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[Q] Charging ASUS transformer using computer?

I wanted to know if it is possible to charge the ASUS transformer using a computer?
Is there any hack for it?

umasood said:
I wanted to know if it is possible to charge the ASUS transformer using a computer?
Is there any hack for it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
IIRC it will charge if the transformer is turned off but very slowly
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

When I was driving the other day with it connected to the USB charger in the car (same as PC USB) and it got 4% in about an hour.

isnt this the biggest DOWN SIDE of TF.
Like this is such a basic feature these days that you should be able to charge your android device using PC usb/ charger etc.
I thought there would be some hacks for this. or is this a hardware specific lacking?

The USB plug on the Sync/Charge cable of the Transformer is a USB 3.0 plug. It uses the extra pins of the USB 3.0 for the electricity to charge.

umasood said:
isnt this the biggest DOWN SIDE of TF.
Like this is such a basic feature these days that you should be able to charge your android device using PC usb/ charger etc.
I thought there would be some hacks for this. or is this a hardware specific lacking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think this issue is specific to the Transformer. I seem to recall that the iPad comes with a high-current charger, and charges slowly if done via a computer. I think the issue is that the battery is much larger than any smartphone battery, and the USB port spec was created to power things like mice and USB memory sticks, and provides a low current. This way it also won't overload the host computer's power supply and cause stability issues on the computer.

nxt said:
The USB plug on the Sync/Charge cable of the Transformer is a USB 3.0 plug. It uses the extra pins of the USB 3.0 for the electricity to charge.
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Click to collapse
the extra wires in USB 3.0 cables are for higher speed transfers the voltage is still 5.0V the TF uses one of the wires to signal the power supply to provide 15V vs 5 V. The connector is not a true USB 3.0 If you want to charge mobile ,just connect the 12VDC from your vehicle to pins 1 and 4.

After reading this i put my transformer in the USB 3 socket and hey presto... trickle charge enabled! It doesnt say that its dojing it but mine went up from 95 - 96% in the 10 mins i had it pluged in (whilst on it)

mazimo said:
After reading this i put my transformer in the USB 3 socket and hey presto... trickle charge enabled! It doesnt say that its dojing it but mine went up from 95 - 96% in the 10 mins i had it pluged in (whilst on it)
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Awesome, it would only take like 16h to charge it from empty to full then! ... compared to ~1.5-2h depending on use with the 15v charger.
But if you want to charge it from the PC, just hook it up to the 12v rail on the PSU (build a molex to usb adapter or similar)
Edit: what would be interesting though, is if you could charge and sync at the same time by connecting the data cables to a usb port, but keep the power cables hooked to the 12v rail. Or maybe the TF shuts down all sync stuff when its charging...

Just a quick update... After 6 hours if gone up to a whapping...... 76%
I guess it was just playing trick on me!!!! sorry to get peoples hopes up.

Go look at USB3.0 specs. You do not have the current and Voltage necessary to do anything more than a slow trickle charge. 3.0 os basically 2.0 with an extra pair of wires for faster data transfer not higher voltage. The connector on the TF charger is not wired to USB3.0 standards.

The AC adapter reconfigures itself when it recognizes the asus tablet and it gives 12v instead of 5volts. Just tried now and it's working.

Question about charging

Reading the manual, it says after charging the first time, that the tablet can be charged by USB if there is enough power through the USB port. I put an extension between the Asus adapter and the proprietary cord, and it won't charge unless directly connected to the adapter. I have USB 3 port on my computer that gives out higher than standard power, and I have a USB port in my car, and this tablet won't charge on anything except a direct single asus wire connection to the Asus adapter. Is this correct? It seems that I may have a defective tablet.
Are there any other people having this issue.

USB 3.0
pixel-painter said:
Reading the manual, it says after charging the first time, that the tablet can be charged by USB if there is enough power through the USB port. I put an extension between the Asus adapter and the proprietary cord, and it won't charge unless directly connected to the adapter. I have USB 3 port on my computer that gives out higher than standard power, and I have a USB port in my car, and this tablet won't charge on anything except a direct single asus wire connection to the Asus adapter. Is this correct? It seems that I may have a defective tablet.
Are there any other people having this issue.
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The USB extension also needs to be USB 3.0. Is the one you're using?

