Is the supplied USB cable special?

[jason404]

Is the supplied USB cable special in any way, or are there different types of USB-microUSB cable?

The reason I ask is because when I use my brother's Nokia cable, which came with his old Nokia E71, it does not charge my Lumia (from either computer or wall charger), but it charges his HTC Desire S with no problems.

Does the Nokia Lumia 800 use some sort of special non-standard cable?

 

[tissotti]

I mix my Lumia 800 and N9 USB cables with no problems.
Though the cables do look identical, as does the phones. So it might not be fair comparison.

 

[RustyU]

Nothing special about it, I have so many that my Lumia's supplied one is still in it's box.

Currently I'm plugged into one from an N900 (via a 10 year old extension), and earlier was using an HTC one.

 

[jason404]

The cable which does not work with the Lumia 800 is the 'Nokia CA 101'. I have tried two different ones and neither work, while they work with an HTC Desire S. Weird.

 

[RustyU]

CA-101 is what I'm using right now.

 

[yloop]

I use a BlackBerry one with mine at work and it has no trouble.

 

[Mike-Mike]

i use the cord from my BB to charge my Arrive at home and to sync to my pc, and I have no problems.... but..

in my truck, I have a charger with a retractable cord, and in turn the cord is really tiny, and it seems to do a poor job of charging it

 

[jason404]

I have now found that the Nokia CA-101 cables does actually charge my Nokia Lumia 800, albeit very slowly.

Using the Nokia Diagnostics app, I can see that it supplies a pathetic 25mA current to the phone (approx) when connected to my desktop computer, while the average charging rate with the supplied cable is 260mA.

That means that the supplied cable is charging more than ten times as fast.

The reason why I thought that the CA-101 cables were not doing anything is because they did not reawaken my dead phone after it totally ran out of charge when I was at my parent's for Christmas, even after being plugged into the mains for several hours.

Could anybody else confirm what the charging rates are with their cables?

 

[jj14x]

Using the Nokia Diagnostics app, I can see that it supplies a pathetic 25mA current to the phone (approx) when connected to my desktop computer, while the average charging rate with the supplied cable is 260mA.

Assuming you are using the USB port on your computer to charge the phone, that is expected behavior. The USB ports on the computer provide the right voltage, but as you observed, the amp rating is very low. Regular USB ports on computers are usually restricted to 500mA (max) - less in real life. Most smartphones take 700mA or more (I'm not sure about the Lumia though - still waiting on mine). So, a wall outlet is going to provide higher current (assuming your wall adapter is rated for the higher current as well)

 

[welsbloke]

I use whatever comes to hand although I do recall back in the day you some USB leads were not created equal but I do not worry about that any more. I think the charger itself be it the PC or the plug is probably more important.

I can say the Samsung ones always break if that helps.

 

[conorn]

Note that the head of the micro connecter has to be quite slim to fit in the recess on the phone. I've a couple of cheap cables and the moulding around the connector makes it too fat to fit reliably.

 

[jason404]

Assuming you are using the USB port on your computer to charge the phone, that is expected behavior. The USB ports on the computer provide the right voltage, but as you observed, the amp rating is very low. Regular USB ports on computers are usually restricted to 500mA (max) - less in real life. Most smartphones take 700mA or more (I'm not sure about the Lumia though - still waiting on mine). So, a wall outlet is going to provide higher current (assuming your wall adapter is rated for the higher current as well)

No, you misunderstand. Those figures are from the same USB port (on a computer), but different cables. The mains adaptors give around the same current, but I get quite a lot from the USB socket in my car.

The older cables have a lot more resistance, whatever the source. I'll make a note of more figures to show what I mean.

 

[jj14x]

No, you misunderstand. Those figures are from the same USB port (on a computer), but different cables. The mains adaptors give around the same current, but I get quite a lot from the USB socket in my car.

The older cables have a lot more resistance, whatever the source. I'll make a note of more figures to show what I mean.

Oh - sorry, :blush: I obviously didn't read properly.

That behavior is very strange..