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Droid X - USB charging problems?

Is anyone aware of USB charging issues with the droid X?

i'm an IT consultant, one of my customers recently got a droid X.

the battery died on them when on the road and the phone would not turn itself on.

when connected directly to a USB port on a PC or a generic USB car charger (where it provides a usb port to plug your typical data cable in to), it did not show the graphic that the phone was charging, nor would it power up.

This was a big issue, when on the road they need to be able to plug it in to a usb port in their car or a computer and be able to turn it on and talk while it's charging.

I tested with other phones (samsung galaxy s, blackberry storm) and it was able to charge fine off both this PC and charger so i know it's not the port that's the issue.

When plugging it in to a wall outlet, it showed the graphic that the battery was at 0%, then it would power up.

i let it charge for awhile and after that i was able to transfer it over to a PC and it would stay up and it would be charging.

Why wouldn't it just charge and power up when originally plugged in to a car charger or a computer's USB port?

For other phones on the market i've been able to just plug in to the computers' usb port and it allows you to turn it on and it charges, etc.

It almost seems that the Droid X really requires more power than a usb port provides.

thanks.

Comments

-PFM

Not sure about the generic car charger but as you discovered, when the Droid X is completley dead it seems you must use the wall charger. A search will show this is a known "issue".

datanetri

Thank you.

That's interesting, neither verizon support or motorola would admit it was a known problem.

I will be having them return it, that's completely ridiculous that they'd even sell a phone where you need to plug it in to a wall if it dies, especially for sales people who are on the road all day long.

Wildman

The Droid X will not recover from a full battery drain by plugging it into the usb of a pc do to the lack of voltage from the usb interface. The only way to resolve this issue is to plug it into the wall charger and allow the device to charge for about 10% and then the device should power back up.. The usb is only good for a unused device being charged, if the device is being used while charging the charge usually remain at the same levels because of the low voltage output.

-PFM

Optionally they could purchase a spare battery and change it out before it goes completely dead. They would then be able to re-insert the partially discharged battery to charge via USB or car charger when they were able.

datanetri

thanks for your responses, but there are plenty of other phones on the market that can charge and boot up off standard usb voltage with a completely dead battery.

i'll recommend they either get the HTC or Samsung droids, i don't trust motorola's R&D dept if they were willing to let a product go to market with such a bad design flaw.

Most people these days depend on charging off USB more than wall power between charging on the road or off their computer in the office while leaving the wall charger at home.

Poor thinking on their part to design a phone that won't run/charge off of the voltage that usb provides.

gerio

Great. Another "IT Pro" to tell us lil' folk how things really should be.

Sir, show me the research data to substantiate your claim that "most people charge their phones via USB". It may be a few people that do this and/or the crowd you run with, but most of the folks I know (the technical side of show business) travel with more than one home charger and one car charger regardless

gerio

Darn it..(continued)

...of what kind of phone we have.

You did get one thing right...the Droid X requires more power to charge than the USB port provides. If your prerequisite in a phone is to charge from the USB port, that's fine. But to call Moto R&D unreliable because they opted to load the phone with more features than a USB port can handle is a statement of opinion and not fact.

And its an opinion that is shared by very few, if any, here.

Geri O

Ann154

To the OP, maybe the customers could start plugging the phone into the pc or car charger before the battery goes completely dead.

datanetri

Business people who are on the road all day cannot afford to have their phone not boot until they can use a wall charger if the battery dies, it's as simple as that.

Both Verizon and Motorola should make this issue well known instead of acting like it's not a problem and it doesn't exist.

Verizon support had no answers and referred me to motorola.

Motorola tier 2 support had no ideas and recommended that the phone was defective and we should work with the carrier to get a replacement.

From what i'm reading it is a known problem and they should be very up front when someone calls about it rather than starting the blame game between the carrier and manufacturer.

People are entitled to their opinion on if a phone not being able to boot off of usb power is a good idea or not, no need to get upset.

Personally I think that standardizing everything on usb makes sense so that customers could boot/charge off of any device that has usb or a wall adapter that provides a usb port. Things are starting to move in that direction with newer cars including USB ports for charging purposes, etc.

gerio

Data, first, thank you for the un-snarky response unlike mine.... :smileywink:

I'm on the road for days at a time, either in my pick-up truck, a semi, or, when someone thinks highly of me, a really nice tour bus... :smileyhappy:

I promise you, I, as well as my touring bretheren, are armed to the teeth with car chargers. And I've seen many different types of generic chargers used, apparently with success. But I stick with Moto-branded chargers because I certainly can't afford to be without my phone 24/7.

There's all kinds of business travelers, just different kinds of businesses. Everyone depends on a working phone when traveling, from the touring concert show guys like me, to businessmen like you, to the Mom with 4 kids in the car on a long trip. And guess which one I think is the MOST important?

I think that trying to use the USB section of the car charger you mentioned was a mistake. Just get the correct car charger (there are many) and you will not have this problem . And there are 1-to-3 car charger ports (dongles?) for charging multiple devices (just be sure you don't over-load the charger port (what we used to call the cigarette lighter, LOL. Hard to do, actually, but not impossible).

Sorry, but I just do not accept the premise that the X has a charging deficiency. At all. And ask around, I don't work for Verizon.

I do wish that Moto and/or Verizon would put a note or a sticky somewhere that it's not wise to let any device with a lithium battery fall to less than 30% charge (sort of tied to the USB charging issue. But not really... :smileyvery-happy: .). People are taken aback when the phone's battery discharges totally and it takes a few to several minutes for the phone to restart after being connected to the charger. There have been several posts addressed here over that.

