Can This Mobile Phone Be Saved?

[Michael W]

I have an old Sony Ericsson T100 mobile phone which is now having a lot of problems getting recharged. Normally during the charging process the charger has a solid red light until the battery is fully recharged and then the light changes to solid green. Here instead even with a discharged battery the light is green unless you hold the charger plug into the phone just so, and then the light changes to red. If you take your hand away the light goes back to green, halting the recharge. After trying a new battery and charger (both surprisingly available for such an old phone and fairly reasonably priced at Big C) with little improvement, it would seem the problem is with worn electronic contacts at the end of the phone where the charger is plugged in:

The bottom end of the phone.

Closeup of the right two charger contacts.

The phone otherwise is in good shape and I'd hate to just toss it. So my question is, what are your thoughts on the possibility, cost, and overall sense of making a trip say to MBK and paying to have the contacts replaced with a new set (and/or possibly just reconditioned)? Is this a typical repair or the point more often when a new phone should be considered?

[lopburi3]

I would take a piece of dry Scotchbrite and try cleaning the contacts with that first. Often that is all that is required to fix a bad electrical connection.

If you don't have that a pencil eraser cut to fit and rub hard for a bit.

[Tywais]

I would take a piece of dry Scotchbrite and try cleaning the contacts with that first. Often that is all that is required to fix a bad electrical connection.

If you don't have that a pencil eraser cut to fit and rub hard for a bit.

I wouldn't recommend the Scotchbrite since the contacts are gold coated by only a few microns and will remove it exposing the copper which will corode. The pensil eraser is ok but not too hard.

[Michael W]

The pensil eraser is ok but not too hard.

I've already tried the eraser a few times and that hasn't really made a difference.

[lopburi3]

Agree with Tywais if they are gold. My view from photos was copper but guess they could be much abused gold. The one on the right looks as if it may be set too deep (from wear) to obtain a good connection and would try making the extra charger connector smaller to fit deeper if that is possible.

But perhaps your best bet would be that trip to MBK as they can probably make it work.