USB Cable Discharges instead of Charging the cell !!

[raksrules]

I own a Sony Ericsson w800i and recently due to lack of availability of charger, i took the USB cable from my friend in office (she own a K550i). I kept my phone to charge it through the USB cable. But what i observed was completely different. It was showing on screen as if it is charging the phone. But in reality the battery was getting discharged. She also tried charging her phone with that USB cable and her phone also got discharged completely after a few hours. How did this role reversal happen ???

[Gigacore]

plug ur phone to datacable and see if ur optical mouse's light is turned on. . . if you dont switch on the main power source, ur cell's battery will be used to light up ur optical mouse and other LEDs like keyboard. etc

[unni]

I have a K810i. I have seen this in my phone also. I tried in my office PC, and instead of charging through USB, the cell battery was discharging. At first I didn't believe this. So, I started monitoring battery charge using Float's Mobile Agent. Within 15 minutes, about 5% was gone. I thought it was because the PC I use is very old. It doesn't have any optical mouse.

[MasterMinds]

i dont think so my phone is charged under phone mode and in mass storage also it gets charged but the charging time is very much than using a charger my phone is w200i

[raksrules]

For my w800i there are no different modes available. Just connect the phone and it shows as a removable drive and also starts charging(actually discharging) the same.

[hailgautam]

The phone will get discharged when automatic USB internet connection is enabled.

[infra_red_dude]

1) W800i will NOT charge unless its device drivers are loaded in the computer.

2) Any phone will discharge thru USB if the cable is of cheap quality and doesn't haf a Diode in it to check the discharge (to prevent reverse flow of current).

[raksrules]

Originally Posted by infra_red_dude

1) W800i will NOT charge unless its device drivers are loaded in the computer.

Do you mean that

PC Has drivers -> Phone Charges
PC Does not have drivers -> Phone Discharges

I dont think so that possible because the USB port has got power and i will charge the attached device (if possible) if it is supposed to do so.

BTW i tried the same in my friend's office PC where the drivers are installed but still the cell got discharged. The cable that she is using is the one that she got from in the phone box.

[infra_red_dude]

Yes, for previous generation cellphones the Windows drivers need to be loaded (I dunno about Vista, but yes in XP). Jus try to boot up the PC and goto BIOS. Now plug in the cable and see if the phone charges. Tho the battery icon animates the charge will remain same.

Its possible that the diode in the original cable is damaged or has broken in (not as in damaged, but electrically broken in). None of the cables I've seen (original) haf this problem.