Charging Blackberry Via USB w/out any software

[stripesace]

I forgot to charge my BB at home last night so this afternoon I ran out to my car and yanked my cable out of my laptop bag. Before I started installing the desktop software, I just plugged it all up and sure enough. Its charging!!!

Ahh the love of USB and Windows XP.

[careyana]

yep - XP is much more friendly than Win2K in those respects!

[coreyg510]

I remember when I didnt have the software installed and I charged via USB. It gave me a "unrecognized device error" but it still charged.

[ToeRag]

It's got nothing to do with the OS .. USB has power as part of the pinouts to the cable. plug it into ANY usb port on ANY computer runing ANY OS and it will charge.

[nosidam]

It's got nothing to do with the OS .. USB has power as part of the pinouts to the cable. plug it into ANY usb port on ANY computer runing ANY OS and it will charge.
You would think that is correct, but if I tried to charge my 7290 on my XPSP1without the driver installed, the charge icon would show up on the berry, but the battery amount in status would not change, and after unplugging it, the battery would actually be 10% lower.

My RAZR doesn't even show charging if the driver is not installed.

That never happened on the Mac with either device, though.

[tfaz1]

Yeah, don't really get why this is a big deal. Being a Mac user, I'm used to stuff working. Like a beaten wife, you Windows users forget all transgressions when something actually works. :smile:

Sorry... just couldn't help myself. And, yes, I will be installing XP on my Intel Mac so I can run the BB Desktop software. Am I bitter that using a BB with OS X isn't as nice as with Windows? Sure I am.

[stripesace]

Seems like it'll only charge it up to 60% (I was at 50%). Let me see with the manager installed on my new machine if that makes any difference.....

I'm kind of worried something may be up with my batter because it took a pretty big hit out of nowhere. Course i was in almost no recpetion this morning in a builing, spotty connection once I got into the office, and I made a few phone calls of some notable length....

[mikmax1]

I know the RAZR has some pins crossed. It's USB is not "Truely" universal. Not a cool following of standards. If you buy sync software from Motorola, it comes with a special USB cable. I did not think I needed cause I had other cables. I was wrong.

[nosidam]

I know the RAZR has some pins crossed. It's USB is not "Truely" universal. Not a cool following of standards. If you buy sync software from Motorola, it comes with a special USB cable. I did not think I needed cause I had other cables. I was wrong.
I do not have this problem with my RAZR. I use a generic USB cable (I even think it's the one that came with my old 7290) and as long as the software is installed, it works fine. I use the RAZR wall charger to charge my BB without issue.

[takeshi]

You would think that is correct, but if I tried to charge my 7290 on my XPSP1without the driver installed, the charge icon would show up on the berry, but the battery amount in status would not change, and after unplugging it, the battery would actually be 10% lower.

My RAZR doesn't even show charging if the driver is not installed.

That never happened on the Mac with either device, though.
From what I understand, some PC's will power down the USB ports if a device isn't installed and active on that particular USB port. Don't know if that's true as none of my machines work that way. I can charge my Blackberries with installing Desktop Manager on any of them.

[PacketRat]

I opened a ticket with RIM about this awhile back. You can load the desktop manager Blackberry driver in and the device will charge faster. If you don't it will still charge but not as fast or as full. I'll try to find the details in my notes and share. We just installed the usb driver on our desktop image so that anyone can plug a Blackberry in and do a full fast charge.

[02fz1]

I previously had a smartphone (SMT5600) and had to install MS ActiveSync in order to charge my phone via USB, it didn't matter what PC. I haven't tried doing this on the 8700 yet.

[wibbly]

If my BB driver has crashed on my XP machine, my 8700 appears to start charging for a few secs and then the charging symbol goes. At least with the driver installed, my PC requires it all working to enable power to go to the device...

[mikmax1]

I do not have this problem with my RAZR. I use a generic USB cable (I even think it's the one that came with my old 7290) and as long as the software is installed, it works fine. I use the RAZR wall charger to charge my BB without issue.

My wife's RAZR Charger and my BB USB cables are compatible for charging, but not for data. RAZR will not sync with PC unless I use the Motorola USB cable. I've tried several.

[nosidam]

My wife's RAZR Charger and my BB USB cables are compatible for charging, but not for data. RAZR will not sync with PC unless I use the Motorola USB cable. I've tried several.
Never actually tried to sync the RAZR with my PC. Always sync'd it with my Mac's address book via BT. Worked flawlessly everytime and never had to install any software. My refridgerator is more complicated.

[Bum_Gravey]

I have the BB 7250 and a brand new laptop with a fresh install of XPSP2. I plug my BB in via the USB cable and I get an unkown device prompt and XP goes through the process of trying to install (to no avail). The BB won't charge. Period.

Worked fine on my old laptop with the same OS. Why the inconsistency? The new hardware shouldn't make a difference.

[Gmouth]

I don't know what your issues with the RAZR and BB cables...I use the same cable to sync my BB and my Razr...and I have used several BB cables...must be bad luck!

[tpatru]

I bought a universal USB charger (plugs into a wall outlet, with a USB outlet on the side) thinking that I could use it to charge my bberry with a usb cable. No such luck...the charging icon doesn't come up at all.

[Bum_Gravey]

If you run Windows Update with the Blackberry already plugged in under optional hardware updates you can get the USB only diver for the blackberry.

This makes charging a lot quicker with Windows XP and solves the issue of getting the new hardware wizard everytime you plug the blackberry in.

Of course, this approach assumes there are no GPO's turning off manual windows updates like I have.

[txag94]

If you want to charge your Blackberry on your laptop without installing the BB Desktop Manager software, you can copy 2 files to your c:\winnt\system32 directory:
RimUsb.sys
RimUsbNT.inf

You can get these 2 files from the cd or from someone who has the software installed.