The extension was to the power outlet in the wall.
I wonder if the Asus chord is made for USB 3 then?
Sent from my brain to my hand to XDA

Is your extension just a USB extension or a powered USB extension? Maybe it carries data but not power? Can you charge other devices with the extension (and do they actually charge at a decent rate)?

Yes! I charge my htc sensation on it all the time. But I more than that, I am trying to find out if others are able to charge via the Asus proprietary USB cord to another source such as a computer or car etc.....
as opposed to using the wall power adapter from Asus
Sent from my brain to my hand to XDA

I also can't get the tf700 to charge with any adapter other than the supplied charger. I've tried 500mA, 1A and 1.9A (from a Nook color) USB chargers and none work.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

pearl62 said:
I also can't get the tf700 to charge with any adapter other than the supplied charger. I've tried 500mA, 1A and 1.9A (from a Nook color) USB chargers and none work.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
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I am quite certain that it says in the user manual that it is possible to charge via USB, i don't have it with me at work, but can someone verify this.... it could be a major issue for some, and needs to be addressed. I know that the battery power at full charge is not going to last all day for me, and being able to charge via USB is really important since i am in sales so i do not have access to an electrical outlet, but i do have a USB port in my car.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium

I'll add my personal experience to this...
When I got the tablet I put in a basic USB extension cable between the tablet cable and the outlet adapter. I didn't notice for an hour or so that it wasn't saying it was "charging".
Except...in that hour the battery hadn't gone at all.
And with the screen off and left to its own devices it will charge to 100%.
So I guess the point is this, it may not say its charging but it is getting power. If you're using it as like an overnight charging thing, it should work just fine.

Doesn't the manual say that you need to power it off before changing over USB?

Splaktar said:
Doesn't the manual say that you need to power it off before changing over USB?
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Thanks for pointing this out.
I'll have to check this out, but I hope one doesn't need to have to restart a tablet, just to change the power source. Kind of a pain

troa11 said:
I'll add my personal experience to this...
When I got the tablet I put in a basic USB extension cable between the tablet cable and the outlet adapter. I didn't notice for an hour or so that it wasn't saying it was "charging".
Except...in that hour the battery hadn't gone at all.
And with the screen off and left to its own devices it will charge to 100%.
So I guess the point is this, it may not say its charging but it is getting power. If you're using it as like an overnight charging thing, it should work just fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So maybe it is charging a little, even though it says it isn't. I think I will try this out and leave it for a few hours or overnight as a test.

pixel-painter said:
So maybe it is charging a little, even though it says it isn't. I think I will try this out and leave it for a few hours or overnight as a test.
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Click to collapse
So I plugged into the USB port and the power level was at 78%, I left it plugged in for about 5 hours and when i rechecked, it read 97%. The whole time it read as Not charging. This is good news, I really need that feature. It is interesting that it reads as Not charging, this must be a software error.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium

See this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1788055

Charging via USB

When I plug in my Infinity to start transferring stuff from my computer...it doesn't charge. I don't remember if I read if it worked or not? Anyone want to confirm? I know someone said something about the dock not being able to charge, but the tablet should.

KilerG said:
When I plug in my Infinity to start transferring stuff from my computer...it doesn't charge. I don't remember if I read if it worked or not? Anyone want to confirm? I know someone said something about the dock not being able to charge, but the tablet should.
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I don't think the USB on a computer is powerful enough. My old iPad couldn't charge from a computer either.
Sent from my 3d porn machine.

Someone in the TF300 section mentioned that theirs would only charge from USB if it were completely off, and even then it charged pretty slowly. I wouldn't be surprised if the 700 were the same.

Mine charges when I hook it up on the USB port of an Ubuntu machine. But very slowly since the current is low.

I've heard a lot of different tablets don't charge via USB. That sucks...it just drains away battery while sitting there copying, slowly might I add, via MTP. I'm charging it now...I'll let it sit and transfer some more after a full charge.

Same, no charging from laptop.
I'll live though

wolfman87 said:
Same, no charging from laptop.
I'll live though
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Well unfortunately the only way to move large files to my tablet is via MTP and if my battery is getting low then I'm screwed lol.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

KilerG said:
Well unfortunately the only way to move large files to my tablet is via MTP and if my battery is getting low then I'm screwed lol.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Yea, I had about 24% battery when I rooted and it was worrying me to since it wasn't charging at the same time. Then I realized that 24% on a tablet is a lot more than 24% on a phone. Whew!

