Help Broken Evo Charging Port Thread, Lets Track This Issue

[AndroidSPCS]

All it takes is for someone's foot to catch the cable as it charges the EVO and BAM you damaged the charging port. Or you are constantly trying to shove the cable into the port the wrong way. Have you dropped your EVO lately? Yeah, that could knock the port loose as well. All it takes is one good drop or constantly using the wrong cable to cause this problem. It's not a freaking defect. I'm for certain machines put these phones together and I HIGHLY doubt a machine caused this port problem. If you had a weak port you would notice it from day 1!

I have zero issues with my Evo. However I am concerned about this issue because many people are reporting it so I am tracking it should this happen to me.

I have had many many phones, dumbphones, blackberries, palms, windows, android, iPhone, I'm well aware of the risks of damaging the port if you should abuse it. I assume most people here are as well.

This seems to be above and beyond the normal wear and tear that one hears about. Some here have said the charging port is directly connected to the motherboard, which would put undue stress on the motherboard, rather than reinforcing it with a more solid connection. That makes sense to me as to how that could be a weakness. Therefore I'm not going to call everyone here liars and accuse them of damaging their phones because I have no proof of that.

 

[uniquenameEVO]

Some here have said the charging port is directly connected to the motherboard, which would put undue stress on the motherboard, rather than reinforcing it with a more solid connection.

It is directly on the motherboard. I would not personally worry about stressing the board.

I can't speak for all of them, but I wasn't happy with the look of the connections. Since I was in there anyway, I re-soldered them. Mine is a launch day phone and with how I treat it (I used to grab the cord to find the phone when my alarm is going off and it was charging), had I been plugging and unplugging in that port as it was...I would probably have a loose port. In my case, I would not be so fast to blame HTC. It's not the lightest phone, factor that in when you are yanking around on the cable.

 

[Shadax]

All it takes is for someone's foot to catch the cable as it charges the EVO and BAM you damaged the charging port. Or you are constantly trying to shove the cable into the port the wrong way. Have you dropped your EVO lately? Yeah, that could knock the port loose as well. All it takes is one good drop or constantly using the wrong cable to cause this problem. It's not a freaking defect. I'm for certain machines put these phones together and I HIGHLY doubt a machine caused this port problem. If you had a weak port you would notice it from day 1!

You have way too much faith in machines and are likely not very familiar in I.T. products which CONSTANTLY have issues including being partially to fully defective in short periods of time.

I used first party accessories to charge my phone, a full invisi-shield and rubber surrounding case and treated my phone like a mother would her baby. Seriously.

Out of nowhere my phone stopped charging. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary with this phone. I previously had an iPhone for well over a year and was able to sell that thing as like brand-new factory condition and never had an sort of charging issue. I've done the same with ALL of my phones and THIS is the one to give me this problem.

It apparently happens to way more phones than it should. This is a manufacturer defect if I have ever seen one. Keep in mind this doesn't mean everyone experiences it or even half of the owners, but enough to where it's an obvious issue.

 

[SuperDave70]

Started happening with me too, and I have ONLY used the OEM cable that came with the phone. I took it to a Sprint repair store and was told it was user damage and would cost me $120 to replace the phone.
I asked if this phone is designed to be charged.
The young woman I was dealing with asked what I meant by that.
I said that I plug it in once a day before I go to bed using the cord that came with the phone, so this is an obvious defect and should be covered under warranty.
Her reply was that it is physical damage and that isn't covered.
I said that I agree the damage is physical, but the damage occurred during normal use of the phone, and therefore should be covered under warranty.
She said I should have bought the insurance coverage and this wouldn't be an issue.
I said I shouldn't have to pay extra to make Sprint stand behind the products they sell, especially one that is only 4 months old and is still under warranty.
She said there was nothing she could do and gave my phone back.
As I turned to leave she said "Maybe you should call HTC since your phone is defective."
I turned back and said, "So you admit that this is a defect, and not damage that I caused?"
She realized she had screwed up and tried to take back that statement, but finally said she had seen too many come back for the problem for them all to be user abuse.
So again I asked why they would not honor the warranty.
She said they were instructed not to, but would not give me any more than that.
As I left I noticed everyone staring at me and only then realized the whole exchange had grown a bit heated. But, I was really pissed. I don't know what I'll do next. I don't really want to deal with HTC, as I have done that before and it was a nightmare. There is another repair center in town, so I may go try my luck there, since some people seem to have better luck than I did. For now, I can get it to charge if i mess with it, but it's a pain in the ass. It's too bad because I really love this phone, but it's been one problem after another since I got it.

