Toothpicks and Mobile Phone Maintenance
A while ago I had a problem with my mobile phone. Most often I’d plug in the charger and the phone would not recognize that it was plugged in. I experimented with different chargers and determined that the problem was not the chargers but the phone. Someone suggested it may have lint in the charging port since it spends so much time in my pocket. So I took a standard round toothpick and gently poked around the inside of the charging port and a large ball of lint came out when I pulled out the toothpick. Afterward the charger worked with no problem.
Flash forward to the other day when I was having problems with my earbuds on the same phone. Sometimes the inline remote would work. Other times not. Likewise the audio and microphone. Needless to say if the remote, audio and mic are not working then the earbuds are worthless.
Since I’m very picky with my earbuds (I don’t like the in-ear type but want the inline remote; I only know of one brand of these still available and they are not being manufactured anymore) and this pair was still working on other devices I decided to see if a toothpick may be helpful again. Sure enough another lint ball appeared when I pulled out the toothpick and the earbuds are working fine again.
Who would have figured that the most important tool in mobile phone maintenance would be a toothpick?
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