A family member sent their Nintendo Switch to me because it stopped charging. A quick inspection revealed something looking… odd in the USB C port. Taking it to the lab and putting it under the microscope revealed that yep, a bunch of the USB C pins were twisted or broken off. I’ve watched countless hours of repair personalities on YouTube replace the USB C port on Nintendo Switches, so I figured, with the equipment I had in the lab, how hard could it be?
Disassembly
This was pretty bog standard. I was following the iFixit guide for replacing the motherboard. Of note, I was surprised to find that the aluminum shield inside is thermally connected to the internal heat pipe using thermal putty, not thermal paste.
The main thing to be aware of is that all of the flex cables are fragile, and their latches doubly so (I actually had one pop off after a few attempts at assembling and disassembling the device, but it didn’t break and I was able to insert it).
USB C Removal (Harbinger of Things to Come)
I’ve seen many videos on removing USB C ports on the Nintendo Switch, and many of them recommend using hot air from below and to wait for the connector to drop on its own. So… that’s what I did, and I was surprised that even after 30 seconds at around 600F and 50% airflow the port was still solidly in place. After some googling, I realized that apparently the shield tabs are connected to the ground plane, meaning the entire device is effectively one giant heatsink! And the connections to the ground plane don’t employ thermal spokes! This… explains a lot.
I increased the airflow to 80% and upped the temperature to 800F. After about a minute and a half, the port hadn’t fallen off, so I gently tapped it to see what was going on, and that was all the encouragement it needed to fall off. Apparently the surface tension of the lead-free solder was such that for me it required a gentle tap to the shield of the USB C from below for it to fall out. Specifically, I barely tapped on it– tapping on it can be dangerous as if it’s still attached a hard tap could rip the pads out…
New Port Attempt 1: It might have worked?
I continued to apply hot air and tried to do what I’ve seen others do, which is just to plop the new USB C connector while everything was still hot and melted. This may have actually worked! I was able to get the Switch to charge, but I wasn’t able to confirm that the inner pins were well soldered… so I decided to remove the USB C connector, and clean everything, re-apply clean solder with flux, and try again… I should have just tested everything more thoroughly…
New Port Attempt 2: Just plain botched it
In the process of removing and re-attaching the USB C port, the tweezers I was using to hold it in place got hot, and apparently were touching the inside plastic of the port, melting it. Alright, that meant I needed to remove the port, again.
New Port Attempt 3: Not level
When I installed the third port, I noticed that it wasn’t particularly level. The pins weren’t even making contact due to the left-over solder in the shield leg holes not melting properly. These holes were connected straight into the ground plane, and were the ones sinking obscene amounts of heat away from the solder. I once again removed the port and tried to clean up the holes with some copper braid.
At this point, though, all of the cleaning and removing I had been doing started takings its toll on the motherboard. On this last attempt the stupid port pulled up half of one of the actual ground pads (although thankfully didn’t completely remove it), and damaged the soldermask!
New Port Attempt 4: Screw it, cut it to bits
I wasn’t able to melt the slot on one of the sides, even with the Hakko soldering iron I was using… so I just clipped that tab out from the USB C connector using wire cutters. Not ideal, but I was able to at least solder the pins that were on the outside. I verified that this repair attempt would at least charge the stupid Switch in one orientation, but with a soldering iron I obviously could not get the inner pins to solder to the motherboard.
At this point I was pulling my hair out, and it had been about 8 hours since I started the process, so I decided to call it quits and think about what was going wrong.
Intermezzo
After cooling off a little at home, I realized that I needed more tools and supplies. Specifically, the solder connected to the shield holes was impossible to clean, so I had to do something to either improve heat transfer, or lower the melting point of the solder. I also was struggling to hold the stupid board in place securely (the third hand soldering station I had at my disposal wasn’t stable enough). I decided to get the following (these links are not part of any affiliate program):
- Hakko C1390C Omnivise to hold the board in place securely
- 247 Solder REMALLOY4.5 Low melt solder, indium-lead alloy, if I remember correctly
- UPSIREN 12.8w/mk Thermal Putty to re-apply to the heatpipes of the Switch to the inner metal shell on reassembly
One Week Later
After the tools and supplies arrived, I tried fixing the Switch again. I removed the USB C port with the missing tab as usual, instilling the essence of hell onto the USB C area with a hot air station. After it finally came off, I used the low-melt solder with a soldering iron and alloyed all the remaining lead-free solder on the pads and the holes around the USB C port, and then used a solder wick to clean up the alloy. And holy crap, did that work! The low melt solder alloy drastically reduced the temperature required to actually melt everything, and it made it flow really well onto the solder wick.
After the USB C pins and all associated holes were cleaned of all solder, I made sure that I could place the new USB C port without any physical issues, and I confirmed it slotted well. At that point, I decided to use my leaded solder and stop using the unleaded solder I had been using, no need to make this harder than it needed to be. I tinned the pads (and only the pads, not the holes) with the leaded solder, and then used the hot-air station from the top (without the USB C port in place) to preheat and melt the tinned pads. Once everything was nice and hot and ready, I placed the new port into its place, and continued applying heat for about 15 seconds while pressing down. I then removed the heat.
I inspected the external pins at that point, and they all looked good. I did a quick test and confirmed that I could charge the Switch in both USB C orientations. I wasn’t 100% sure all of the inner pins were soldered on, so I went online and I was able to see if I could find some help on testing the USB C port without having to plug it in, and I found this nice GBAtemp thread illustrating where the probe points are nearby. I confirmed with my multimeter that all pins were making electrical contact, and there were no shorts! And finally, now that I was more confident everything was done correctly, I soldered the tab holes using the soldering iron.
This last attempt was incredibly easier and faster! Having the right tools really pays off! That evening at home I confirmed that everything worked, including with the Switch Dock.
And it wouldn’t be a Gabe repair if he didn’t misplace a screw
As I was finally re-assembling the Switch I realized I misplaced one of the screws that connected the inner metal plate to the Switch. After a ton of reading around, I finally figured out what kind of screw I needed: a M1.4 3mm long, with a 0.3mm pitch. The issue is that the stupid screw has a head I find hard to describe (pan head? But it’s very flat). I ended up ordering a kit from Amazon, which had a screw that fit.
Of course, I found the screw a few days later on my desk.
But Wait, There’s More!
With the main repair of the system in place, I started testing the console, and everything seemed to be working OK… except that the Joycons were disconnecting from the Switch while plugged in. I noticed that any kind of pressure on them could cause them to disconnect. I assumed they were dirty, so I managed to disassemble them without removing the entire Switch assembly, and cleaning the contacts with 91% isopropyl alcohol. That did improve the situation, but only temporarily. After a few hours the controllers would return to being unreliable.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but since the alcohol seemed to help temporarily, I wondered if it had something to do with the health of the contacts. I took a closer look, and they looked OK to me, although I could definitely see some wear and tear. At that point, I was watching a TronixFix video and noticed Steve was using Deoxit D100 to help clean SNES cartridge contacts. It was a bit pricey, but I said screw it, worst case scenario I can use it on my own cartridge collection.
At first I wasn’t sure what to think about the Deoxit hype (there’s plenty online), but holy crap, after trying it on the Joycon contacts, those things have been rock solid ever since. I don’t know what kind of chemistry magic is going on, but I am genuinely impressed at what it was able to do.
So finally, the Nintendo Switch was finally fixed completely, and I was finally able to return it to my family member the next time they came to visit, and they were able to continue playing Animal Crossing (Nintendo, really, why is it so hard to back up that stupid island?).