 

[benjibaskins]

I have had the same issue that everyone is reporting here. My only advice is to keep trying different sprint repair centers which might only be an option if you are in a bigger city. If that isn't an option just keep calling, emailing and chatting with Sprint people until someone owns up to the issue and agrees to help. I was finally able to get someone in sprint chat to agree to waive any fees associated with getting the phone fixed. I took it to a store I hadn't tried yet to get it fixed and when I told them my issue, they ordered me a replacement without even looking at the phone.

 

[AndroidSPCS]

Started happening with me too, and I have ONLY used the OEM cable that came with the phone. I took it to a Sprint repair store and was told it was user damage and would cost me $120 to replace the phone.
I asked if this phone is designed to be charged.
The young woman I was dealing with asked what I meant by that.
I said that I plug it in once a day before I go to bed using the cord that came with the phone, so this is an obvious defect and should be covered under warranty.
Her reply was that it is physical damage and that isn't covered.
I said that I agree the damage is physical, but the damage occurred during normal use of the phone, and therefore should be covered under warranty.
She said I should have bought the insurance coverage and this wouldn't be an issue.
I said I shouldn't have to pay extra to make Sprint stand behind the products they sell, especially one that is only 4 months old and is still under warranty.
She said there was nothing she could do and gave my phone back.
As I turned to leave she said "Maybe you should call HTC since your phone is defective."
I turned back and said, "So you admit that this is a defect, and not damage that I caused?"
She realized she had screwed up and tried to take back that statement, but finally said she had seen too many come back for the problem for them all to be user abuse.
So again I asked why they would not honor the warranty.
She said they were instructed not to, but would not give me any more than that.
As I left I noticed everyone staring at me and only then realized the whole exchange had grown a bit heated. But, I was really pissed. I don't know what I'll do next. I don't really want to deal with HTC, as I have done that before and it was a nightmare. There is another repair center in town, so I may go try my luck there, since some people seem to have better luck than I did. For now, I can get it to charge if i mess with it, but it's a pain in the ass. It's too bad because I really love this phone, but it's been one problem after another since I got it.

This sucks. This is something HTC / Sprint NEEDS to address and make sure the customers are well taken care of.

This will come back to haunt them if they refuse to take responsibility for.

 

[msvnlu]

A co-worker of mine told me she had the same issue. She said her phone would not charge. So did an exchange during her 30 day period.

 

[Bitbang3r]

Has anybody who was told they'd have to pay $100 for an Asurion replacement *anyway* tried fixing it themselves with a hot air rework tool? OK, admittedly, not everyone owns one, but assuming this is a case of the port coming away from the circuit board traces (as opposed to delaminating the traces from the circuit board itself, or pins breaking), it should be fairly easy to remove the port, put a few dots of solder paste on the anchor points (apparently, HTC didn't even solder the anchor points correctly), wick and flux the pads, then solder the port back down (probably, better and more securely than it was the first time).

 

[tqlla]

IMO, the problem may be the stock cable.

Comparing the cable to my LG Dare's OEM cable, the EVO's OEM cable is tougher to pull out.

 

[Android XTC]

Has anybody who was told they'd have to pay $100 for an Asurion replacement *anyway* tried fixing it themselves with a hot air rework tool? OK, admittedly, not everyone owns one, but assuming this is a case of the port coming away from the circuit board traces (as opposed to delaminating the traces from the circuit board itself, or pins breaking), it should be fairly easy to remove the port, put a few dots of solder paste on the anchor points (apparently, HTC didn't even solder the anchor points correctly), wick and flux the pads, then solder the port back down (probably, better and more securely than it was the first time).

It is my understanding the USB connector is not at fault really. Its the solder points that crack off the Motherboard and cause this issue. Because of normal use (pushing in and pulling out of the cable) the solder that connects the Female USB port to the Motherboard cracks and causes a loose intermittent connection. IMO its the fault of HTC for not soldering the connections properly and or not designing the connector in a way to remove the stress off the solder pins. In most cases all that needs to be done is to have the USB port re soldered to the Motherboard to fix the issue. Now how long the new solder holds until it cracks again could be another story because of the poor design. You can be sure Sprint and HTC are well aware of this problem and to avoid having to replace and pay for a gazillion connector repairs or worse replacement handsets, they devised "the customer abuse story" its quite obvious to me.

