Yesterday, one of my Platform USB cables ceased working. I opened the box and found cold solder joints at the USB connector.
Since 1.) the connector pads are in the shadow of the shield, they probably don't get enough InfraRed to heat and
2.) solder joints under mechanical stress tend to open, I expect more USB platform cables out there that can be salvaged with 4 blobs of solder.
regards, Gerhard