Hardware Broken Switch Battery Connector :/

[Deleted member 629949]

Hi,
My launch Switch's battery degraded to a point where Breath of the Wild barely lasted an hour, so I figured I could try to purchase a new battery and replace it by myself, like I had done for the Joy-Con drift before. But sadly, I messed up... While removing the battery cable from the connector, the plastic chipped off the right side (the 5 pins are intact, but there's nothing to hold the cable in place). Does anyone know if it's possible to solder/paste the battery cable in place? Or is soldering a new connector (or the cables) required? Sending it for repair would cost enough to justify buying a new Switch, since it was old and I don't intend to install CFW.
Thanks.
By the way, the amount of adhesive Nintendo uses for the battery should be criminal

 

[binkinator]

Hi,
My launch Switch's battery degraded to a point where Breath of the Wild barely lasted an hour, so I figured I could try to purchase a new battery and replace it by myself, like I had done for the Joy-Con drift before. But sadly, I messed up... While removing the battery cable from the connector, the plastic chipped off the right side (the 5 pins are intact, but there's nothing to hold the cable in place). Does anyone know if it's possible to solder/paste the battery cable in place? Or is soldering a new connector (or the cables) required? Sending it for repair would cost enough to justify buying a new Switch, since it was old and I don't intend to install CFW.
Thanks.
By the way, the amount of adhesive Nintendo uses for the battery should be criminal

A bad battery connection should be sorted asap. You don’t want the most powerful part of the system to potentially go slip sliding around inside and touch things it wasn’t designed to do. It could easily damage something (on the mild end) or start a fire (on the wild end).

now, all that said, if you’re careful, you could technically strip the wires down and semi-permanently solder the battery in place. It’s going to be meticulous and treacherous work if you’re not set up for micro soldering already and the possibility of a fire starting mishap is ever present with a live battery. I just really think that molten metal, a hot iron and live electricity is a recipe for being that guy that was soldering batteries and burnt his house down. Honestly, I’m shaking a little typing this out. It’s simply not recommended and you really should get it fixed properly.

You could easily sell an otherwise unmolested V1 for darn near full price to someone who could easily fix it and desired to CFW it in order to help defray the cost of a newer model.

The adhesive is daunting for sure. Next time leak some isopropyl alcohol underneath to help loosen the adhesive as you work. no need to soak the thing, just enough to make it let go. Bending and twisting a battery pack can end badly. Be careful out there! We want to keep you around for a while.

 

[mrdude]

Hot glue if you can't solder, of just buy a replacement connector and use a hot air soldering station to refit the replacement,

 

[jkyoho]

Not sure the black piece or the white piece you saying is broken, but both of them can be replaced.

 

[Deleted member 629949]

Yeah, I figured it's probably not worth risking. I never micro-soldered and don't have any tools (I do have access to hot glue), so altough learning to solder could be a fun and mostly risk-free experience (since it's essentially a brick now), it's probably smarter to take it to a repair shop or get a new one. Thanks for the help.
And I did use ISA for the battery, but it was still difficult to take out :/
The part that broke is the one in the second picture. The pins are still intact, it's just the plastic.

 

[Hayato213]

Yeah, I figured it's probably not worth risking. I never micro-soldered and don't have any tools (I do have access to hot glue), so altough learning to solder could be a fun and mostly risk-free experience (since it's essentially a brick now), it's probably smarter to take it to a repair shop or get a new one. Thanks for the help.
And I did use ISA for the battery, but it was still difficult to take out :/
The part that broke is the one in the second picture. The pins are still intact, it's just the plastic.

Next time don't just yank the power cable, use a spudger to lift the wire of the connector to eject the power connector from the socket.

 

[binkinator]

Yeah, I figured it's probably not worth risking. I never micro-soldered and don't have any tools (I do have access to hot glue), so altough learning to solder could be a fun and mostly risk-free experience (since it's essentially a brick now), it's probably smarter to take it to a repair shop or get a new one. Thanks for the help.
And I did use ISA for the battery, but it was still difficult to take out :/
The part that broke is the one in the second picture. The pins are still intact, it's just the plastic.

The hot glue solution will in fact work as a last resort. As long as you can line everything up it will be fine.

(that said, Jesus will make you sit at the little table, with the guys who put duct tape on everything, during Thanksgiving dinner in heaven.)

 

[Deleted member 629949]

@Hayato213 I used tweezers, but apparently I wasn't careful enough. I still don't know if it happened while disconnecting the cable or later, since at first it just cracked, and only chipped completely while trying to connect the new battery.

@binkinator Ok, I'll think about it, lol

 

[binkinator]

@Hayato213 I used tweezers, but apparently I wasn't careful enough. I still don't know if it happened while disconnecting the cable or later, since at first it just cracked, and only chipped completely while trying to connect the new battery.

@binkinator Ok, I'll think about it, lol

@mrdude will already be sitting there so at least you’ll know somebody there and have someone interesting to talk to.

 

[l7777]

The hot glue solution will in fact work as a last resort. As long as you can line everything up it will be fine.

(that said, Jesus will make you sit at the little table, with the guys who put duct tape on everything, during Thanksgiving dinner in heaven.)

This. If the pins are all in tact, you just need to keep them together. They should have some level of retention even without the side latches on the black part. I'd suspect even some kapton tape and perhaps a thermal pad on top would be enough to wedge it against the backplate and keep it stable. You won't get a house destroying fire out of the Switch battery but you could get some nice fireworks and burned carpet/countertop if dead shorted. I'm not sure how you would do that so long as the pins on the black connector are still in good shape and you don't mangle the white connector.

 

[mrdude]

If using hot glue - use a cocktail stick to apply it, you only need a little bit so you want to be able to control it.

 

[Deleted member 629949]

Hi, not much has happened since I broke it, and I still haven't taken it to a repair shop. In case I'd decide to try to replace it myself with a rework station (unlikely, but at the same time the repair costs 1/2 of a Switch Lite and this could be a fun thing to learn. I even have some board I could practice on), how easily could it be done? Because assuming that it's best to aim at it from the under side, I'm concerned that I might remove some other components off the board (the quoted image is from another post of a similar problem, ignore the arrow)

View attachment 297630

Also, is reapplying solder to the pads recommended/necessary? And would a cheaper station like the Chinese 858D clones be good enough for this type of repair?

 

[Lamcza]

Hi, not much has happened since I broke it, and I still haven't taken it to a repair shop. In case I'd decide to try to replace it myself with a rework station (unlikely, but at the same time the repair costs 1/2 of a Switch Lite and this could be a fun thing to learn. I even have some board I could practice on), how easily could it be done? Because assuming that it's best to aim at it from the under side, I'm concerned that I might remove some other components off the board (the quoted image is from another post of a similar problem, ignore the arrow)

Also, is reapplying solder to the pads recommended/necessary? And would a cheaper station like the Chinese 858D clones be good enough for this type of repair?

so soldering station is more expensive than reapair? I vote for hot glue then xD.

 

[Deleted member 629949]

It only costs more than the cheaper ones, and it's done by a professional.

 

[Deleted member 629949]

Got it fixed, the thread can now be closed. Thanks for the help.

 

[l7777]

Got it fixed, the thread can now be closed. Thanks for the help.

In the interest of helping out anyone else who may have the same problem, what was your solution?