 

[uniquenameEVO]

It is my understanding the USB connector is not at fault really. Its the solder points that crack off the Motherboard and cause this issue. Because of normal use (pushing in and pulling out of the cable) the solder that connects the Female USB port to the Motherboard cracks and causes a loose intermittent connection. IMO its the fault of HTC for not soldering the connections properly and or not designing the connector in a way to remove the stress off the solder pins. In most cases all that needs to be done is to have the USB port re soldered to the Motherboard to fix the issue. Now how long the new solder holds until it cracks again could be another story because of the poor design. You can be sure Sprint and HTC are well aware of this problem and to avoid having to replace and pay for a gazillion connector repairs or worse replacement handsets, they devised "the customer abuse story" its quite obvious to me.

This is pretty much right from what I saw. I am not worried about the re-soldered connections coming off. The factory job was pretty weak.

 

[ryangruhn]

Broken/loose.

Sprint replaced the phone, no questions asked.

 

[RickJ]

It is my understanding the USB connector is not at fault really. Its the solder points that crack off the Motherboard and cause this issue. Because of normal use (pushing in and pulling out of the cable) the solder that connects the Female USB port to the Motherboard cracks and causes a loose intermittent connection. IMO its the fault of HTC for not soldering the connections properly and or not designing the connector in a way to remove the stress off the solder pins. In most cases all that needs to be done is to have the USB port re soldered to the Motherboard to fix the issue. Now how long the new solder holds until it cracks again could be another story because of the poor design. You can be sure Sprint and HTC are well aware of this problem and to avoid having to replace and pay for a gazillion connector repairs or worse replacement handsets, they devised "the customer abuse story" its quite obvious to me.

As I understand it it, the problem lies in 'cold solder connections' which is a relatively common problem of poor assembly in electronics in general. Not really applicable in our case, however those subjected to repeated heating and coolling will suffer fatigue and stress cracks just due to those cycles. In our case physical stress from leverage is the real culprit. In these situations it is generally batch or line related and not all, or even most, units will suffer for this problem. Cold solder is easy to tell and sevice will readily identify if that is the case or abuse is to blame

If the joints are resoldered corrrectly the problem is eliminated except in the case of abuse which would be pretty clear by likely having physical damage to the port or the board.

 

[Brewmeister]

Either a cold solder joint, or more likely insufficient solderpaste due to too thin a stencil or improper squeegee application. In any case if 3 joints fail, but one remains attached, the stress could lift a pad which if much harder to fix, but not impossible. I may open up my EVO to inspect the joints just to be proactive.

 

[tqlla]

First, you are confusing stores because Best Buy does not charge you $7 a month for insurance. I'm sorry I have been a Sprint customer for 9 years and I can afford to have insurance on my cell phone unlike you who cannot afford insurance. Second, I have insurance on my two vehicles and household goods while they are in storage during my deployment. Oh, and guess what? Since I'm currently deployed, I don't pay Sprint anything. So get your facts straight. Sprint takes care of the military by placing our accounts in deployed status when we depart stateside and if my phone broke over here, guess what? My insurance with USAA would cover it! Stop being cheap and get the Sprint insurance plan.

Let me ask you something. How many times have you broken your phone, while in the states... and not on purpose? In the last 10 years. I have broken 0 phones. Savings 7x12x10=$840.

$840 buys me a 46" Sony LED HDTV. People dont understand the value of the dollar, any more. Thats why people get nickle and dimed to death. The insurance and warranty companies make money hand over fist selling these plans.

If my EVO dies, there is an HTC hero on ebay for less than $150. I can manage till june.
If my EVO dies 8 months from now... I can buy the next new phone.

The problem in this thread is a Quality issue. If a Phones charge port breaks because you are unplugging the phone..... then the port is weak, or the cable is too stiff. Either way, it shouldnt be an insurance issue. Even if I had insurance, I wouldnt want to pay $100... because the phone has an obvious factory defect.

 

[Panchoevo]

Let me ask you something. How many times have you broken your phone, while in the states... and not on purpose? In the last 10 years. I have broken 0 phones. Savings 7x12x10=$840. And with those savings, I can afford to buy a 46" LED HDTV.

If my EVO dies, there is an HTC hero on ebay for less than $150. I can manage till june.
If my next phone dies 10 months from now, I can go back to the EVO. problem solved.

