I always thought those cheap USB power testers were just for show

For years, I figured if a phone or tablet wasn't charging, the port was just dirty or the cable was bad. I'd clean it, swap cables, and if that didn't work, I'd start looking for a broken trace on the board, which is a huge pain. Last month, a customer brought in a tablet that would only charge super slow. I grabbed a little $15 USB power tester I got as a gift and never used. Plugged it in, and it showed the voltage was dipping way down under load, even with a good cable. That pointed straight to a bad capacitor on the 5V line near the port, not the port itself. Fixed it in twenty minutes. Now I hook that little thing up first for any charging issue. Has anyone else found a simple tool that saved you from going down a rabbit hole?

3 comments

3 Comments

hill.margaret6d ago

Got a link to the exact model you bought? I'm curious if the cheap ones are actually good enough or if you need to spend more to get readings you can trust.

parker_palmer446d ago

Remember my cheap pedometer said I climbed Everest just walking to the fridge lol.

robins836d ago

Honestly, my cheap one is probably telling me I'm a superhero... it gave me a resting heart rate of 45 yesterday, which is either amazing or means the battery is dying. I've seen it jump 20 points if I just move it on my wrist. At this point, I trust it to tell me the time, and that's about it.