Develop Bugs

not charging via usb?

so the option to not charge it is not ticked under power settings, and its set to charge via usb from advanced config and still no dice.
tried different usb ports and nothing
the led is orange, says its charging in power options
any thoughts?

Try a diffrent usb cable, some cables do not provide enough power to charge the phone. (guessing maybe they are old 1.1 cabels). But I know I have a few cables around that dont charge my phone and they also will not work with my portable external usb hard drive because they wont provide enough power for it. But they work just fine with my digital camera.

I´ve read somewhere that disabling USB charging is better for the battery life, so I have it disabled.

You've tried different USB ports, but were they on the different computers?

so i've tried different cables, different ports and 2 different PC's and 2 different laptops.
I know its not the cable i'm currently using because i plugged it into one of those A/C to USB adapters and charged fine.
I'm starting to think its my batter,
If you have tbattery installed, do u get values for all the boxes?
All mine except 3 or 4 are 0 :/

Well, you are not the only one having this problem. Mine is brand new. I started setting it up last night and had it hooked to the computer via usb. I installed a few .cabs such as google maps, myphone, and a few tweaks such as tether, disable sent notification, enable all camera modes, and manila start menu unlocker. While it was connected it said it was charging. When I went to bed I turned it off and connected it to another usb cable on another computer which is an a/c hub. I went to turn it on this morning and thought it was strange it was not fully charged. I continued to set it up a bit and take it for a spin. After a while I turned it off again and hooked it to the usb a/c charger again. I just tried turning it on and nothing was happening. I connected it to the usb again and it finally turned on, but I checked the battery level and it was at 0% and turned off. I have it connected to the a/c charger and giving it a little bit to see what will happen. One thing that seems strange is that the battery discharged more while it was off and attached to the usb a/c hub during the afternoon causing it to refuse to turn on at all. Any thoughts?

fone_fanatic said:
so i've tried different cables, different ports and 2 different PC's and 2 different laptops.
I know its not the cable i'm currently using because i plugged it into one of those A/C to USB adapters and charged fine.
I'm starting to think its my batter,
If you have tbattery installed, do u get values for all the boxes?
All mine except 3 or 4 are 0 :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the odds are pretty good it's your battery. The orange light means power is going through the charging circuit, so you obviously have your settings correct.
I'm guessing you're in Austin or near? If you want to try popping my battery in it for a few minutes and see if it charges fine then, PM me and we can set something up.

the same thing is happening with mine. Sometimes it will charge, sometimes it wont. weird thing is that it only started doing this a few days ago... i know nothing has changed ROM wise, so only things i can think now is maybe the actual USB connector on the phone or the battery, but since I am getting a charge via wall chargers im not sure what to think lol

Just an update.
If i have the USB cable plugged in (and car charger to which doesn't charge as well ) after 15 min or so a warning appears saying that the current is too low to charge the device. Either closed unused apps or switch to a/c power.
I've ordered a 1800mah Mugen Power Battery. Gonna see if it resolves the issue, if it does then i'm gonna call at&t and see if they'll swap my battery for me.

I have found as have others here after reading some posts that if the phone is almost dead or battery is very low then it will not charge via the USB anymore. The orange light goes on and it says that its charging but the charging circuit seems to be protecting the phone and not letting the battery charge.
The only solution I have found, and it has only happened twice so far is to plug it into a wall charger and fully charge the battery. It will then charge via USB again and all is good. I normally only charge my phone with usb while connected to Activesync but once in a while you seem to need to top it up with a wall charger.
It is also highly recomended not to run Lithium Ion batteries right out.

