Charging from a USB port when PC is not on

[j_lamb88@hotmail.com]

I have a blackberry 9000 that I use to charge through the USB port. The battery life on this device is very poor and I need to plug it in to charge almost every 8-10 hours (my husbands new 9700 has the same issue). I try to do this when I get home but it is a pain to wake up my PC that is in standby just to charge the device.

I have 2 questions
1) Is that battery life normal for blackberry devices or is my unit bad?

2) Does anyone know how to get my blackberry to charge without turning on the PC? I dont use the wall adapter because I have limited wall socket space in my apartment and dont want to crawl under my desk to plug and unplug cables.

thanks in advance for any help
J

[tsac]

1) make sure you dont have the Bluetooth running or another App on 7/24. The battery should last longer unless your talking or using the BB constantly.

2) crawl. most PC's need to be on to allow the USB port to work. Ever think of an extension cord?

[j_lamb88@hotmail.com]

Thanks for your info.

I did have bluetooth turned on so let me now try with it off. I also got feedback that if I receive a lot of messages and use the 3G a lot then the battery would die more quickly

regarding the extension cord etc. I live in a pretty old place where the wiring is not rated for too much power out of one socket. So while I have heard of extension cords etc i cannot use those.

thanks

[mikeytunes@yahoo.com.sg]

Hi TSAC. Technically the comment "most PC's need to be on to allow the USB port to work." needs clarification.
There are 2 issues that define what we mean by "work"
1) Does the USB port have power when PC is in standby. In most cases todays PCs have power supplied to the port when PC is in standby - this is company and PC dependent ofcourse.
2) HOWEVER, having power at the port does not mean that it can charge the phone. In most cases you cannot charge from the PC even if power is present

I have a Dell Latitude with powershare and ran into this issue. If you search for "powershare" on this forum you will get some threads and some help

[jbairdjr]

To say "in most cases you cannot charge from the PC even if power is present" is incorrect.
If Blackberry Desktop Software is installed, your Blackberry will charge through the USB connection

[tsac]

Ok , my effort was to indicate to a new member the items that can cause charging issues on a PC port. to avoid listing every possible reason or type of PC i simply said most.
Next do we need to list certifications on various electronics we have?

bottom line, he had bluetooth on so he was helped.

[mikeytunes@yahoo.com.sg]

To say "in most cases you cannot charge from the PC even if power is present" is incorrect.
If Blackberry Desktop Software is installed, your Blackberry will charge through the USB connection


Sorry - you are correct. I meant to say that "in most cases you cannot charge from the PC THAT IS IN STANDBY even if power is present". If the PC is ON ofcourse then ofcourse you can charge - but as you said you still need software installed to charge.
I had posted on another powershare issue posting that I got a corporate gift that allowed me to both charge when PC is in standby and without having to install the software. That is convenient because I can then charge from any PC. You can google for AGREENC or CSQUID....but I am not sure where you would go to buy it retail.....

[j_lamb88@hotmail.com]

Thanks a lot so much for your help - pretty proud that this lass actually did it on her own without having to ask her husband! :) This site really does have some experts with very different views. TSAC is right - In summary both my issues were solved.

1) Battery life - turning off the wireless things like bluetooth which I did not use helped significantly. I now only need to charge every 1-1.5 days instead of every 1/2 day.

2) Charging in standby. Per one of the suggestions, I went to AGREENC site but I did not see an option to buy the product. I will try contacting them via email and see if it does any good. I will also look around for other products that can do this and will keep you posted.

Thanks again Y'all.

[tsac]

Man, some people seem to be picky. :shock:

j_lamb88@<hidden> hope you have been helped with the Forum. Some people like to jump on every word but as you can see once you ignore the noise generally one or more suggestions will work or at least help..(y)

[pinback]

To say "in most cases you cannot charge from the PC even if power is present" is incorrect.
If Blackberry Desktop Software is installed, your Blackberry will charge through the USB connection


Sorry - you are correct. I meant to say that "in most cases you cannot charge from the PC THAT IS IN STANDBY even if power is present". If the PC is ON ofcourse then ofcourse you can charge - but as you said you still need software installed to charge.
I had posted on another powershare issue posting that I got a corporate gift that allowed me to both charge when PC is in standby and without having to install the software. That is convenient because I can then charge from any PC. You can google for AGREENC or CSQUID....but I am not sure where you would go to buy it retail.....

Software is not required to charge via USB. I plugged my Bold 9700 where group policy wouldn't even allow the drivers to be installed, yet it still charged.

