Charging your Droid through a PC?

[thundercats]

Hey guy's,

My question hopefully will be fairly easy to answer. I'm wondering if there are any special USB drivers that I would need to install in order to make my PC charge my Droid just as fast as the wall charger would? I know that in order to make this happen via a Blackberry you need to download RIM's special USB drivers.. I did look on Motorola's site and I do see that they have USB Charging drivers listed however, they do not seem to be for the A855 series phone. I tried downloading them as well as the Motorola Driver Installer however the PC still seems to be signifcantly slower than if I were to charge it via the standard wall charger. Any suggestions?

 

[Detonation]

The battery charges slower via USB because the port can only supply 500mA of current while the wall charger supplies 850mA. Drivers won't change that.

 

[tcrews]

I can't recall if my PC needed a driver or not.....if it did it just found it online and downloaded it itself. It will charge slower via the PC, less power available on the USB port than your wall outlet.

I lost power the other night to a snow storm and my only connection to the world was via my droid. It had been on most of the day so battery was starting to run low......grabbed my laptop, fired it up, plugged the droid in and started charging the phone. Shut the lid on the laptop (putting the laptop to sleep) but it kept charging the phone. Luckily I had charged my laptop a few days prior .

Come to think of it...that was the first time I connected the Droid to the laptop.....no way (at that time) for the laptop to download any drivers so it just worked. Laptop is Win7

 

[New2u]

You don't need a driver to charge it. You only need the driver if you want to access the phone via other programs. You connect it just fine and use the SDcard mount just fine without having to put a driver on there. Putting one on there won't change any of the charging features, as others have pointed out. It will charge slower, but if that's the only type of connection near you, it's better then not charging at all.

 

[crspang]

For just charging, no you don't need any drivers

 

[cuskit]

Cables can also make a difference in the USB charging. Some cheap USB cables allow data exchange between your Droid and computer, but no charging. Motorola includes a high quality cable with not issues - other similar high quality cables can be purchased at monoprice.com. They come with a lifetime warranty and the price can't be beat (given the quality). I have no affiliation with monoprice.com - but do purchase their cables that ship with all MIKRADLES (as of Feb 23).

I only point this out since we've had reports here of low grade cables not allowing charging. I can't verify the speed of data flow, obviously less than if it's plugged into an AC adapter rather than the computer. But I use my computer daily to charge my Droid and notice it takes about 2 hours to charge from 50% in this manner. AC does this in less than half that time. Not relevant to me as it's connected to my computer anyway most of the day (as I'm sure many here do also) while working at my desk. cuskit

 

[New2u]

Cables can also make a difference in the USB charging. Some cheap USB cables allow data exchange between your Droid and computer, but no charging. Motorola includes a high quality cable with not issues - other similar high quality cables can be purchased at monoprice.com. They come with a lifetime warranty and the price can't be beat (given the quality). I have no affiliation with monoprice.com - but do purchase their cables that ship with all MIKRADLES (as of Feb 23).

I only point this out since we've had reports here of low grade cables not allowing charging. I can't verify the speed of data flow, obviously less than if it's plugged into an AC adapter rather than the computer. But I use my computer daily to charge my Droid and notice it takes about 2 hours to charge from 50% in this manner. AC does this in less than half that time. Not relevant to me as it's connected to my computer anyway most of the day (as I'm sure many here do also) while working at my desk. cuskit

Yeah i did forget about that one. Thanks for pointing it out

 

[RichSmithSWM]

USB ports are specified to supply a maximum of 500ma. You can buy cables with two plugs at one end to allow somewhat less tham 1amp charge current. Each port supplies ~500ma. I had to use one of these cables for my wireless USB dongle to work properly with my laptop. I bought my cable from Verizon for a ginormous amount of money. But I've seen them online for about $10.