USB C Port Not Charging, Recommendation for Replacement?

[bpowdhar]

Hi All,

I have a Nokia 7.1 that stopped charging. I cleaned out the charge port and tried different cables and adapters but nothing worked. I've since come to find out that it's a common enough problem that lots of people post about it on Nokia's support forum with no other option other than taking it to a service center. I'm in the USA and there's not a single service center in my state so I decided to try and replace the daughter board myself. I've done this kind of thing before on other phones, my Nexus 4 was a frankenstein's monster by the time I was done with it.

My problem is I can't find a reliable source for a quality part. There's tons of replacements on amazon, ebay, aliexpress and other random sites but all the ones I've read had issues for connectivity of cell service or wifi. Does anyone know where I can source a new daughter board for this phone?

Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!

 

[manigoldo83]

I went through the same issue.
Bought another type c charging port on Amazon, it still works.

 

[bpowdhar]

Awesome! Thanks for the reply. Did you go with one of the ~$10 ones or one of the ~$20 ones?

 

[lejaune]

My 7.1 developed the same problem. What is the root cause? Is it mechanical problem of the connector pins worn out/oxidized? It does seem to be a mechanical problem since I can still wiggle the cable to make it charge for a while. What puzzles me is that the USB-C has inherent redundancy with 4 power and 4 ground pins that it should not easily fail. I have a phone with the old micro-USB and the charging still works flawlessly.

 

[bpowdhar]

My 7.1 developed the same problem. What is the root cause? Is it mechanical problem of the connector pins worn out/oxidized? It does seem to be a mechanical problem since I can still wiggle the cable to make it charge for a while. What puzzles me is that the USB-C has inherent redundancy with 4 power and 4 ground pins that it should not easily fail. I have a phone with the old micro-USB and the charging still works flawlessly.

I'm not sure. It does seem to be a mechanical problem, but I've seen some repair videos where they open it up and just run a soldering iron over the connector pins on the board and it starts working again. I've ordered a daughter board and a replacement back glass panel in case I break it trying to get it off. I'll update after I get the parts and open it up to see if it works.

The board I ordered was this one from Amazon Smile:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B08166DLDC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It seems like the ~$10 boards are missing some chips that the ~$20 ones have, at least according to the pictures that were uploaded with the listing.

 

[lejaune]

@bpowdhar, Thanks for the quick reply. I did order a connector board on Ebay, and it looks to be of the ~$10 variety. I'll see how it works when it gets here. I will also try the "melting the solder" trick without removing the connector first. If that works, I'll leave the old board in place just to minimize the risk.

 

[lejaune]

So I received the USB-C charging board and replaced the bad one. Now, it seems to be charging normally. It took some work to open the back cover by heating to soften the glue/tape around the edge. I then used an a xacto knife to pry the corner open followed by dragging an old credit card to slowly separate the cover. Once it's open, everything went smoothly. Just watch one of several Youtube video clips to know what to expect. You do need a small Philips screwdriver and a #5 Torx driver. You need to lift a ribbon cable and a micro coax cable from the board. Just don't forget to put them back on to the new board. I didn't bother to fix the old board by re-solder the connector pins because they are way too small for my solder iron.

I rely on the existing glue/tape to glue the cover back, but I'm sure it's not as water/dust proof as before, so I may redo that part to clean the old tape out and use the new tape or glue when I have more time.

I do noticed a couple of parts missing on my $9 board. I don't know if they have anything to do with regulating the high voltage fast charging. I usually charge the phone with a 5V adapter, and I will stick to 5V, at least for now.

 

[bpowdhar]

Thanks for the update! I'm still waiting for my board to arrive from Amazon. It was delayed with the new shipping date anywhere from Nov 5 - Nov 10 and it still hasn't arrived. It sucks because tracking info shows that it arrived at my area's sorting facility on Oct 29 and left it on Nov 4. So it should have only taken a day or two to get to my local post office and to my house. I'll update when it finally gets here.