laptop usb charging of reader battery

[robint]

hi all

I had a fright today.  I had left my reader yesterday on charge via my laptop usb as one should, but habitually I shut the laptop lid to put it into sleep mode.  What I didnt realise is that this somehow causes the reader battery to drain flat overnight

Without checking , i unplugged the reader to open it up and it froze.  I meddled around for a while, nothing worked, so i reset it through the pin hole.  It still froze after reset, saying it was opening a book but nothing happened - panic.

So i plugged the usb back in thinking that the memory may have been wiped.  The pc reader confirmed i still had data stored but was puzzled as to why it said "charging USB connected DO NOT DISCONNECT"

Well after 3 hours it was back to normal fully charged and working properly.

So i conclude that one must not shut the lap top lid while connected to the usb

Am I right?

panic over.

[Thalamus. · Accepted solution]

Hi robint,

welcome to Questions & Answers..:smileyhappy:

Fright over glad you managed to resolve your problem..:smileyhappy:

If the Reader battery power is nearly completely drained, the screen can  retain the last image that was displayed and can give the impression  that the Reader is frozen.

As you have found out you will need to connected the reader to a computer using the USB connection, if the  battery was very low the reader can take up to 40 minutes before the  screen changes & connection indicator is displayed..

[Drumzman]

Hi robint,

Just to add - if shutting the laptop lid places the computer into sleep mode (as you suggests it does in your case) then your Reader will stop charging.  The Reader needs to see an 'active' USB connection in order to charge successfully from the computer.  What you could do is change some settings on your computer - most laptops have a facility to adjust what happens when you close the lid.  On yours it puts it in sleep/standby mode, but you might be able to change this so that it takes no action, just turns off the monitor only - that way you could prevent the screen from shining brightly overnight, but the computer would remain active and still charge your Reader.  You can usually find this kind of facility in the Control Panel under Power Options (in Windows).

Hope that helps

[Blencogo · Accepted solution]

Personally, I would not recommend leaving your laptop awake all night just to charge your reader.

It doesn't sound very Green or very safe to me. It is also likely to keep you awake!

You can buy a mains charger which would use considerably less power and generates less heat.