Help HELP!!! I accidentally charged my DROID RAZR MAXX with a different charger!!

Wow. 25-posts debating something labeled as "universal" .

The port itself is universal. The amps aren't. Just like any 3.5 will fit in my earphone Jack, but if rings are different, you wont hear sound.

Was a big issue on my old Moto Q phone. Used a 2.5 mm headphone jack, but rings were different. I think it was one for right ear, one for left ear, and microphone. Had to find adapters that gad it set up the way the Q did ....

So, as stated, although all micro usb ports fit in phone, not all are strong enough to actually charge it.

It's fine!
My 500mAh usb port on my laptop will not charge my phone. It will just let it float and stay at the same % the whole time.
I bought a 2100mAh charger for my car and wall at home and it charges it super quick. Has done so for my Droid 1, Razr and Razr MAXX with no issues so far

Waldo said:

It's fine!
My 500mAh usb port on my laptop will not charge my phone. It will just let it float and stay at the same % the whole time.
I bought a 2100mAh charger for my car and wall at home and it charges it super quick. Has done so for my Droid 1, Razr and Razr MAXX with no issues so far

Click to expand...

I like the idea of the 2100-mAH charger. What's the rating of the standard Maxx charger?

First off, its 2100 mA, not mAh. A milliampere (mA) is a measure of current flow, while milliampere-hour (mAh) is a measure of total stored charge (1mAh is the total charge moved by a 1mA current running for 1 hour). Sorry, but in order to get my Physics degree I had to agree to be pedantic about this sort of thing.

You won't see any advantage using anything above 1000mA. That is the maximum a standard USB device will draw. It won't harm anything, since again it will only draw a maximum of 1000mA, but there won't be a benefit. Although the stock charger is 800mA I believe, so charging at 1000+mA will be an improvement from that.

euph_22 said:

First off, its 2100 mA, not mAh. A milliampere (mA) is a measure of current flow, while milliampere-hour (mAh) is a measure of total stored charge (1mAh is the total charge moved by a 1mA current running for 1 hour). Sorry, but in order to get my Physics degree I had to agree to be pedantic about this sort of thing.

You won't see any advantage using anything about 1000mA. That is the maximum a standard USB device will draw. It won't harm anything, since again it will only draw a maximum of 1000mA, but there won't be a benefit. Although the stock charger is 800mA I believe, so charging at 1000+mA will be an improvement from that.

Click to expand...

OK, thanks.

I use the cable from my HTC Trophy because it is 1 foot longer than the OEM cable for the RAZR. The stock cable is really too short IMO. I just use the RAZR wall plug. It seems to work perfectly...Ikeep our old blackberry curve charger at work for emergencies. It works fine also.

There is a difference in how some chargers deal with the D+ and D- lines on the USB cable.

My Razr doesn't always recognize when it's plugged into my Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 charger. Once out of ten it works. But the other 9 times, there's no lightning bolt over the battery icon. And in the settings, the Battery Information shows the battery is "discharging." I don't know whether it actually charges normally, slower, or not at all.

When I plug it into an "iPhone" style charger that has 2V on the D+ line and 2.8V on the D+ line, it works properly.

Samsung is part of a huge group of manufacturers that settled on a new standard for wall chargers for cell phones. D- and D+ are supposed to be shorted together for the device to know that it's a wall charger. I guess my Tab 2 charger follows this new protocol, but I dunno for sure. I do know that my Razr behaves the same way when plugged into a charger that has no connection on the D- and D+ lines, at all (both pins floating). No lightning bolt, status = discharging.

FTR, my Tab 2 charges just fine on a 1A iPhone style charger or on my Razr charger.

From what I can gather, Apple came up with D-=2V, D+=2V to denote a 500mA maximum charger. D-=2.8V D+=2V for a 1000mA charger. A lot of other phones seems to work on the same protocol.

If I'm understanding what's on Wikipedia, the newer protocol that seems to be the next big thing is when the D- and D+ are shorted together. And this appears to denote that the charger is a wall charger which is capable of anywhere between 500mA and 1500mA. This gives the devices that recognize this protocol the green light to draw as much as they want up to 1.5A, but with the max current possibly limited by the charger's output.

