I repair laptop motherboards under microscopes for a living.
Utilizing USB-C form factor ports for charging is literally the worst thing that’s happened to laptops - PC laptops in particular - in as long as I’ve been in the game.
USB-C form factor ports “break” constantly.
I put break in quotes because they do so not by the jack itself breaking, but by tearing themselves out of and off of the board itself.
Almost every PC laptop that has a USB-C port is built with metal bracket around the port to try to prevent the port from wiggling around and then tearing off of the board.
These do not solve the problem.
The REAL problem is that when the port rips off the board, it will almost always take the pads and traces the port is soldered onto with it. If even one of the 24 pin pads or through holes is damaged, that can and more than not often IS it for the motherboard - it’s dead forever and irreparable. This is because the boards have multiple layers of traces to them and because of how close together the pins are with USB-C the pads often disappear directly into vias on the board, which cut down to these different layers. The end result is that you often do not have the option to replace a broken pad or trace with an enameled jumper wire, and so there’s no way to restore full electrical connectivity to all 24 pins in a USB-C jack.
What’s even more frustrating is that EVEN WHEN the break is lucky enough that the port’s pads and traces are left intact (usually indicating a poor factory soldering job where the solder didn’t phase change from a liquid to a solid homogenously), a lot of the time after repairing the jack the port still won’t work. This is because each USB-C / TB3+ port has to be handled by a power delivery (and in the case of TB also a separate data) controller chip - what handshakes with the charger and tells it to switch from 5V to 20V - and in many cases THAT gets fried out when the port breaks lose, wiggles across the now-exposed pads, and dumps power where it doesn’t belong.
In SOME EXCEPTIONALLY rare cases where board schematics, boardviews, and chip specs are available and the chips themselves are made available to purchase those chips can, in theory, be replaced. Problem is that it’s not a guarantee and ultimately it ends up not being cost-effective to the repair shop or the consumer.
And even when it IS possible and it IS achieved, the port will almost certainly break again.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that conforming everything to the same charger will be less environmentally damaging by reducing waste - the environmental expense of replacing a charger is NOTHING compared to the cost of replacing a motherboard.
And when the damage is this bad? It’s almost always more cost effective (environment be damned, says the market) to replace the entire motherboard - CPU and all, as they’re never socketed anymore - OR EVEN THE ENTIRE COMPUTER than it is to repair the OTHERWISE FULLY FUNCTIONAL board.
Barrel tip charger ports CAN break, but it’s VASTLY less frequent, it’s almost always due to an actual accident instead of just normal use, and most importantly they can ALMOST ALWAYS be repaired quickly, easily, and inexpensively.
The USB-C form factor had lofty stated goals, but ultimately from a repair and sustainability perspective, it truly appears to be yet another form of shitty anti-repair, anti-consumer planned obsolescence.
I repair laptop motherboards under microscopes for a living.
Utilizing USB-C form factor ports for charging is literally the worst thing that’s happened to laptops - PC laptops in particular - in as long as I’ve been in the game.
USB-C form factor ports “break” constantly.
I put break in quotes because they do so not by the jack itself breaking, but by tearing themselves out of and off of the board itself.
Almost every PC laptop that has a USB-C port is built with metal bracket around the port to try to prevent the port from wiggling around and then tearing off of the board.
These do not solve the problem.
The REAL problem is that when the port rips off the board, it will almost always take the pads and traces the port is soldered onto with it. If even one of the 24 pin pads or through holes is damaged, that can and more than not often IS it for the motherboard - it’s dead forever and irreparable. This is because the boards have multiple layers of traces to them and because of how close together the pins are with USB-C the pads often disappear directly into vias on the board, which cut down to these different layers. The end result is that you often do not have the option to replace a broken pad or trace with an enameled jumper wire, and so there’s no way to restore full electrical connectivity to all 24 pins in a USB-C jack.
What’s even more frustrating is that EVEN WHEN the break is lucky enough that the port’s pads and traces are left intact (usually indicating a poor factory soldering job where the solder didn’t phase change from a liquid to a solid homogenously), a lot of the time after repairing the jack the port still won’t work. This is because each USB-C / TB3+ port has to be handled by a power delivery (and in the case of TB also a separate data) controller chip - what handshakes with the charger and tells it to switch from 5V to 20V - and in many cases THAT gets fried out when the port breaks lose, wiggles across the now-exposed pads, and dumps power where it doesn’t belong.
In SOME EXCEPTIONALLY rare cases where board schematics, boardviews, and chip specs are available and the chips themselves are made available to purchase those chips can, in theory, be replaced. Problem is that it’s not a guarantee and ultimately it ends up not being cost-effective to the repair shop or the consumer.
And even when it IS possible and it IS achieved, the port will almost certainly break again.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that conforming everything to the same charger will be less environmentally damaging by reducing waste - the environmental expense of replacing a charger is NOTHING compared to the cost of replacing a motherboard.
And when the damage is this bad? It’s almost always more cost effective (environment be damned, says the market) to replace the entire motherboard - CPU and all, as they’re never socketed anymore - OR EVEN THE ENTIRE COMPUTER than it is to repair the OTHERWISE FULLY FUNCTIONAL board.
Barrel tip charger ports CAN break, but it’s VASTLY less frequent, it’s almost always due to an actual accident instead of just normal use, and most importantly they can ALMOST ALWAYS be repaired quickly, easily, and inexpensively.
The USB-C form factor had lofty stated goals, but ultimately from a repair and sustainability perspective, it truly appears to be yet another form of shitty anti-repair, anti-consumer planned obsolescence.
Boo hiss.