Librem 5 not charging

It seems that maybe you broked some parts into the L5.usb-c port, this happens if unplug, plug the cable wrong.

How do you plug in a USB type C cable wrong?

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You must be joking.

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Using too much force? Too much angle? It’s not like they are indestructible.

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On many times forcing by angles in plug ang unplug, it loose or broke the port.

You mean the PCB (instead the port)? And if this can indeed happen with the Librem 5 USB Type C port where:

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The L5 is a professional phone. The aluminum extra protect the port, I mean mostly to loose or broke between the port and p.c.b when too much forcing.

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@carlosgonz @Quarnero @dcz
I hardly used the phone.
It was pretty much dormant for the whole of January
I only received it in December
It never happened to me with any other phone I had before.
I have phones from 12 years ago that are in great condition.

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If you already tested your Librem 5 like this (with removed battery):

you’ll understand why you need to contact support@puri.sm, as recommended. But please leave broken USB-C port “stories” aside even if my proposal here sounds stupid.

I have L5 evergreens and everything good on charging together system updates. But we has to know that L5 still is in under heavy development so we need to use original cable and charger for better performance. I think you need to do a physical inspection and see if you notice anything loose or bad.

Uhm, you’re taking my quote out of context. What I meant in that message is that you can configure the battery charger chip to cut the battery from the power path, so it stays unused while the phone is powered solely from USB; to do so you of course need to have your phone already running and operable.

I don’t think there’s anything to add in this topic that haven’t already been said. If the phone doesn’t react to USB input with battery taken out in any way after trying several chargers and cables (including USB-A to C cable), then it’s reasonable to assume that the unit is broken.

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This is more than fair enough recommendation (to at least eliminate original charger/cable failure).

One experience I’ve had, with batteries in general, is that if a battery is drained too low, and/or left drained for too long, they sometimes are just dead and cannot be re-charged.

From what you describe, it sounds to me that, the battery was left depleted completely for an extended period of time and in turn this may be the root problem.

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When a battery is deeply uncharged it often can be charged again by charging it longer. Maybe a charge over night might be worth a try.

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My personal experience is that it is not “often” charging for a long time will revive a battery in this state but closer to “rarely”.

I concede that my experience may not be as vast as others, and different battery compositions will have differing success rates, but I stand by my post that this is something worth considering; especially for future readers looking for troubleshooting steps.

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I’ve had pocket lint build up in a USB-C port, couldn’t plug it in all the way and the phone wouldn’t charge. The solution was to extract the lint using a plastic toothpick.

Similar thing happened with my Android and its headphone jack. I bought some headphones and was only hearing one channel. I thought the headphones were defective, but eventually figured it out. :crazy_face:

I agree, this is important indeed, but don’t think that this taking easy approach helps here (turning on Librem 5). Anyway, in his post #6 within this thread @Skalman already pointed out (somehow) that empty battery leads to the second problem: “starting the phone after the battery is dead enough for the RTC to reset”, see his post here: Why is there no Wifi?.

This RTC reset issue is certainly possible as there even exist recent laptops (that include PCI IDs: 15bf, 15d9, 15d2 and 15eba) where they were able to boot into any OS, even show that the battery health status is almost 100% but its charging status was showing 0% even after several days of charging. Therefore looks like “it’s best not to let your battery go under 20%” while if the RTC lasting time completely runs out, the system will lose this information and the real-time clock/calendar won’t be able to recover, something that @sherab_kelsang didn’t take into account (as there exists no official warning, so let me finally relax). Actually, I have no clue what is going on, but I don’t think that we have any issue with the battery manufacturer (or USB-C port). IMHO, things here are complex and might even “involve SPI flash chip to store the firmware”.

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That’s exactly why the recommendation is to plug USB in without a battery connected, because this way you can quickly determine whether it’s the battery or the device.

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BTW - I wouldn’t say it sound stupid (the idea that the port is broken) as of course these things can happen.
But I suppose for it to break means excessive or incorrect usage.
I am a very conventional normal user - taking care of my devices.

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