[sh0rtgain]

Hi! New to the forum. I'm sure it's been posted somewhere and I may have just missed the posts but I'm hoping someone can help here. After a couple months of getting my S4 when it first came out at Verizon, it started to show me the, "To charge faster, use original charger" notification and would sometimes give me the red blinking LED and flashing battery icon in the notification bar to show it wasn't charging. I have been using the original white charger that came in the box since getting it and it worked just fine and super fast before I started to get that message; now it is charging so ridiculously slow. Same thing sort of happened with the car charger I got from Verizon as well--was working well and fast but now, once I plug it into my phone, it doesn't recognize the charger and I usually have to reset the phone for the car charger to be recognized. Once it is recognized, it does charge at the same original speed but I just don't know why it doesn't initially read the phone when I plug it in.

It only seems to be with this car charger and original USB cable, though, because I started to use 2 other cables (a long one I use in place of the original and much shorter one I carry with me) my dad had lying around (not sure the exact specs of these chargers) and they charge my phone just as fast as the original. Now, I'm back to the original cable because the longer one I was using in place of it got messed up. I've seen some posts about making sure there's not debris in the charge ports or anything but I clean out and maintain my phone pretty well. Someone please help...I don't get it and it is quite annoying!

[SpookDroid]

Well, you do seem to have the answer in your hands! It's the cable! If you use the same charger with a different cable and it works fine, but go back to the original cable and it doesn't, well... it must be the cable, right?

It COULD be the USB port going faulty (it's known to happen... I know I had to replace mine in the S2 and my friend's S3 in the past), but if that were the case, it would be the same with every cable and charger, no matter what.

If you want to be super sure, try using the same charger and cable (the ones that fail in yours) with another S4; if it's the cable, it will show the same error in the second unit. Also, if you were able to find another S4, ask for their charger as well... if their charger/cable works fine with yours, your port is OK.

And it's also a good idea to brush the port every once in a while (preferably while the phone is OFF); any clean, dry toothbrush should do the trick, but if you have one of those compressed air cans, that's even better (and so much more fun!).

Oh, and another thing! Very long cables, if not very high quality (read: very generic ones) tend to have current losses due to to the sheer length, so a cheap cable that runs too long will also tend to charge your phone a lot slower.

[sh0rtgain]

Thanks, SpookDroid! I guess I'm just wondering why my original cable and car charger have become faulty after only a few months--with the car charger barely being used, too. I mean, I'm not a newbie and definitely don't pull them out by the cords or anything. I'll definitely try them with another S4 to see if it is just that cable/car charger, though.

[SpookDroid]

Let's hope it's just that... replacing the USB port, even if still under warranty, means having to part ways with your phone for at least a whole afternoon.