Poll: Have you had charging or USB problems with your N900
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Have you had charging or USB problems with your N900

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Banned | Posts: 3,412 | Thanked: 1,043 times | Joined on Feb 2010
#2221
Originally Posted by Salatheel View Post
Today, after 1 year and 6 month usage, my phone's USB port broke. Luckily I'm in Thailand. New port and work did cost only 300THB (7€) and took 'bout 30 minutes.
Thats the spirit of true engineering haha well done, did it break off completely or just wobbled about?.
 
Posts: 2 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Jun 2011
#2222
is it true nokia has problems with alternate devices?

i sent mine 3 weeks ago to nokia and they cant tell me whether i get a new one.

the service guy told me, that it's possible i get an e7.. are there any sufferers with this problem too?
 
Posts: 115 | Thanked: 342 times | Joined on Dec 2010
#2223
After 6 months, my N900 usb port just died. I love this phone, but this issue is really really annoying. I will send it to the amazon repair service tomorrow...

the service guy told me, that it's possible i get an e7.. are there any sufferers with this problem too?
I hope this is not true. As some shops still have them in stock, it should be possible for repair services to get a new N900.

New port and work did cost only 300THB (7€) and took 'bout 30 minutes.
You are lucky :-).

It's fine that some folks get a new device. But they very likely have the same problem, so what?

Anyway. We'll see.
 
Posts: 2 | Thanked: 1 time | Joined on Jun 2011
#2224
Originally Posted by NIN101 View Post
I hope this is not true. As some shops still have them in stock, it should be possible for repair services to get a new N900.

Okay, the service called me recently. I'll get an E7.. Have to sell it and buy 2 N900 instead.. That's a solution too
 

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#2225
Originally Posted by Texrat View Post
I appreciate your comments here very much, but that's just a bit disingenuous. The usb port is expected to be used, and breakage in most cases is due to normal use.

http://tabulacrypticum.wordpress.com...-do-something/ (see poll stats)
I won't defend Nokia's policy here or will try to just blame it on the user. I really don't agree with how randomly the decision pro/contra warranty is made at all. Maybe my usb port would have been broken too already if I weren't aware of the problem or would treat this port like the good old DC jacks from the 90ies. Regarding the poll it's hard to believe a lot of the luckier N900 user went there to read an article about Usb Port problems. From what I've seen at work it's really not the most common problem(although one of the worst possible I admit)

Originally Posted by NIN101 View Post
I hope this is not true. As some shops still have them in stock, it should be possible for repair services to get a new N900.
Unfortunately it is true. And there are strict rules too so the Service Center can't just go to eg Amazon and use these for the so called swap process.

It works like this: Nokia has partnerships with numerous Service Centers in many countries. For my region they picked a certain Partner(B) and authorizied them to send swap units to the rest if they need any. These distributors get the units from Nokia.

So here we have a normal Service Center(A), not being able or authorized to repair a phone(cheap phones, complicated repairs,..). They just send a swap device to the customer and get a service fee from Nokia. Now the old faulty phone will be sent to a special and well equipped Service Center(C) which is able to perform all kinds of repairs and enjoys Nokia's full trust and support. They refurbish the old phone if possible. The phone will then be sent back to the first Service Center(A) so they can use it just like a brand new swap unit

Sometimes Service Center(C) sends many phones to the Distributor(B). So it's hard to tell wether a swap device is really new or "just" refurbished.

Now what happend with the N900 in general: the Distributor(B) has no new ones left and can't order them from Nokia anymore because Nokia decided to not produce the N900 anymore(I've never seen this with such a "young" device, Nokia clearly doesn't care about the N900 anymore). So all that's left is what the Service Center(A) got on stock or what the Special Service Center(C) is refurbishing atm.

Nokia decided to use N8(2nd choice) or E7(1st choice) for N900 swaps. BUT depending on your country and laws you could just refuse the N8/E7 and get your money back instead. Usually Nokia(and their Service Centers) will try everything possible to avoid this though.

Hopefully my post isn't too hard to read, I'm clearly not used to write so much in English anymore.
 
Posts: 411 | Thanked: 195 times | Joined on May 2010 @ Cambridge, UK
#2226
Originally Posted by naturian View Post
Okay, the service called me recently. I'll get an E7.. Have to sell it and buy 2 N900 instead.. That's a solution too
Just went to collect my N900 after the 2nd time it went back to Carphone warehouse for repair, and it seems like I got a New Old Stock N900 to replace my old broken one, so there are new N900s still available..

That said, going for the E7 and selling it on ebay might work out better, but beware that if something goes wrong with an N900 you bought off ebay you might find you have no warranty...

My dilemma now is that I have a brand new N900 and I'm scraed to use it...
 
Posts: 27 | Thanked: 10 times | Joined on Mar 2010
#2227
Originally Posted by abill_uk View Post
Thats the spirit of true engineering haha well done, did it break off completely or just wobbled about?.
Some soldering problems inside. In right position phone charged but if you moved phone charging did stop.
 
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Posts: 549 | Thanked: 299 times | Joined on Jun 2010 @ Australian in the Philippines
#2228
I thought I'd never have to post in this thread (aside from narky replies saying "you probably yanked on the cord too hard") though like the person from Thailand above, after 1 year and 6 months of very careful use, no more charging, no more USB : (

It looks like dry solder joints on one side caused a very tiny amount of movement, enough obviously to compromise the USB traces.

Sigh. Off to find someone with a heat gun...


Update: For anyone interested (in the Philippines) I took a trip to greenhills today, walked up to the first repair place I saw, had it all fixed in about 15 minutes. The guy whipped out an impressive looking magnifying apparatus and, I kid you not, some nail cutters, bits of wire, a sewing needle, and other paraphernalia, starts prodding around and said after several minutes - ahhh, here's the problem - you've got some dry solder joints. (I said "Yes, I know, I told you 36 times already sir")

It cost me 500 peso ($11 USD) I walked out of there like I'd just bought a brand new phone! One happy resident alien.

Last edited by dchky; 2011-06-14 at 13:19.
 
Posts: 21 | Thanked: 13 times | Joined on Feb 2010 @ Athens Greece
#2229
The latest news from the third-party service that I trusted to repair my N900 micro usb port say that they have no problem fixing the port but they discovered that the GAIA (N4200) ic is not functioning. To be honest I do not know how this could have happened, since charging stopped only when micro USB port became loose and eventually broke off.

Has anyone dealt with this ic malfunction before? Can it be fixed or bypassed? I was not able to locate spare N4200 ics out there anyway.
 
Posts: 1,258 | Thanked: 672 times | Joined on Mar 2009
#2230
i think it's TI TWL5030
 
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bad design, broken, charging, failure, hardware, loose, microusb, microusb port, n900, nokia, part, port, repair, return, surface mount, usb, usb port, warranty

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