{"id":1082,"date":"2016-03-05T19:30:02","date_gmt":"2016-03-06T00:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/freemansgarage.com\/blog\/?p=1082"},"modified":"2019-09-16T21:23:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-17T01:23:30","slug":"nexus-7-2013-gen-2-usb-port-repair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/2016\/03\/05\/nexus-7-2013-gen-2-usb-port-repair\/","title":{"rendered":"Nexus 7 (2013 Gen 2) Charge Port Repair"},"content":{"rendered":"

My 10yr old daughter has had her Nexus 7 for 3 yrs.\u00a0\u00a0 It finally stopped charging a few weeks ago so I got online and ordered a battery and a USB port since I need to take it apart anyways so I might as well do it all.\u00a0 The battery cost $18 and the USB port was $5 of Ebay.
\nI am not going to go over in detail how to disassemble the Nexus 7.\u00a0\u00a0 There are 100’s of you tube videos out there so I suggest you watch a few of them.<\/p>\n

Here is a good one:
\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IG6A_RBX-v0<\/a><\/p>\n

For the USB repair,\u00a0 you only need to take the back cover off.\u00a0 That’s it.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You need soldering equipment and a fine point on the solder iron.\u00a0 Also needed is,\u00a0 Xacto Knife, Solder remove tool, tiny screw driver, an eye magnifier (10x at least), and fine flux core solder.
\nGood soldering skills are a must.\u00a0 The USB port is very tiny and easy to destroy.\u00a0 If you have never soldered before, don’t even try this.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1733\"<\/a>
\nRemove the cover as shown above.
\nOPTIONAL:\u00a0\u00a0 You can change the battery if you want.\u00a0 Its easy and takes about 10 min.\u00a0\u00a0 Remove the 4 screws and disconnect the 2 ribbon cables like shown in the video.
\nIf your not swapping the battery,\u00a0 then read on below.
\n\"IMG_1694\"<\/a>
\nThe USB port is located at the bottom of the Nexus 7.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1734\"<\/a>
\n\"IMG_1751\"<\/a>
\nNow starts the tricky stuff.\u00a0 I solder a lot so this only took me about 30 minutes.\u00a0\u00a0 Take your time even if it takes a few hours.\u00a0\u00a0 If you mess up the USB board, your out $70 for a replacement.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1743\"<\/a>
\nFirst take your Xacto knife and cut the 5 USB port traces.\u00a0 Just run the blade tip over them 5 times or so (lightly scratch them over and over in the same place).\u00a0 use light pressure and cut as close to the USB port as you can.\u00a0\u00a0 You will end up leaving the 5 traces soldered on the board for now.\u00a0 Don’t worry they come right off with the hot solder iron once the USB connector is out of the way.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1742\"<\/a>
\nYou need to cut the traces because its very difficult to de-solder them.\u00a0\u00a0 The USB circuit board is delicate and you can damage the trace leads on the board if you try and pull off the USB connector with an accidental trace still soldered.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1739\"<\/a>
\nGet your de-solder tool and soldering iron ready and de-solder the 4 main posts that hold the USB connector on.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1740\"<\/a>
\n\"IMG_1741\"<\/a>
\n\"IMG_1744\"<\/a>
\nWhen the solder is removed, the USB port can be easily lifted off with a tiny screw driver.\u00a0\u00a0 I was able to clean up the 5 trace pads with my solder iron tip easily.\u00a0 Remember you cut the traces with a knife and now is the time to remove them with the solder iron.\u00a0 They will scrape right off with a hot soldering iron.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1745\"<\/a>
\nShown above is the old USB Port after removal.\u00a0\u00a0 Junk!<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1747\"<\/a>
\nHere is the new port.\u00a0 Pretty tiny.\u00a0\u00a0 There is some prep work you need to do to the new USB port before you install it.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1750\"<\/a>
\nClamp the USB port into a holder and “tin” the 5 leads with solder.\u00a0 (shown above).\u00a0\u00a0 Tinning the 5 leads makes this job much easier for the leads to solder to the board later on.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1748\"<\/a>
\nI use small solder.\u00a0\u00a0 Big solder makes a mess.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1753\"<\/a>
\nShown above is a 10x eye magnifier.\u00a0\u00a0 I have trouble seeing the small traces to solder so I need to use this.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1738\"<\/a>
\nInsert the new USB port.\u00a0\u00a0 Solder the 5 traces first,\u00a0 all you have to do is touch them with a clean hot soldering iron and the “pre tin” you applied earlier will solder to the trace tabs easily. \u00a0 Don’t try and add more solder or you will make a huge mess and end up soldering all the traces together.\u00a0 Then you have a huge problem. \u00a0\u00a0 Use a small tip (0.030″ Weller) is what I use.
\nAfter you solder the 5 traces,\u00a0 solder the 4 main posts with some solder and that’s it!
\nAt this time,\u00a0 plug in the charger and make sure it works.\u00a0 The battery icon should immediately come on for a few seconds when you plug in the charger.\u00a0\u00a0 If the Nexus is super dead,\u00a0 you will have to wait an hour for the battery to charge enough to turn it on.\u00a0\u00a0 If your charge icon does not turn on,\u00a0 apply some heat to the 5 traces again and make sure they are connected.
\n#1 trace and #5 trace (the ones on the\u00a0 ends) are for power.\u00a0 Those two will be the culprit if it still does not charge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I had no issues and it worked the first time.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_1760\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My 10yr old daughter has had her Nexus 7 for 3 yrs.\u00a0\u00a0 It finally stopped charging a few weeks ago so I got online and […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-repair"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1401,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/1401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.freemansgarage.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}