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Help Nexus 7 charging is extremely (and annoyingly) SLOW

I am using the original, supplied cable and I plug it into an electrical outlet. My unit is less than 5 months old. Up until my most recent upgrade the other day, it always took approximately 4 hours to charge. Suddenly, with no change in usage or anything else, my last charge took 17 hours. BTW, I am extremely non-techy, so it's hard for me to convey any technical info other than the above.
 
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Has anyone found a multiport USB charger that will 2 x 10 Watts for two tablets at once? It's nice having the fast charging availability in multiple places.
 
mmoy said:
Has anyone found a multiport USB charger that will 2 x 10 Watts for two tablets at once? It's nice having the fast charging availability in multiple places.
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No, but I made one out of a few parts from radio shack, and a dual USB port board from an old laptop. :) Grafted in to the glovebox of my Bug to charge/power my phone and tablet while driving.

http://androidforums.com/5835149-post60.html

Using two regulators was a bad idea, though, and I'm building another with a transistor in place of the second regulator, which will provide up to 15A safely. :D
 
I might be better off just getting two official 2 Amp chargers and putting them together in a 2-in-1 power plug splitter. I had a look at several 4 Amp chargers and there were always a few feedback items on problems with them. I haven't been able to find these sorts of things from a reputable company. I am very pleased with the charger that came with the Nexus 7 though. I can charge anything with it: iPad, iPhone, Android phones, iPhone, Garmin GPS Watch, iPod, etc.
 
I find that it trickle charges from anything that isn't the OEM charger. I've tried it with two different samsung chargers that I've got with phones and they both trickle charge. I've even tried using the OEM wall socket with a different micro-usb cable and that trickled charged.

I'll be damned if anything else works.
 
I picked up a 2012 Note 10.1 last week and it had the wrong charger and would only charge at 480 ma. I have several chargers and only my Note 2 charger would charge it at 1.2 amp, even tho I tried my N7 charger and HP Touchpad, that I used to use for everything. I later found out Samsung chargers (like Apple chargers) are different from other brands.
 
Interesting. I know about Apples's non-standard way of identifying the charge capability of a USB connection (including chargers) but I thought everyone else stuck to the de facto standard.

Bad choice by Samsung IMO.
 
There are several different "standards" used by the different manufacturers. The way the different devices identify "their" chargers is by the amount of resistance inserted by the charger across the data lines. In the case of our Nexus 7 (and the Sero 7), the data lines are shorted together. (This is why you can't charge and use the USB cable for other things at the same time. It's one or the other, not both at the same time.)

I have solved the problem for myself, by opening the charging cable, cutting the data lines, and shorting them together on the end that goes to the tablet. In my experience, the power lines are red and black while the data lines have been white and green. (HINT: Do not cut the power lines.) That could easily be different with different manufactures, so be careful if you decide to do this mod yourself. If you are not comfortable with soldering, I would suggest getting somebody else to do this for you.

After modifying the USB cable, the different chargers work fine, up to their rated capacity.
 
That's why I said "de facto standard" rather than "standard". The method used by the Nexus 7 is that used by the widest range of devices accepting USB charge, which is what makes it the de facto standard.

"de facto" definition: existing in fact, but not officially decided or approved
 
Well, yeah. That's why I put the word standard in quotes. Seems like a lot of different manufacturers have their own version of standard. Apple seems to be the worst of the lot, as they appear to do it a couple of different ways depending on if it's a tablet or a phone... At any rate, shorting the data lines on a USB charging cable puts an end to all the confusion. That makes any charger look like a good one to the Nexus. (At least it has for me. YMMV)
 
Those like Apple do this deliberately as a means of retaining sales of their over-priced accessories. Happily most manufacturers can see the benefits of standardisation in the bigger scheme of things, hence the de facto standard for USB chargers.

This has been partly driven by the likes of the EU which "urged" manufacturers to standardise both the connector and charging protocols for phones with the ultimate aim of allowing any charger to charge any phone - and although I rarely approve of EU meddlings I'm with them on this one.
 
Same problem for me, folks.
Hit the last update and now I can't keep my Nexus 7 charged. If I leave it on all night I can get it up to about 30%.

I am using the original charger and cord. Nothing, except the update, changed. I've tried the tricks of shutting it down in the reboot menu and charging it then. I've done the plug it inot the computer and then unplug it and plug it back into the wall. I've opened the back to make sure the battery cord was seated correctly.

This is beyond annoying. So what do I do? Buy some non-Nexus 7 charger and cord? That makes no sense. I've loaded battery gauge to see what's going on, but I don't know what else to do.
 
How about factory reset? I know that's a pain if you have a lot of stuff on it but it might be the way to get it back to working and charging again.
 
Yeah, I've been trying to avoid a factory reset because i do have quite a bit stored.

And i keep hoping, vainly it appears, that they'll send out a patch to fix the problem. Why is that so hard?
 
The bug may be only seen by a few users or it could be related to third-party software. I don't have any problems with my Nexus 7 and I know many others using theirs without problems. So they may have to do some diagnostic work with you to find the problem and determine what is causing it.
 
Did you check the data ribbon between the N7's USB port and the motherboard? My mother's N7 came with a partially dislodged ribbon from the factory.
 
TheAmazingDave said:
Did you check the data ribbon between the N7's USB port and the motherboard? My mother's N7 came with a partially dislodged ribbon from the factory.
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Yep. I made sure the cord/ribbon was seated correctly. I've had this Nexus for about 1 year. It's only been doing this sloooooooooow charge thing since the last update.
 
Do you know anyone that has a dock that you could test charging it with?

In general, I charge via the dock 99% of the time.
 
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