Charging Cell Phone from Computer

rag@nospam.techline.com (Mr. Strat) wrote in
news:130320080446026785%rag@nospam.techline.com:

> In article <Xns9A5F4FE24F122VeebleFetzer@127.0.0.1>, Bert Hyman
><bert@iphouse.com> wrote:
>
>> I've seen reports that you can charge from some Macs without any
>> drivers.
>
> Any Mac running OS X should be able to charge it without anything
> special except for a regular USB cable.

So Macs can do it, PCs running Linux and Vista can do it, but PCs
running XP can't without the Motorola drivers.

What's XP doing differently? Is XP "wrong" or just different but
within specs?

I've also read that plugging into a simple powered USB port (like
those cute automobile cigarette lighter adapters) won't charge a
Motorola phone either.

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

---

› See More: Charging Cell Phone from Computer

On 13 Mar 2008 12:56:42 GMT, Bert Hyman <bert@iphouse.com> wrote:

>So Macs can do it, PCs running Linux and Vista can do it, but PCs
>running XP can't without the Motorola drivers.
>
>What's XP doing differently? Is XP "wrong" or just different but
>within specs?

I think it's just a matter of that ability not being included in XP.
Remember, XP is basically an old OS. Although we have had SP1 and SP2
(M$ will release SP3 soon), and there have been monthly updates at
least, much technology exists now that wasn't even dreamed of when XP
was first released nearly 6½ years ago.

Larc



§§§ - Change planet to earth to reply by email - §§§

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:56:42 +0000, Bert Hyman wrote:
>
> I've also read that plugging into a simple powered USB port (like
> those cute automobile cigarette lighter adapters) won't charge a
> Motorola phone either.
>
I charge my V3r with the cable that came with my TomTom.

yoyo@foo.bar (yoyo) wrote in
news:47d954b2$0$31316$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com:

> On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:56:42 +0000, Bert Hyman wrote:
>>
>> I've also read that plugging into a simple powered USB port (like
>> those cute automobile cigarette lighter adapters) won't charge a
>> Motorola phone either.
>>
> I charge my V3r with the cable that came with my TomTom.

What's on the other end of the cable?

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

In message <47d954b2$0$31316$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com> yoyo
<yoyo@foo.bar> wrote:

>On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 12:56:42 +0000, Bert Hyman wrote:
>>
>> I've also read that plugging into a simple powered USB port (like
>> those cute automobile cigarette lighter adapters) won't charge a
>> Motorola phone either.
>>
>I charge my V3r with the cable that came with my TomTom.

It's not usually the cable that is important, but rather, whether the
charger supplies the Razr with whatever signal it needs to know there is
a dedicated charger attached rather then a computer or USB hub without
proper drivers.

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:12:18 +0000, Bert Hyman wrote:

>
> What's on the other end of the cable?
>

The TomTom came with two chargers; a car charger(cigarette lighter
adapter), and a 110v wall wart charger. Both of them work just fine on
the V3r. I like the car charger more because I used to run an inverter to
power the wall-wart that came with the V3r.

I keep seeing ppl say there is something wrong with the Motorola, but I
have had no problem interchanging among four USB cables and two wall
warts. More likely they have a bad/crippled cable, or a Windows PC the
lacks the Motorola driver.

yoyo@foo.bar (yoyo) wrote in
news:47d98cb4$0$31316$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com:

> I keep seeing ppl say there is something wrong with the Motorola,
> but I have had no problem interchanging among four USB cables and
> two wall warts.

There is something "wrong" with Motorola phones; you apparently have
two chargers from the same vendor that perform the correct magic trick
to wake up your phone.

> More likely they have a bad/crippled cable,

While it's possible to have a bad cable, even good cables exhibit the
same problem.

> or a Windows PC the lacks the Motorola driver.

That part's correct.

http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-A-N...r_pinout.shtml

--
Bert Hyman | St. Paul, MN | bert@iphouse.com

On Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:23:34 +0000, Bert Hyman wrote:

>> There is something "wrong" with Motorola phones; you apparently have
> two chargers from the same vendor that perform the correct magic trick
> to wake up your phone.
> http://pinouts.ru/CellularPhones-A-N...r_pinout.shtml
>
Yep, it is a Motorola defect.

My experience indicates that it is not that hard to get a cable that is
not crippled.

Quoting from the link:
"RAZR V3 will not charge by simply supplying 5V through USB (it's possible
to use common USB cable for charging if you are using Motorola special PC
driver software).". I'll bet most problems are Windows driver based and
the cable is just fine.

I would think it is fair to say it is way beyond possible; but it is highly
likely your cable will work. A cable that doesn't work can easily be
replaced with a standard cable.

In article <47d844f7$0$10312$c3e8da3@news.astraweb.com>, yoyo@foo.bar
says...
> OK, it is a Windows driver issue. I use Ubuntu and apparently the driver
> is already built in.
>
My L6 charges without any OS installed at all! I happened to plug it in
while building a new system and it charged happily.

What won't work is charging if the battery's too flat - for that you
have to use the mains charger.