To further the mystery, I just checked my chargers. The D lines are shorted on both my Tab charger and my Razr charger. It's weird that the Samsung doesn't work the same on my Razr! The only thing I can figure is the D lines are otherwise isolated from ground in the Razr charger. In the Samsung, the lines are shorted together, but they are also referenced to 1.1V, for some reason... I just rigged up a USB connector with the D lines shorted but otherwise floating, and it looks like the Razr recognizes this as a wall charger every time.

Perhaps this is a fail on Samsung's wall charger design.

sherri said:

The port itself is universal. The amps aren't. Just like any 3.5 will fit in my earphone Jack, but if rings are different, you wont hear sound.

Was a big issue on my old Moto Q phone. Used a 2.5 mm headphone jack, but rings were different. I think it was one for right ear, one for left ear, and microphone. Had to find adapters that gad it set up the way the Q did ....

Click to expand...

In 2009 most of the major manufacturers and industry associations agreed to using a micro-USB based charging scheme for all portable devices. The related USB standard goes well beyond addressing just the connector and defines standards for the voltage, current and the related connector pins. This makes chargers much more universal and selecting one much easier than the old days of having to consider the voltage, current and which pin was positive.

However, there can be some differences when connecting to a computer as USB 2.0 supports a maximum of 500mA while USB 3.0 supports up to 900mA. There are also dedicated USB charging ports that support up to 1,500mA (1.5A) while the next version of USB will apprently support up to 100W or 20A at 5VDC. So you could get different results based on the type of USB port used.

Hello, in response to the posts about razzr maxx chargers, here is a true story:
I used a charger from which I got for a SAT NAV (Garmin) which looks like a UBS 5V with a plug to accept a USM micro cable... Rated for 500 ma (less than the original).
When I plugged the phone screen got blank then system went mad, it got very hot and eventually simply stopped working... Completely. I have to send it back for repairs.
So, be careful. I dont know why this could happen but it seems that there are odd cables/chargers out there.
I had not a slightest idea. This is a real story.

The old charger for the Droid X (or X2) has an output of 850mA while the Razor MAXX actually only puts out 750mA. The old charger may actually charge the phone a tad bit faster, but I wouldn't worry about using it on your phone. As Old Man informed us in his post the USB port on your computer can possibly be putting out even more mAs than the plug in USB adapter that came with your phone and the phones are designed to be linked via USB to a computer, so a 1 extra mA from an old Droid charger won't hurt your phone.
My favorite incorrect fact so far has come from the Verizon store where I got my Razor MAXX...not an authorized dealer, but directly from Verizon. The customer rep told me that using my old charger wouldn't allow the phone to charge fully as it was designed to charge a battery with less capacity. Let's think about that for a second...is there a timer hidden in the plug adapter? Does the phone know the difference between the two chargers when it is capable of charging from 750mA (the charger it came with) to 1500mA from a computer connection? It is the silliest thing I have ever heard! Regardless of the lack of logic or any real scientific explanation, I still use the charger that came with the phone. Why not? It didn't cost me any extra, so the small changes from the Droid X charger are probably intentional, even if minor, so better to be safe than sorry. Now if I actually had to purchase the new charger, I might be less inclined to believe that the small changes were really needed and it was probably a way to get more money out of the consumer. Apple is really great at this and I imagine Motorola and other companies making Droid phones will soon find all kinds of things we MUST have to enhance our experience, for a nominal fee of course, other than the obvious things like cases, covers, car chargers and ear pieces. Oh well...enough rambling.

See, here I was thinking that Android chargers are universal . . . that any Android phone can use any Android charger . . .

Kashigo said:

The old charger for the Droid X (or X2) has an output of 850mA while the Razor MAXX actually only puts out 750mA. The old charger may actually charge the phone a tad bit faster, but I wouldn't worry about using it on your phone. As Old Man informed us in his post the USB port on your computer can possibly be putting out even more mAs than the plug in USB adapter that came with your phone and the phones are designed to be linked via USB to a computer, so a 1 extra mA from an old Droid charger won't hurt your phone.
My favorite incorrect fact so far has come from the Verizon store where I got my Razor MAXX...not an authorized dealer, but directly from Verizon. The customer rep told me that using my old charger wouldn't allow the phone to charge fully as it was designed to charge a battery with less capacity. Let's think about that for a second...is there a timer hidden in the plug adapter? Does the phone know the difference between the two chargers when it is capable of charging from 750mA (the charger it came with) to 1500mA from a computer connection? It is the silliest thing I have ever heard! Regardless of the lack of logic or any real scientific explanation, I still use the charger that came with the phone. Why not? It didn't cost me any extra, so the small changes from the Droid X charger are probably intentional, even if minor, so better to be safe than sorry. Now if I actually had to purchase the new charger, I might be less inclined to believe that the small changes were really needed and it was probably a way to get more money out of the consumer. Apple is really great at this and I imagine Motorola and other companies making Droid phones will soon find all kinds of things we MUST have to enhance our experience, for a nominal fee of course, other than the obvious things like cases, covers, car chargers and ear pieces. Oh well...enough rambling.

