Issues with charging

I've had my blackberry for two years now..

for the past couple months ive been having issues with charging my bb using the mini usb cable,

What happens is my phone has issues connecting to the power supply. I have to play with it a bit to get the lightning bolt to appear. Half the time the plugged-in icon appears and the battery will start to drain...

I've cleaned everything to my ability and still nothing.
I have to play with it for a good 25 minutes before i can set it down without losing the connection.

Any tips?

may be the cord , there might be a prob with the cord , try a new one

If I were you I'd swap usb cords like Patel 7 suggested - and hope that is what the problem is. I would look into buying a charging dock. I have the Seidio Desktop Charging dock and I love it. It doesn't use any ports, just connections on the bottom of your Bold. You can find it here in ShopCrackBerry: Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle

When using the cable the phone came with, it rarely works.. the older the cord, the better Ive found.

I'm looking at a bunch of options but need something on the cheaper side.

I have the same problem. I bought the retractable USB chargers from the Crackberry site and it stopped charging my phone and won't charge my playbook at all. It charges my husband's Samsung phone though. I'm now using my husband's Samsung charger and it works much better.

Originally Posted by MissoulaMarinerFan

If I were you I'd swap usb cords like Patel 7 suggested - and hope that is what the problem is. I would look into buying a charging dock. I have the Seidio Desktop Charging dock and I love it. It doesn't use any ports, just connections on the bottom of your Bold. You can find it here in ShopCrackBerry: Seidio Desktop Charging Cradle

Plus one on the charging dock, had one since day one and never had an issue with it.

Sure beats wearing out the USB Port on a daily basis.

Use it while you can, BB in their wisdom have not added the charging points to the Q, backward step IMHO.