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[Q] Charging problem, Anyone else?

So my 16gb Asus Transformer has a very strange problem. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere. When I plug my unit into the supplied charger there is NO indication on the device that it is charging. It takes about 10 hours to fully charge.
Here is the really strange part... When I put the device into the keyboard dock, I get a charge symbol on the battery and it says charging. To make things even more strange the cable and wall wart provided with the tablet quick charges the keyboard dock, light is red then turns green when fully charged (no longer then 2 hours so far).
How could the charger charge the dock no problem but not charge the unit itself? My thoughts were that the dock may seat farther into the tablet then the cord does so I took a small file and took off a little of the plastic on the eee pad connector side, that did not help at all. Any ideas?
I have flashed the latest software update, and I have done a "Factory Data Reset" and it will still not "quick charge" from the supplied charger, only from the dock.
ThePCTech

I got the same problem,i don't have the dock.I see a hole next to the camera but when i charge it there is no light,WTF

sj408 said:
I got the same problem,i don't have the dock.I see a hole next to the camera but when i charge it there is no light,WTF
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must admit that I expected to see a charging light on the pad itself, I think the hole you mention may be the light sensor.

When I use the official charger, I get a lightning bolt symbol and it charges fairly quickly. When I used my Kindle charger or an HTC one and plugged the USB into them, I had no indication it was charging and it was really REALLY slow...

Mr.Clark said:
When I use the official charger, I get a lightning bolt symbol and it charges fairly quickly. When I used my Kindle charger or an HTC one and plugged the USB into them, I had no indication it was charging and it was really REALLY slow...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ASUS charger is rated @ 15V 1.2A. Most USB chargers are 5V. USB itself is rated @ 5V. So I donno how it can use 15V via USB. I tried several different chargers with much higher amperage but no luck at all. Quite strange I must say.

Let me clarify, The ASUS Eee Pad has no charging lite on the unit itself. The only indication is in the taskbar on Android 3.0.1. The battery will change from a green battery symbol to a green battery symbol with a lightning bolt on it when it is "Quick Charging".
There are two ways that the device charges, the first is a quick charge (with lightning bolt on batt. symbol), the second is a slower trickle charge (no indication). A quick charge should take about 2 - 3 hours to fully charge. The trickle charge will take up to 12hrs. The ONLY two ways to get a "Quick Charge" is 1. To use the provided charger (came with the unit), and 2. Is to put it in the dock. A trickle charge can be done with ANY other USB port (ie. laptop, desktop, iPod AC adapter, ect.).
My ASUS Eee Pad Transformer will ONLY "Quick Charge" with the dock. The cable provided with the unit will NOT "Quick Charge" my device.
Anyone else have this? If so do you have a fix?
ThePCTech

FIXED!
Ok, so here is the deal...
I ordered a 32gb version and I'm givving the 16 version to my wife. I tried the new plug in the old tablet and the same thing happened. So I thought it MUST be the tablet and NOT the charger as I thought it was.
Looking into the bottom of the tablet I noticed a pin that looked like it was bent. If you look into the socket with the screen facing up. The 4th or 5th pin was bent up and not sitting in the track like it should have been. I compaired this to the new 32gb version. I used a needle to gently move it into place and tried again and it charged as it should with both cables. Newegg offered to replace the unit, but everything else works great on it and, now it chages just fine. I'll just keep it.
ThePCTech
If anyone else is having a problem take a look into the socket of the tablet, it could be a quick fix.

i fixed my charging problem by doing a factory reset.........wow...

Same problem
I have the exact same problem, but mine didn't start until I applied an update from asus.

I think I may have *had* the same problem. I returned my transformer to sears after it would not charge. After my return a clearance sticker was placed on it and now after reading this thread I am considering repurchasing the transformer and getting a new adapter. But I am concerned that it may be something wrong with the tablet itself. This thread leads me to conclude it is the former. But what do you think?
I was not able to charge through the adapter - however, when connected through the USB cord my laptop did recognize it. I did not leave it connected for longer than 10minutes -I guess if i left it in for 12hrs plus I would have a conclusive answer - but to late for that now..
I got the tablet today -it had 5% battery and after trying three outlets it shutdown- it would restart and not get past the homescreen (which had the time and stated to connect the charger and the lock) it would then shutdown.
In the 20 minutes I was able to use my transformer it worked great

sj408 said:
I got the same problem,i don't have the dock.I see a hole next to the camera but when i charge it there is no light,WTF
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The "hole" next to the camera is the light sensor.

thepctech said:
So my 16gb Asus Transformer has a very strange problem. I have not seen it mentioned anywhere. When I plug my unit into the supplied charger there is NO indication on the device that it is charging. It takes about 10 hours to fully charge.
Here is the really strange part... When I put the device into the keyboard dock, I get a charge symbol on the battery and it says charging. To make things even more strange the cable and wall wart provided with the tablet quick charges the keyboard dock, light is red then turns green when fully charged (no longer then 2 hours so far).
How could the charger charge the dock no problem but not charge the unit itself? My thoughts were that the dock may seat farther into the tablet then the cord does so I took a small file and took off a little of the plastic on the eee pad connector side, that did not help at all. Any ideas?
I have flashed the latest software update, and I have done a "Factory Data Reset" and it will still not "quick charge" from the supplied charger, only from the dock.
ThePCTech
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your unit is working correctly. There is no charging indicator on the tablet only on the dock. The tablet show charge status via software in the lower right corner of the display or in setup which will show percentage.
When you connect the unit to the dock, the tablet is charged via the batteries in the dock. The goal is to ensure that tablet is as charged as possible so you can undock and go knowing the tablet is charged. The charging from the dock to the tablet will only occur if the tablet is below 97%. The indicator light on the dock only refers to the charge status of the battery on the dock, not the tablet.
Someone referenced the little light on the front next to the camera, that is not a light. It is an ambient light sensor for the tablet.
The colors for the charge light indicator on the dock are documented in the manual. As I remember it they are <10% quickly flashing orange, 10-50% slowly flashing orange, 50-95% orange, 95%+ green.

I am also having charging problems with my Transformer.
Everything seems to work fine when I used the supplied charger and the USB plug, both with dock and with just the transformer itself.
However I'm presently away and only took the USB cable with me. I've plugged the USB cable into my travel multiplug, which has a usb slot as well and I'm getting no charge at all, either on the dock or the transformer itself. Also the battery is showing that it is actually draining, even while connected to the multiplug. I've also tried connecting both the dock and the transformer to my juicepack (rated at 3.7V, 4,800mAh), but no luck with that as well.
Anyone else had these problems?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App

The Transformer will only charge by USB using the supplied wall adapter. Not sure why that is, but that's been my experience.

my problem too.. I got mine yesterday and updated the software straight away. it charged all night and charging worked on both the pad itself and the keyboard.
today it doeasnt..
the cable and the sockets are fine (my pc sees it and did some file transfers) so hardware seems ok. the charger gets quite hot though. does anybody experience the same? maybe its the charger? I wonder if factory reset would help...

browngeek said:
I am also having charging problems with my Transformer.
Everything seems to work fine when I used the supplied charger and the USB plug, both with dock and with just the transformer itself.
However I'm presently away and only took the USB cable with me. I've plugged the USB cable into my travel multiplug, which has a usb slot as well and I'm getting no charge at all, either on the dock or the transformer itself. Also the battery is showing that it is actually draining, even while connected to the multiplug. I've also tried connecting both the dock and the transformer to my juicepack (rated at 3.7V, 4,800mAh), but no luck with that as well.
Anyone else had these problems?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the wall plug that came with the TF is rated for 5V-15V, 2-12A. This is a lot higher than normal USB, which is 5V,1A max. When you plug it into a normal USB jack, you are only in trickle charge mode, and i think it's only with the screen off.

[Q] Battery completely dead

It seems my power cord is not charging the unit or there is something wrong with the battery, this happens after I upgraded to 3.1, any help would be much appreciated.

By any chance, did you use an extension USB3 cable on the charger at some point? I tried one last week, and immediately had the charger completely fail.
I finally concluded that the card may have caused one or more of the 5 pins on the charger base to deform.
I was able to restore it by carefully reforming the pins, very slightly upward, using a very sharp needle and a jewelers loupe. Knock on wood, it's been working fine since then.
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

No, did not use any other USB cord, the package only comes with one USB cable.
Asus support will send a RMA to me, hope BestBuy carry the transformer so that I can try their cord.

take the country adapter off the charger and reinstall it. Sometimes the small pins get bent and do not make contact.

I see more people having the same issue - the charger does not charge, I got the RMA from Asus, but really want them to send me a new charger.

How long hasn't it charged? Sometimes the charger will just stop charging out of the blue, then work a few hours later.

Charger issue

I haven't seen anyone else complain about this, so it might just be a small defect or isolated incident.
I always charge my phone during the night while I sleep and just recently woke up to find the phone only at ~70%. For some reason the AC adapter seems to be malfunctioning. Since the issue has started, I managed to get it to charge to full one night, but the rest of the time it seems to stop charging. It recognizes it being plugged in initially but then it pops up with the notification saying that the charger has been unplugged. I've tried reconnecting both connectors which will sometimes get it to start charging for 15-30 seconds before it shows as disconnected again.
It works fine via USB connected to a computer so I can only assume it's an issue with the wall adapter. I'm not sure if there's much I can do if it is an issue with the adapter but wanted to see if anyone had any ideas that would be worth trying before I give up on the adapter. Also wondering if anyone else has had this happen.

I don't have that problem. Call and get it replaced. All you news is a USB AC adapter.

Have you checked the socket you are plugging the charger into? Have you tried a different wall socket or socket on the power strip?

Are you using a Motorola brand wall outlet and usb? I was using an aftermarket cable and had this issue. So I got a branded cable and now it's fine
Sent from my iPhone killer ATRIX using XDA Premium App

i had same issues
my atrix would only charge also to 70% so i was about to return it. i forgot that it also came with a stand alone battery charger to charge just the battery. charged it and then put it on my atrix and said 100% again. hope this helps..

Yeah get the wall socket and make sure that's not the problem. Also I can't imagine it being the cable I use a 15 foot after market cheapo cable I got off newegg for like 3 bucks and it charges my phone all the way and I don't even use the wall adapter moto gave me I use some random one that's for one of my old phone or my nikon camera I don't remember. Also moto cable is crap it doesn't let me use adb doesn't seem to push enough power to my phone.
But thats just my 2 cents
Sent from my Atrix

OEM charging cables > aftermarket/cheapo/gas station cables
Sent from my MB860 using XDA Premium App

Use the cables that come with the atrix.
Problem solved.
/endthread

found my culprit! - why I lost my quick charge over AC adapter - It's Charging Cable!

Ok I recently found my TF101 losing the quick charge capabilities, so I went on and on to find the rootcause, the charging cable at the end of the tablet has some tiny broken piece at the round plastic part and it's no way to defect the cable..
Another issue, my 15month son once time chewed the charging cable over the proprietary connector side while the plugged in the wall (no harm since it is 5v, 2.1A), it was wet but hair dryer did the job
After that I plugged the charging cable to the ac adapter, tablet...but now the thunderbolt charging icon won't show up but charging very very slow (called trickle charge) - 12hr for 100%...
Lucky for me, my co-worker uses TF101 too, so I borrowed his ac and charging cable to test...FINALLY, it was the charging cable
So everyone else,,, I guess if you suspect your AC Adapter fried or something, just try to charge your phone, if it works, it works - the charging cable can be defected and degraded so it will charge fast or slow depending the CHARGING CABLE as well - it's ironically found but I now had to believe CHARGING CABLE is also another factor in this equation rather only AC Adapter itself!
good luck!

rcjpth said:
So everyone else,,, I guess if you suspect your AC Adapter fried or something, just try to charge your phone, if it works, it works - the charging cable can be defected and degraded so it will charge fast or slow depending the CHARGING CABLE as well - it's ironically found but I now had to believe CHARGING CABLE is also another factor in this equation rather only AC Adapter itself!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't recommend plugging in any other usb rechargeable device into the Asus AC adapter because it outputs 10V if I remember correctly.
Unless you KNOW the device you are plugging in can handle the output voltage from the ac adapter, DO NOT PLUG IT IN because you run the risk of frying your device.

Spd2Last said:
I wouldn't recommend plugging in any other usb rechargeable device into the Asus AC adapter because it outputs 10V if I remember correctly.
Unless you KNOW the device you are plugging in can handle the output voltage from the ac adapter, DO NOT PLUG IT IN because you run the risk of frying your device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It uses a USB3 pin to detect the TF, and ups it to 15v at 1.2a. Unless it can detect the TF USB3 pin, it only outputs 5v at 1.x or 2.x amps (I forget the exact number).

I had JUST finished reading about that in some other thread and was coming here to correct myself. You beat me to it by a few minutes.

rcjpth said:
Ok I recently found my TF101 losing the quick charge capabilities, so I went on and on to find the rootcause, the charging cable at the end of the tablet has some tiny broken piece at the round plastic part and it's no way to defect the cable..
Another issue, my 15month son once time chewed the charging cable over the proprietary connector side while the plugged in the wall (no harm since it is 5v, 2.1A), it was wet but hair dryer did the job
After that I plugged the charging cable to the ac adapter, tablet...but now the thunderbolt charging icon won't show up but charging very very slow (called trickle charge) - 12hr for 100%...
Lucky for me, my co-worker uses TF101 too, so I borrowed his ac and charging cable to test...FINALLY, it was the charging cable
So everyone else,,, I guess if you suspect your AC Adapter fried or something, just try to charge your phone, if it works, it works - the charging cable can be defected and degraded so it will charge fast or slow depending the CHARGING CABLE as well - it's ironically found but I now had to believe CHARGING CABLE is also another factor in this equation rather only AC Adapter itself!
good luck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you found your problem. So should we disregard your last 4 posts of Asus conspiracy and faulty TF and Dock FW updates?

No mann - I believe they already planted the conspiracy around us - see we are all in purchasing the TF101 - now we need to spend more money for the accessories ...etc - you see how they lure us into this kind of sh(*&()&)(*&

rcjpth said:
Another issue, my 15month son once time chewed the charging cable over the proprietary connector side while the plugged in the wall (no harm since it is 5v, 2.1A), it was wet but hair dryer did the job
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You let your 15 month old son crawl around unshielded power sockets and plugged-in power cables with little enough supervision that you couldn't stop him before he was already chewing on it?????

Transformer stuck with "Connect your Charger", charging slowly

Hello.
I m having a problem with my transformer. Right now it is charging slow as if it was connected to the computer and not the wall plug. Also the message "Connect your Charger" won't go out of the screen, even if it is connected or fully charged. I flashed a custom ROM to see if it fixed something, but I had no luck. The cable works fine to connect the transformer o my PC the only thing wrong is that is is not charging properly and the message won't go off. Do you have any idea of what could be happening? My wall charger is model OB-1LF, which I believe is not the one with the known fault. Any ideas?

the adapter is surely broken.

This will sound nuts but, put your wall charger in a plastic baggie [push out all the air and then seal the bag] and put it in your freezer compartment for say 3hrs. Take it out [still in the bag] and let the charger warm up to room temp.
The charger may now work. It is worth a try. You would be trying to be sure the thermal fuse inside the charger is reset. I brought one back to life that way.
hshoem1

the TF uses pin 7 in the USB connector to signal the charger to use the 15v output. If the charger does not see a gnd on pin7 it will only charge at 5V as ypou are seeing. Are you using an extension usb cable? If no then check the pins on the TF and cable for bent or damaged pins. Also try the freezer as the charger may have gone into safety reset.

Thanks for the answers. I will try the bag and freezer to see if it gets fixed.

I know that this freezer trick works (also with broken hard drives too apparently), but what's the physical reasoning behind it? I swear I've seen a good explanation of it before but I can't remember..

Same problem here... Even had the charger replaced but of no use. It does charge wth a different (do it yourself) charger usig the same cable.Maybe that doesn't have the 5v/12v mode or something...
Going to order a new adapter and hope thatll fix it otherwise I'll send the entire transformer for repair i guess :/

I just got one today (got a good price on Amazon)
it just will not charge, tried all the fixes! not too happy as i went for the asus over the ipad and apparently quite a few people have charging issues with it.
charges very slowly through my laptop
From reading posts on forums is sounds like a few people are having it and Asus should of recalled the charger.
phone call to Asus tomorrow

asdfuogh said:
I know that this freezer trick works (also with broken hard drives too apparently), but what's the physical reasoning behind it? I swear I've seen a good explanation of it before but I can't remember..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is overtemp protection circuit that should reset once the charger cools, but apparently it needs to cool down past room temp. The freezer is cold enough to reset it. I would not buy a new TF charger search for devcakes discussion there several aftermarket chargers that work well

Check the cable. I had the same problem. At first I thought it was because of faulty charger and had it returned and got a new one from Asus, but still had the same issue. Then I returned the cable for a new one, it worked flawlessly.
A plus: Asus gave me new cable which was much longer than the original one.

the cable is fine, used it to charge via my laptop

I had the same issue with my charger. I called up Asus and was able to send it in for repair, after a couple days they mailed me a new charger and cable.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using xda premium

mglancy23 said:
the cable is fine, used it to charge via my laptop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Charging with your laptop does not involve pin 7 and supplies 5V. If pin 7 or that conductor is bad or you use an incorrect USB extension cable, the pin 7 signal will not get to the charger and will not supply the 15V charge voltage for normal charge.

Rumbleweed said:
Charging with your laptop does not involve pin 7 and supplies 5V. If pin 7 opr that conductor is bad or you use an incorrect USB extension cable, the pin 7 signal will not get to the charger and will not supply the 15V charge voltage for normal charge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cheers will send the cable as well to be sure but am pretty confident its the power adapter.
Hopefully i will have an adapter for next week.
I had a brief play on it and i was quite impressed, the stock browser was surprinsignly good and may unistall dolphin.

I tried the freezer trick, but it didn't worked. I ordered another wall charger to see if it works. What's really weird about this is that the Connect your Charger message will not go off the screen. It doesn't matter if it has 100% charge it will still show "Connect your Charger".

In my case my Transformer didn't want to charge at all. The red light never came up while connected, the only way to fix it was to drain my Transformer all the way until shutdown and then plug it in and voila! It started charging again ever dince.
Great tips by the way!
Thanks
Sent from my Atrix 4G using Tapatalk

Just an update, after ordering a new adapter (with cable) it now works... Appearantly the cable was the problem afterall...
New cable with old charger = ok, new cable with new charger = ok, old cable with new charger = no go, old cable with old charger = no go.
And old cable with 3rd party adapter supplying 12V = ok, heh...
New cable is longer indeed, now I just need to think if I wanna go through the RMA process again for the old cable. But yeah, cable was the issue (out of nowhere btw).

dagrim1 said:
Just an update, after ordering a new adapter (with cable) it now works... Appearantly the cable was the problem afterall...
New cable with old charger = ok, new cable with new charger = ok, old cable with new charger = no go, old cable with old charger = no go.
And old cable with 3rd party adapter supplying 12V = ok, heh...
New cable is longer indeed, now I just need to think if I wanna go through the RMA process again for the old cable. But yeah, cable was the issue (out of nowhere btw).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Pin 7 Connection I referenced earlier is bad. This prevents the charger from outputting 15V.

Rumbleweed said:
The Pin 7 Connection I referenced earlier is bad. This prevents the charger from outputting 15V.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I read your posts about that... couldn't see anything wrong with it on the outside though (with my eye) so unfortunately no clearly bent usb-pins or anything.
Any tips on things I can check? Could easily be on the inside as well of course in which case I can just forget about fixing it. At least it still works with another (non asus) adapter.

Mine was also doing a slow trickle charge. I ended up getting a new charger, but found that the problem was with the cable, not the "wall wart". I can still use my old one with the new cable and works fine as well.