Click to expand...

USB plugs in computers usually put out 500mA, not 1500mA.

kevins686 said:

See, here I was thinking that Android chargers are universal . . .

Click to expand...

They are.

that any Android phone can use any Android charger . . .

Click to expand...

You can.

No, they are not. The stock one is slower than say a tablet @2.0A.

If anyone here knew anything about charging lithion batteries, they would clearly say that if the stock charging circuit allowed faster charging, they would also say that battery longevity is going to be reduced.

Sure it works, but did you all actually research this?

syntrix said:

No, they are not. The stock one is slower than say a tablet @2.0A.

Click to expand...

The phone would only draw 1A from the charger. Which is a little more than the stock charger, but it's going to damage anything.

If anyone here knew anything about charging lithion batteries, they would clearly say that if the stock charging circuit allowed faster charging, they would also say that battery longevity is going to be reduced.

Click to expand...

And why are you mentioning this for a phone that DOESN'T support fast charging?

Sure it works, but did you all actually research this?

Click to expand...

Yes. Have you?

euph_22 said:

Yes. Have you?

Click to expand...

Yes, but it's clear that you haven't.

The internal circuit may allow 1.0 Amp, but charging cycles will be reduced, that's a fact of lithium batteries. There's a reason why this phone came with a .75 Amp charger, but you might not care today.

edit: most people here will have to go through 2 years before their next upgrade. It's pushing it already with the stock charger for near-full capacity for that duration, if charged every night.

With a non-consumer replaceable battery, this could be valuable information for the masses that don't want to send it off for an expensive battery replacement that would have never had to be done during the life of the phone.

I'm one of those that will just buy a new phone before an upgrade, and I like it that way. I'm not most people that have a 2 year contract, and want the best battery life out of the phone.

syntrix said:

The internal circuit may allow 1.0 Amp, but charging cycles will be reduced, that's a fact of lithium batteries.

Click to expand...

And you have evidence for this assertion?

FAST CHARGING will reduce the life of the battery, yes. However, 1.0A is not fast charging.

euph_22 said:

And you have evidence for this assertion?

FAST CHARGING will reduce the life of the battery, yes. However, 1.0A is not fast charging.

Click to expand...

It's a fact, calm down. You get to set your charging rate on lithion batteries for other applications that are more sensitive than a cell phone. They are usually in .1 Amp increments for the factory options.

The higher amp batteries are all toast this season, but but slower ones are all good. This is common knowledge. I'm sure that anyone could google it... but bottom line:

Stick with the factory charger if you need to make it through 2 years of a contract.

euph, you need any more info or specifics pm me. Not so sure the topic here matches your diatribe. Thanks all!

I have spent 20 minutes googling for any evidence that charging at 0.56C causes any more wear than charging at 0.41C (1C charge rate for a battery fully charges the battery in 1 hour). since you're the one posting diatribes, please share a link.

I'm perfectly calm, i was just emphasizing that i was talking about fast charging, and not conventional quick charging.

I've never used a stock charger for any of my phones. And the battery have always been fine for longer than 2 years. If you're going to make posts saying other wise back it up with links that prove it. So far you're the only one saying it isn't safe to use anything but your stock charger.

This is a discussion forum, so differences of opinion are both expected and welcomed. Rudeness however is not, so please keep responses civil and avoid the temptation to aim at individuals rather than issues.

:rofl:

Sorry to be thick, but does this go for car chargers, as well? I have the charger that I bought from Verizon for a Droid Incredible. Will it be OK to use with the RAZR MAXX?

Suncrow said:

Sorry to be thick, but does this go for car chargers, as well? I have the charger that I bought from Verizon for a Droid Incredible. Will it be OK to use with the RAZR MAXX?

Click to expand...

Yes.