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Help USB Connection Issue

S

SmallTock

Newbie
I bought a bionic a few days ago. And I've already run into an issue.

I plug the phone into my linux box and it doesn't recognize that it's plugged in. I'm using one of the cables that came with the phone (not from Motorola), but I don't see why that would matter anyway (I bought the phone at Costco and am using the extra cable provided by them). Is there any modification I need to do? Anything I need to change in the settings? I looked through the settings and couldn't find anything on the subject of USB Connectivity. Please help.

Regards,
~Zach
 
SmallTock said:
I bought a bionic a few days ago. And I've already run into an issue.

I plug the phone into my linux box and it doesn't recognize that it's plugged in. I'm using one of the cables that came with the phone (not from Motorola), but I don't see why that would matter anyway (I bought the phone at Costco and am using the extra cable provided by them). Is there any modification I need to do? Anything I need to change in the settings? I looked through the settings and couldn't find anything on the subject of USB Connectivity. Please help.
Click to expand...

You need to get it working with the Motorola cable that came with your Bionic. After you do that you can play with the cables to your hearts content and keep the "guaranteed to work" cable for diagnostic use. The short anwer to why is ... quality control.

If it is still not working with the Motorola cable use a different port on your desktop. Front ports on a lot of desktops give problems. Try a port in the back that is on the frame of the PC.

As soon as you connect the cable a notification of USB Connection should show up in the notification area. Select it and then select the mode you want to operate in.

... Thom
 
I see you have join the large group who have had this problem. As Thom says you need the Motorola cable.

I recommend you contact Motorola Support directly, that is what I ended up doing after VZ failed twice to send the right one (they appear to not have good enough descriptions to select the right cable from their online docs). Just tell them you device did not come with the Motorola cable so they will give you one free.
 
SmallTock said:
I bought a bionic a few days ago. And I've already run into an issue.

I plug the phone into my linux box and it doesn't recognize that it's plugged in. I'm using one of the cables that came with the phone (not from Motorola), but I don't see why that would matter anyway (I bought the phone at Costco and am using the extra cable provided by them). Is there any modification I need to do? Anything I need to change in the settings? I looked through the settings and couldn't find anything on the subject of USB Connectivity. Please help.

Regards,
~Zach
Click to expand...

Hi, SmallTock, and welcome to the forums.

Where did you get your BIONIC from? That will be the quickest way of determining the problem. Motorola cables have a lower failure rate than other cables, but you're also on a Linux box, which >90% of users in this forum are not on, so there may be an underlying issue of first having some sort of driver missing in the *nix kernel / modules that is preventing it from recognizing your phone.

Does the phone recognize that it has been plugged into a USB cable also? If so, then your cable is probably not at issue. If neither the *nix box nor the phone recognize that a cable has been plugged in, try to make sure that you check every USB port on your computer.

Finally, if all else fails, try several alternate cables as well.

While you're doing all this it will be a good idea to try to buy a new cable from Motorola if the phone is not from VZW, or else take it to a VZW corp store and request a replacement official cable if you bought it from VZW.

HTH
 
I found a LG cable from my old enV3 and it does the job perfectly. I got the phone at Costco. And I figured out the cable I was using was charge-only. I assumed the USB world was like the audio world in that all cables are created equal, but I was wrong. Thanks for the help guys!
 
SmallTock said:
I found a LG cable from my old enV3 and it does the job perfectly. I got the phone at Costco. And I figured out the cable I was using was charge-only. I assumed the USB world was like the audio world in that all cables are created equal, but I was wrong. Thanks for the help guys!
Click to expand...

Huh? I bought my phone at CostCo as well, and neither of my cables are 'charge only'.

In fact, USB specifications has a variance in mini USB (which can be 4 or 5 wire) but not in microUSB (which our phone uses and which is strictly 5 wire). So, I'm puzzled how you have a charge only microUSB cable....

I'm also surprised this is from a CostCo site - they should have just been throwing all the stuff that came with the phone into the bag in the first place....
 
johnlgalt said:
In fact, USB specifications has a variance in mini USB (which can be 4 or 5 wire) but not in microUSB (which our phone uses and which is strictly 5 wire). So, I'm puzzled how you have a charge only microUSB cable....
Click to expand...

I think it was an assumption on his part. The assumption on my part is that he simply had a bad cable.

The question I would also pose is why he did;t get a Motorola cable with his Bionic.

... Thom
 
I have used the OEM Motorola cable, a 99-cent eBay cable, and even the cable that came with my NOOK eReader. They all work on my Bionic, using Windows 7 64-bit, for charging, file transfer, native USB tethering, and PdaNet.

Apparently, mileage is varying. <g>
 
Fulltime Traveler said:
I have used the OEM Motorola cable, a 99-cent eBay cable, and even the cable that came with my NOOK eReader. They all work on my Bionic, using Windows 7 64-bit, for charging, file transfer, native USB tethering, and PdaNet.

Apparently, mileage is varying. <g>
Click to expand...

You have been very lucky.

There is nothing special about Motorola cables other than the fact that they undergo strict quality control procedures. There are many other good third-party cables out there. The problem is that some of them are terrible.

There have been reports of bad third-party cables from the same manufacture, from the same box. One of them worked great. The other never worked.

So ... the way to stack the deck in your favor ... have a Motorola cable as the benchmark ... try other cables if you like ... when you run into an odd problem swap in the Motorola cable and see if the problem is magically solved.

... Thom
 
Fulltime Traveler said:
I have used the OEM Motorola cable, a 99-cent eBay cable, and even the cable that came with my NOOK eReader. They all work on my Bionic, using Windows 7 64-bit, for charging, file transfer, native USB tethering, and PdaNet.

Apparently, mileage is varying. <g>
Click to expand...

I use the official cable worth the BIONIC, the official cable that came with my DROID (D1), and several cables i bought from monoprice, all with no issues.
 
Oh. A motorola cable DID come with the phone. Problem being that my mom managed to snatch it while I was at a friend's house and forget what she did with it.
 
I use the cables that came with my Droid X, Bionic, and Droid X workstation cradle interchangeably with my Droid X and Bionic.

The advantage in the approach I recommended (use the Motorola cable as a benchmark) is that EVERYONE has that cable and it does not cost anything extra to try it out.

... Thom
 
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