I hope it was not a dream but i plugged my tablet on my laptop and, while it was in halt mode (thus not power off per say), it charged itself up to 100%. So basically, my answer would be that it does charge itself on a computer, but it is far from being enough to cover both the use of a tablet and the charging process. And btw, since mtp is awful-as-hell slow, shouldn't we use like ftp servers or through-ssh transfers ?

Ralganaziel said:
I hope it was not a dream but i plugged my tablet on my laptop and, while it was in halt mode (thus not power off per say), it charged itself up to 100%. So basically, my answer would be that it does charge itself on a computer, but it is far from being enough to cover both the use of a tablet and the charging process. And btw, since mtp is awful-as-hell slow, shouldn't we use like ftp servers or through-ssh transfers ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a couple of mentions in the manual regarding the USB charging.
The first one being "Ensure that your ASUS Transformer Pad is turned off before charging it via your computer's USB port."
And the second, "The ASUS Transformer Pad cannot be charged via the USB Dock cable when it is connected to the mobile dock."
So, I guess it proves that USB current is just not enough to sustain tablet's use and charge the battery at the same time.

sapienssapiens said:
Mine charges when I hook it up on the USB port of an Ubuntu machine. But very slowly since the current is low.
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I know what you meant, but can't help noticing it should be about the speed of light anyway...

Some of the newer tablets are using usb3 charging plugs for the wall outlets. If you know some or have a usb3 port on a computer, you could try that and see if it charges faster than the us2 ports. The t300/prime/t700 all use usb3 plugs.
I transfer stuff by the micro sd card, adapter, and my computers card reader. It's not as convenient as plug and go but I'm usually transferring video files to watch at work and they are large.

Ralganaziel said:
I hope it was not a dream but i plugged my tablet on my laptop and, while it was in halt mode (thus not power off per say), it charged itself up to 100%. So basically, my answer would be that it does charge itself on a computer, but it is far from being enough to cover both the use of a tablet and the charging process. And btw, since mtp is awful-as-hell slow, shouldn't we use like ftp servers or through-ssh transfers ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought that MTP was already bad, but adding the slow I/O on top of it is painful. What's the best way to transfer stuff?
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

Some of the newer tablets are using usb3 charging plugs for the wall outlets. If you know some or have a usb3 port on a computer, you could try that and see if it charges faster than the us2 ports. The t300/prime/t700 all use usb3 plugs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You hit the nail on the head. I think I saw someone here mention theirs would wall charge if they had used a usb extension with the wall charger - and it turned out that the extension was only usb 2 which prevented charging.

I posted a thread about this in the Q&A section.
Basically, from my own experiments and some other people's observations in that thread:-
If you are using the tablet while it is plugged into a USB port, the power will drain very slowly or maintain the same level.
If you plug it into a USB port and walk away, it will power up.
I left it plugged into a high power USB 3 port at 78% and left it for about 4 hours, when I returned it was at 97%. and it continued to read as "Not charging"
For some reason, when the tablet is plugged into a USB port, the battery info says that it's "Not charging" but it is.

I left it plugged into a high power USB 3 port at 78% and left it for about 4 hours, when I returned it was at 97%. and it continued to read as "Not charging"
-------------------
There is a small trickle effect of power which is why the manual says to have the tablet off. That trickle effect is what you are seeing. It could be a computer doesn't supply enough power to its usb ports regardless if it's usb2 or usb3. The wall adapter could be pulling more power in it's design. If you search amazon you can find non Asus data cables. I've used one on my prime after my cat chewed the original. I think it is like 6 bucks for the cable. I don't know there is an off brand product for the actual wall plug. But it's something to look into if your interested in having more than one recharging locations.

I'm not so sure that makes sense to me. 30% increase in power in 4 hours, seems like more than a small trickle effect of power, and doesn't the infinity manual says you can charge via USB.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium

USB is 5 volts. Asus Transformer uses like a 12 Volt Charger. On my TF300T, the pad would actually still lose battery life if I put it on performance mode (rooted 1.6 ghz overclock). On balanced it would depend on what I was doing. I imagine the TF700 is the same. On the plus side, because the charger is 12 volts, it also charges the battery a lot faster. Plugging in my ipad 2 into my iphone charger seemed to recharge so slowly.

