FAQ: USB Charging Is Taking Forever?
One of our readers, Erica, sent in a question asking why her BlackBerry would take forever to charge at work. BlackBerry devices take forever to change when they are plugged into computers that do not have the Desktop Manager application installed.
It turns out that her work computer would not allow her to install desktop manager. While looking for a solution for her I did find this great Knowledge Base article describing how to troubleshoot and fix this issue.
There is even a bottom section on how to improve charging on Windows XP without installing Desktop Manager. Very useful little tidbit:
If installing BlackBerry Desktop Manager is not an option (e.g., no third-party software is allowed on a work computer), the connected BlackBerry smartphone will appear as a USB Storage icon. Update the driver by completing the following steps:
- Click the USB Storage icon in the system tray.
- Click Properties.
- Click the Drivers tab.
- Select the From Windows Update option under Update driver.
- RIMUSB.sys file version 3.1.0.1 will then be found and installed.
- The driver will charge the BlackBerry 8800 smartphone without opening BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
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May 20th, 2008 10:41
Yeah, it has something to do with programming the output current on USB ports. Under all versions of Windows the USB ports default to low power (assuming any connected device has it’s own power supply). In theory, any driver that turns on the higher current output USB mode (such as for USB-powered hard disks) SHOULD also cure this problem.
Also check this article.
http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=KB03972&sliceId=SAL_Public&dialogID=61421803&stateId=0%200%2061417983
I’ve also found a LOT of those ‘USB port’ wall chargers don’t have sufficient output power to charge a Blackberry. They seem to work fine for less capable phones and ipods, but not berry’s. I’ve dug around a couple times on RIM web site to find out how many mAh are required from a charger in order to charge at full rate, but no such luck. I’ll probably figure it out eventually just by trial and error of chargers and charge cords that do/do not work.