The problem in this thread is a Quality issue. If a Phones charge port breaks because you are unplugging the phone..... then the port is weak, or the cable is too stiff. Either way, it shouldnt be an insurance issue. (The OE cable is stiff, compared to MOTO's cable)

Even if I had insurance, I wouldnt want to pay $100... because the phone has an obvious factory defect.

You are correct. I hate lawyering for free, but this is how it goes.

1. Implied Warranty:
The Uniform Commercial Code, that is a compendium of suggested statutes that has been adopted by every state, in various forms, states that there are implied warranties that, though not necessarily explicitly stated in every contract, only can be removed by explicit language within the contract. The implied warranty that would apply to this HTC port issue is known as the "warranty of fitness of use". This warranty states that a product must do what it is intended to do. Thus, a USB port must be able to be connected and unconnected many, many times, successfully. When the USB port does not, then HTC and Sprint are in violation of the implied warranty for fitness of use.

2. Defective product:
A product can be defective in two ways, 1. defect in manufacture; and 2. defect in design. For instance, the bolt holding the blade on a new lawn mower could be a 1/2 inch bolt that sheers off during normal use. That is a defect in design--they should use a 9/16 inch bolt. Another defect would be if the blade is held on with a 9/16 inch bolt, but it was not tightened down to a high enough torque, and the bolt comes loose during normal use. That is a defect in manufacture. In the issue of the HTC USB port, it can be argued that it is both a defect in design and in manufacture, because the port is unsupported by a plastic fitting or collar (design), and it is not correctly soldered to the mobo (manufacture).

3. Class action:
This type of legal action protects the consumer when the damages suffered from a bad act do not merit the cost of individual litigation. Are you going to spend $5,000 in legal fees to recover property damages that total $500--no. In a class action, a number of individuals can form a "class", and bring a suit against a bad actor, and in that manner, reduce the cost of litigation, and increase the amount of the potential recovery. Important to a class action is to identify the class. That is why it is important that people post about this HTC port problem. Maybe if enough people have the same problem, they can get together; form a class, get a lawyer, demonstrate to the lawyer that there is $ to be made; and get a monetary recovery from the bad actor.

That's it. Don't say I never did anything for you.

 

[Oddball]

Let me ask you something. How many times have you broken your phone, while in the states... and not on purpose? In the last 10 years. I have broken 0 phones. Savings 7x12x10=$840.

$840 buys me a 46" Sony LED HDTV. People dont understand the value of the dollar, any more. Thats why people get nickle and dimed to death. The insurance and warranty companies make money hand over fist selling these plans.

If my EVO dies, there is an HTC hero on ebay for less than $150. I can manage till june.
If my EVO dies 8 months from now... I can buy the next new phone.

The problem in this thread is a Quality issue. If a Phones charge port breaks because you are unplugging the phone..... then the port is weak, or the cable is too stiff. Either way, it shouldnt be an insurance issue. Even if I had insurance, I wouldnt want to pay $100... because the phone has an obvious factory defect.

I can add something else too, it appears there is no real strain relief or mechanical anchor point for the charging port aside from the solder joints themselves. If I experience the same issues I'll crack the case and fix the solder joints myself.

Also, Einstein mentions it was a cheap cable. Someone please tell me how the micro USB cables I have makes any difference in how the port on my handset behaves? I believe the cable in one of my cars is from a Palm Pre from more than a year ago. I realize it's somewhat of a rhetorical question as I already know the answer but I had to ask anyway.



I also never purchase insurance for my handsets and i've been using these things for 25 years now. I see no need and the risk is worth it to me. I can't abide the handset insurance scam when they prompt you for a $100 deductible. Well, no thanks.

 

[RickJ]

What the heck is wrong with you guys?

Plenty of people have reported that the problems with the usb went away with an exchange of, or using the proper cable. There are several threads on this issue, not just this one.

As far as physical damage sprint has a tech memo showing how to determine if it was by abuse or mfg defect, ie bad solder joints. That memo was floated either on this or another forum. Those who have this problem have had it replaced under htc waranty, no deductable and plenty have posted to that effect.

Those which had cracked ports, damaged boards or other physical damage of course have to pay the deductable for insurance, a no-brainer. And then there is of course the bottom line, if it hasnt happened to you then no use arguing the point. Im sure there have been plenty of cases where sprint has initially declined repairing/replacing but thats in line with what every other dealer does and its up to the conumer to elevate and pussh the issue.

As far as questioning someones service because they stated they worked in an office at some point, thats just absurd and shortsighted without any understanding as to how the various branches of the military work.

