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Can usb charging damage the baterry?

When i plug my samsung omnia to the usb port it starts charging automaticly. This can be turned off with a third party app but it is really a pain in the butt as it makes me change the registry every time.
Anyway, i read somewhere that nowadays batteries won't get damage if you start charging them even if they aren't fully drained. Something like "baterry memory effect is a thing from the past."
Is this true?
Thanks in advance!

No, USb charging is the best way to charge your phone according to sticky over in the Nexus One forum. It emits the least ammount of energy to your phone making it less damaging to the battery. Car charging is the worst due to such a fast and high volume transfer rate.

I would agree, usb charging is much better than using the mains and heaven forbid using a car charger.
The usb does not give out the full 5v and while this may be a problem for usb cd-dvd’s or usn hard drives it is an advantage to us as this has the effect of trickle charging the battery and if done correctly this will in time condition your battery.
Many years ago I had the old SPV E100 and this came with a desktop cradle and I used to leave my cradle at work and drop my phone in to the cradle and use the activesync remote control to respond to texts or ‘play’ with my phone.
The E100 would barley last a day on a full charge and the cradle could not charge directly and you had to plug the charger into the cradle to make it charge. Then posts started appearing stating that with a single wire you could make the cradle charge from usb and I quickly made this mod to my cradle and hey presto I was charging from usb while at work.
I did not realise at the time the benefits of usb charging but I used to put my phone on the cradle in the morning, take it out during lunch, plug it back after lunch and take off when I go home and I used to do this almost every day and after six months or so I noticed that I could take my phone off the cradle at 5:00pm on Friday and it would still be running by Sunday lunchtime and all through usb charging.
I think I was lucky as the battery would only last a day and if you did the same on a modern device with a battery that lasts say three or four days it may not work out the same. I now have the TG01 and you will see by the reviews it has a very low capacity battery and using the same kind of trick it seems to be doing the same, its early days but so far so good.

What about day to day random connecting the phone to the pc via usb?
What about day to day random connecting the phone to the pc via usb for any other purposes than charging? Like activesync?
I use to connect a few times a day for periods of 4 or 5 minutes and then disconnect, and i am afraid of batterry side effects.
Should i be worried?

Hi again, officially speaking it should not make any difference but I would avoid plugging in for such short periods of time.
If you have a newer HTC device you may be lucky enough to have an option in the power settings something like ‘disable charging while plugged into pc’ if you tick this box you can plug and unplug to your hearts content but you will not charge.
If you anticipate being plugged in for quite some time then disable this option (if you have it). The only other way to avoid this is to look on Ebay and you will find usb sync/charge leads but you will find some with two usb connectors. One for data only and one for power only so you can charge without syncing or sync without charging or plug both in and sync and charge.
Fortunately for me once its plugged in it tends to stay plugged in for the rest of the day.

dr_strangetrick said:
Hi again, officially speaking it should not make any difference but I would avoid plugging in for such short periods of time.
If you have a newer HTC device you may be lucky enough to have an option in the power settings something like ‘disable charging while plugged into pc’ if you tick this box you can plug and unplug to your hearts content but you will not charge.
If you anticipate being plugged in for quite some time then disable this option (if you have it). The only other way to avoid this is to look on Ebay and you will find usb sync/charge leads but you will find some with two usb connectors. One for data only and one for power only so you can charge without syncing or sync without charging or plug both in and sync and charge.
Fortunately for me once its plugged in it tends to stay plugged in for the rest of the day.
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Thanks you so much for replying back. I don't have that option you mentioned but i downloaded a app that turns off usb charge. But thats a pain to do because it makes me mess with the registry everytime i want to turn that option off.
I would use bluetooth but i can't make my phone sync with my pc with it. I even created a thread asking for help but i got no awnser back http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7257183#post7257183
I am a bit lost here. Anyways thank you for the help. At least now i know that it isn't that risky, although sometimes i need to connect my phone to the pc for text messaging or any other stuff that doesn't take more than 10 minutes.
Damn i would love to sync my phone with pc via bluetooth or wi-fi..

Noob here, not the OP, but thanks for this info. I had no idea car charging was a bad thing. Will make a habit of charging from the USB in the future.

