[Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] alex_18ca:
Hi. I’m having a problem with my Samsung Galaxy S2 I9100 (actually the I9100M, with Bell Mobility in Canada). I’ll try to be as detailed as I can.

I unfortunately had the phone in my pocket, and went into salt water (the ocean) for about 5 minutes. I realized it was there, and took the back case and the battery out. But I did not do anything else. About a month later, after sending it back to Bell and hearing I couldn’t get warranty, I decided to take a look myself.

I took the phone apart, and used 99% alcohol and a cotton swab and wiped everything down. After letting it dry for a day, I turned it on and it worked, nearly perfectly. The screen’s color is fine, the speaker works, the microphone works, the internet works, SIM card, making calls, Wi-Fi, etc… So I was quite happy.

However, I quickly found out that there is a problem somewhere with the USB connection. (Or, so I thought) When I plug in the USB to power the phone, nothing happens. It is not recognized by the computer, nor does it show that it is charging. So after going to a cell phone repair shop and speaking with someone, they said the cheapest thing would be to replace the entire USB Flex cable (incl. microphone, etc). So I bought one for $25 brand new (which I later realized I could’ve gotten cheaper, but I digress), and then went home, opened it up, took out the old one, and put in the new one. And sure enough, it did NOT fix the problem.

However, the “weird” thing, is that if I turn the phone off, and then plug in the USB connection, it then powers up and shows it is charging. (So obviously the “connection” works, and I mean, it is a brand new USB flex board, or whatever it’s called) But as I sat there, I noticed it is NOT charging… (Even though the battery indicator shows that it is charging, and the About Phone setting states this as well) And as well, the computer still does not even recognize that it’s plugged in.

So, I’m really at a loss for words here. I replaced the part, and obviously there is another issue. So the main points are:

Battery (which is brand new) does not charge when I plug in the USB connection to either a computer or the wall plug-in.

If the phone is on and I plug in the USB, it does NOT recognize it.

If the phone is off and I plug in the USB, it turns the phone on, and states it is charging, but does NOT charge. And the phone is NOT recognized by the PC if I have it plugged in.

If anyone has any ideas on what I can do, please let me know. There is still a lot of corrosion inside, but I’m not sure how much more I can get at. I assume that the problem must lie with the mainboard, where the USB flex cable connects to, but before I do anything else, I wanted to see if anyone had anything I could try. I hope I explained it well above. Please note, the phone works PERFECTLY aside from this (and some minor blurriness on the camera, probably the lens is dirty).

Is there a test I can run to see what the issue is? Clearly the connection does work, otherwise the phone wouldn’t recognize the USB and turn on by itself when I plug the USB in. But I’m just looking to know 1) why the battery does not charge when the USB is plugged in, and 2) why the PC does not recognize the connection.

Thanks so much in advance,

Much appreciated.