So I recently took the plunge and got rid of my ancient indestructible Rugby flip phone and replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy S5.
I’m entirely satisfied with the phone and the included charger. The problems come in when I’m trying to use other cables and chargers.
I have:
[ul]
[li]The stock Samsung USB A wall-plug[/li][li]The stock Samsung USB 3.0 Micro B cable[/li][li]An Anker 24v IQ dual-port car charger[/li][li]A standard USB 2.0 Micro B cable[/li][li]2 Amazon-Basics USB 3.0 Micro B cables[/li][li]A PC with a ca 2013 Gigabyte motherboard with several USB 3.0 ports.[/li][/ul]
The Samsung wall-plug works with the stock cable and the USB 2.0 Micro B cable., and so does the car charger. The phone shows charging if I use any combination of the car charger and those two cables. The Amazon cables flat out don’t work to charge the phone with either charger. It doesn’t even register that it’s plugged in.
Where it really gets weird is when I plug the Amazon cable into the USB 3.0 port on the PC and plug it into the phone, it both registers as connected via USB AND that it’s charging, just like the Samsung cable. I haven’t tried the USB 2.0 Micro B on the PC yet.
Is there something funny going on with impedance or resistance in the Amazon cables?
Some proprietary cables out there exist. They’re rarer today, except with Apple who wants to [del]charge you $20 for a $2 cable[/del] use a “better” connector. My (dumb) phone yells at me to use the right cable when plugged into a computer but seems to take a regular micro USB most of the time. I googled around and can’t find anything that definitively says the S5 has a special charger.
I’m having trouble puzzling out which are cables and which have AC adapters attached in the OP. One variable is the amperage. A single USB 2.0 will put out 0.5A (3.0 is higher? 0.9A?), which isn’t enough for devices like hard drives thus those also come with wall plugs. The output amps on the AC adapter should be equal or greater than the amps the phone draws. A higher amperage may translate to faster charging; amps too low won’t work right. If it seems you are having trouble with two different cables that are both plugged into the same computer/same wall charger, that’s more worrisome. Also try different USB ports on the computer, including USB 2.0.
About resistance - I would kind of like to know that too. A lot of the cables on Monoprice are 28 AWG data/24 AWG for power. But you can buy thicker, e.g. 20 AWG.
And of course, some cables bought on Amazon from an independent seller or on eBay could just be shitty and not meet specs. Check if they work in other devices.
The Amazon Basics cable won’t work with any of the dedicated chargers, but will charge the phone when plugged into the PC. The other cables work in all circumstances. I’m baffled as to why the Amazon cable wouldn’t work except when plugged into the PC. If it was a matter of amperage or charger, the cable wouldn’t make a difference.
Ah, didn’t “Amazon Basics” was the brand name. Looking through the 1-star reviews there, the S5’s name does come up a bit. Fits too loose? You might want to rattle it around and make sure it’s seated right. No, that doesn’t explain why it works in the computer, but you should make sure it’s not a fluke. A lot of 5-star reviews for it with the S5, go figure.
It’s just perplexing. I don’t really care about the $8 or so that the cable cost- I’m just intensely curious as to why the cable would make that much of a difference. In my experience (and 12 year IT career), the cables aren’t really that important so long as they meet the specs.
My Samsung Galaxy Tab 3 is also flaky about charging.
I keep it’s OEM charger and cable separate and only charge it with them, if I plug it into any other combination of the Amazon and Palm adaptors and the various cables I have lying around, it may or may not charge. I did notice that the Samsung cable has a micro-usb male plug is just a tiny bit longer than the others, so maybe that makes the difference?
I’m starting to think that maybe it’s just super-sensitive about something, and while the Amazon cables meet the spec, the phone’s more picky than that.
(update: another USB 2.0 Micro B cable worked fine with both the car charger and the wall charger, so it’s clearly the Amazon cable.)