Hi again, just read your other post and I remember when I got my Omnia I had to use bluetooth sync as it did not come with a cable.
I used this http://www.geekzone.co.nz/content.asp?contentid=3163 guide.
I know it says Windows XP but once I had my phone set and I plugged my bluetooth dongle into my work machine and set the comm port it worked and that was Windows 7 also.
On the downside syncing via usb will suck your battery pretty quickly (about the same as being on a call)

Slingplayer Drains Battery Faster Than USB Can Charge It

I bought the SlingPlayer app as a way to listen to news at work while I do my work. What I have noticed is that plugging it into my USB port slows down the battery drain of the app, but the power draw caused by the app is more than the USB port can provide, so after enough time, I have to shut down SlingPlayer to let the battery recharge.
Are there any settings that I can do (under clock?) to reduce the power draw?
Would finding a two male USB to micro USB cable from somewhere(?) do the trick, or is that dangerous doubling the amperage?
I am hoping there is an option that does not involve a power adapter, because all the plugs are already taken.

Usually computer usb ports are only 500mA. The wall charger that came with the phone is 700mA and the phone itself it's 1000mA.
So the phone is using 1000mA while you're providing it only 1/2 of the power it needs.
I would recommend getting a usb wall charger that supplies 1000mA or if you can find the Y usb cable for your computer that would work too.

Reduce brightness by 50% see if that helps , screen is biggest power consumer on cell phones. Or just power it from wall charger not computer USB port.

another way to increase battery life

well not necessarily,
BUT
the phone has TWO modes of charging.
UBS and AC Charger.
USB recharges about 400-500mah
AC recharges about 900mah
This is flagged by a pin on the USB. BUT this is also flagged in the OS somewhere.
This is done in windows mobile via software hack so the OS thinks it's always on AC charger.
I'm just throwing this out there if someone can figure out what code is flagging the system to think this is UBS or AC connected.

i think the AC method just reduces the charging time, other than increases battery life. Right?

imleon said:
i think the AC method just reduces the charging time, other than increases battery life. Right?
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Yep. But I think that's what he's getting at. He wants it to charge just as fast while on usb. There's no way to increase battery life... other than buying a higher capacity battery.

jp2012 said:
There's no way to increase battery life... other than buying a higher capacity battery.
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Click to collapse
Or using Collins Battery Tweak. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=791060

you can try that but no matter what yo u cant get anymore power out a USB. if a USB does 4-500 then even if it was hacked it would only output 4-500. If anything it might damage the phone.

Only real possibility I can think of usb charging any faster is if you made a double headed usb cord (for plugging into two usb ports) it won't hurt anything, matter of fact Arduino boards can be used like this as well as external cd/dvd drives without dedicated power, and even some low power routers (like my fon router)
At either rate, even if this were to work, you have to think about how the phone itself rates the incoming power. It may have nothing to do with the actual power charging mode coming into the phone (preferable for dual usb method), but if it has anything to do with just hardware, then it is most probably a no go because of the power balancing in the phone itself.
As far as the pin solution on usb, that may very well help out. I am sure it can range on the incoming power from the plug with that.

If you carefully open a usb charging cable and short the green and white wires on the pc side, with a 200 ohm resistor, the pc will output higher amperage and not let the phone switch into pc charge mode. You will not be able to sync with that cable but it will charge your phone like your ac outlet as long as it is a usb 2.0 port.

Why not just buy a charger for a MOTO Razr? Thats why I use and it charges my phone fairly quickly, but slow enough to put more of a deep charge into the battery.
The less amperage you put towards charging a battery, will actually charge the battery "more".

[Q] Can't charge off PC USB?

My Photon Q won't charge off a PC USB port, or my laptop. Is this common? Thanks.

Are you using the usb cable that came with the phone? Reason I ask....I've discovered this phone is extremely picky about the cables you use. So far of the ones I have on hand, I can only consistently charge while in the car using my Belkin usb charging adapter with the Motorola cable that came with the phone. That includes a fairly nice ferrite core 6ft usb cable I got from Monoprice...which it works fine at home on AC, but in the car it stutters back and forth between charging and not charging.

Just today I used a cheap USB cable I bought off of ebay to charge my PQ using my laptop.
Its one of the ones sold as "HTC OEM USB Charger + cable" on ebay for like 3 bucks.
I also charge it at home using a green 3m cable from ebay, also bought for like 3 bucks lol.

