While you are listening to music on your Bluetooth speaker, the battery suddenly runs out of power. You plug in the USB cable but it does not charge. The speaker is dead. When you hold down the power button it turns ON for a second then turns OFF again before you can read the battery level.
What’s wrong?
As far as we know this problem is most likely due to software issues. Bluetooth speakers are powered by lithium-ion batteries which have an integrated circuit built-in to control recharging and protect against overcharge, over-current, over-voltage, under-voltage, short circuits etc. If there’s something wrong with this circuit, e.g., if it fails or gets damaged due to a malfunctioned update, your speaker will go dead.
However, in most cases, the problem is not the battery but with your USB cable or micro USB charging socket. This is an easy fix. If you know how to solder and have some basic knowledge about recharging a cell phone, then it’s a no-brainer.
Solder cracks on micro USB charging port of a Bluetooth speaker
For this tutorial you would need these materials:
- 1x soldering iron
- 1x solder wire
- 1x small plier
- 1x set of long nose tweezers (optional)
- 3x micro USB cable
Step 1: Check for broken solder joints on the USB charging socket. If there are any, re-solder them with a soldering iron. In this case you will have to remove the PCB from the enclosure for better access to both sides. You might also need a pair of long nose tweezers to help holding things in place while you work on it. Carefully desolder each joint and make sure not to overheat anything then clean up the holes using a cotton bud dipped in alcohol or switch cleaner fluid then dry it out using a can of compressed air.
To protect the board from static electricity, touch a metal part on the speaker enclosure and your own bare skin multiple times before working with the PCB. Otherwise it will fry off. If you happen to have a static wrist band then wear that too.
Step 2: Check for broken solder joints on micro USB charging port. There might be nothing wrong with it but just in case re-solder all connections with a soldering iron and solder wire. But chances are it has nothing to do with loose or cracked solder joints so you can skip this step without losing sleep over it 🙂 A quick test proves I was right that there was no need to fix anything here.
USB charging socket of a Bluetooth speaker is not loose
Step 3: Test for broken micro USB cable then replace it if found faulty. You can do this test by simply connecting the suspect cable to your computer and see if you get charging indication. Most likely, you will need a new one unless you’re willing to live dangerously and try repairing it using solder wire alone. To fix the bad micro USB connector, cut off both ends of it and remove its rubber sleeve. Then strip about 5-6 mm of insulation from each stripped end and twist the four tiny copper cores together securely with a small plier or tweezers (see image below). Bend them into shape so that they fit snuggly into the holes on the PCB and solder each of them.
Replacing a micro USB cable
Step 4: Put everything back together again, connect your speaker to an AC power source and see if it charges or not. If not, try a different wall outlet as well as a different USB / AC adaptor. Also, make sure you don’t have any loose wires that might short circuit the battery or any other components inside your speaker then start looking for a new one if no luck. And don’t forget to leave feedback about problems you’re having as every little thing helps as far as troubleshooting goes!
