[SOLVED] USB charging when PC is turned off

[Ramere]

I have a weird case where my mouse(Razer mamba 2012) charges when I turn off my PC, but I can't charge my phone or my DS4 when it's turned off. Is there any way that I could charge my DS4 even when my PC is turned off just like my mouse is charging? I tried my phone and the DS4 in the same port that the mouse charges in but they just won't charge like it does. Is the phone and the controller themselves somehow preventing this from happening?

 

[Zizo007]

I have a weird case where my mouse(Razer mamba 2012) charges when I turn off my PC, but I can't charge my phone or my DS4 when it's turned off. Is there any way that I could charge my DS4 even when my PC is turned off just like my mouse is charging? I tried my phone and the DS4 in the same port that the mouse charges in but they just won't charge like it does. Is the phone and the controller themselves somehow preventing this from happening?

There is usually an option in the bios for this. For ASRocks motherboards its called Deep Sleep.

 

[Gfost73]

some motherboards need drivers too I think and need to have the USB headers plugged in to ones labeled "On/Off Charge" and those drivers need to be installed (from what ive gathered on my Old Gigabyte board as it had separate USB2.0 Slots for "on/Off charge" and I also needed to install drivers from gigabytes site

 

[Ramere]

There is usually an option in the bios for this. For ASRocks motherboards its called Deep Sleep.

some motherboards need drivers too I think and need to have the USB headers plugged in to ones labeled "On/Off Charge" and those drivers need to be installed (from what ive gathered on my Old Gigabyte board as it had separate USB2.0 Slots for "on/Off charge" and I also needed to install drivers from gigabytes site

What I don’t understand is that how can my mouse charge from the port when the PC is off but my controller can’t from the very same one.

 

[Zizo007]

What I don’t understand is that how can my mouse charge from the port when the PC is off but my controller can’t from the very same one.

Probably because it requires more power.

 

[Ramere]

Probably because it requires more power.

Ah, I see. You know of a way to check if this is the case?

 

[Zizo007]

Ah, I see. You know of a way to check if this is the case?

There is cheap USB current testers to test.

 

[Gfost73]

I would say the battery in the controller would be much stronger than the one in the mouse the xbox controller battery is typicaly 2500mAh, where as a standard battery isn't even close to that , roughly 1000mAh.. so maybe your controller IS charging, just at such a slow rate you don't notice.. Ive had same things happen with Cell phone and crap cords. they charge so slow that the phone drains faster doing nothing than the charge can put back. Which I've tested threw an App I own that monitors battery usage and I can see a crappy cord charging at a rate of say 900mAh.. while a good quality cord will peak at over 7,000mAh (provided phone can handle the quick charge)

 

[onespeedbiker]

What motherboard do you have.? Many now have a USB that remains powered, id'd by a yellow USB tab

 

[Ramere]

I would say the battery in the controller would be much stronger than the one in the mouse the xbox controller battery is typicaly 2500mAh, where as a standard battery isn't even close to that , roughly 1000mAh.. so maybe your controller IS charging, just at such a slow rate you don't notice.. Ive had same things happen with Cell phone and crap cords. they charge so slow that the phone drains faster doing nothing than the charge can put back. Which I've tested threw an App I own that monitors battery usage and I can see a crappy cord charging at a rate of say 900mAh.. while a good quality cord will peak at over 7,000mAh (provided phone can handle the quick charge)

Just checked that the DS4 battery is 1000mAh and the mouse is 1100mAh and both are 3.7V.
The mouse battery had the info on it's bottom and the controller here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DualShock#DualShock_4

Just left the controller overnight and It hadn't charged at all while the mouse had charged to full. I don't see what else could be the cause other than that the controller is somehow preventing this.

If anyone else has a desktop with USB ports that allow charge while turned off and a DS4, I'd appreciate if they tested this with their setup. I checked the battery status from my PS4 after leaving it overnight, another way to know would be to check if the yellow light is blinking on the controller, that tells you if it's charging. One blink means that it's full.

 

[Ramere]

I figured out the problem! But don’t have the solution...
So it seems that devices that communicate with the PC don’t charge, while batteries and hardware without communication do charge.
I noticed this when I took the power cable out of my mouses charging dock and put it straight into the mouse itself, when I did this it didn’t charge. So the PC gives power to the dock but not the mouse, only to the mouse when the dock is inbetween the mouse and the computer. I was also able to charge my bluetooth speaker. But not my phone, DS3 or DS4.

So does anyone know if it’s possible to give charge to these ”communicating devices” when the PC is ”off,” or in sleep i guess.

 

[Gfost73]

maybe go into your advanced power settings and make it so USB devices stay on at all times rather than shut off? I think by default there set to shut off after X minutes , but cant say that is a fix either, but couldn't hurt to try =)

 

[Zizo007]

If the PC is not on there is nothing you can do as it will only pass current from the PSU, that's why it doesn't charge data hardware.

 

[Ramere]

If the PC is not on there is nothing you can do as it will only pass current from the PSU, that's why it doesn't charge data hardware.

Ah ok, so there is no way to fool the PC into thinking that the data hardware isn’t data hardware and just requires charging? I guess that would have to happen from the controllers end and not the PC..
If not, I guess a dock for a DS4 controller would do the trick.

 

[Zizo007]

Ah ok, so there is no way to fool the PC into thinking that the data hardware isn’t data hardware and just requires charging? I guess that would have to happen from the controllers end and not the PC..
If not, I guess a dock for a DS4 controller would do the trick.

A dock is much better because micro usb breaks easily. I have 2 two DS4 controllers with broken micro usb ports and instead of buying 2 new controllers for over 100$ I just bought a dock for 20$. I hope DS5 will be Type-C as that doesn't break and is reversible.