 

[Panchoevo]

What the heck is wrong with you guys?

Plenty of people have reported that the problems with the usb went away with an exchange of, or using the proper cable. There are several threads on this issue, not just this one.

As far as physical damage sprint has a tech memo showing how to determine if it was by abuse or mfg defect, ie bad solder joints. That memo was floated either on this or another forum. Those who have this problem have had it replaced under htc waranty, no deductable and plenty have posted to that effect.

Those which had cracked ports, damaged boards or other physical damage of course have to pay the deductable for insurance, a no-brainer. And then there is of course the bottom line, if it hasnt happened to you then no use arguing the point. Im sure there have been plenty of cases where sprint has initially declined repairing/replacing but thats in line with what every other dealer does and its up to the conumer to elevate and pussh the issue.

As far as questioning someones service because they stated they worked in an office at some point, thats just absurd and shortsighted without any understanding as to how the various branches of the military work.

Before you fall head-over-heals for this punk, you need to read his postings, and physical damage can be the result of a defective product failing with normal use, which should be remedied by the manufacturer, not the end user's insurer. Read the postings.

Regarding questioning one's service, read the punk's postings.

 

[RickJ]

I can add something else too, it appears there is no real strain relief or mechanical anchor point for the charging port aside from the solder joints themselves. If I experience the same issues I'll crack the case and fix the solder joints myself.

No there isnt and with good solder joints it isnt an issue. In general micro usb ports are built to be tough. HTC's charging cord, not being angled, is a poor choice, as it applies leverage in it's straight configuration. Several posters have mentioned this earlier. It is something that Evo owners should take care for knowing its a possible issue.

 

[DaSchmarotzer]

Had to do a big cleaning in here guys, please stay polite and on-topic.

 

[Oddball]

No there isnt and with good solder joints it isnt an issue. In general micro usb ports are built to be tough. HTC's charging cord, not being angled, is a poor choice, as it applies leverage in it's straight configuration. Several posters have mentioned this earlier. It is something that Evo owners should take care for knowing its a possible issue.

The problem is not at all unique to HTC. Every micro USB cable I have every USB and micro USB handset I have ever had was a straight through design. And I don't recall seeing any angled micro USB cables at any stores. My old Palm Treo 600 and 650 had serious issues with the charger cords, not the port themselves.

Solder should never be used as a stressed member in any micro electronic design. If the outer 1/8 inch of the connector is wrapped by the plastic chassis that could be sufficient I suppose.

However, i've always been careful due to the way I use electronics anyway so I suspect I won't have much of a problem.

 

[RickJ]

Before you fall head-over-heals for this punk, you need to read his postings, and physical damage can be the result of a defective product failing with normal use, which should be remedied by the manufacturer, not the end user's insurer. Read the postings.

Regarding questioning one's service, read the punk's postings.

Ha, a very tactful reply that I've come to expect from Panchoevo. All kidding aside, my comments were in general and the real point is that a useful thread will likely end up being closed for no good reason. Plenty of peoples (non broken usb) port issues were cleared up by changing or using the correct plugs, Sprint has changed them out for being loose or damaged and as per my above post Sprint has replaced phones for bad solder connections under warranty.

Users have stated this in this thread as well as others so IMO nothing to get too worked up about. As this thread is pretty old, I have no doubt that Sprint initially categorized all usb problems as abuse, thats not the case now as htc, or sprint has distributed a memo on how to determine abuse v defect.

There is some question as to what falls into the category of real abuse just based on the design of the plug, however other users have been proactive and changed to right angled plugs to help alleviate the issue.

I will add though, your last option under free lawyering gave me a good laugh. While yes technically an option, we all know that the end result would give consumers virtually nothing. Thats assuming it would be settled, which I don't see happening since sprint hasnt been refusing warranty claims across the board.

 

[Slug]

Let me repeat what DaS wrote:

please stay polite and on-topic

If you can't/won't, then don't post.

 

[Jerma]

Wow, I haven't been here in awhile, and I'm surprised that I'm not the only one with this problem. My wife and I both bought EVOs on launch day, and we're both having the same problem. If you barely move the phone while it's plugged in, it'll stop charging, and this is with both the wall charger and the car charger. We both baby our phones and have never dropped them. I plugged my phone in when I went to bed yesterday, and when I woke up, the light wasn't on anymore and my battery was at 23%. Needless to say, I was not happy.