How do you know it is not charging?
There is a difference in the wiring from a wall charger and a USB charger. There is a signal line in the wall charger telling it to charge at near 1000ma. In the USB cable that line tells it to limit the charge current to 500ma. That is the limit for current that you should pull from a USB port. If you are using the unit heavily, you may actually need more then the 500ma., those running the battery down possibly.
If the unit is idle, it will still take much longer to charger from USB then off of a wall charger.

worwig said:
How do you know it is not charging?
There is a difference in the wiring from a wall charger and a USB charger. There is a signal line in the wall charger telling it to charge at near 1000ma. In the USB cable that line tells it to limit the charge current to 500ma. That is the limit for current that you should pull from a USB port. If you are using the unit heavily, you may actually need more then the 500ma., those running the battery down possibly.
If the unit is idle, it will still take much longer to charger from USB then off of a wall charger.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are asking me, I know it was not charging because I also had the "not enough power to charge message" and the phone went from about 15% when I plugged it in to stone cold dead by the morning. The whole time it was pluged into a computer I have used repeatedly to charge it with. I then put it on a AC charger and it went to full charger in about an hour and a half or so.

usb charge vs ac charge

Hey
Whenever ive had a phone with a usb port in the past ive usually charged it via USB connected to my PC. However, with the desire it takes about 45 mins to improve battery by 1% when connected to pc, whereas is takes about 1 min to do this when connected to AC. Ive never had this with any other phone which is why im wondering whether theres something wrong there
anyone else have this issue?

I'm pretty sure most devices do this.. any I've toyed with have..

it might be slower, but its never been this much slower. In fact, ive just had it plugged into usb for the last hour and the battery has gone DOWN 3%!!!!!

The current that you can draw through a USB port probably isn't as much! can't remember what the USB standard is but it's more that likely a lot lower than the AC charger

Yes, I am experiencing the same thing. On USB 1% every half an hour, on AC like 1% per minute. Still, I don't know what is causing this. The output power of AC and USB are different, but they shouldn't be this much.

is your laptop running on the mains or battery?
is your charging cable original (htc desire) ?

my laptop is running on the mains/AC but i am not using the cable that was originally bundled with the desire....should that make a difference though? Surely a USB cable is a USB cable?

Same here. Very slow on USB.
Wiki says this:
However, many devices require more power than this method can provide, and will not work in this type of hub.
USB current (related to power) is allocated in units of 100 mA up to a maximum total of 500 mA per port.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

ive generally always charged my phone via USB and never had this problem with any phone. the desire must be sooo power hungry. Im actually at a stage now where even if i plug it into the USB port, it still loses charge

One usb hub can provide up to 500 miliamps of current, one port just 256. The ac adapter can give you 1000 ma. So do the calculations yourself
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Since I have had my desire I have never charged it via the charger my pc charges it even when its turned off and I've never had any problems with charge speed.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

i found the htc cable to be more effective than a micro usb one from samsung.

I've charged my phone from my PC loads of times. Takes about twice as long (roughly, I've never actually timed it).
Definitely not 1% per half hour though!

What is your setup and are you doing with the phone whilst it's connected?
With WiFi and 3G and the screen left on, I get +1% every 3.6mins using the PC USB.
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- Sent via my HTC Desire -

no, i definately dont get it charge that quick. Also, for the record, when using gps connected to a car charger, it doesnt ever charge, it only loses charge at a much slower rate (not good for long journeys!) unless i switch the screen off
When its connected to the pc im usually not doing anything with it. If even tried it with the phone switched off before, charged it like this for an hour and then when i turned it back on it had only charged by 2%
what do you want to know about the setup? Could it actually have something to do with the fact im not using the original bundled USB cable? I just cant see that being a factor

something is definitly wrong with either your cable your phone.
Let's try to cancel out one of those factors:
-have you tried using a different able?
I have NEVER used the AC charger, i've always used the usb charging method, and it takes about 2 hours for a half charge.

ill try using a different cable and see what happens. could the fact im charging it off a netbook be a problem? i wouldnt have thought so as i always charged my last phone (touch diamond) off this netbook too

ok, so it seems the USB cable used DOES matter. When using the original one it charges a lot quicker via USB ... AND AC
i didnt realise different usb cables have different power transfer rates....i guess now i do

Do this test.
Try to charge the phone while it's off.
The power controller of the phone needs to split the power between the phone requirements and the charging of the battery.
I think that your phone is drawing to much power so there is very little left for the battery charge.
So 1. test the usb cable 2. test the power consumption of your phone.

I have no problems charging my phone, when it's connected to my desktop.
Use it all the time at work.

So why is my battery draining while charging?

