Charging Port Issue

[RDaneel54]

Originally Posted by Skydog

It seems that the design of the connection on the Fire is such that it larger than need be for the OEM charger. I have found that other cables in my collection have a better (tight) fit. Why on earth so many people are "wiggling" the cable connection? STOP doing this -- you risk making it worse!

I suspect people are moving the micro USB connection from side to side when removing it, rather than carefully pulling it straight out.

There is a better alternative. Purchase a better cable at Amazon for $3 and a 2.1a USB AC Travel (folding prongs) charger for $9.99.

I wiggled it because it stopped working. I had never wiggled it before. I did not move it from side to side, but carefully pulled it straight out each time. I am very careful in how I handle all my electronics. Your suspicions are incorrect.

The defect is in my Kindle Fire, not in how I plugged the cable in. If it was just the cable, it would not have worked correctly without problems for the last 6 months.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by RDaneel54

I wiggled it because it stopped working. I had never wiggled it before. I did not move it from side to side, but carefully pulled it straight out each time. I am very careful in how I handle all my electronics. Your suspicions are incorrect.

The defect is in my Kindle Fire, not in how I plugged the cable in. If it was just the cable, it would not have worked correctly without problems for the last 6 months.

I do not question your valid complaint. I am refering, in general, to so many "loose/connection/wiggle" threads posted in numerous places (not just MR). I did not intend to criticize you directly -- sorry for the poorly-worded post.

If the problem exists and persists Amazon will make it right.

[salsaguy]

I think my wall charger has died
I am not getting the charge light as of today
My Fire is from the preorder from Nov

I do have a car USB charger so I tried that and it worked fine
that worked perfectly

so before you send in your KIndle for replacement, try the UBS/car charger method first

I will contact Amazon to see if they will send me a replacement charger but since its an "accessory" maybe not but the Fire is still under warranty

any ideas?
if they start getting mass failures on this it wont help the hype

[Merischino]

i am starting to have the same problem, where in order to get a charge to happen I need to apply a bit of pressure underneath the power cable such that there's a bit of an angle towards the front of the device for the connection to be made. If I don't hold it like this, it doesn't charge. This doesn't seem to be the case on *all* my cables, but since I have like 6 cables and it happens on several of them, I don't think it's a cable problem but the seating of the port. Someone else mentioned the different fits on different cables... i think the looser-fit designed-for-the-fire cables are the ones that are bad, but since cosmetically they don't look any different than the ones I had before, i can't be sure.

I think I'm going to call and talk to Amazon about it, as I'm also noticing the screen creep problem I had on my initial fire.

[salsaguy]

When I plugged my charger in at night I always tried to be sure to have the exiting cable rest on the desk/table and not free hanging in the air to prevent sagging and stress be put on the connector .

ir is very difficult to insert that small cable into the connector even with 5 months of practice

i always pull it straight out as well

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by salsaguy

I think my wall charger has died
I am not getting the charge light as of today
My Fire is from the preorder from Nov

I do have a car USB charger so I tried that and it worked fine
that worked perfectly

so before you send in your KIndle for replacement, try the UBS/car charger method first

I will contact Amazon to see if they will send me a replacement charger but since its an "accessory" maybe not but the Fire is still under warranty

any ideas?
if they start getting mass failures on this it wont help the hype

They gave me a $20 credit to buy a new one because they thought it was that. So I have two chargers now.

[jsh1120]

I suspect that Skydog may have a good suggestion (and considerably less expensive than a new $20 charge cable from Amazon.)

As far as the construction of the microUSB port on the KF, itself, I think it's simply cheap manufacturing. I noticed a slight bit of play in the connection when I first received my KF. As a result I've been extremely careful about attaching the charge cable. (No wiggling, no forcing). It has remained completely functional for three months with no change.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by grvthang

I didn't like it when they switched most devices from mini USB to micro USB. Maybe it's my imagination, but in general, it seems as though there's more 'play' in micro usb connections than there was in mini USB. The plugs just seemed to fit tighter before.

Actually it's exactly the opposite. MicroUSB is specifically designed to survive many more plug/unplug cycles than MiniUSB.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by jsh1120

I suspect that Skydog may have a good suggestion (and considerably less expensive than a new $20 charge cable from Amazon.)

As far as the construction of the microUSB port on the KF, itself, I think it's simply cheap manufacturing. I noticed a slight bit of play in the connection when I first received my KF. As a result I've been extremely careful about attaching the charge cable. (No wiggling, no forcing). It has remained completely functional for three months with no change.

My experience (and subsequent handling) is exactly the same. I did try another cable of better quality that I had from another device and the fit was tight -- no play. I am wondering if it is the cable production that is inferior.

[geoffwood]

I think Amazon just cheaped out on the charger. It's a fairly generic device with no Amazon branding and looks like something that would cost $3 on eBay. Compared to the regular Kindle charger, it's hard to believe they came from the same company.

[Blossom]

I have the loose issue on my Fire. No problem charging it so far but it's not plugging in as tight as when it was new. I always remove the cable straight. This thread has me worried. Hopefully it will keep charging. The last thing I want to do is call Amazon for another replacement.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Blossom

I have the loose issue on my Fire. No problem charging it so far but it's not plugging in as tight as when it was new. I always remove the cable straight. This thread has me worried. Hopefully it will keep charging. The last thing I want to do is call Amazon for another replacement.

Looking at your device list, you should have at least two more microUSB cables lying around - those of your K3 and K4. Why not try one of those other cables and see if it works better for you?

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Looking at your device list, you should have at least two more microUSB cables lying around - those of your K3 and K4. Why not try one of those other cables and see if it works better for you?

The problem with those cables is that they too are cheap. A lot cheaper than the Kindle Fire's. They are not only a lot slower because they're designed for ebook/music side loading, but I have had about 100 files corrupted with it which is only fixed by trying to load the file 3-5 times until it works, or to load it within the device itself.

[HarryT]

A microUSB cable is a microUSB cable; they are not designed to be "slow" or "fast". I have half a dozen such cables which come from a variety of sources, and they are all totally interchangeable. Sounds to me as if you've a problem elsewhere. Cables are extremely unlikely to corrupt data.

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by HarryT

A microUSB cable is a microUSB cable; they are not designed to be "slow" or "fast". I have half a dozen such cables which come from a variety of sources, and they are all totally interchangeable. Sounds to me as if you've a problem elsewhere. Cables are extremely unlikely to corrupt data.

I've had this issue on multiple computers. And yes, there are differences in the cables. Try using a Kindle one to connect an external drive to a computer and you'll see it won't work because there's not enough power going through the cable even though they look the same and fit.