Tethering/Battery Charging Issue?

[Pugz]

Hey everyone...I have my Droid set to be able to tether but I have a question. I have the phone plugged into the wall charger, and normally as with any phone you can do pretty much anything while plugged in...make calls, run the web, apps, etc and the battery stays charging.

When I run the tethering the battery stops charging and starts draining...whats up with that? I just moved into a new apt and I have to wait another week to get the internet hooked up so tethering at home is my only option...I need the phone to stay charged...tethering kills the battery so quickly. Is there something I can do to keep the phone charging while this is going on?

 

[ramman007]

Tethering uses a USB cable. This should further charge not discharge your battery. The cable could be bad .. try a different cable. Also check your PC. It should supply charging current to the USB cable and therefore to your phone.

 

[SolidStateS15]

i am having the same problem. i just got my incredible yesterday and am learning the ropes. i have it tethered to my netbook with EasyTether lite. yesterday i didn't notice this problem but today my phone will not stay charged. it's just hanging on 1 bar left and won't charge past there. the phone is using more juice than is coming back in and a window keeps poping up telling me to use the A/C adapter. how can i overcome this problem when i can't obviously use both usb and A/C at the same time. would using a powered usb hub make any difference? or would we be able to use 2 usb ports like on an external HD to get more power?

 

[geoff5093]

I never charged it using the AC wall charger, but every time I used EasyTether or PDA Net it charged my phone while I was tethering on my computer. I also do the same with the wireless tethering.

 

[SolidStateS15]

I never charged it using the AC wall charger, but every time I used EasyTether or PDA Net it charged my phone while I was tethering on my computer. I also do the same with the wireless tethering.

yes it charges, but the problem comes in when you are multi-tasking and using up more energy than the usb can recharge at the same time. this causes the batt to drain down to 1% and bearly power the phone even though it's plugged in. now today it hasn't done it. i read something that said as long as you have a charged battery before starting the tether then it will be fine and it is so far, but i haven't been doing anything on the phone, just using tether. yesterday i was using the phone to DL apps and play games at the same time i was tethered and it drained the batt quickly.

 

[takeshi]

When I run the tethering the battery stops charging and starts draining...whats up with that?

Simple. You're using more power than the battery is receiving while charging.

I have the phone plugged into the wall charger

How many mA does the wall charger supply? The more the better. Looks for one that supplies 1A/1000mA. Yours must be either much lower or defective.

Tethering uses a USB cable.

Not necessarily (e.g. WiFi tethering).

yes it charges, but the problem comes in when you are multi-tasking and using up more energy than the usb can recharge at the same time.

USB is only 500mA.

 

[geoff5093]

I never charged it using the AC wall charger, but every time I used EasyTether or PDA Net it charged my phone while I was tethering on my computer. I also do the same with the wireless tethering.

yes it charges, but the problem comes in when you are multi-tasking and using up more energy than the usb can recharge at the same time. this causes the batt to drain down to 1% and bearly power the phone even though it's plugged in. now today it hasn't done it. i read something that said as long as you have a charged battery before starting the tether then it will be fine and it is so far, but i haven't been doing anything on the phone, just using tether. yesterday i was using the phone to DL apps and play games at the same time i was tethered and it drained the batt quickly.

Ah, I usually leave the phone with the display off when I'm tethering.

 

[brian67t]

Maybe this sound obvious, but can you just use bluetooth DUN tethering, and keep the cell plugged into the wall charger?
I was having similar problems, my laptop USB ports and the side of the laptop weren't supplying enough power to both charge and tether at the same time. My problem wasn that the phone discharged quickly, rather, the cell would connect and disconnect continuously. It was like it was trying to alternate charging and tethering, of course this is NOT conducive to actually using the internet. Anyway, I discovered that the "yello"/"always-on" usb port actually supplies mor power than the other USB ports. Simply swapping to that paticular port when plugging in my droid fixed the issue. IDK if your maching has the same issue, but it is worth a shot. Now my droid charges AND maintains a solid internet connection at the same time... Hope one of those 2 ideas help.

 

[SolidStateS15]

i haven't tried BT yet but figured it would be slower than USB tethering. the wall plug only does 500mA though too i believe so it prob wouldn't make much difference. i would need to buy the 1000mA version. i am thinking about making a USB Y-Cable for it though like for an ext. HD and see how that goes.

 

[geoff5093]

Do you really need to use the phone while it's tethering though? Seems like it would be hard to use a tethered computer and a phone at the same time.

 

[SolidStateS15]

i'm not always using the computer but i don't want to keep disconnecting it every time i want to use the phone. what really kills the batt i've found is DL apps and music and playing games. other than that it holds up fine. i only ran really low that one time and it was when i just got the phone and was DL apps all day.