I've noticed this happening any time I tether via USB or use GPS navigation while plugged in. Even though I'm connected and charging, I slowly but surely discharge. This weekend I used Google Nav for 2 hours and lost 20% of my battery while charging! On Juice Plotter, I notice the green charging glow at the bottom is a more transparent shade of green (as opposed to solid green when solely charging). Any ideas what causes this or how to avoid it? It seems to be recent.

TheBiles said:
I've noticed this happening any time I tether via USB or use GPS navigation while plugged in. Even though I'm connected and charging, I slowly but surely discharge. This weekend I used Google Nav for 2 hours and lost 20% of my battery while charging! On Juice Plotter, I notice the green charging glow at the bottom is a more transparent shade of green (as opposed to solid green when solely charging). Any ideas what causes this or how to avoid it? It seems to be recent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me guess, you're charging off a USB port in your laptop, or using the data cable that came with the phone in your car charger?
Not all USB sources (or cables, for that matter) are created equally. Most PC/laptop ports put out 500mAh, half of what the Evo is designed to take (the factory AC adapter, the wall plug, is 1000mAh, aka 1amp).
Since it's only getting half the draw it can't quite keep up with how much power you're sucking away from the battery. This is usually only present when using the device heavily, such as with the screen on and GPS or WiFi/3G actively running.
The charging indicator (at least on Sense) indicates if it's getting the full "AC" charge (1amp) or if it's getting a reduced current charge. Sounds like that's what you're noticing.
My wife's Samsung Moment charger is 700mAh/0.7amp, and it can keep my Evo steady during use (it's powering it for 3G+WiFi tether right now), but it doesn't really charge fast at all, basically it just keeps it from depleting.
I've been meaning to try one of the USB Y-cables that join 2 standard USB ports to one female port for combined power of 1amp, but I'm not sure it will work as I hope. Anyway, I'll report back if I get around to it.
Otherwise, use an actual 1amp AC adapter whenever possible. Shop on eBay, chargers are stupid cheap. Just look for one that says it can do 1amp/1000mAh. If you're using the phone at work and want to have a convenient charging source, get one of the $20 docking cradles with an AC adapter on eBay. If it's in your car, any 12v USB charger should work, as long as you use a proper pass-through charging micro USB cable and not a "data cable". There's a slight difference in how the pins are wired inside. The Rocket Fish brand of micro USB cables are known to work (that's how I charge mine at full power in my car).

Way to go GT. Are you a student? I'm an ME phd student.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

sprocket87 said:
Let me guess, you're charging off a USB port in your laptop, or using the data cable that came with the phone in your car charger?
Not all USB sources (or cables, for that matter) are created equally. Most PC/laptop ports put out 500mAh, half of what the Evo is designed to take (the factory AC adapter, the wall plug, is 1000mAh, aka 1amp).
Since it's only getting half the draw it can't quite keep up with how much power you're sucking away from the battery. This is usually only present when using the device heavily, such as with the screen on and GPS or WiFi/3G actively running.
The charging indicator (at least on Sense) indicates if it's getting the full "AC" charge (1amp) or if it's getting a reduced current charge. Sounds like that's what you're noticing.
My wife's Samsung Moment charger is 700mAh/0.7amp, and it can keep my Evo steady during use (it's powering it for 3G+WiFi tether right now), but it doesn't really charge fast at all, basically it just keeps it from depleting.
I've been meaning to try one of the USB Y-cables that join 2 standard USB ports to one female port for combined power of 1amp, but I'm not sure it will work as I hope. Anyway, I'll report back if I get around to it.
Otherwise, use an actual 1amp AC adapter whenever possible. Shop on eBay, chargers are stupid cheap. Just look for one that says it can do 1amp/1000mAh. If you're using the phone at work and want to have a convenient charging source, get one of the $20 docking cradles with an AC adapter on eBay. If it's in your car, any 12v USB charger should work, as long as you use a proper pass-through charging micro USB cable and not a "data cable". There's a slight difference in how the pins are wired inside. The Rocket Fish brand of micro USB cables are known to work (that's how I charge mine at full power in my car).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using the included charging cable. Doesn't that have full capacity? I also use a standard USB adapter in the car. It seems like that would be able to output the correct amount of volts.
gtkansan said:
Way to go GT. Are you a student? I'm an ME phd student.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
3rd year CmpE.