Having said all of this, if you require a phone that absolutely positively MUST spend its life sitting on a USB charging situation, then the X is not for you (or your associate you mentioned in the OP)

Respectfully,

Geri O

datanetri

Just to clarify, is this not a problem with motorola car chargers?

if so i'll just tell my customer to go get a motorola car charger as it is specific and doesn't follow the typical usb standards and get a 2nd wall charger for the office.

I know i'm going to get razzed for saying this, but it would not surprise me at all if this was deliberate for mororola to sell more chargers.

I had a motorola phone in the past where it was so sensitive that it would even say "unauthorized charger" if you used a generic charger that didn't put out exactly what their branded one did. They seem to have somewhat shady tactics in the past to get you to stick to buying their accessories.

Ann154

Well said Gerio, well said.

I laughed when I read how many chargers you have. In a good way, I promise. Granted I don't travel that much and I only own a baby Droid compared to the Droid X. But I have a car charger, an iGo charger at work for multiple devices, and two wall chargers at home. One being the charger/usb cable that came with the phone and the other was from the Motorola phone before that. Thankfully all the tips fit. I don't think I have ever intentionally used the usb cable alone to charge my phone from a PC.

To the OP, good luck deciding what is best for your situation.

datanetri

Thanks for your responses.

Can you confirm if you can boot the phone off a completely dead battery with a motorola car charger?

the main issue here was that i finally convinced this user to switch to an android based phone from a blackberry storm which was a horrible phone. then they were unpleasantly surprised to find out that they can't boot up the phone by plugging it in to the usb port built in to their car like they were able to with their previous phone.

It's not the end of the world to need to buy a 2nd wall charger for the office instead of just charging off their PC but it is a big deal to not be able to have the phone boot if the battery dies on the road and they won't have access to wall power for the rest of the day.

gerio

Yes, I can. Not only the Moto charger, but any generic charger that charges the phone will charge it enough to boot. Still, I'd suggest getting chargers from Verizon. Also, I have found some really good deals at Ebay on Moto-branded chargers, both wall and car chargers, new in the box. I just don't know what to say about that charger you guys were dealing with, unless, the phone was attempted to be charged via the USB output of that charger. and we've been over that ad nauseum at this point... :smileyhappy:

Actually, don't just take my word either way, let's ask the community...anyone having trouble charging their X with a car charger, using the charger straight into the phone?

I try to not let the phone totally die these days, but when it happened, I'd be out in the field with no wall charger and away from the vehicle. When it's first plugged in, it will take a few minutes before it will boot up. I think it wants to charge to something around 5% before it boots. So, it will take a few to several minutes of charging (and this applies to both car and home chargers) before the phone will re-boot. Yes, it's un-nerving at first to see the phone display the Moto symbol, but not boot up.

Shortly after I got the phone, I learned that Lithium batteries do not like to be totally discharged and their life can be greatly shortened if they are repeated allowed to go completely dead.

These days, I have it in my mind to make sure the phone is fully charged before I get in a situation where I'll be away from a charger for several hours. I charge it every night regardless. I get up and out of the house usually at 6am and head home from the shop around 5, so the phone rides home on the car charger. If I'm on a show or a shoot, I let it sit on the charger when it can. It doesn't seem to mind being on the charger even when it's fully charged. With the standard battery, I get a good 14 hours before it quits (lots of email-checking, news feeds, some pics at times, etc and an endless barrage of calls on some days, most of the time with a bluetooth headset). With this new extended battery, I have used it for 28 hours so far before it got down to 10% of the battery's charge.

Since my entry into the mobile phone world in 1991, battery management has become part of my lifestyle. Kinda like oil changes and showers, LOL.

Geri O

xzracer

i just pick -up my droidx on friday , on monday i was having charging problem using the wall charger ,i had go to Verizon

they played with it for about a hour ,they did a reset something was turn off that would not take the charger know it working great what they did I don't know .

crb79

datanetri wrote:
Thank you.

That's interesting, neither verizon support or motorola would admit it was a known problem.

I will be having them return it, that's completely ridiculous that they'd even sell a phone where you need to plug it in to a wall if it dies, especially for sales people who are on the road all day long.

Call me silly, but if they are charging it on the road from a Laptop or other device, what exactly is powering the Laptop? A laptop would be dead pretty quick if you were using it as a charging device while on the road without a wired power source.

I've charged my phone via the car charger with no problems at all, even on the VERY rare occasion that I let my phone die. (almost 2 full days of no charge)

Sure it sucks that Motorola has a proprietary charging interface, but it's nothing new. Up until this year, most devices used varied power adapters that required you to purchase a new charging device for each and every phone.

gerio

I wasn't aware that micro-USB was a proprietary Motorola charging scheme.....?

Geri O

SirCheese69

Mine will certainly power on after it has died, using USB. It just takes 30+ min which to me, is not acceptable.

B33

SirCheese69 wrote:
Mine will certainly power on after it has died, using USB. It just takes 30+ min which to me, is not acceptable.

If you are usuing your USB Cord an charging thru the computer stop charging that way the best way is with the charger that came with the X in the Box. as you can have issues charging from the Computer. Now if your having issues with that charger you can an should get a OEM Motorola Charger for your phone there are accouple to choose from. They are Available thru the Moto Web Site an one's like Android Central has them as Well. B33

Here's a good charger you can use with your X an i have one for X it's a good charger

Motorola Micro-USB Rapid Travel Charger for Droid 2

Cody21

You will get a much faster charge using the wall outlet. The USB charger is not as powerful as your AC. Just the way it is.

B33

Correct Mr Cody Thank you! B33 i forgot to add that :smileyhappy:

SirCheese69

Well, that's obvious, but not my point. The phone does charge on USB, but to take almost an hour to even power on after plugging into USB, where there is no option at the time to use a wall charger, and that to me, is unacceptable.

SirCheese69

My charger, was a wall charger with a USB port. And a USB cable.

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