Just picked up an Android tablet for my son, it doesn’t seem to charge when switched on. Turn it off and no problem but have it on stabdby, aeroplane mode or using it and it either doesnt charge or the charge goes down if playing games on it.
Any ideas or is it just faulty?
Possibly faulty, but it’s worth noting:
Android tablets can accept higher amperage when charging. In fact, they tend to be optimized for it. Most phones 3-4 years ago could charge at 500mA, some modern ones go up to 1A or even 1.5A. A lot of tablet chargers run at 4A.
Since the tablets except a large amount of charge to be coming down the pipe (and because they have bigger, fancier screens and usually more powerful hardware under the hood to boot), they take more power just to operate at all.
If you’re son’s charging from a low-amp source (say, just using a basic USB-micro cable from a cellphone, or even the tablet’s own larger charger plugged into a low-amp power source like a computer USB port), then the base power usage of the tablet could outstrip what the charger provides. When it’s off, it will slowly charge, but given that tablet batteries can be 2-3x the capacity of phone batteries, it’ll be slow going.
If he’s using the high-amp charger the tablet came with and has it plugged into a wall outlet, I’d venture to guess it’s either faulty (either due to a manufacturing error or just being a shoddy tablet, depending on whether or not you/he paid $99 for this thing :P) or that there’s an app that’s bugging out and keeping the CPU at 100% all of the time (at which point, identify the rogue app and kill it).
It isn’t the worlds most expensive tablet, it’s a Hudl2 http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/tablets/391081/tesco-hudl-2
I am using the charger it came with plugged in to the wall. Also used a different charger at work plugged in to the mains with the same issue.
I could delete everything and try a reset see if that helps.
What does the charger say? It should have an output rating in amperes printed on it.
From the review you linked:
Battery life, however, is poor. Not only did the Hudl 2 achieve a time of just 6hrs 51mins in our looping video test (for comparison, the Nexus 7 achieved 11hrs 48mins), but it also doesn’t retain its charge particularly well while in standby, and takes an age to charge.
The battery may be small, slow to charge, or both. Additionally, the charger itself may not be highly rated, and/or the charging port isn’t rated for high amp charging. Could be a mix of all those things, or a bug, as previously mentioned.
2.0
Maybe I should try a different plug on the cable.
I actually got 9 hours from the full charge. I only discovered the problem when it got to 4% and it was plugged in for charging today at work while I used it.
Plenty of reviews have given it fine on battery. But really it should charge while in aeroplane mode and nothing running and it is plugged in. I had it plugged in for 4 hours and it didn’t move anywhere
2 amps is plenty. For light usage or merely idling it should steadily charge. Worst case, with heavy usage you should stay even, rather than lose charge.
I strongly suspect it’s faulty. I asked about the charger with the hypothesis that it wasn’t delivering that much power. There’s no way it’s consuming more than 10 watts (2 amps x 5v). It would only last about 2 hours in the battery test if it were that energy inefficient. Batteries for a device this size just don’t store more than 16-17 watt-hours.
ok thanks for the help. Time to take it back for a replacement
OK, an update, took it back to the shop and got a replacement, booted it up and restored the hudl from google backup and same issue occurred. Oh dear.
Uninstalled apps 1 by 1 and found out the VLC player was the cause.
Give MX Player a shot as a replacement; it handles anything I throw at it with aplomb :)
Excellent, thanks very much, we have a 10 hour flight on Friday so putting a few bits on there for him to keep him entertained
Make sure if you see an update/upgrade notice for MX Player that you actually test play a video with it afterwards. You might find out it needs an additional codec install and WOOPS I AM ON THE PLANE NOW NO MOVIE FOR YOU
(true story)
Thanks for that, will do it today.
Yeah Guys, I have found a android mx player site except from google play, you can find more free mx player from the site.
Wish it will useful to you guys, let cheers.
Re. . . reported?
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