I had the same problem until I noticed how hot my phone was using the nav. 13 hour drive. I purchased a vent cradle for the car and so that it can stay cool while in use and charging. While the other guy may be right theoretically, its not right practically. The evo will shut off its mini usb hub once it starts getting dangerously hot so that it won't damage your phone. Long story short make sure your phone is at safe temps no need to buy another charger for your evo. keep at cool temps so that phone won't cut off power supply will even shut your phone down if its way to hot, happened to me in atlanta not fun.
"Insert Fancy Quote"

TheBiles said:
I'm using the included charging cable. Doesn't that have full capacity? I also use a standard USB adapter in the car. It seems like that would be able to output the correct amount of volts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you say "included charging cable" do you mean the wall plug that came with the Evo or just the cable with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB on the other end? Because THAT cable is pinned as a data transfer cable and designed to relay only half voltage no matter what you plug it into. I know, because it only charged my Evo at slow speed when plugged into my USB car charger. Once I replaced it with the Rocket Fish cable it charged at full speed.
kwilbur3 said:
I had the same problem until I noticed how hot my phone was using the nav. 13 hour drive. I purchased a vent cradle for the car and so that it can stay cool while in use and charging. While the other guy may be right theoretically, its not right practically. The evo will shut off its mini usb hub once it starts getting dangerously hot so that it won't damage your phone. Long story short make sure your phone is at safe temps no need to buy another charger for your evo. keep at cool temps so that phone won't cut off power supply will even shut your phone down if its way to hot, happened to me in atlanta not fun.
"Insert Fancy Quote"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See above. While I agree that heat will kill the battery and possibly trigger a shutoff, I don't think that's his problem. If you use the wrong cable or charger you will only get half charging current.

sprocket87 said:
When you say "included charging cable" do you mean the wall plug that came with the Evo or just the cable with a USB connector on one end and a micro USB on the other end? Because THAT cable is pinned as a data transfer cable and designed to relay only half voltage no matter what you plug it into. I know, because it only charged my Evo at slow speed when plugged into my USB car charger. Once I replaced it with the Rocket Fish cable it charged at full speed.
See above. While I agree that heat will kill the battery and possibly trigger a shutoff, I don't think that's his problem. If you use the wrong cable or charger you will only get half charging current.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I mean the USB cable that comes in the box with the EVO that plugs into the AC adapter. Maybe I will look into a new cable then. Hmm.
Edit: Those Rocketfish cables that you mentioned seem to be ungodly expensive. No way in hell am I going to pay more than $5 for a USB cable. Any alternatives?

TheBiles said:
I mean the USB cable that comes in the box with the EVO that plugs into the AC adapter. Maybe I will look into a new cable then. Hmm.
Edit: Those Rocketfish cables that you mentioned seem to be ungodly expensive. No way in hell am I going to pay more than $5 for a USB cable. Any alternatives?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the one I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKETFISH-MOBI...ARGING-CABLE-/350384355972?pt=PDA_Accessories
$3 shipped
And there are 2 USB cables that came with the Evo (mine anyway), a thick one that was bundled with the wall charger and a thin one that's intended just for data sync. The thin one doesn't seem to charge at full speed.
If you're using the other one and it's STILL draining then maybe there is an issue with heat or something, like the other guy said. Is the phone SUPER hot at the base, where the kickstand is, when this happens?

OP - I am having the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's caused by something wrong in CM6 regarding how it handles USB charging. Past few nightlies I have been leaving my phone on the charger doing NOTHING overnight and it goes dead.
This CANNOT be due to lack of charging strength:
#1 the same exact charger worked perfectly in the past, before I flashed a certain nightly - not sure which one exactly it started in
#2 if it was charging, but slowly why in the world would the battery drain when I have it underclocked to 245 mhz and the phone is sleeping with screen off?
On my standard charger that came with the phone it is working fine even though it's a USB that plugs into an adapter - not sure why this doesn't work with my other one that I had from another phone since it worked perfectly before. Something is definitely odd with CM6 and USB charging.

