Hi guys,
my first n900's motherboard died. Got my second one day, whilst updating my usb got burnt, i took it out the usb cable and my phone stopped charging. Then i tried to charge again and the cable got stuck in the n900 (charge still not working), i left it 3-4 hours and the cable came out with the connector stuck to it. Anyone in london can fix this for me? Any suggestions?

That is unrepairable. As I said early, if the port is completely broken, there is nothing you can do in a local service.

The only solution that is fixable is the one when the usb is still there, and maybe have one or two pins MOVED out of their place.

Hi, thanks for ur reply.

I left it to be repaired yesterday at a shop, they said they can do it. Will let you know if they manage it.

I wish you luck! I took mine to a shop like that and after 2 days they called me that they can't fix it anymore...

I was disappointed just by the fact that they promised me that they will fix it, gave me hopes, and then crushed them after 2 days...

hey all

i had a go, but didn't win - i think the whole usb port needs replacing as it has buckled and won't sit flush with the underlying pcb. i posted some more photos here (scroll down a bit): http://www.sekaita.com/blog/n900-broken-usb-port - i'd love to hear your thoughts.

so, feeling a little deflated, i spent some time yesterday researching repair shops and came across one that looked promising so i gave them a call.

the kind lady i spoke to on the phone seemed to know what she was talking about when i was explaining surface mounted usb ports etc - she said the port needs to be replaced and that this is a common thing with all nokia phones (orly?)

she said they should be able to fix it though it would take up to a week. they also offered to flash it for me for free, after i explained the reason for needing the port. i vaguely recall her saying something about reinforcing the port.. iirc.. ?

so i'm packaging it up tomorrow and shipping it off to be repaired £42 for the fix plus postage to get it there. i believe this place covers the whole UK, so ill post their details here for anyone else who might need it:

tubes: http://www.repairs4.com/
phone: 0800 033 7000 / 01394 775 010 mon-fri 9am-5pm

i'll report back on whether they fix it or not - fingers crossed!

cheers
fusi

Success they managed to fix it and it cost me £15 but in panic I bought another N900 lol...

Anybody does usb fixing in Malaysia? My backup N900's USB is trashy...

What´s the risk after the usb port is being soldered down? I ve heard of a possible chain reaction after that, that the transistors get weaker and the whole phone gets hw bricked.

Estel, dr frost dk. what do u think bout it

Source? I'm not saying that it is impossible, I just would like to see how said it and where (and why).

/Estel

There are a number of ways electronic components such as transistors can get damaged. Electrically (overvoltage, overcurrent), mechanically, thermally, chemically...

There is NO WAY any components on the board can get damaged electrically by reinforcing the USB port. It will NOT make any currents stronger or electrons flow faster.

There is a very remote possibility of damaging some components mechanically (e.g. scratching them off by being extremely clumsy while on the job) or thermally (by overheating the board) however any components are so far from the port that if you overheat the board to the extent that you damage some transistors, then you have a much more serious problem to start with anyway.

Other possible use cases I can think of that might lead to damage:

• Short circuit. Again, you need to be extremely clumsy to achieve that but I guess not entirely inpossible.
• Chemical damage by using some sort of aggressive flux. That might happen if you let a plumber do the soldering but not to any electronic engineer.

In other words, I call it BS!