Frequently connecting and disconnecting

[omally]

Hey all, having sort of a strange problem here. I've had my Droid for a little over a week now; I've been generally keeping it charging in the multimedia dock plugged into the USB port of my computer during the day.

Sometimes while I have the phone plugged in - not touching it, just sitting there - the Windows disconnect tone will chime, then the connect, then the disconnect, and so on several times in a row, as if I were unplugging and plugging in the USB cord over and over. Sometimes it just happens a few times; a couple times it's gone on long enough that I pulled the phone from the dock to make it stop. Most of the time it charges just fine, though - this seems to be completely random.

I don't know if I'm drawing too much power from my computer or the wall circuit. I have a lot of stuff plugged in, so I moved a bunch of it to a plug on another circuit, but that hasn't helped.

Don't know if this is pertinent, but I've also noticed that after pulling the phone from the dock it almost always takes several minutes for Windows to chime the disconnect tone. No idea why it doesn't happen right away.

Anyone have any ideas? Could there be a problem with my phone or dock? Is it possible I need to upgrade the PS in my computer? Thanks in advance for any insight.

[wil318466]

Funny.. I just noticed this for the first time tonight.

What type of USB cord are you using? Are you using the standard one, or did you buy a 3rd party one? I'm using a 3rd party one here, I'm thinking it could have to do with that. Different chargers have issues with the Droid, it could stem from that.

I turned my phone off to recharge from my laptop, and the USB connect/unconnect sound was going off and on, and my phone was turning off and on. I wanted to keep it off since it'll charge faster that way, but it seems as if the phone won't stay off.

Probably a cable issue, as I never noticed this before when I had the one that came with the phone (which is too damn short, in my opinion, so I bought a few longer ones online for 10 bucks).

-Wil

[omally]

I've heard others here speak of problems with USB cables; I certainly hope there isn't a widespread issue with non-Motorola provided cables, because that would come pretty close to being inexcusable. Why use a "standardized" cable if you still have to buy it from the manufacturer? In any event I've just been using the Motorola cable since I don't have another one.

Now I did some testing and have been operating on the premise that my front USB ports were causing the problem. I tried with another computer, and also with the onboard USB ports at the back of my PC and couldn't recreate the problem, but as soon as I plugged back into the front ports I started seeing this happen again. So I found a decent case on sale at Newegg last week and ordered it. It should be in on Monday, so I'll switch everything out and report back once I do some more testing.

One thing to note is that the cable is too damn short, so I've been using a USB extender cable, but again, I didn't see this issue outside of my front USB ports, so I don't think the extender is causing a problem.

[omally]

Ok, here's my update: I got my case in last week and transferred everything over, then plugged the USB cable into the front port. Unfortunately, no joy. I saw the same behavior. Luckily the case wasn't too expensive, but it's still a nice upgrade over my old one, so it worked out OK.

What didn't work out is figuring out why this is happening. It never happens when I'm plugged into the onboard USB on the back of the motherboard, even with a USB extension cable, so that's the way I have it plugged in right now. I'm not sure I'm going to screw around with it too much more, since it doesn't look like a lot of people are having this problem, and I have a work-around. I'll post again if I figure something out, though.

[MonkeyTime]

Not sure if it's related or not, but I've been having a similar problem with a 3rd party cord too. My issues are that when plugged in, the charging indicator will flip back and forth between charging and not charging. The phone isn't being moved, but the connection makes and breaks.

Similar to your problem but different.

[rayvincent]

This disconnecting/reconnecting just started happening to me today, I've had the phone exactly a week and I'm using a rear usb port on my work pc and the cable that came with the phone.
phone is stationary and I'm using it like a clock and to just check new emails unrelated to work, battery is fully charged.
just a note, charge was at 30% when I plugged it in, didn't notice it happen till full charge, and I am NOT mounted to the PC, just connecting to charge, not transfer files.

[rayvincent]

still happening,
I wonder if it's not an app that's causing this, maybe something that checks for updates?
just throwing that out there....

[jimnutt]

When I've had the problem I've found it to be a cabling issue. It appears that the connector on the droid itself is a bit persnickety and some cables don't seat well in it.

[baniels]

Mine was doing this the other day while on DroidMod 1.0 (though earlier while on that ROM it was fine).

I wiped, went back to stock, root-free, and it worked fine. I'm now on COW 2.1 v1.1, but I haven't tested it again.

[rayvincent]

idk, my droid is a little over a week old, there does seem to be a bit of wiggle when pluged in, but I have it so the cord isn't moving at all and seemingly out of the blue it just connects and disconnects, it'll be fine for a while then it'll happen several times in a row then just stop again.. for my issue I'm kinda still leaning toward app... but who knows.