sprocket87 said:
This is the one I got: http://cgi.ebay.com/ROCKETFISH-MOBI...ARGING-CABLE-/350384355972?pt=PDA_Accessories
$3 shipped
And there are 2 USB cables that came with the Evo (mine anyway), a thick one that was bundled with the wall charger and a thin one that's intended just for data sync. The thin one doesn't seem to charge at full speed.
If you're using the other one and it's STILL draining then maybe there is an issue with heat or something, like the other guy said. Is the phone SUPER hot at the base, where the kickstand is, when this happens?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's odd, because my EVO only came with the one cable for the adapter. Phone stays cool.
berardi said:
OP - I am having the same problem. I'm 95% sure it's caused by something wrong in CM6 regarding how it handles USB charging. Past few nightlies I have been leaving my phone on the charger doing NOTHING overnight and it goes dead.
This CANNOT be due to lack of charging strength:
#1 the same exact charger worked perfectly in the past, before I flashed a certain nightly - not sure which one exactly it started in
#2 if it was charging, but slowly why in the world would the battery drain when I have it underclocked to 245 mhz and the phone is sleeping with screen off?
On my standard charger that came with the phone it is working fine even though it's a USB that plugs into an adapter - not sure why this doesn't work with my other one that I had from another phone since it worked perfectly before. Something is definitely odd with CM6 and USB charging.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've also noticed lately that my phone will charge insanely fast. Like from 30% to 90% in half an hour.

Sprocket - stupid question here... do these Rocket Fish charging cables also handle data transfer just as well as the stock micro-usb cable that came with the phone or would someone want to have one JUST for charging and keep their stock cable for data transfer purposes?

TheBiles said:
That's odd, because my EVO only came with the one cable for the adapter. Phone stays cool.
I've also noticed lately that my phone will charge insanely fast. Like from 30% to 90% in half an hour.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry I was unclear - the other cable I have that is the problem is one from another phone but the same type, and up until recently it worked perfectly.

Drained Battery ONLY charges from wall charger?

Anyone else notice that our Nitro is rather fickle about the power source it receives?
If my battery is completely drained, it MUST be plugged into a higher power source than USB (so far a wall charger that ouputs 750ma works) until it gets an initial charge (usually needs at least a couple of %)...Then it will accept charging from USB (USB provides 500ma).
I can tell when it's in this "state" because it remains dead if I plug it into USB and then if I plug it into a wall charger the touch buttons at the bottom flash for a few times and then the LG logo pops up and finally a charging battery icon comes on. Considering this sequence, this seems like a functionality of the phone. I wonder if this is common, my Nexus One certainly didn't have a higher-initial charge rate requirement when the battery was dead.

I've experienceed the same scenario.
Sent from my LG-P930 using XDA

I only have chargers that operate 1.8amps and higher.
As the battery is an issue the higher the amps the faster it will charge
sent from LG OPTIMUS LTE using Tapatalk

Well I did notice that if it was on usb...and I had bluetooth...gps, and wifi...plus running some apps and stuff...the battery actually continued to drain I think they have the usb thing as a safety measure...for some reason...I think it's odd...but meh

try a usb cable that has 2 jacks plugs to connect to tyhe computer. These cables are often supplied with external hard drives as they they require more power than can be supplied by just one usb connection.
I was also having the problem of my p-930 discharging while plugged into compute usb jack - even when screen off nad only in charge mode. I have since bought a dual plugged usb cable and it charges now. Although I haven't tried it from a completely discharged state.

my spectrum is the same way.. i can charge it with usb.. but it takes about 15-20 minutes to get enough charge to turn on

Epyoch said:
Well I did notice that if it was on usb...and I had bluetooth...gps, and wifi...plus running some apps and stuff...the battery actually continued to drain I think they have the usb thing as a safety measure...for some reason...I think it's odd...but meh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This! I only charge with a wall adapter now. I had a hard time charging it until someone here recommended this to me.

Phone doesn't know it's plugged in.

When the phone is off and plugged into the wall, it charges. When the phone is on, and I plug it into the wall or computer, the phone doesn't know it's plugged in.
I ordered a brand new usb charging flex jack and replaced the old one, still the same problem. What gives?
EDIT: I am stock. Not rooted.

Does this happen on the original cable also?
Have you tried wiping?
Is Fast Charge on?

