I had my USB port broken just one day before my warranty expired. I shipped it immediately to the repair center in Alabama (Palco Telecom). It was couple days before Christmas so it hasn't got there for a week. Once it was there I got an email saying the phone is no longer under warranty. I called them up and explained to them that when I sent the phone it was still under warranty so it should be repaired as the delay was not my fault. They asked me to send over the receipts for the mailing showing the date which I did and then they repaired it under the "Good will program". I just got the phone back (after 3 weeks) and it seems to be working fine now.
What is weird is that I haven't tripped over the cable or anything like that. It was plugged in to charge, which it did till it was like 80% charged then stopped. Nothing after that made it charge again. After reading up on the problem it was clear that the charging chip was fried as it only made a quick yellow blink on the phone when the charger was connected.
If it would not have been under sort-of warranty it would have cost $75 to repair.
I've been really carefull to care of the usb port for nearly a year now but I just pulled the usb port out of my n900. I want sympathy for as long as my battery lasts. F+4k bollo+cks. It's umder warrenty, just, but +#-)(/€"'\&!86\/-.
A good workaround is to file the usb cable's teeth, I recommend that to all my friends that have a phone with a micro-usb port and they thanks me because it reduct friction when you disconnect usb.
It should reduce the risk of having the usb port falling out, especially on the N900.
dont complain too much, brand new phone instead of a year old one, backup all your stuff now, find a replacement phone to last you a week, relax.
It might take more than a week to get repaired/replaced. I took mine in to a Carphone Warehouse (one which was listed as a Nokia Service Centre (or something like that) on Nokia's site) because I didn't want to wait in for it to be picked up and it's been two weeks now, but I'm not sure how long it took for them to send it on to Nokia, I took it in on a Wednesday, then according to the online tracker it was sent to Nokia on Saturday, then the following Saturday I got an automated call telling me it had been sent to Nokia and the online tracker had been updated to that Saturday. So I'm still waiting, and in the meantime I've bought a second N900 (second hand) to keep me going.
On the plus side, there have been many reports of the N900 simply being swapped for a new one when they have been sent for repair with this fault, so hopefully I'll have a new one when I get it back.
A good workaround is to file the usb cable's teeth, I recommend that to all my friends that have a phone with a micro-usb port and they thanks me because it reduct friction when you disconnect usb.
It should reduce the risk of having the usb port falling out, especially on the N900.
This actually allowed my cable more wiggle room and actually accelerated wear. I filed down the clamps till they were flush and smooth. I did this the day my n900 came.
Does anyone know a repair service that will use a proper IR soldering machine to repair the port?
Maybe someone could take a dental x-ray of the USB pad area, better if the USB port has already fallen off. If the port area has no traces there is no reason that two or four holes could be drilled and one or two solid copper wires passed over the USB port pulled tight and soldered down to the port top, this will work especially well if there is good ground plane on the opposite side. I have used this before on several non-SM radio build projects to mount or strengthen components.
I am hoping to find a smoking deal on a broken N900(no way I could afford a new or working one) and I think epoxying down a 2mm charge port will make using the USB in host mode while keeping the battery and USB device powered much easier without weird Y cables. Of course that still leaves the problem of getting the charge logic to accept power without shorting the data pins. The plan is to get a 2mm power port and epoxy it on upside down and direct solder wires running to a convenient bit of ground and the +power from a SM cap near the left corner of the USB port. Does anyone have experience with switching to miniUSB as mentioned up the thread?
With the fragility even after a fix would anyone suggest charging while cycling?(I have no car but strong legs) I have a handlebar mount phone clamp similar to a car handsfree mount and a hub dynamo electrical power system with a clean 5vDC filtered USB electrical output that I have used on my current phone and my very old Zaurus.
