive htc smart phone.

Couldn’t get the USB working but did get it charging. (in this case the pads were *all* toast)

used wirewrap wire to make new ones, and fed them out through the phone. FWIW one way to make a “ghetto” charger is to obtain two sets of magtrix connectors from maplins, and glue next to each other in convenient places on the case and lead wires to them.

Use convienent polymorph to make a charging cradle with the other halves of the magtrix.

hope this helps someone.

By: R A Voll

R A Voll — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:52:28 +0000

Very well done even for a novice I think I could try it
Many of us have chargers from our last celphones just taking space. Their connectors will fit no other cel phones.
Is it possible to buy a mini-USB connector? Then we would clip off the connectors from the older chargers that would not fit any other cel phone.

Then put the mini US-B connector on that charger. And then continue to use the older charger?

Any majopr issues in trying to do that?

Dick

By: joshua

joshua — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:25:03 +0000

I really wanna learn how to do this type stuff, can u email me a link or something. Wat do i need to do to learn.

By: chris

chris — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:46:38 +0000

hello, what kind of solder paste do I need to use to fix my blackberry curve?? I used one, but it didnt stick on the phone, so I am not sure what I am supposed to be using..

By: Ilya

Ilya — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:59:22 +0000

I just wanted to add my little input into this discussion. I needed to fix a Blackberry 8320 with mini USB pads ripped out, and could not find anyone discussing it on the net.
So I was able to fix it and this is how.
TRY AT YOUR ON RISK! YOU MAY DAMAGE YOUR PHONE PERMANENTLY.

1) I tried to rebuild traces with conductive silver pen without much of a luck. The traces can be improved, but I could not figure out a way to solder new mini USB socket to them. Once I try soldering, the silver paste just evaporates.

2) However, it is possible to use plated pads that are to the left from the mini USB position. You can find which of the 4 pads corresponds to pins 1,2,3 and 5 (as I recall, the two pads closest to Mini usb are pins 1 and 5 which are +5V and ground and the other two are data pins).
I don’t know the meaning of pin 4. It does not seem connected to anything on this particualr phone

You can buy a mini USB on ebay for 5 bucks and then solder tiny wires in the correct order. It is quite difficult job, and I mixed up pins 2 and 4. After you solder wires make sure you don’t have shorts and your connections are good. Then use superglue to isolate wires from each other on a surface mounted mini USB end. Leave it overnight to dry.

3) As I said I mixed up wires and I realized it after I put superglue on. So, I decided not to try this tedious soldering again, but found a mini usb circuit braker from sparkfun electronics. It is awesome. It allows you to solder your wires in a minute. But the problem is that the PCB is too big to fit into the phone. However, it can be fixed. You need to cut the mini USB circuit braker along the socket using a hacksaw (or better use some power tool with a circular very fine metal hacksaw on it), just along the pads of the circuit. Then you need to file the PCB on the bottom to make it very thin. BE CAREFUL not to damage the traces. The PCB should be about 1 mm thick or slightly less. Then you can file the case of the blackberry in order for this board to be able to fit in between the casing and the metal cover that protects internal circuitry. After that, you will need to cut a larger hole in the left side cover of the phone in order for your socket to be reachable by the cord. And the phone will work again.