HP Stream 7 Plugged In Not Charging

[karlhogquist]

I have a hard time accepting certified/refurbished units for my new device. Wise choice to go directly to the Microsoft store.

On charging - I have a Stream 8 and it gave me a hard time on the original charging. After recharging a few times it gave me 100% batery charge. Then it gave me 97, 96%. It seems if I let the Stream 8 discharge totally to automatic turn off I get a 100% recharge.

Karl

[Mandesk]

Hi all,

If it helps I too have had issues with charging, but I can now confirm that the HP 7 Stream does charge from a USB connection on a PC if it (the HP 7) is in sleep mode.

This is being charged as I speak and it is off, it has gone from 615 to 65% in Less than an hour.

I also noted this same affec with an ipad 1 many years ago, although neither will charge and will loose some if on and being used, the charge does drop slower....

Mandesk....It Just Works....

[sirfelix]

OK, I have solved the charging/not charging problem.

Forget the tablet, forget the charger. It all comes down to the cable resistance.

Basically, this tablet will not charge when the current drops below 0.5A. Use V=C*R to see the relationship. Voltage stays fairly constant at 5 volts, so as the cable resistance goes up, the current must go down.

I bought an inline usb voltage/current meter and tested every USB cable and USB chargers in the house.

The tablet was tested at a 90% charge.

I tested different length cables with power wire diameter of 22 AWG, 24 AWG, 26 AWG and 28 AWG. Cables that have no printing on it is most likely 28 AWG. All data wires are usually 28 AWG.

The 3' OEM cable HP sent us is 22 AWG and draws about 1A, the tablet charges. I have a Belkin 3' 28 AWG cable and it draws 0.25A, the tablet will not charge.

As the power wire diameter drops, the resistance increases. And as the cable length gets longer, the resistance also increases. (extension cables are notoriously bad and most are 28 AWG)

Most of my cables at home where junk and would not charge the tablet. The higher the current the faster the charge on all devices. 

I finally settled on a monoprice 6' cable that has 24 AWG power wires, it will draw about 0.75A.

1A chargers will charge the tablet, but it may have an issue once the tablet drops below a certain percentage. This could explain why some people are having % issues. Every combination of wire diameter and length draws a different current and it will change over time and how full the battery is.

Hope this helps you. It opened my eyes to a problem that I have never been able to solve, even with my other devices. Why were they taking so long to charge? Now I know.

[brentrad]

Thanks for the in-depth investigation sirfelix!  Lots of good info.

I tried all the different USB chargers and micro USB cables I have, and none charged my Stream 7 - except the one from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3.  The Note 3 has a high power (2.0 A) charger.  Unfortunately the Note 3 cable has a micro USB 3.0 end (google "micro usb 3.0" and you'll see what I mean), and won't fit in the Stream 7's normal micro USB port.  It probably would work if it had the right end though, as the USB cable is very thick, thicker than the one that came with the Stream 7.  Both the stock charger and the Note 3 charger will charge my Stream tablet to 100%.

So if you lose your Stream 7 charger and cable, you'd probably be able to buy a new charger and cable from Samsung.  Hmm, I just realized - my wife just bought a Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and on that model it reverted back to the standard micro USB port.  I should try her charger and cable on the Stream and see how it does. 

BTW, there's a quick and cheap solution that will resolve the problem with not being able to use longer USB charging cables:  Just get an extension cord, i.e. a power cord from the wall, and plug the HP charger into that.  You could use a 20' extension cord and you won't suffer any drop in current.  Pretty much any cheap and crappy power cord will work.  No it's not elegant, but it does work, and it's practically free.

[TopFlight79]

Sorry to post so late. Really hope this helps  people out. Surprised Hp didn't figure this out and offer a soloutiton.

I was plagued by having my stream 7 plugged in and turned on but it wouldn't charge unless turned off.

Ive been all over the internet, tried everything from new wall jacks with higher voltages and amps, to shorter cords, to factory resets, to uninstalling ACPI battery management and reinstalling to no avail.

Well through vigorous tests and trial and error settings I've found the simplest soloution in the world that should fix this issue for everyone. And when you realize how simple this fix is you'll be astonished, not tricks no gimmics I found the real Free soloution.

Swipe your screen from right to left.,, Click settings, now click screen. Turn your screen brightness down gradually till you get a plugged in and charging notification on your battery icon. I had to drop my brightness to just under half, Now I can charge while using my stream 7.

Your welcome HP for find the easiest soloution for you.

Hope this solves everyones plugged in not charging issues...

[m9040n_user]

About how long until it reached 100% using HP cable and HP charger, power off?  Began charging mine fresh out of the box for the first time about 20 minutes ago.  Does an hour sound reasonable?

[HAtton5676]

THANKYOU SO MUCH DUDE, I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH TIME I HAVE SPENT TRYING TO LOCATE THIS STUPID PROBLEM...all th hard work in device manager, hp assistant, mcafee, all of this just to realise it was just the brightness, THANK YOU SO MUCH, will never forget this, thanks again.

[micweb1993]

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@ProfileEngineer wrote:

We did some testing here with a single  stream 7 we are evaluating and discovered that our unit requires a slightly higher charging voltage in order to charge at high current.  By using a variable supply the output voltage must be above about 5.15 volts for the steam 7 to charge properly.  Many of the off the self USB charging supplies, both mobile and AC units only output between 5.00-5.10V. 

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I find this inexpensive charger from AdaFruit solves the voltage drop problem (which I haven't run into so far on non-HP chargers, knock on wood!): http://www.adafruit.com/products/501 it's just 6 bucks and works on my iDevices and Android too - also an led so you know your haven't turned off the wall-switch or power strip by accident.

[ProfileEngineer]

Good Find.  At 5.25V this should work fine charging the stream 7 at up to 1000 mA.  The only bad thing is that the steam 7 will take up to 1500 mA at full charge so this will still take longer to charge at the limited current, but is still better than anything else I have seen.  Ideally you would want a 5.25V charger with 2000 mA current rating.

[brentrad]

The charger for the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 has the correct specs:  2.0 A, 5.3 V

http://www.shopandroid.com/samsung-2a-usb-30-travel-chargersync-cable-5ft/5A17A16938.htm?utm_medium=...

I've actually tried it with my Stream 7, and it charges it just fine.  However, the Note 3 uses the USB 3.0 end on the cable, so you have to use a different USB 2.0 cable.

Strangely enough, the charger for the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 has a lower voltage:  2.0 A, 5.0 V

However, it has the correct USB 2.0 tip.

http://www.shopandroid.com/samsung-micro-usb-2a-travel-charger/5AA14236.htm

Note 3 charger is currently $25 at the above links.  (Never bought from them so can't recommend them, just did a Google search.)