Does it require that drivers be installed on the PC to get a charge? I've tried a few cables that I have laying around. I'll see if I can find other cables to try. The weird thing is if the phone is off, and plugged in, the LED lights up green, as if it's charging. But using the same cable, if the phone is on, it won't acknowledge that it is plugged in.

tcrimsonk said:
Does it require that drivers be installed on the PC to get a charge? I've tried a few cables that I have laying around. I'll see if I can find other cables to try. The weird thing is if the phone is off, and plugged in, the LED lights up green, as if it's charging. But using the same cable, if the phone is on, it won't acknowledge that it is plugged in.
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No, I wouldn't think so...
I've been able to charge off of many different USB cables on my Q. Not sure... Only thing it's been picky on so far is the wall wart - cable it hasn't seemed too picky about.

If its an old desktop with USB 1.1 it may not charge, and many laptops won't allow charging via USB if the laptop itself is not plugged into AC. Just a thought.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app

bryanfritz1 said:
If its an old desktop with USB 1.1 it may not charge, and many laptops won't allow charging via USB if the laptop itself is not plugged into AC. Just a thought.
Sent from my XT897 using xda app-developers app
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Very good point ^^^. I've heard some laptops, even when plugged in, still don't provide enough juice to charge (some) devices. Perhaps your laptop is one of these low-power USB port devices.

ive noticed that this phone is picky about what charger you use. i have a hard time charging on my pc as well. and certain micro usb's i have dont seem to charge it well either. needs to be the stock plug it came with.

I've basically given up at this point. Blackberry AC chargers work well for me, so I'll try and track down a few more of them. Otherwise, nothing is consistent. The desktop I've used has a plenty big enough power supply, and it charges my Epic with no problem. My personal laptop and work laptop both charged the Epic, but not the Photon Q. I guess I'll just have to carry around a charger instead of a MicroUSB cable when I'm on the road with my laptop.
Thanks, all.

tcrimsonk said:
I've basically given up at this point. Blackberry AC chargers work well for me, so I'll try and track down a few more of them. Otherwise, nothing is consistent. The desktop I've used has a plenty big enough power supply, and it charges my Epic with no problem. My personal laptop and work laptop both charged the Epic, but not the Photon Q. I guess I'll just have to carry around a charger instead of a MicroUSB cable when I'm on the road with my laptop.
Thanks, all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All,
For what little it's worth, I just noticed that the words "Not Charging" come up on the lock screen whenever I connect to the USB port of my laptop or desktop. So the PQ knows it's plugged in; it just refuses to accept the charge.

Also, whenever the battery completely dies, the phone will start to charge. It will charge for a few minutes until it has enough battery to turn itself on. As soon as it turns on, it stops charging, and a minute later, shuts down because of the dead battery. Then it starts charging again. This basically gives me an endless loop of the phone charging, starting, discharging, and shutting back off. I can't even get it to stay off long enough to get a useful charge without turning on automatically.

Yeah, the only issue I've had with this phone at all is the extreme 'quirkiness' it has in regards to charging on anything other than the stock usb cord & power adapter it plugs into. Even using the Moto vehicle dock for the Q, its completely hit/miss on charging. It will *often* go into that 'Not Charging' state where its kind of keeping sort of a baseline/'stalemate' of the current charge level for me, not really going down but not charging back up either. Not really sure what's up with that. With my vehicle dock for the longest I kept thinking maybe my cig lighter port on my car is bad, but I don't have issues with my radar detector at all.

Had the same problem with the not charging a few days back. I was leaving the phone in Mass Storage mode because just getting it into Mass Storage was a headache originally.
Hooked it up to it's original cable and woke up with 65% battery. Switched from mass storage to charge only and it started charging.
Not sure if it was caused by being in Mass Storage and wouldn't charge but now I put in Charge Only before bed.

It always works (in my experience) with the original cable that comes with it regardless, its anything else where its quirky.

PythonFanTN said:
It always works (in my experience) with the original cable that comes with it regardless, its anything else where its quirky.
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Isn't there a setting in ##3282# that enables and disables USB charging? Y'all have probably thought of this already. Anyways just thought if throw that out there. This is my first android that was not a low usage device. I know very little about it. I seriously think xda should make tee shirts that say "everything I have learned in life I learned from xda".

