DIY: Two Fixes for a Motorola Video Baby Monitor that Stops Working

Video baby monitors have a remarkable tendency to break on you, which is a shame considering how expensive they are and how much parents rely on them!   We have a Motorola video baby monitor that we purchased in 2014, so it's well out of warranty.  It has worked great for the last 3.5 years and we added a second camera for baby M in 2017.  Our monitor is Motorola model MBP36BU (the model number is on the bottom of the camera), but the two fixes below should work for most Motorola video baby monitors (and maybe other brands as well. 

Fix #1 - Parent Console Stops Holding a Charge

About a year ago, the baby monitor stopped holding a charge.  It worked fine as long as it was plugged into the wall, but wouldn't hard a charge when running on battery power.  I'd charge it fully, unplug it to carry around with me while baby napped, and the battery would die way too fast - sometimes only 20-30 minutes from fully charged to completely dead.  Luckily, that is an easy and cheap (~$10) fix - you just need to replace the battery, which you can order inexpensively on Amazon.  This is the exact battery I ordered, which has held up well for over a year now.  Unscrew the battery cover on the back of the parent console, remove the old battery, and insert the new battery.  Problem solved!

Fix #2 - Parent Console Doesn't Recognize Charging Cable

I was NOT pleased when, this week, the parent console started not recognizing the charging cord being plugged in!  (The charge cord was plugged in, but the battery symbol in the top right corner didn't show that it was charging.)  This meant that, once the existing battery power was drained, the monitor couldn't be used either plugged in or running on battery power!  After talking to friends and reading online, I found that this is a common failure point - sometimes you can wiggle or prop the charging cord just right to get the monitor to recognize it, but it loses contact repeatedly, resulting in the baby monitor dying after the battery runs out.  

I am nothing if not stubborn, so I refused to resort straight to buying a new baby monitor!  Cue more research....apparently Motorola baby monitors in particular tend to have poor solder joints on the charge port; over time, repeatedly plugging and unplugging the charge cord over the years puts strain on and loosens these solder joints, eventually causing them to fail.  How long this takes varies depending on the quality of the original solder and the use of the baby monitor (how often the cord is plugged and unplugged from the parent console, etc.)  Apparently, at 3.5 years of daily use, ours lasted longer than many!  

Based on the symptoms, it sounded like this is what had happened to my monitor - the charge port had come un-soldered.  Before taking apart the monitor to confirm, I reached out to a local computer repair shop to see if they had someone who could re-solder the charge port if that was, indeed, the issue (emphasizing that it was a tiny part).  When he confirmed he could help, I then got brave enough to open up the baby monitor to take a look!  

Using a tiny Phillips head screwdriver, I first removed the plastic battery cover on the back of the parent console, removed the battery pack, and then removed the second screw located underneath the battery.  I then used a tiny flat head screwdriver to gently pry open the baby monitor along the seam around the outside edge.  This took a bit of finagling to locate exactly where the fasteners were located, but I was eventually able to gently pry the front and back of the baby monitor apart, revealing the circuit board.  As soon as I did this, a small part fell right out of the inside of the monitor - sure enough, it was the charge port!  The solder joints had come completely undone, resulting in the port being totally loose inside there - no wonder it wasn't working!  

I took the loose charge port and the disassembled parent console to the computer repair shop, where they re-soldered the charge port onto the circuit board.  I put everything back together again - snapped the 2 sides of the baby monitor back in place, and replaced the 2 screws and battery pack, and presto - the baby monitor now recognizes the charge cord!  This repair cost around $50 for the solder job; considering a new baby monitor system with 2 cameras would have run around $200, going the repair route was a significant cost savings, kept a baby monitor and 2 cameras out of the landfill, and saved me the hassle of programming and re-wiring new cameras!