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Touchscreen goes wacky when charging with non-Motorola charger

gorillabait

Newbie
Oct 2, 2010
12
0
So, this is an odd issue. I got my Maxx a few weeks ago, and since I have several chargers from other manufacturers (HTC, LG, HP) around the house, and my last phone (Incredible 1) I'd charge with whatever was handy, I naturally figured doing so with this phone would work too.

However, when I plug in the cable connected to another company's adapter, the touchscreen goes wonky. Meaning that if you draw a line with your finger from left to right, it actually registers as a line full of zigs and zags and likely several times of lifting your finger off the screen and putting it back down again. I've seen this both from pattern unlocks and Swype where you can visually see the lines as you draw them. It makes the touchscreen unusable in this state.

So, what gives? Has anyone else experienced this issue? This doesn't happen at all when I charge from the Motorola adapter, but being able to use others while still using the device would be handy. Plus I'm concerned I might be damaging the device somehow.

Any thoughts? Danke. =)
 
So, this is an odd issue. I got my Maxx a few weeks ago, and since I have several chargers from other manufacturers (HTC, LG, HP) around the house, and my last phone (Incredible 1) I'd charge with whatever was handy, I naturally figured doing so with this phone would work too.

However, when I plug in the cable connected to another company's adapter, the touchscreen goes wonky. Meaning that if you draw a line with your finger from left to right, it actually registers as a line full of zigs and zags and likely several times of lifting your finger off the screen and putting it back down again. I've seen this both from pattern unlocks and Swype where you can visually see the lines as you draw them. It makes the touchscreen unusable in this state.

So, what gives? Has anyone else experienced this issue? This doesn't happen at all when I charge from the Motorola adapter, but being able to use others while still using the device would be handy. Plus I'm concerned I might be damaging the device somehow.

Any thoughts? Danke. =)
Yep you probably are. Hope you have insurance

Simple answer . use the correct charger
 
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From looking at other people's posts about their chargers, most don't seem to be having any difficulty using chargers from other manufacturers. Any idea why this might be happening? These are OEM chargers, just from different brands, not generic ones from China.


I hate how short the cord is on the chargers that come with the phone.

Agreed, it's freakin' annoying. I use the Motorola adapter combined with the USB cord that came with my HP Touchpad, which is reasonably long compared to others.
 
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its not an important question at all, its called common sense. If Moto wanted you to use another charger, they wouldn't stick one in the box.

Excuse me Fred, but that's BS. Have you not heard from the thousands of people who've successfully used other manufacturer's chargers without any sort of ill effects on their phones? I used all sorts on my HTC Incredible without any incident ever.

Which is why I'm asking people's thoughts. Er, beg pardon: EDUCATED thoughts.
 
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Excuse me Fred, but that's BS. Have you not heard from the thousands of people who've successfully used other manufacturer's chargers without any sort of ill effects on their phones? I used all sorts on my HTC Incredible without any incident ever.

Which is why I'm asking people's thoughts. Er, beg pardon: EDUCATED thoughts.

No i havn't heard from thousands actually. If you think its BS why start the thread. You carry on using that other charger and good luck with it lol
 
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its not an important question at all, its called common sense. If Moto wanted you to use another charger, they wouldn't stick one in the box.

Maybe Moto thought customers might want to actually use the phone more than once. Why the hell would Motorola just assume you already have a microusb charger, especially since throwing one in costs about $0.15 per unit. Please use common sense yourself. My flashlight came with batteries. Can I therefore assume that those specific batteries are the only ones in the entire world that will work with the light?

And it's called a UNIVERSAL serial bus (USB) for a reason. It's a universal standard. You can use any standard microusb cord on any standard usb charger and it works just fine, thank you. There are a few nonstandard/damaged charges that might cause some weirdness (the screen issue is almost certainly caused by a wonky ground on either the charger or the cord). Short of a tiny handful of very cut rate chargers you'll find on ebay or some no name website, it will not cause permanent harm. Certainly the kind of grounding issue I'm talking about will not cause any damage, it just prevents the capacitive touch screen from knowing when you're hitting it.
 
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I've never had any issue using other chargers for just about any phone as long as the jack is the same as the plug. I find the moto maxx charger to stick out from the wall to much when the usb is connected as is needed to make it work. I'm using old an HTC charger I like alot as it is a very sturdy build and sits close to the wall so it fits behind the night stand nicely. Moto's won't fit back there at all. Nice long cord and all one piece as it's hard wired to the charger not plugged into it. Has a lite, very nice charger,
If it made my screen go wonky I'd not use it tho. ;)
 
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There are a few nonstandard/damaged charges that might cause some weirdness (the screen issue is almost certainly caused by a wonky ground on either the charger or the cord). Short of a tiny handful of very cut rate chargers you'll find on ebay or some no name website, it will not cause permanent harm. Certainly the kind of grounding issue I'm talking about will not cause any damage, it just prevents the capacitive touch screen from knowing when you're hitting it.

Interesting thought, thanks for it. I had used this same charger for my Incredible without any similar (or other) issues on it though. So far I've seen the touchscreen issue with two different non-Moto chargers... gonna keep testing. And hopefully not short out my phone in the interim =)
 
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This is an old issue I first saw on my OG Droid. I have learned to deal with it. Its intermittent, and usually leaving the display alone for a few seconds will get past it. I use thunderbolt, Xperia Play, and blackberry chargers, as well as OEM. They all do it sometimes. The HD dock comes with one identical to the blackberry charger.
 
