Micro USB connector - long reach or no plastic boot - XPOST

[David]

Quite a while ago I dropped by tablet with a USB cable connected. As far as I can tell it landed on the USB connector and pushed the USB socket a bit further into the tablet and now a normal USB cable will not connect.

I don't want to take the back off because the chance of doing permanent damage outweighs the gain from restoring the USB connector.

The tablet is the original model of the Sony Xperia Z 10" tablet. I bought the charging cradle with it, which explains why I can still use it without the micro USB socket working.

I was wondering if there was such a thing as a long reach connector, or a connector without the plastic hood which usually keeps the connector from being pushed too far into the socket.

My search so far has not found anything but quite likely I am using the wrong search terms.

Any pointers to a suitable product most welcome.

Cheers

Dave R

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say it would depend on whether the connector has broken off the PCB. Quite likely, I'd say.

Most laptops ain't that difficult to strip down - you'll often find a U-Tube on doing it for common models. At least then you could assess the damage.

[Roger Hayter]

I suggest cautious surgery to the plastic hood with a Stanley knife. I've successfuly done that with an eSATA plug which wouldn't engage properly. Suggest 1mm at a time and also parallel cuts to the axis to avoid cutting too far in radially.

[Tim+]

Agreed. It would be an unusual one that *wasn?t* PCB mounted.

I would probably still try sacrificing a micro-USB cable/plug by trimming it down.

Tablets rather more difficult I imagine. More glue, fewer screws. That said, quite a few high street places advertise screen and other repairs for tablets so it can?t be *that* difficult.

Tim

[T i m]

I guess that depends on the tablet and your skills? I replaced the uUSB socket for a friend the other day on a 10" Samsung tablet and I'd have to say it was pretty easy (and cheap).

On my old Archos tablet the socket was broken (the plastic insulator bit) but it still worked if you were careful so I just glued (a couple of drops of EvoStick either side) in a magnetic connector but then I don't have it in a cradle.

Cheers, T i m

[Richard]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Yup - sounds good but a PITA when dropped. At work we had talkback receivers with the headphone connector mounted on the PCB. And of course such things get dropped. Regularly. Eventually modified them to one with flying leads to the PCB. At least those could be repaired more easily. ;-)

[John Rumm]

Sometimes paring away some of the plastic on the surround of the plug can help achieve deeper penetration....

[Theo]

They do exist - for example:

'extra long tip' seems to be the search term.

Theo

[Brian Gaff]

Assuming of course that pushing the connector in has not actually completely mangled its electronic connection, a friend did this on an old sat nav and even with a crafted cable the socket was intermittent. Brian

[Brian Gaff]

And Amazon tablets are ridiculously cheap these days, depending on what you want it for of course. Brian

[Chronos]

They are, unfortunately, uniformly awful as they are a loss-leader to sell you digital content. Amazon's variant of Android, "FireOS," is so locked down and bodged it's almost unrecognisable. Also, if the item description says "with offers" which is Amazon speak for adverts, run away.

Using the cradle to charge the Sony and using adb over the network to sideload and transfer data would be infinitely preferable to replacing it with one of those landfill tablets. No offence of course, Brian. This is aimed squarely at Amazon, not you.

[John Rumm]

Looks like in this case the connector is on a daughter board assembly, which makes replacement much easier. (see the photos on the iFixit page)

[Chris Green]

That doesn't make sense! If they really are "a loss-leader" then it means that they are worth more than you have to pay for them and are, thus, far from "uniformly awful".

If you can avoid the Amazon content (which isn't particularly difficult) then I believe the Amazon Fire tablets really *are* quite good value. It's certainly what most reviews seem to say and our personal experience (my wife has one) too.

[Tim+]

I saw that. Nice touch.

Tim

[Chronos]

They are worth more than you pay for them in terms of hardware, which is why Brian said they're ridiculously cheap. Whether they're worth your time and effort to circumvent the restrictions in the OS, though, is another matter.

[David]

One feature of the tablet is that it is water resistant (which is always a bonus). Nothing is said about what adhesive (if any) to use when reassembling.

I may gently try a long reach connector first.

Battling with t'Internet to locate a replacement part which looks identical to the iFixit one.

Cheers

Dave R

[dennis]

I would say there is no point. The chances are the surface mounted socket has be pushed off the PCB.

That is unless its on a flexible PCB like some phones are.

If its been pushed off the PCB then plugging stuff into it could move something and cause a short.

Do you need it as you have a charging dock?

[John Rumm]

How about:

[dennis]

Is it one of these?