USB bugs when connected to a Computer

[SYL]

Hello all! I have been experiencing strange glitches when my droid has been charging on my mac. Im not sure if it is the same with a PC, but my droid often randomly thinks it is connected to a car dock, or a media dock, and will start the corresponding app, and then close a couple seconds after. I can connect to my Mac fine as a storage, etc. and it does it's job. No biggie, but Im just curious as to if anybody has experienced this issue

thanks

 

[jdbower]

My condolences on the Mac

Where do you place the phone when you charge it? When I place the phone on my laptop below the keyboard frequently the magnets from the speaker or hard drive will put it into a dock mode. My guess is that when it's in dock mode you may find something magnetic where you put it (a drawer latch, a clasp, etc.), when you put it into mass storage mode you simply put it down slightly farther away from the magnet and it doesn't trigger dock mode.

 

[Adawg1203]

I am assuming you have a Macbook. Remember there are magnets inside the Macbook and if your Droid is sitting on top of or in very close proximity of the Mac magnets, it will trigger the Droid to go into the car dock mode.

Hope this helps with your issue...

 

[Arelunde]

Ya. If you lay the X on its face with the camera at the top, a magnet to the lower left corner (as you face the back) will activate the car mode. A magnet to the lower right will activate the multi-media mode.

BTW, a magnet to the screen (as in some cases) will create total confusion and possibly brick the X.

 

[SYL]

Huh, I didn't think of that. I have a unibody MBP and i left it sitting on the right palm rest. I believe the HD is directly below as well as latch hinges too… haha didn't think of that! Could the magnets actually damage my DX screen? should I not set it there? I leave it face up, a magnet directly to the screen will kill it i know . Thanks for the responses! Im gonna have to try setting off the different dock modes for fun. tricky

btw, why does my droid charge so slow when connected to a computer?

 

[jdbower]

I doubt the magnets will do much damage at those strengths, but I wouldn't put it there just because it's annoying to flip into and out of dock mode unexpectedly.

As to why it charges slowly, that's probably a driver problem. USB devices can only pull 500mA according to the standard, but the X draws more power than that. Under Windows you can install drivers that will enable more power from the USB port, I don't know if there are drivers or a setting for OSX to do so as well.

I have a MBP 5,1 from work but I couldn't handle how "intuitive" OSX was so I installed Ubuntu on it. With the native Linux drivers it seems to charge fine, but mostly I only use my laptop for overnight charges when I'm traveling. My dedicated chargers can handle >1000mA of power and they're much more useful than powering on my laptop.