Rogue Droid - HUGE ISSUE!!!!

[Itamar]

Just a thought: A poster mentioned that he thinks these problems might be caused by static buildup, not necessarily the charger. I wonder if there is some validity to this. If the chargers in question had a faulty ground/shielding on the cable, it could result in electromagnetic interference which would be ported directly into the pone via the cable. This could mean that the problem is not originating from the voltage/amperage (or a malicious chip), rather from interference.

Personally, I have not experienced this problem. I only use the supplied MOT wall charger, even in the car (via a small APC inverter).

 

[ltfrakes]

Itamar, it's certainly a possibility that static charge could be the culprit. I can only say that the charger (Ebay cheap charger) was brand new, and that when I noticed the problem the phone was laying on a wooden table. Thanks.

 

[Randomocity]

I dont know if this has been covered already, as I'm too lazy to read all 8 pages before this, but the reason the droid skips around when using that Ebay charger is due to a voltage mismatch, and has nothing to do with the current. The car charger seems to be fine albeit a slow charge, while the travel charger included with that ebay kit is putting out the totally wrong voltage for USB, which would cause alot of the problem that everyone's been having.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[Itamar]

Static is one possible source of interference, but not the only one. Any high voltage application can be a culprit. Microwaves, hair dryers, radio transmssions, even the sun. The wood table would have no impact on this. I'm not saying it's the answer. I'm just suggesting an area to be investigated.

 

[ltfrakes]

I dont know if this has been covered already, as I'm too lazy to read all 8 pages before this, but the reason the droid skips around when using that Ebay charger is due to a voltage mismatch, and has nothing to do with the current. The car charger seems to be fine albeit a slow charge, while the travel charger included with that ebay kit is putting out the totally wrong voltage for USB, which would cause alot of the problem that everyone's been having.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks Random. The listed voltage of the house charger is 110/240V input, and 5-12 VDC output. I'm not sure what the USB requirements are. I agree with you re the car charger...no problems other than it is slow. Thanks.

 

[whiteymack]

Ok,, two occasions here...

first was a few days ago,, I received an SMS message about best buy giving out 500 dollar gift cards and gave an 800 number to call,, it was of course a joke,, if you called the number you would listen to how dumb you were etc...

I forwarded this message to 1,, and I repeat 1 person... later that afternoon I received a phone call from a number I didnt know,,, I didnt answer,, as I screen all my calls and if they dont leave me a voicemail I dont call back.

the next day I got another call from this same number,,, I answered it, and they asked if someone from this number had sent them a text about best buy... I told them that I hadnt and we ended the call.. I went into my sent messages and double checked and it was only forwarded to my friend,, and no one else...

scenario 2...
I received a phone call today from a phone number that I didnt know, so I sent it to voice mail.. when I checked the voicemail, it had recorded about 5 rings in the audio,, then you hear a person pick up the phone and says "Rexel this is dustin how may I help you?" the proceeds to say " hello? how may I help you? and then he hangs up...

i traced the number of rexel down to a local electronics company,, well when I say local they are located in oklahoma about 45 minutes away from where I live,, but I have never heard of this company,
and from the sounds of it,, it seems like my phone rang,, showed my the caller id of the company then seemed like it called the company at the same time...

and no it wasnt a telemarketer,, because I got on a different phone and called that number and this time a guy said rexel this is kenny how can I help you.. I asked him if they had telemarketers or were placing cold calls,, he said no.. I asked for dustin,, and he transferred me,, dustin told me that he hadnt placed any calls to my phone number, but was familiar with receiving a call with nobody on the other end...

strange huh?

btw the phone was laying in the passenger seat with no charger hooked up...

and when the text message thing happened it was laying on the end table by the couch with no charger hooked up...

no screen protector, no case or protective gear.
wasnt in a holster either time,,,

didnt really think anything about it until I read all of these threads...

 

[gpigate]

the static theory is beginning to make more sense now...... who knows if that is what is causing it or not.

 

[MrTommy]

Back to the charger issue.