I dont know about the tf700, but I downloaded the Asus Ai charger and i can charge the ipad2/3 and the ipad shows that its charging. It a different case when I tried plugging in the Asus transformer prime... nothing.. Its wierd and Asus charging program lets the ipad charge but not the prime.

pixel-painter said:
For some reason, when the tablet is plugged into a USB port, the battery info says that it's "Not charging" but it is.
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Click to collapse
This!
As much as I love this machine, its software is terrible.

[Q] Do you need the AC adapter to charge this tablet?

I went to europe recently and brought along my TF-700. I have come back and cannot find the part that plugs into the wall that came with my transformer. Plugging it into another ASUS adapter (from my N7, for example) doesn't seem to charge the dock, nor does plugging the cable into a USB port on my computer. So my question is this: will this thing only charge with the factory plug that came with the Transformer? I don't want to pay 40 bucks for a new one if I can avoid it.

This thread might shed some light -TF700 charger/cable requirements?
Long story short, you'll need something capable of pushing 15 Volts at 2 Amps to get charging while the device is on. Other variations of voltage might work while the device is off. Most computers won't push 2A through USB. I'm a little surprised the N7 adapter doesn't do you any good, I've used generic 120V AC to USB adapters to charge the TF700 in the past.

If you put the charger cable in the tablet and the usb end in the tf dock, it will charge the tablet!

Basically, Yes. Any other Transformer chargers will work, as will any 15V adapters from other sources. The N7 adapter gives off 5V. It may be 2A, but the voltage is too low.
The AC adapter gives 15 Volt. A USB port only gives 5v, as do all regular USB chargers. The TF700 starts detecting a charge at 12V (light/notificationbar). At 5V, it will charge about 1-3% an hour, which is less than/equal to the amount if drains whilst sleeping. Oh, and if you have any other USB cable attached between the TF700's charger cable and the charger, make sure it's a USB3.0. Anything else doesn't allow enough voltage to pass through.
The Infinity Manual: (People, READ THIS THING. Even if you didn't get it in the box, it's on the official website.)
Page 10:
- Ensure that your ASUS Transformer Pad is turned off before charging it via your computer's USB port.
- Charging through the USB port may take a longer time to complete.
- If your computer does not provide enough power for the ASUS Transformer Pad, use the wall outlet instead.
Page 83, not relevant in this case, but to others who try:
- The ASUS Transformer Pad cannot be charged through the USB dock when it is connected to the mobile dock.
usern ameisval idandnot said:
If you put the charger cable in the tablet and the usb end in the tf dock, it will charge the tablet!
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Click to collapse
If you have the dock, you can just dock the tablet in the dock the way it's supposed to......

seems I can charge my tablet using 5volt chargers?

I plugged in my tablet to the computer and was surprise to see it's charging.
So I suppose I can charge my tablet using 5volt wall chargers? thanks!

If I remember correctly then yes this possible but it will charge slower (the charger delivers less power).

domsj said:
If I remember correctly then yes this possible, but it will charge slower (the charger delivers less power).
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Click to collapse
True. The Asus charger supplies 5 volts on 3 pins=15 volts
Quite often, a regular 5 volt usb will only supply a slight bit more, if any, voltage required to just run it.

Charge? yes. 1-3% per hour, provided it is turned OFF or completely asleep. Some motherboards support additional voltage to the USB port, and if it's a USB3.0, it might just work. (I got rid of that on my work pc, as it also tends to kill phone batteries.)
Did you get this piece of paper with your tablet? Says "Manual" on the front? If not, it's on the Asus website.
Page 10:
- Ensure that your ASUS Transformer Pad is turned off before charging it via your computer's USB port.
- Charging through the USB port may take a longer time to complete.
- If your computer does not provide enough power for the ASUS Transformer Pad, use the wall outlet instead.
Page 83, not relevant in this case, but to others who try:
- The ASUS Transformer Pad cannot be charged through the USB dock when it is connected to the mobile dock.