Fk. It doesn't even charge from the wall! When the phone is off, it has the animation that says it's charging when i plug it in the wall. I left it plugged into the wall overnight. This morning I took a look at the phone, and it didn't charge!
Oh noez, what should i do?
Also, I don't have the original cable. I'm using an HTC one.
EDIT: Dafuq?! I found an LG charger. Apparently the phone knows that it's charging when I charge with that. The thing is, that charger is just a charger; it's not a usb cable+ an adaptor. So I can't use it for adb and such.
What is Fast Charge?

convolution said:
Fk. It doesn't even charge from the wall! When the phone is off, it has the animation that says it's charging when i plug it in the wall. I left it plugged into the wall overnight. This morning I took a look at the phone, and it didn't charge!
Oh noez, what should i do?
Also, I don't have the original cable. I'm using an HTC one.
EDIT: Dafuq?! I found an LG charger. Apparently the phone knows that it's charging when I charge with that. The thing is, that charger is just a charger; it's not a usb cable+ an adaptor. So I can't use it for adb and such.
What is Fast Charge?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should mention what ROM you're on (and version) so that no one else makes the same mistake I did in assuming you had a custom ROM and that Fast Charge is on. It's a feature that makes sure that whatever charges it is recognised as AC 1amp charger as some chargers aren't designed well enough (I believe it involves a single solder point) to report themselves as capable of 1A. If it doesn't report as AC to Android, it will charge at 500mA instead (it assumes USB power). It sometimes causes problems with connecting to PC via USB.
Get another USB cable, this time none of that fancy **** go straight to OE Samsung or something.

=O I thot all usb cables are made equal! So I can't use an HTC usb cable? The dude didn't sell me the phone with a cable T.T
Also, I'm stock. I am not even rooted.

My nexus just started acting stupid when I plug it in also.
Mine sat in a drawer for a few weeks and when I plugged it in to charge, it wouldn't.
What I did was this.
plug device into charger
remove battery for a few seconds
replace battery
press power button
phone powered up and began charging.
Even now, it still sometimes doesn't recognize the charger and I have to unplug and plug it in until it does.
I use a rocketfish cable.

convolution said:
=O I thot all usb cables are made equal! So I can't use an HTC usb cable? The dude didn't sell me the phone with a cable T.T
Also, I'm stock. I am not even rooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some devices are picky, you'd think that all USB cables are made equal (I did too) but some just don't work well with certain devices. I've had printers th... wait printers always have **** problems... I've had uh... usb extensions not work well with some Wifi dongles and such. My old milestone didn't like the Samsung cable either (yet the Moto cable works perfectly on gnex)

=O. Then it has to be the usb cable! No way it's not!
I ordered one on ebay =D
Rooted Gnex here I come!

dmappdev said:
My nexus just started acting stupid when I plug it in also.
Mine sat in a drawer for a few weeks and when I plugged it in to charge, it wouldn't.
What I did was this.
plug device into charger
remove battery for a few seconds
replace battery
press power button
phone powered up and began charging.
Even now, it still sometimes doesn't recognize the charger and I have to unplug and plug it in until it does.
I use a rocketfish cable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you dmappdev,
I followed your procedure (feel like talking about surgery here, which isn't too far from topic); I'm convinced that it helped in some way, directly or indirectly... as at first, my Galaxy S Advance still wouldn't recognize/charge my phone with:
1. its own charger,
2. my old Galaxy Ace's charger,
3. a universal wall usb plug used with the S Advanced own USB-to-USBmini cable.
My last idea was to use, quote: an old Nokia USB cable connected to my PC... and that worked.
I was much too happy my phone had remembered how to charge to stay mad... But I still tried those three means for charging again, and only the phone's original charger worked now. So the phone's charging ability has been "awakened" in some way, but only for the original charger ...technology is improving, but not the ethics on making life easier for the consumer.
All this was yesterday. This morning (there's more, yes), I saw my phone indicating a 100% charge although it had been disconnected from charge for several hours - something that had already happened once yesterday, before the unable-to-charge situation; a simple reboot took care of the problem, the battery status now showing a more realistic 53%.
Any comments to any of the above? If not, thanks again for your tip anyway !!!