[rbrooks86]

One thing I have noticed is that when I charge my BB from either USB or the car charger, the charge does not last as long as when I charge it from the wall plug. All charge it up, but the charge goes down alot faster if I use USB or the car charger.

[j_lamb88@hotmail.com]

Thanks for your info Mike. I contacted the website that you suggested (agreenc) and emailed the sales link there. They are not selling this product retail at this time but are selling to to anyone who writes to them.
They take orders via Paypal and ship by regular mail. I hope it works as stated.
Will let everyone know how it works after I get the unit next week.

[j_lamb88@hotmail.com]

Mike - a 1000 thanks!!! I got my CSQUID device yesterday and it is everything i had hoped for. I got the APPLE+MICRO device but there is also a MINI+MICRO device for the non-apple (as far and few between as they are) crowd.

It charges my Ipod and my blackberry (not at the same time) even when my PC is in standby. I also do not need to worry about the Itunes accidentally because in that mode it does not need software. It has a SYNC mode also so I can even use the same cable with my camera to download photos.

I asked why they did not sell in the US and they said that a rollout was being planned in the next quarter. They are working with some retailers I guess....

For now, I am ALL set!!!
8-)

[TheRinger]

One thing I have noticed is that when I charge my BB from either USB or the car charger, the charge does not last as long as when I charge it from the wall plug. All charge it up, but the charge goes down alot faster if I use USB or the car charger.

Power is Power and should make no difference unless you are not letting it charge fully when on USB to computer or car charger

[mikeytunes@yahoo.com.sg]

"Power is Power and should make no difference unless you are not letting it charge fully when on USB to computer or car charger"

This is SOO true. What I found was happening was that I would plug in my device to the PC and leave it for a while. But my PC was set to go into standby in 30 minutes to save the earth and all. When my PC went into standby the regular cable that came with the Blackberry stopped charging. (Believe you me - this took DAYS of waiting around "watching water boil" to figure out!). So this meant that the full charge was not sent to my phone.

With the csquid device that i got, this problem is solved since whether the PC is in standby or on, I can continue to charge. In fact not only did I not get the full charge to my phone, it happened much faster than the cable that came with the phone!

[j_lamb88@hotmail.com]

I just received an email saying that the CSQUID(MINI+MICRO) is on sale at the Amazon electronics store. If you go to amazon and type in CSQUID it should come up. They say that the APPLE+MICRO product is releasing in a few days.

Good luck.
J
8-)

[tsac]

all for an extension cord, amazing.

[jrice8002003]

all for an extension cord, amazing.

Has anyone suggested that he move to a new apartment yet?

[CanuckBB]

Isomehow would have thought that the BB wall charger + PC on standby (via extension cord) would be less power hungry than waking up the PC.

And 'power is power' is false. Effective power is a combination of volts and amps. That' swhy you can be tazed by 5,000 volts but killed by a 12 volt car battery when it's cranking. Typically the wall charger delivers a higher amperage.

[mikeytunes@yahoo.com.sg]

The last post by Canuck got me thinking about the various ways of charging. So I did the following to see whether a) charging from a PC does indeed lower battery life and b) which one charges faster.....
I used the following DEVICES
- Blackberry
- iPOD
- iPAD
and the following cables
- wall adapter (with a USB port on it)
- USB cable
- CSQUID cable (which i got as a gift in asia but has since started selling on amazon as one of the other posters had mentioned)

Here are the conclusions
BATTERY LIFE
1) I found that there is no difference in battery life for all 3 cables if the PC was allowed to stay on for a few hours.
2) If the PC was set to go into standby in say 1 hour, the regular USB cable had the lowest battery life(since it stops charging), the CSQUID cable and wall adapter charged to the full level and allowed the battery life to be a few hours longer
3) The iPAD could not charge from any of my non-Apple PCs but the CSQUID and wall adapter could.
CHARGING TIME
1) For the blackberry and ipod, I found that the regular USB cable charged at a slower rate than both the wall adapter and the CSQUID cable.
2) iPad charged in the same time using the CSQUID or wall adapter (regular USB cable could not charge from my non-apple machines)

CONCLUSIONS
- For longer battery life make sure that your power is on and allows the phone to charge the entire time. So either use a wall adapter or a cable that can support charge even if the PC is in standby
- Charging time does vary depending on the mode you use. Typically a wall adapter will be faster or you have to buy a specialized cable that accommodates faster charge.

In the end if battery life and charging time does not matter, throw away your wall adapter and charge from the PC the whole time!!

Sorry for being long winded - i found this type of information eye-opening but then I don't have a life!:oops: