[Q] Sudden charging issues.

ApexPredatorBoids · Apr 5, 2014

I just picked up a used TF300T on Craigslist yesterday. It was completely stock, running 4.2.1. When the lady handed it to me to check out, both the dock and tablet were fully charged and everything was functioning normally. It wasn't til later that I tried to charge the tablet/dock that I noticed the dock wasn't taking a charge, but the tablet was charging. Eventually, the dock battery went down to 0% and that's when things got worse. Now, neither the dock nor the tablet will charge. Even when the tablet itself has the cable plugged directly into it, it still won't charge. No matter which port I plug the cable into, my PC recognizes it and mounts internal storage; but the stupid thing won't charge.

I've since unlocked the bootloader, installed the latest TWRP, wiped data/factory reset, rooted, etc. Nothing has made any difference. The fact that everything was fully charged up seems to support the original owner's claims that she never had any issues with it. I just don't understand how it could be fine one minute and suddenly have issues once I take possession of it. I'm pretty anal about caring for my gadgets, so it didn't suffer any bumps or any kind of mishandling in the 24 hours that I've owned it. I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

The only activity I've seen from the dock's charging LED came after the dock was fully discharged. Now, if I have the tablet docked and the charger plugged into the dock, the LED blinks orange. I've never seen the LED do anything without the tablet docked. No idea if that's significant, but thought it was worth mentioning. I did some searching and found that some people had charging issues with their docks, but didn't stumble across anything that seems to match what's happening with mine.

graphdarnell · Apr 5, 2014

ApexPredatorBoids said:
I just picked up a used TF300T on Craigslist yesterday. It was completely stock, running 4.2.1. When the lady handed it to me to check out, both the dock and tablet were fully charged and everything was functioning normally. It wasn't til later that I tried to charge the tablet/dock that I noticed the dock wasn't taking a charge, but the tablet was charging. Eventually, the dock battery went down to 0% and that's when things got worse. Now, neither the dock nor the tablet will charge. Even when the tablet itself has the cable plugged directly into it, it still won't charge. No matter which port I plug the cable into, my PC recognizes it and mounts internal storage; but the stupid thing won't charge.

I've since unlocked the bootloader, installed the latest TWRP, wiped data/factory reset, rooted, etc. Nothing has made any difference. The fact that everything was fully charged up seems to support the original owner's claims that she never had any issues with it. I just don't understand how it could be fine one minute and suddenly have issues once I take possession of it. I'm pretty anal about caring for my gadgets, so it didn't suffer any bumps or any kind of mishandling in the 24 hours that I've owned it. I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

The only activity I've seen from the dock's charging LED came after the dock was fully discharged. Now, if I have the tablet docked and the charger plugged into the dock, the LED blinks orange. I've never seen the LED do anything without the tablet docked. No idea if that's significant, but thought it was worth mentioning. I did some searching and found that some people had charging issues with their docks, but didn't stumble across anything that seems to match what's happening with mine.

The USB cables have been known to go bad, and regularly at that. The wall wart's quality is stable, but you can never tell. Now if you plug the cable to the dock and it blinks orange, leave it for a few hours. If on inspection, it persistently shows 0%, that means 2 things: either the charging port soldered onto the mainboard is kaputt (unlikely if the charger charges the tab through the dock); or the I/O controller chip (Nuvoton781) has gone AWOL (this is situated on the back of the dock's main board). The inner circuit that burned the charging part still allows for other functions such as USB and SD card and keyboard, and give you the false impression that ube alles, just for the fun of it. But don't be fooled. It has died.

If you plug the cable directly into the tab and the (a) the led shines solid orange, it means the charging circuit is good; or (b) blinks orange, it means it's charging but the battery voltage has gone too low for the tab to be useable. Normally such situation requires at least a few hours of charge. If it don't do nothing, again either the charging port (cable) has gone bad, or the cable and/or brick are. One time I plugged the cable in upside down, and accidentally forced it a bit, which resulted in my bending 2 pins inside. Had to replace port. So use a loupe and look inside all the connectors to make sure nothing has been twisted out of place. It might be tedious work, but since you're anal, you might enjoy it (lol).

cmendonc2 · Apr 6, 2014

ApexPredatorBoids said:
I just picked up a used TF300T on Craigslist yesterday. It was completely stock, running 4.2.1. When the lady handed it to me to check out, both the dock and tablet were fully charged and everything was functioning normally. It wasn't til later that I tried to charge the tablet/dock that I noticed the dock wasn't taking a charge, but the tablet was charging. Eventually, the dock battery went down to 0% and that's when things got worse. Now, neither the dock nor the tablet will charge. Even when the tablet itself has the cable plugged directly into it, it still won't charge. No matter which port I plug the cable into, my PC recognizes it and mounts internal storage; but the stupid thing won't charge.

I've since unlocked the bootloader, installed the latest TWRP, wiped data/factory reset, rooted, etc. Nothing has made any difference. The fact that everything was fully charged up seems to support the original owner's claims that she never had any issues with it. I just don't understand how it could be fine one minute and suddenly have issues once I take possession of it. I'm pretty anal about caring for my gadgets, so it didn't suffer any bumps or any kind of mishandling in the 24 hours that I've owned it. I'm at a loss. Any ideas?

The only activity I've seen from the dock's charging LED came after the dock was fully discharged. Now, if I have the tablet docked and the charger plugged into the dock, the LED blinks orange. I've never seen the LED do anything without the tablet docked. No idea if that's significant, but thought it was worth mentioning. I did some searching and found that some people had charging issues with their docks, but didn't stumble across anything that seems to match what's happening with mine.

Your tf300t will not charge from your computer. You need to get the USB adaptor to charge it. The Blinking orange light usually means you have an empty battery.

ApexPredatorBoids · Apr 6, 2014

graphdarnell said:
So use a loupe and look inside all the connectors to make sure nothing has been twisted out of place. It might be tedious work, but since you're anal, you might enjoy it (lol).

Thanks for the response. It was thinking along those lines that ended up leading to me figuring out the issue.

cmendonc2 said:
Your tf300t will not charge from your computer. You need to get the USB adaptor to charge it.

While not entirely true, my issues are actually along those lines. The TF300T actually will charge from a PC's USB port. It just charges painfully slowly. From what I've been reading, unless it's connected to the correct power adapter, it'll trickle charge, but the system doesn't know it's being charged and the LED won't acknowledge the trickle charging.

Well, after more panic-stricken reading, I figured out the problem, and it was comically simple. Apparently, neither of us had noticed that the lady accidentally gave me the wall wart (adapter) that came with her Samsung 7" tablet. It was when I was inspecting all the various connection points that I noticed the adapter said Samsung on it.

Apparently, it's as simple and stupid as the 5V output from the Samsung adapter being too weak to properly charge either the tablet or the dock. Oddly enough, it'll trickle-charge the tablet, but doesn't seem to do anything for the dock. Until proven otherwise, I'm gonna be optimistic and assume that, once I have possession of the proper wall wart, it'll charge normally. Can't wait to find out.

Topics

Topics

[Q] Sudden charging issues.

ApexPredatorBoids

Senior Member

graphdarnell

Senior Member

cmendonc2

Senior Member

ApexPredatorBoids

Senior Member

Similar threads

Top Liked Posts

New posts