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No i havn't heard from thousands actually. If you think its BS why start the thread. You carry on using that other charger and good luck with it lol

OMG, I've been using the wrong chargers all this time, I hope my phones don't blow up...

Give me a break. I would say the majority of people use other than OEM chargers on their phones all the time. Heck, Verizon even switched me out to a Droid X from an Incredible a couple years ago and just told me to use the HTC charger...which worked fine. As stated, the U in USB stands for Universal. Some manufacturers make it so only their specific chargers will work, not because it's better...because it's profitable.

Yeah, I've seen where some really cheap ones can cause certain devices to act funny, so don't use that cheap charger. OP, I've always had good luck ordering from monoprice. They're prices are the best and most of their cables are pretty decent quality, they've worked with all my devices.

For only $0.96 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 3ft USB 2.0 A Male to Micro 5pin Male 28/24AWG Cable w/ Ferrite Core (Gold Plated) | USB 2.0 Cables - Micro-B Type

:beerglass:
 
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Check what pin setup they use. All of your connection are different if you notice a car dock with no power plugged into your device is still recognized. I have had the same problem your speaking of using someones charger at work. Never had any real issues with my phone and to lazy to look further into the theory of pins in the plug.
 
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its not an important question at all, its called common sense. If Moto wanted you to use another charger, they wouldn't stick one in the box.

Dude its called a micro USB for a reason... it is a universal plug! That's like saying that my Sony flash drive didn't work in a Dell computer because the manufacturer of the computer never meant for me to use a Sony USB stick. Any other charger with the proper specs should charge the phone fine. If you want to use a longer cord, then by all means go ahead! Make sure you use the Motorola wall adapter. I have heard that other brand adapters actually use more/less kW hours of electricity, which can possibly explain the wonky behavior. Technically speaking, these off-brand adapters should either charge your phone slower/faster, but other side affects are obviously seen.

The only damage I can see possibly happening is to the battery, by charging it too quickly. Charging the Motorola battery slower than recommended? Not gonna hurt a thing. I would make a point to use the Motorola wall adapter, but get a ten foot cord if it tickles your fancy.
 
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I bought the motorola "green" charger off ebay. it's an official motorola charger but it's the green version where if it's not charging anything, it doesn't generate phantom power so I don't have to unplug it.

sometimes my phone goes crazy when it's charging too where the touch screen doesn't really want to work. then sometimes it's ok. it's all random.


edit* it's the Verizon ECO Wall Charger. Not Morotola sorry. Ebay has a few for sale but for $99.99 which is crazy since I got mine for less than $10.
 
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Wow, this is weird. After the ICS upgrade I didn't think my battery was behaving right even after a few charge/discharge cycles so I followed the advice of others and did a factory reset this morning. (Note: if you do this, either take screenshots of each home screen or write down what icon /widget is where. Save yourself some aggravation!)

Anyway, the system automatically reloaded all my apps. During all this I had it plugged into a non-Motorola charger (I think it was from an old LG dumbphone.) After it was all set back up, I noticed the touchscreen was wacked. I'd touch one icon and a different app whose icon was also on the same screen would open. A reboot did not help. Then I found this thread. I checked which charger I was using and realized it was non-Motorola. I changed it to a Motorola charger, rebooted again and now the correct apps open.

I thought these darn things were universal.
 
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Ok, add me (well, my wife actually) to the list with a RAZR. This is my wife's third RAZR (the first one the vibrate stopped functioning, and the second was dropping calls). She got the white RAZR and wanted all white accessories, so I bought her an HTC white wall charger and cable, and a spare cheapo white cable that was a little longer. With her first two, there was no issue whatsoever using the HTC charger and cheap USB cable, but with the new one, if she's charging it and trying to type, it will randomly press letters nowhere near where you are actually typing.

At first I thought she was crazy, because when I looked at it, I would pull the cord out and type on it and tell her it was working fine, then she would plug it back in when I handed it to her, and complain it wasn't working right. I finally put 2 and 2 together, and realized it was the charger.

To further add to the mystery, my MAXX has no issues whatsoever with charging with a non-Moto charger/cable and using it at the same time. It seems to vary by device, and may have something to do with inevitable variances in tolerances between individual devices. After all, these phones are pocket-sized supercomputers, and computers are just prone to little quirks like that.

As far as damage to the device or battery, I wouldn't worry about it. Unless your phone or battery is getting super hot while charging, it won't cause any damage. If you're really concerned about it though, you can pick up some spare Moto OEM chargers for cheap on eBay and Amazon. I particularly like the dual USB wall charger that came with my MAXX.
 
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Same Issue here, I have a Barnes N Noble Nook COLOR tablet, I accidentally broke the usb cable that came with it and found that I can use the blackberry charger in place, but whenever the charger is connected the touchscreen goes crazy, I've read the original cable had some extra pins to allow a faster charge and the only side effect using other cables is slower charge time but this screen behavior is totally unexpected, once you unplug the cable the touchscreen goes back to normal behavior.
 
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I have also had some difficulty with my old cables. The Verizon store associate said that it was fine to use my old cables but on 1 of them my phone doesn't charge even though it says it is connected. I wonder if the USB standard has changed since they started making micro-USB cables.

Not all chargers are "standard usb" and they might have full wiring or partial wiring enabled. Difference between a/c (ac adapter) and charging (usb cable on a computer) comes to mind here. Two very different wiring setups, two very different results on the phone.

But you are correct, not all usb PORTS are created equal or are a standard. Some put out less than recommended on the voltage, and drive the bare minimum to drive, say, a usb thumb drive.
 
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