Charging issues often haunt smartphone owners. In fact, we’ve already received quite a lot of complaints from our readers about such problems. One of the new devices that caught our attention is the HTC U11 as we have some readers who were asking for our help since their units are reportedly not charging anymore. So we’ll have to look into this issue a bit closer to know if this is a widespread problem or an isolated one.
In this post, I will tackle the charging issue as reported by some of our readers who own HTC U11 units. We will try to look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can easily pinpoint where the problem lies. This way, we can easily formulate a solution or advice our readers what to do to either fix the problem or get help. If you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged the a similar issue, continue reading this post as it might help you.
Now, before we begin with our troubleshooting, if you found this post while looking for a solution to a different problem, then try to visit our HTC U11 troubleshooting page as we’ve already answered some of the questions and solved some of the problems sent by our readers. Find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit.
How to troubleshoot HTC U11 that’s not charging
Our troubleshooting will, of course, be centered on how to make your U11 respond to the charger and actually replenish its battery the way it should. Most charging-related issues maybe a result of an issue with the hardware or the battery but there are cases wherein this kind of problem is due to a firmware issue. We’ll have to try to rule out the latter so that we would know what to do next or even fix the problem. That being said, here are the things you need to do about this issue…
Step 1: Do the Forced Reboot then charge
First off, I would assume that your phone is still powered up and still has a few battery percentage left but if it’s not the case, I suggest you read my previous post which is about a unit that won’t turn on.
The first thing you need to do about this problem is to do the Forced Reboot which will refresh the phone’s memory.
- Press and hold the Power and the Volume Down buttons for 12 to 15 seconds. The phone may vibrate and restart when you do this and that’s the sign that your device successfully restarted.
This will restart the phone and once it becomes active, try charging your phone again and if the problem persists, move on to the next step.
Step 2: Turn your phone off and charge it
Assuming the device didn’t charge after you’ve done the forced reboot, then power it down, plug the charger to the wall outlet that you know works and then connect your phone to it using the original cable.
By the way, I would also assume you’re using all original accessories like the charger and the cable so that we can easily isolate the problem.
After turning the phone off and plugging it in and it still won’t charge, then we’ll have to look at this problem at a different angle.
Step 3: Check the charger, cable and your phone’s charging port
Look into the port of the charger to see if there is some kind of debris, dirt or lint that’s preventing proper contact because if there is, the problem isn’t with your phone but with conduction of electricity. You can easily clean the port with a Q-tip that’s either dry or dipped in alcohol. If you have a can of compressed air, you can give the port a blast to get rid of any debris or dirt in there.
Assuming the charger’s fine and you haven’t found anything in its port, then you should try inspecting both ends of the USB cable you’re using because it might also have something that prevents proper conduction. The bigger end is easier to clean but the end that you connect to your phone requires patience. Of course a blast of compressed air would get rid of the dirt if you can find something that’s stuck between those tiny pins. But if you’re sure that there’s nothing that prevents proper contacts, then check the phone’s charging port.
You just have to inspect for the same things as you did with the charger and the cable and probably a sign of bent pins. As to the debris or dirt, it’s easy to get rid of them but if there’s some kind of water drops or if the port is wet, then the problem might not be limited to the port but it might be a sign of a water damage. The next step might help you understand more about this case.
Step 4: Check the Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI)
This is the part where we have to check if your phone suffered from a liquid damage especially if you’ve found some trace of liquid in the charging port. The LDI can be found inside the SIM slot, needless to say, you have to remove the SIM card tray to be able to look into the slot.
If the sticker is white, then your phone is safe from liquid damage, however, if it turned red, purple or even pink, that’s the sign this problem is no ordinary issue. And to tell you, technicians will also be looking for that LDI before evaluating the problem and when they find the sticker is no longer white, that’s when you realize how big of a problem this is.
I know the HTC U11 has the IP67 rating which makes it water- and dust-resistant but it’s not really a rating of being waterproof. Meaning, water or any sort of liquid can still find its way into your phone and that might have been the case here.
On the other hand, if the charging port of your phone doesn’t have any trace of water and the LDI remained white, then move on to the next step.
Step 5: Let’s try to force your HTC U11 to reboot and charge
In the first step we showed you how to do the forced reboot but this time, after checking the accessories and making sure the phone doesn’t have liquid damage, we will try to force it to reboot and charge. If the phone is still powered on, turn it off. If it’s already turned off and won’t turn on due to possible drained battery, then connect it to the charger that’s plugged into the wall outlet. Then, press and hold the Volume Up, Volume Down and Power keys together for up to 2 minutes. The phone will reboot and continue charging but after this and the phone still refuses to charge, then bring it back to the store and let the tech handle the problem for you.
Before that, if your phone still have enough battery to backup your data and do the reset, then please do so to delete all your personal information from your phone. This is how you reset your phone using the hardware keys…
- Your HTC U11 should be turned off before you can proceed.
- Get your phone into the Download Mode by pressing and holding the Volume Down and Power keys together. If you can see red, blue and yellow text on a black background after doing this, then it means you have successfully entered the download mode.
- Now, using the Volume Down key, highlight the option “reboot to bootloader” and then press the Power key to select it.
- Using the Volume Down key again, highlight the option “reboot to recovery” and press the Power key to choose it.
- When you’re prompted with the triangle and exclamation mark, press and hold the Power key and press the Volume Up button until you see another screen with yellow, blue and white texts.
- Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option “wipe data/factory reset” and to select it, press the Power key.
- It may take a few seconds for the HTC U11 to delete all the system caches and when it’s done, you will another options. This time, highlight “Reboot system now” and press the Power key to confirm.
I hope this helps.
Connect with us
We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. This is a free service we offer and we won’t charge you a penny for it. But please note that we receive hundreds of emails every day and it’s impossible for us to respond to every single one of them. But rest assured we read every message we receive. For those whom we’ve helped, please spread the word by sharing our posts to your friends or by simply liking our Facebook and Google+ page or follow us on Twitter.