Here I thought I'd just discovered something new. My Droid charges just fine with the old Verizon charger I had from my LGnv2. Works fine all the time. My wife had picked up a couple cheapo charges on eBay and they worked fine on our nv2's. But, when I plugged in my Droid to one of those cheapos, holy crap... The screen started going bonkers. It scrolled through every one of my screens, plus browser, email, messaging, photos, you name it, it went there. Scared the crap out of me. My new Droid going crazy. We were all the way across the country when this happened too. Luckily, I had packed the charger that came WITH the Droid, just in case, and when I plugged it in, VIOLA. Life was good.

So, it seems as long as you use an original Verizon charger (whether it came with the Droid or another phone), you're home free. Try going 'cheap' and you're likely going to get screwed. :cus:

 

[Zenmervolt]

It is a matter of the DROID not getting proper voltage draw. As stated before... the DROID draws 850ma, any less and you'll get some 'weird' results.

That cannot be true. The maximum draw on a USB port is 500ma; if the Droid freaked out whenever it was plugged into fewer than 850ma, it would freak out any time you plugged it into a computer which it clearly does not do. I use a BB Storm charger for my Droid (the Storm charger has a much longer cord) and it's "only" rated at 700ma, yet I have zero issues.

To me, it seems like the most likely culprit is dirty power and/or a low-quality (or possibly entirely absent) rectifier circuit in the charger. If there's enough ripple in the voltage supply, circuits tend to do very strange things and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the cheap eBay chargers are cheap because the manufacturers are omitting the rectifier to save a few pennies while thinking that the smoothing capacitor is "good enough" to handle the job. Some of the cheapest may even use only a single diode rectifier rather than a proper bridge rectifier which causes significantly more ripple.

If there is enough of an issue with a house's mains, I can conceivably understand how even a good charger would have problems smoothing and regulating the circuit, and this might explain the very few issues that are cropping up with the Motorola charger.

There is also the possibility that a poorly isolated power circuit on a charger could create cross-talk in the wiring and, if the USB tip included the contacts for the signalling line rather than just the + line and the ground, it would be theoretically possible for the charger to be inadvertently "talking" on the USB data channel in ways that confuse the phone. (This last theory doesn't really seem plausible unless the user has activated USB debugging though.)

 

[pricedgp]

I had a similar situation. Whenever my MotoDroid is plugged in the phone will literally type by itself when a text field is open. I've even witnessed it launch applications. I returned my 1st one thinking it was defective only to have the 2nd one do it too.

It is not a problem with the phone. It is a problem with the charger people are using. Are you using the charger that came with the phone or an aftermarket one?

I'm using the Motorola charger that came with my phone so I have to respectfully disagree with your statement that it's not the phone. And since this is the 2nd phone and charger that I've had with the same issue it would seem to point to the phone hardware or the OS that is at issue. I've also tested this theory at my local VZ store and was able to reproduce it on 4 different phones. There's obviously an issue with the hardware or OS. :r_c:

I am having similar problems -- and I am using the charger that came from the Verizon store, so that is definitely NOT the issue. The thing has made random phone calls -- although, not really random, as it only calls people I've called (i.e., it's not going through my Contacts list and calling). I've had friends report that they heard me having a conversation with someone -- recorded on their voice mail. Let's just say this can sometimes be very embarrassing! I have it pattern locked so it's not happening by accident. Something is definitely going on here.

 

[jaman1020]

Droiiiiiiiiiiiiid

 

[Martin030908]

It is a matter of the DROID not getting proper voltage draw. As stated before... the DROID draws 850ma, any less and you'll get some 'weird' results.

That cannot be true. The maximum draw on a USB port is 500ma; if the Droid freaked out whenever it was plugged into fewer than 850ma, it would freak out any time you plugged it into a computer which it clearly does not do. I use a BB Storm charger for my Droid (the Storm charger has a much longer cord) and it's "only" rated at 700ma, yet I have zero issues.

To me, it seems like the most likely culprit is dirty power and/or a low-quality (or possibly entirely absent) rectifier circuit in the charger. If there's enough ripple in the voltage supply, circuits tend to do very strange things and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the cheap eBay chargers are cheap because the manufacturers are omitting the rectifier to save a few pennies while thinking that the smoothing capacitor is "good enough" to handle the job. Some of the cheapest may even use only a single diode rectifier rather than a proper bridge rectifier which causes significantly more ripple.

