Hardware Charging/Docking connector broken

[Sephiroth79]

Hello,

my son has just broke the charging/docking connector on our switch. As far as I know the connector is welded on the motherboard so there's no way to fix it without sending the console to the big N for a repair service.

Any hope to get it fixed without trowing away something like 100€?

Thanks.

 

[Clydefrosch]

outside of sending it in, if you are or know a master at soldering, its supposedly not impossible to replace it. at least going by ifixits teardown of the switch.
potentially, if you find a throwaway broken switch you might be able to harvest the entire motherboard.

but sending it in is probably the cheapest and easiest way to go about this entire thing

 

[The Real Jdbye]

outside of sending it in, if you are or know a master at soldering, its supposedly not impossible to replace it. at least going by ifixits teardown of the switch.
potentially, if you find a throwaway broken switch you might be able to harvest the entire motherboard.

but sending it in is probably the cheapest and easiest way to go about this entire thing

Doubtful that it's going to be the cheapest. I don't think they will fix it for free.

 

[Clydefrosch]

Doubtful that it's going to be the cheapest. I don't think they will fix it for free.

never having made use of any warranty or repair service for anything, i wouldn't be able to say, but at the very least, they ought to be able to give you an estimate of costs if you contact them and explained what happened.

i guess replacement ports (that will need to be soldered on) are like 10 bucks on ebay, but if you try that route, them repairing it is probably entirely out of the question.

 

[syntaxyz]

There should be someone here who does tiny soldering.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

never having made use of any warranty or repair service for anything, i wouldn't be able to say, but at the very least, they ought to be able to give you an estimate of costs if you contact them and explained what happened.

i guess replacement ports (that will need to be soldered on) are like 10 bucks on ebay, but if you try that route, them repairing it is probably entirely out of the question.

Getting out of warranty repairs done by the official repair center is almost always really expensive. It might cost almost as much as a new Switch. It's probably a good idea for @Sephiroth79 to contact them and inquire about it before trying anything himself though, maybe he's lucky and they'll fix it for free if they determine that it hasn't been caused by abuse.
Looking at the teardown pics on iFixit, the solder points and the legs of the USB-C port are very small, so replacing the port without a decent amount of experience soldering small components and decent equipment would be difficult. But a 3rd party repair shop could do it with ease, and much cheaper than what Nintendo would likely charge.

Edit:
https://d3nevzfk7ii3be.cloudfront.net/igi/MvJEDTUnxMS4Olqs.huge
The solder points/legs there (top center) look about the same size as on the small chips, and very close together. Someone inexperienced with soldering (which OP most likely is) would have a hard time removing the port without ripping off pads, and an even harder time soldering on the new port without bridging any pads and making good connection. So @Sephiroth79 I wouldn't suggest trying to do anything yourself, contact Nintendo and ask them about a repair and see what they say and if it's too expensive take it to a 3rd party repair shop (but you may have to supply the USB-C connector since they probably don't have Switch-specific parts)

 

[guily6669]

Try going to a local cheaper phone repair store, but if it was me I would fully disassemble it before taking there and you can also see their soldering work if it's good or not...

 

[Sephiroth79]

Hello guys,

thanks for your suggestions.

I work in a company producing radar system so we have the equipment and the experience to do tiny soldering.

However I am going to ask Nintendo first. Let's see what will come out.

Thanks.

Andrea.

 

[Sephiroth79]

Hello,

yesterday I called Nintendo repair service and I opened an RMA procedure.

They will pick up my switch next monday and in a week they will send me a quote for repairing the console or they will repair it directly if they will found that it's their fault.

They told me to save my personal data as maybe that they will need to reset the console. As far as I know there's no way to save personal profiles plus savegames on an sd card, right?

Is there any other way to save all my personal data before sending my console to the assistance?

Thanks,

Andrea.