Do not use your Palm Pre with another USB charger. EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
The Sprint store PalmGoon was at this morning managed to fry their advocate model using a Blackberry charger.
The Palm Pre uses a standard looking micro-USB connection to charge from your Internet, however using another USB charger will break your phone irreversibly. Don’t do it.
Wonder how Palm will handle to infinite number of phones that are gonna get messed up because of this.
14 Comments, Comment or Ping
William
ouch!! More to the point – how they going to prove it wasn’t their own that blew up the phone when people go into sprint stores and say it’s dead?!
If you’re going to use standard connectors, they should be cross compatible. This is the first big booboo i’ve seen of the awesome Pre, but a pretty big one ..
Jun 6th, 2009
tim day
I myself was looking for a cheaper charger than the ones they sold in the sprint store.
i’ve seen sites advertising the lg travel charger for sale as compatible with the pre (not to mention motorola car chargers). i wonder how that will turn out.
Is it safe to assume any micro-USB cable at least will work to charge from a computer?
Jun 6th, 2009
Elaine
Many devices say if alternate products are used with them it voids warrenties. Does it state anything like this in info provided?
Jun 6th, 2009
SharonW
Even if it didn’t fry your phone, I think you need their USB to sync with iTunes. As I understand it, the hack is built into the USB.
Jun 6th, 2009
Pat
What a disappointment if true….Palm has a long history of changing the connector/charger on each generation of phones so we upgraders have to buy more stuff……really inconvenient for those of us who travel alot-more stuff to carry……the beauty of USB is one charger for all devices…..the rest of the mobile phone industry has recently agreed to support this specification, one connector, one voltage….why can’t Palm do this?
Jun 6th, 2009
Tlag
I’m not having any problems with some non-Palm micro USB cables I bought from Monoprice (crazy low price). Sure, there might be some bad cables out there (or maybe a bad Pre) but I think it’s too early to claim that “Alternate USB Chargers Will FRY YOUR PALM PRE”… Sounds like someone’s just trying to sell some extra 1st party accessories at launch.
Jun 7th, 2009
Brian M
Yeah, I’m using an offbrand charger (Rocketfish) and it works fine. It’s not even labeled for the Pre, but no problems!
Jun 7th, 2009
Matt
I’ve tried a couple different chargers, and for the most part they just didn’t charge the phone. Or they started to charge it, and then stopped before long.
The oddest one was when I plugged in the USB cable that came with the phone into a generic car charger to USB adapter that my wife uses for her iPod, and the phone wouldn’t charge. They have something funky going on there.
Jun 8th, 2009
PrepaidWirelessGuy
I think this has to do with the Blackberry charger being non-standard. I’ve experienced that before where my BB charger wouldn’t charge a motorola phone.
Jun 8th, 2009
Joseph
I’m using a non-Pre cable to charge – and no problem! The same cable will not sync, but I only will use it as a car charger (I have an AC adapter for my cigarette lighter and it has a USB head which is VERY cool). If it’s frying the phone, I haven’t noticed any ill-effects for the past three days. And guess what, my local Sprint store Manger GAVE the cord to me – literally gave it to me! He said he didn’t think it would work but perhaps I could use it for some other gadget; it, however, did work. I am starting to become a non-Sprint-hating person once again. (Never thought that would happen)!
Jun 8th, 2009
Scott
I ordered a cheap alternative because I like many others need a charger by my bed and on my desk. For the tune of 3.25 I got one on ebay and it is the right connection to charge the phone, however if you have the screen on.. it registers all sorts of crazy random clicks on your screen and even placed a call after launching my contacts. I have used this charger for a few days and haven’t noticed any problems with the phone when you unplug it, but not sure the long term effects. That my friends is why you have full insurance
Jun 19th, 2009
PreAmbler
First of all, any compatible USB cable will work with the Pre, and if you connect the Pre to your PC or Mac, it will charge, so that’s a no-brainer. You can get these cables cheaply on ebay. I got two for $4.25 each including shipping from the USA. They have already arrived and been tested – 100% functional.
Furthermore, before seeing any of these warnings (and for sure there may be something to these!), I plugged a Plantronics 220 charger with the same USB connector directly into my Pre and it charged just fine. I didn’t compare charging times because I went to sleep and the Pre was fully charged in the AM. BTW using one of these USB cables between my PC and the Plantronics headset also charges the headset fine.
Perhaps these connections are getting more “universal” all the time – just beware. You never know.
Jun 21st, 2009
Rob Cartwright
I wont say that it will fry your Palm, but if you leave it on there long enough it just might. I was using a wall charger with micro USB and at first it wasn’t working,t hen all of a sudden it started to charge. Then i tried to play with my phone and it was doing all sorts of strange things. I wasn’t able to flick my cards off the screen and the pre had like super powers. I could hit icons by hovering over the screen with my finger from a centemeter away. So i yanked that bitch outa there real quick. No more problems tho. I will be taking back that charger. I would not recommend using any other charger, b/c we do not know for sure what could happen.
On a side note, i did use blackberry storm USB charger for my phone. Worked like a charm w/o any problems. Alike, a friend used my pre’s USB charger for his storm. No issues either side. I would assume that these cables could work for either. But we do know what assuming does..
Jun 25th, 2009
Sean
Last week I ordered two car chargers from ebay; sprint oem. They arrived and look identical to the Sprint pre car charger I bought from the sprint store. These two do NOT charge the pre. The model # on these is KPS200BMCU and it says “for use with micro-usb devices.”
The one that does work (directly from sprint) is model # KPS200BPRE / PVX8930 and says below that “for use with palm micro-usb devices.”
I also ordered some micro-usb cables from monoprice…hopefully they will charge the pre.
Sean
Jun 28th, 2009
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