If there is enough of an issue with a house's mains, I can conceivably understand how even a good charger would have problems smoothing and regulating the circuit, and this might explain the very few issues that are cropping up with the Motorola charger.

There is also the possibility that a poorly isolated power circuit on a charger could create cross-talk in the wiring and, if the USB tip included the contacts for the signalling line rather than just the + line and the ground, it would be theoretically possible for the charger to be inadvertently "talking" on the USB data channel in ways that confuse the phone. (This last theory doesn't really seem plausible unless the user has activated USB debugging though.)

I understand a USB only creates 500mA, but for some reason when connected to a PC the 500mA is sufficient.... but if you plug into the wall charger or car charger with only 500mA (a cord that only supports that much) you'll have issues. I'm not sure why this is but I know when plugged into the car or wall you need a cable/charger that outputs 854mA +

 

[Martin030908]

taken from wikipedia...

The USB 1.x and 2.0 specifications provide a 5 V supply on a single wire from which connected USB devices may draw power. The specification provides for no more than 5.25 V and no less than 4.75 V (5 V±5%) between the positive and negative bus power lines. For USB 2.0 the voltage supplied by low-powered hub ports is 4.4 V to 5.25 V.[30]
A unit load is defined as 100 mA in USB 2.0, and was raised to 150 mA in USB 3.0. A maximum of 5 unit loads (500 mA) can be drawn from a port in USB 2.0, which was raised to 6 (900 mA) in USB 3.0. There are two types of devices: low-power and high-power. Low-power devices draw at most 1 unit load, with minimum operating voltage of 4.4 V in USB 2.0, and 4 V in USB 3.0. High-power devices draw the maximum number of unit loads supported by the standard. All devices default as low-power but the device's software may request high-power as long as the power is available on the providing bus.[31]
A bus-powered hub is initialized at 1 unit load and transitions to maximum unit loads after hub configuration is obtained. Any device connected to the hub will draw 1 unit load regardless of the current draw of devices connected to other ports of the hub (i.e one device connected on a four-port hub will only draw 1 unit load despite the fact that all unit loads are being supplied to the hub).[31]
A self-powered hub will supply maximum supported unit loads to any device connected to it. A battery-powered hub may supply maximum unit loads to ports. In addition, the VBUS will supply 1 unit load upstream for communication if parts of the Hub are powered down.[31]
In Battery Charging Specification[32], new powering modes are added to the USB specification. A host or hub Charging Downstream Port can supply a maximum of 1.5 A when communicating at low-speed or full-speed, a maximum of 900 mA when communicating at high-speed, and as much current as the connector will safely handle when no communication is taking place; USB 2.0 standard-A connectors are rated at 1500 mA by default. A Dedicated Charging Port can supply a maximum of 1.8 A of current at 5.25 V. A portable device can draw up to 1.8 A from a Dedicated Charging Port. The Dedicated Charging Port shorts the D+ and D- pins with a resistance of at most 200Ω. The short disables data transfer, but allows devices to detect the Dedicated Charging Port and allows very simple, high current chargers to be manufactured. The increased current (faster, 9W charging) will occur once both the host/hub and devices support the new charging specification.

 

[jimnutt]

Made in China - Input 100-240V, 200ma 47-63HZ - Output DC 4.5V to 9.5V Max 800ma Before Charging Study This Instruction Sheet - Vor dem laden ist die - Cebrauchsanweisung Zu lesen INDOOR USE ONLY - MOT V8/V9

That is seriously out of spec for a micro usb charger. The output should be regulated at 5v, give or take half a volt. 9.5v is WAY to high.

 

[Martin030908]

Made in China - Input 100-240V, 200ma 47-63HZ - Output DC 4.5V to 9.5V Max 800ma Before Charging Study This Instruction Sheet - Vor dem laden ist die - Cebrauchsanweisung Zu lesen INDOOR USE ONLY - MOT V8/V9

That is seriously out of spec for a micro usb charger. The output should be regulated at 5v, give or take half a volt. 9.5v is WAY to high.

Yup... my post above yours states 5v is the target. 9.5v is too much.