My phone was not charging in debugging mode yesterday.
Sent from my XT897 using xda premium

[Q] Problem with charger

Hello,
I didn't use my tablet since 2 month and last week, i installed team EOS 4.2.2 JB rom.
After, my cable did'nt worked, When i tried to conect it to my computer, there was an error message that the tablet wasn't detect correctly.
And when i put the cable into the charger and the table to charge on the wall, i saw the icon on the right corner of the tablet charging but in the information battery, i sax that "Disconect" and the tablet % didn't grow up.... So i thought the cable was dead and i bouth one new on ebay.
With the new cable, no problem the tablet was detect and the charging with the charger was good. But after 2 days, i had new problems.
when i conect the tablet on my laptop, all is OK, the tablet is detect normally. But whn i try to charging with the charger on the wall, the tablet doesn't charge. I see the icon in the right corner is charging but in the battery informations, i see "disconect" again and the battery doesn't charge.
Yesterday, i saw a topic that i can put the charger on the freezer, i put it alle the night and i tried this morning but nothing the tablet does'nt charge.
On the charger, there is 2 parts, I open the little part with removing a screw and i tried to little move the 2 metal parts but nothing alwas the same problem.
So i think now the problem is not the new cable but the charger.... I know it's a specific voltage and if i try with my HTC ONE X charger, this will not work...
But maybe it's a problem with the tablet connect port?
I changed the rom and i installed the Cyanogen 4.2.2 this morning, and now when i conect the cable, with the computer, it's OK i see my tablet but the icon on the table isn't charging and i see "disconect in the battery information". And with the charger wall, it's the same, i have charge icon and i have disconect in the battery information
Do you think i must buy a new charger?
Sorry for my poor English my French

Try a trickle charge from the USB PC > Tablet
Plug the tablet cable into PC USB port and turn off the screen, then leave to trickle charge overnight
If you have the screen on it will not charge, so best to leave it off for a few hours to test if it is a charger problem

*Detection* said:
Try a trickle charge from the USB PC > Tablet
Plug the tablet cable into PC USB port and turn off the screen, then leave to trickle charge overnight
If you have the screen on it will not charge, so best to leave it off for a few hours to test if it is a charger problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Tried to connect PC USB > tablet with the screen turn off. It's not work
I tried to PC USB > tablet turn off and it's not work too...
the problem is the charger connextion on my tablet?

kevin761 said:
I Tried to connect PC USB > tablet with the screen turn off. It's not work
I tried to PC USB > tablet turn off and it's not work too...
the problem is the charger connextion on my tablet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you use PC USB to charge, it will not show charging on the screen, you have to leave it overnight for best test results
The freezer trick should only be used for about 20 minutes just to cool the charger down and reset the cutout
Try trickle charge overnight, if it works, its the charger

I think this is because tablet use a lot of power when in use and that is why the tablet is discharging when you use it. PC has even less powerful USB charger so the tablet will probably be recharging VERY slowly or even discharging when you use it.
You should leave tablet overnight to recharge and it is better to charge it in one piece than constantly plugging and unplugging it from PC.
Have a nice day,
Žiga

ZigaG said:
I think this is because tablet use a lot of power when in use and that is why the tablet is discharging when you use it. PC has even less powerful USB charger so the tablet will probably be recharging VERY slowly or even discharging when you use it.
You should leave tablet overnight to recharge and it is better to charge it in one piece than constantly plugging and unplugging it from PC.
Have a nice day,
Žiga
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to charge and use it at the same time with the actual charger plugged in, but you are correct, with the PC you can not use and charge unless you mod your USB ports for extra power

Ok i will try to conect the tablet (power off) all the night to my computer but i think it will not charge...
And if it's not work, it's not a problem with the cable because i can use the cable to transfer media PC> Tablet, so it's a problem on the tablet connector?

Hello,
My tablet was charging all the night. She was at 22% and now 38.... It's very slow!!! But now, i know that my tablet and my cable are OK and my charger is the problem.
There is a solution to repair my charger or i must buy an other?

I'm searching to conect an old cable to my charger for rc cars. Whith my charger rc car, i can charge Nimh, Nicd and lipo accus.
I cutted an old cable for tf101. I think it's a USB 3.0 because i have 5 little cables.
I think i need to charge at 15V-1A... But i wouldlike to know what are the colors of negative and positive cable because in my TF101 cable i have this colors:
white-green-red-orange-yellow...

kevin761 said:
I'm searching to conect an old cable to my charger for rc cars. Whith my charger rc car, i can charge Nimh, Nicd and lipo accus.
I cutted an old cable for tf101. I think it's a USB 3.0 because i have 5 little cables.
I think i need to charge at 15V-1A... But i wouldlike to know what are the colors of negative and positive cable because in my TF101 cable i have this colors:
white-green-red-orange-yellow...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1087321

Try this, separate charger and its pins, then take it along with the cable and put it in a zip pouch, now freeze for say 2 hrs. Take it out let it return to normal temperature and then try charging. Remember freeze them in a zip pouch (air tight)
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda app-developers app