PocketMac doesn't charge SMT5600 battery correctly

[Guest]

So I hooked up my SMT5600 to my brand new version of PocketMac yesterday and let the phone completely charge (it was almost dead and it took almost 10 hours for the dumb thing to charge, odd since windows PCs only need a couple hours IIRC). Then I disconnected the phone and let it sit overnight w/o using it. I grabbed it in the morning and noticed I was down to 1 bar of battery life left!!! So I'm wondering what is going on... I know the phone said 100% and the green LED was on when I disconnected the phone. Is PocketMac not fully charging the phone, or is the USB voltage on my G3 iBook somehow different? Or worse yet, has PocketMac messed up my phone or battery so now they have a shortened life?

Thanks in advance,

-Chris

[Guest lewdvig]

So I hooked up my SMT5600 to my brand new version of PocketMac yesterday and let the phone completely charge (it was almost dead and it took almost 10 hours for the dumb thing to charge, odd since windows PCs only need a couple hours IIRC).  Then I disconnected the phone and let it sit overnight w/o using it.  I grabbed it in the morning and noticed I was down to 1 bar of battery life left!!!  So I'm wondering what is going on...  I know the phone said 100% and the green LED was on when I disconnected the phone.  Is PocketMac not fully charging the phone, or is the USB voltage on my G3 iBook somehow different?  Or worse yet, has PocketMac messed up my phone or battery so now they have a shortened life?

Thanks in advance,

-Chris

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think that it has anything to do with PocketMac. It must be a hardware issue. My C500 does not charge when connected to my Mac mini or PowerBook either - so I just use the charger.

Does an iPod charge when connected to a Mac via USB?

[Guest jporch316]

Toruble with the C500 is that it will only charge if MS Activesync is installed and phone is synced

[Guest squall]

it has nothing to do with active sync, you dont need that to charge phone via usb.

However its possible that the mac doesnt have a big enough power supply to charge the phone, it happens often with cheap work pcs where there is only a small power supplys

[Guest jporch316]

Strange - there is s thread on here somewhere where i said the exact same thing - then i plugged my c500 into a pc without active sync and guess what

It didnt charge ( i had to eat my words)

here it is

[Guest the_ape]

Strange - there is s thread on here somewhere where i said the exact same thing - then i plugged my c500 into a pc without active sync and guess what

It didnt charge ( i had to eat my words)

here it is

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Think you will find that to charge the phone using USB ActiveSync definatly needs to be installed.......... Oh and neither of my Macs charge my C500.... Unless VPC is running and that has ActiveSync Running.......

Edited May 12, 2005 by the_ape

[Guest gavinchappell]

Think you will find that to charge the phone using USB ActiveSync definatly needs to be installed.......... Oh and neither of my Macs charge my C500.... Unless VPC is running and that has ActiveSync Running.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not convinced about this, cos if I plug my C500 into the PC before powering up, the red light comes on all through the BIOS stages and stays on continuously while ActiveSync loads up. I'm not sure if it may be to do with the cable, because at home I share a mini USB cable between my NetMD player and my C500, then I can keep a cable (the original phone one) at work for syncing.

[Guest jcostantino]

There was a problem with iPods not charging correctly with certain Macs that was documented by Apple - if your mac goes to sleep, the power to the firewire ports will be either reduced or shut off completely and it won't charge. The solution would be to buy a powered firewire hub. The USB ports may act in the same way requiring a powered USB hub. It also may have to do with being plugged into the USB keyboard hub because that has reduced power output BUT a device that needs higher power should pop up an alert stating it needs to be moved to a high power port.

By the way - it wouldn't make sense that ActiveSync needs to be running because the wall charger (I assume, don't have my phone yet) is just a mains to USB port and you use the sync cable to plug into the wall adapter. At least that's how the Blackberry works.. the phone has circuitry inside that charges the battery and the battery has circuitry to protect against overcharging. The software shouldn't even come into consideration.

Edit: I reread the first post and it's a laptop - do you close the lid putting it to sleep with the phone attached?

Edited May 13, 2005 by jcostantino

[Guest jcostantino]

oh yeah, fiveiron - how does PocketMac work with your phone? What OS are you running on your Mac?

I bought PocketMac because it was the only software that said it would sync with this crusty old Journada 540 I was given and it NEVER worked right. It would sync once and then my computer would go berzerk. It ended up causing my user account to get corrupted and I clean installed 10.3 about 5 times. Finally I gave up on it. It could have been due to the PPC not acting right and leaving the connection open but I'm hoping I can use my SMT5600 with it now - especially with Bluetooth (but I doubt it).

[Guest Gibbo]

By the way - it wouldn't make sense that ActiveSync needs to be running because the wall charger (I assume, don't have my phone yet) is just a mains to USB port and you use the sync cable to plug into the wall adapter. At least that's how the Blackberry works.. the phone has circuitry inside that charges the battery and the battery has circuitry to protect against overcharging. The software shouldn't even come into consideration.

Edit: I reread the first post and it's a laptop - do you close the lid putting it to sleep with the phone attached?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

ActiveSync definately needs to be running to charge my C500 at least. I found out the hard way when I went on a business trip to Singapore with a newly rebuilt laptop (without AS) and didn't take my charger because I had the USB cable. :?:

Paul.

[Guest lewdvig]

PocketMac 3.5 is out now and USB charging works. I guess it was just a software issue.

On the topic of PocketMac, the new version has some nice improvements. There is a nice new driver install routine - after using it everything works better.

Edited May 15, 2005 by lewdvig

[Guest lewdvig]

ActiveSync definately needs to be running to charge my C500 at least. I found out the hard way when I went on a business trip to Singapore with a newly rebuilt laptop (without AS) and didn't take my charger because I had the USB cable.  :?:

Paul.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yup, it is all about the host software. You need AS or PocketMac to enable charging.

[Guest gavinchappell]

Yup, it is all about the host software. You need AS or PocketMac to enable charging.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was slightly wrong previously, on my machine thats actually half true. I upgraded ActiveSync yesterday, and found that until the "Smartphone USB Sync" device was installed, my phone wouldn't charge in Windows. It still charged during the BIOS stage and Windows XP startup though. And even though ActiveSync wasn't actually running (no wcescomm process) it still seemed to charge as long as the "Smartphone USB Sync" device was there.

I realise this device driver comes as part of ActiveSync, but IMO its not AS doing the charging, it's just the fact that the system has to know theres a device on that port (ie have the USB sync driver installed) before it'll throw out voltage. I see no reason why other OS'es wouldn't charge if you can tell them theres a device needing power.

However, it could also just be my quirky system, it wouldn't be the first time ;)

[Guest lewdvig]

I was slightly wrong previously, on my machine thats actually half true. I upgraded ActiveSync yesterday, and found that until the "Smartphone USB Sync" device was installed, my phone wouldn't charge in Windows. It still charged during the BIOS stage and Windows XP startup though. And even though ActiveSync wasn't actually running (no wcescomm process) it still seemed to charge as long as the "Smartphone USB Sync" device was there.

I realise this device driver comes as part of ActiveSync, but IMO its not AS doing the charging, it's just the fact that the system has to know theres a device on that port (ie have the USB sync driver installed) before it'll throw out voltage. I see no reason why other OS'es wouldn't charge if you can tell them theres a device needing power.

However, it could also just be my quirky system, it wouldn't be the first time ;)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yup, that sounds right. I think in the case of PM a service was not running or config'ed properly.