Charging port fell out, are there external battery chargers?

[alenka]

Hi,
I have been witnessing some issues with charging my battery lately, mainly because when I plugged in my charging cord, the phone wouldn’t recognize that it was plugged in. Yesterday, when I tried the usual “plug in plug out until the phone reacts”, the whole mini USB port just came out of the phone. I tried fixing it but I don’t have the right tools.

My questions : Is this fixable? If yes, how ? If no, is there an external charger that I could use ? The whole phone still works, I just can’t charge my battery in it anymore.
Any help appreciated !

[paulakreuzer]

Please continue here for external chargers:

External Battery charger for the FP batteries

I usually have more than one battery for my phone because I need a back-up when travelling in case my battery dies. One really nice thing to have is a separate charger for the extra battery, which then eliminates the need to have your phone plugged in at any time. so… …is there a battery charger that fits the Fairphone battery? Has anybody tested this? If the battery is incompatible with the FP battery, wouldn’t it be a good thing to develop one? I’m sure i’m not the only one who uses more tha…

and here for the USB port issue:

Is FP1(U)'s soldered USB connector a predetermined breaking point?

[Edit by @Stefan: This post was split from another topic and given a title by me.] Just to openly discuss this topic further: If lead free solder is used, it’s not a good a idea to use surface mount SMD connectors to begin with. The solder is not as “soft” as the lead based one. The stress on the connectors is often too much and the pads just break out – the usb connector attached to the port works as a lever against the usb connector on the board. Also lead free solders need higher temper…

[alenka]

Thank you for the quick answer, I’ll definitely get an external charger.

I tried fixing it again in the meantime by just folding a tiny piece of paper and jamming it between the phone frame and the port to apply pressure on the connectors to the motherboard. Now the LED blinks green slowly when the phone is plugged in or it has a steady red light. And the area around the port on the phone is heating up, which means that there is definitely energy coming through at some point.

The phone still doesn’t react or turn on though and my computer doesn’t recognize the phone

[Stefan]

My advice is to get your phone to a local repair store and they might be able to solve your issue within the hour (I know of such a store in Vienna and I’m sure there are more such stores, also in your region). Many phones suffer the USB connector breakdown, so repair stores have to deal with these problems quite often.