thread Re: My Chip and Pin reader won't charge or turn on. Any ideas? in Hardware Setup & Troubleshooting

My Square contactless and chip card reader won't charge or turn on. Any ideas?

mnorton1230 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 20:05:10 GMT

Last week my contactless and chip reader reader was working just fine. Today I try to use it with my first customer. Not only will it not turn on, it won't even charge. Any ideas?

contactless + chip reader won't charge

SierraJewelers — Sun, 08 May 2016 18:04:07 GMT

My square contactless + chip reader won't charge from a USB cable. I can get it to charge for 2-3 seconds of I wiggle the cable, but it then stops charging. I'd also like to point out a design flaw in this reader and that is that it won't allow a micro usb cord to seat properly due to the micro usb port not being deep enough.

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

DécorOn34th — Sun, 08 May 2016 18:18:56 GMT

Having same issue, just stopped for no reason at all. It's not been dropped or had anything done to it.

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

SAI — Mon, 09 May 2016 12:54:52 GMT

Same here

Re: My Chin and Pin reader won't charge or turn on. Any ideas?

Rounded — Mon, 09 May 2016 19:14:21 GMT

You're not alone. Mine is doing the same thing. I just contacted support, hopefully they will help with the issue.

Re: My Chip and Pin reader won't charge or turn on. Any ideas?

Spenser — Wed, 11 May 2016 15:54:40 GMT

@mnorton1230 @Rounded - So sorry to hear about the trouble with the readers! I'm happy to offer some tips that can hopefully get you back in business!

To get started, I'm going to have you try a couple troubleshooting steps:

1. Plug in the reader and let it charge for at least 20 minutes. This will insure that the reader battery is fully charged up (and not the culprit).

2. While the reader is still plugged in and charging, press and hold the power/reset button for at least 20 seconds to fully reboot the reader. FYI, this button is located on the back of the reader by the USB cable slot.

3. If LED lights turns on, you're all set. 👍🏻

4. If lights don't turn on, go ahead and try to repeat the steps one more time.

If that sill doesn't fix the issue, you can go ahead and process a warranty exchange for the reader. We will ship out a new one right away! When you send back the old one, our hardware team will be able to take a closer and figure out exactly what happened.

Re: My Chip and Pin reader won't charge or turn on. Any ideas?

mnorton1230 — Tue, 10 May 2016 14:32:37 GMT

That didn't help, unfortunately. I tried it a couple times just to be sure. What should be the next step?

Bluetooth reader won't charge?

kklein127 — Tue, 10 May 2016 15:51:07 GMT

I've had my chip/contactless reader for a few months now and it has been awesome. All of a sudden it won't charge and it just flashes a red light from time to time when I try to charge it. Is this thing seriously dead after just 6 months of use? I charge it and run it on Tuesdays for a payment with a client, Wednesdays for one client and Saturdays for one client. So from a volume perspective I've not used it that much. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks,

Kurt

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

scajomar — Tue, 10 May 2016 18:03:06 GMT

Me too. Maybe this is the beginning of a flood of failures of the contactless reader.

Re: My Chip and Pin reader won't charge or turn on. Any ideas?

Sean — Tue, 10 May 2016 18:55:13 GMT

@mnorton1230 Sorry to hear. 😕 Those tips have definitely been helpful for some other sellers affected by this issue. You can go ahead and process a warranty exchange here.

@Rounded - Were you able to try out the tips that @Spenser posted?

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

Rocky0thomas — Tue, 10 May 2016 22:19:09 GMT

Happening to mine too. They better figure this out!

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

mpcbobmari — Wed, 11 May 2016 10:34:27 GMT

red light flashing what do i do?

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

Bruce — Wed, 11 May 2016 19:31:33 GMT

I have the same problem. I plugged it in to recharge for three hours to no avail--I still get a single flash of a red light when I attempt to turn on the chip reader. Any other possibilties? Thanks.

Re: My chip reader is flashing red and won't connect. What does this mean and what do I need to do?

George — Wed, 11 May 2016 19:44:27 GMT

Can you try out the above tips posted by @Spenser? They've been helpful to get many sellers back in business.

And please write back to keep us updated on your progress!

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

Style2 — Thu, 12 May 2016 16:46:56 GMT

Our contactless reader is doing the same thing. We have contacted Square and there is a problem with a recent update on firmware.

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

Bruce — Thu, 12 May 2016 21:09:25 GMT

Me, too. I contacted Square (via email) and they said I can file a warranty claim. Huh, it was working fine for a few months and just stopped. I questioned them if there is a fix/patch for this issue but have not received a response, yet.

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

Farmhouse — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 15:27:45 GMT

Square - you need to come clean on what is causing these intermittent and frequent failures. We merchants trusted you and you seem to be dodging the issue.

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

Sean — Wed, 15 Jun 2016 20:48:08 GMT

@Farmhouse - Appreciate the feedback. I can assure you that our engineering team has been, and continues to be intensely focused on resolving issues like this.

Re: contactless + chip reader won't charge

Nanica54 — Mon, 20 Jun 2016 17:57:20 GMT

A hard reset according to directions after the June 14 software update did the trick. The chip reader is no longer blinking red or disconnecting. Thanks!

Charging my reader

lib1 — Thu, 23 Jun 2016 05:49:22 GMT

my square reader..not yet even used..is flashing red light..whats this mean?