galaxy S3 charging problem

[dislab]

My Sprint Galaxy S3 is 3 year old. Recently it starts having charging problem. Initially some charging cables couldn't connect to the USB port firmly. But now it charges very slowly and constantly switching between charging and not charging. It is probably not charger or cable issue, as I have 3 charges and 6 cables, but none of them is working. I think it is the USB port on the phone that is problematic. I have used toothpick, air duster and contact cleaner to clean the USB, but it doesn't work. Contact cleaner seems to make it much worse than before. I used a few charging monitor apps, and they report 0mA while the phone shows charging. I saw many posts related to this issue but most is about the charger or the cable, which is unlikely in my case. Any suggestions? I still have 6 months before I can upgrade my phone.

 

[Rukbat]

It sounds as if one of the contacts has become unsoldered inside. The port can be resoldered, but I wouldn't recommend that you do it yourself, since there's someone on eBay who will do it for $18, return shipping included. Normally that would just about cover opening the case and closing it, so it's pretty cheap.

 

[dislab]

Thanks for the info! I looked at the ebay page but their terms is a little scary (no refund whatsoever, no responsibility whatsoever...)