i9250 Galaxy Nexus not charging

[ponyo]

After 9 months my Galaxy Nexus suddenly stopped charging last night. It seems the problem is pretty common with this phone. The problem is likely defective microUSB charging port on the phone. I ordered replacement part on EBay for $7 and will perform the swap surgery once it arrives. Meantime I'm using my external spare battery charger to charge the battery and swapping the regular and extended battery back and forth. Bit of a pain but at least I can use the phone with fully charged battery. If I had a phone like the iPhone, One X, or RAZR with sealed battery, I would've been screwed.

 

[basslover1]

Not trying to sound like an ass, but you did at least try swapping the USB cables and the AC adapter right?

Mine stopped charging a while back as well, but it turned out to be the AC adapter, not the phone.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

Yup, I had an iPhone (4) and a Motorola Triumph stop charging in the past and in both cases it ended up being the AC adapter taking a dump.

 

[ponyo]

Not trying to sound like an ass, but you did at least try swapping the USB cables and the AC adapter right?

Mine stopped charging a while back as well, but it turned out to be the AC adapter, not the phone.

I tried 3 different HP Touchpad USB cables, Nexus 7 cable, and Samsung Vibrant cable with AC adapter. None worked with the phone. My external spare battery charging dock works fine with the same cables and adapter.

What's strange is that the phone is charging when plugged into the computer USB port. Yet, Windows displays USB connection error and device unknown message when connected. I really had hard time getting the phone to boot into FastBoot but once it did, I was able to identify and send fastboot commands to the phone. And I did get the computer to see the USB storage on the phone once but haven't since. The phone is currently charging plugged into the computer. But the computer doesn't recognize the phone.

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=23789

Judging by this, I'm not the only one with the problem.

 

[ponyo]

The phone is back to charging again on the AC adapter. Windows again sees the device fine now. After one day of not working, it's suddenly working again.

 

[vshah]

are you running a custom kernel?

 

[ponyo]

No, stock everything. The only thing I've done is root and unlocked the bootloader.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

That's weird. Phones have hiccups so this is one i guess. You could always get it replaced.

 

[Plester]

some funk on some of the contacts in the charging port got stuck for a day then fell out.

 

[ponyo]

The situation is not completely resolved. Today the phone thinks it's charging even though I'm carrying it with me. The battery charging indicator is on even though it's unplugged. I had it disappear after I shut it down and pulled the battery but it's back again.

 

[basslover1]

I would hate for you to do this and not have it resolve the problem, but have you thought about doing a full reset to see if that fixes it?

 

[Oyeve]

My Sgs3, while not as flaky as your phone, has decided to stop showing the charge light or the charge completion light. Somethime a reboot fixes it but most of the time it doesnt.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Something like this happened on my gf's Incredible 2. We ended up swapping USB ports though at a phone repair shop. It's too much time to have to ebay parts and wait. Plus not everyone has standalone battery chargers, especially given that people swap phones all the time now.

My complaint is that the microUSB port is just too fragile. I think we had this discussion before in the iPhone new smaller 19 pin connector discussion or whatever, but too often I find my microUSB port loose or whatever. It's also really easily damaged.

 

[vshah]

they need to design a microusb port with a latching mechanism

 

[Zivic]

The situation is not completely resolved. Today the phone thinks it's charging even though I'm carrying it with me. The battery charging indicator is on even though it's unplugged. I had it disappear after I shut it down and pulled the battery but it's back again.

I have had this issue on multiple GN phones. It ended up being crap in the usb port. take a thin piece of cardboard and cut it to fit into the opening and push it in and go back and forth to clean it out. it may take a few tries, but it should do the trick

 

[wirednuts]

they need to design a microusb port with a latching mechanism

um, it does. theres two pins

the only phone i had that broke the internal charger was a palm treo pro. not because the phone was crappy, but i used it for streaming audio so i would let the phone charge up and fully drain about 5 times a day, no matter how hot it got i just kept pushing it. one day, it pushed back. no more charging with the phone.

thats when i started buying external batteries for the times when i need to use the crap out of my phone, and dont have a power outlet nearby.

i would guess too, though, in op's case probably some piece of dirt or crud got onto the contacts. it doesnt take much, microusb contacts are tiny.

 

[vshah]

i mean external latching like the old iphone dock connectors which you had to squeeze on the side to remove.

although i bet that would lead to lots of broken phones as cables yanked handsets to the ground etc.

wireless charging ftw.