On a recent trip to Memphis I ran into a little water damage on my Galaxy S4, rendering it unable to charge reliably or sync with a PC. When plugged in it would either do nothing or display a message saying, “This charger is not compatible with this device…” Knowing that water damage often makes cell carriers unwilling to help, I began searching and came upon a cheap and relatively easy solution.

In my searches I saw that many others had suffered similar water damage, often with the same error messages. Several reported success with swapping the USB port of their Galaxy S4. It seemed a daunting task at first, but after watching a straightforward guide video it seemed like it might only take 15-20 minutes.

Galaxy S4 Replacement USB PortReplacement USB ports for the Galaxy S4 can be found on Ebay and Amazon for around $10 plus shipping, so if you’re willing to roll your sleeves up it’s a far cheaper solution than trying a smartphone repair shop.

Note: make sure you select the correct model number, as some have reported there are multiple nearly identical versions of the USB port but that choosing the wrong one caused the speaker phone not to work correctly.

In my case, this one worked like a charm with the Verizon S4 SCH-I545.

The guide video walks you through removing the plastic panel underneath the primary backing so you can access the USB port, and shows exactly how to pry parts up without damaging anything as well as how to reconnect everything when the new part is in place.

Took me about 25 minutes total, mostly because I ran into a minor snag while putting everything back together due to doing one of the final steps out of order. Overall it’s an easy repair if you go slow and touch carefully. Once my phone was back together I powered it on and voila — it charged every time and synced immediately with my PC.

If your Galaxy has stopped charging, give this repair a try. It might save you a much costlier visit to your cell carrier or a repair shop.