The Miracle of Modern Connectivity

In some Tom Clancy book, the narrator informs the reader that "It's called the miracle of modern communications, because nothing moderns is supposed to be bad."

So, My phone has gone completely loopy, refusing to charge when connected to a charger, but charging just fine using an external battery. I've tried to get Spotify to work on any of my devices, on and off for a few weeks. It keeps telling me it's not working "right now" when I try to either register or hook my FB account to it. Then the other day Netflix announced itself unavailable "for now" going on three days now.


What the hell?

Quote: Nareed

InSo, My phone has gone completely loopy, refusing to charge when connected to a charger, but charging just fine using an external battery.

How do you know the charger is working? Did it come with the phone?

Some chargers are just really slow.

is your charger USB? If so what standard?

In the USB 1.0 and 2.0 specs, a standard downstream port is capable of delivering up to 500mA (0.5A);
with USB 3.0, it moves up to 900mA (0.9A). The charging downstream and dedicated charging ports provide up to 1,500mA (1.5A).
USB 3.1 supports power draw of 1.5A and 3A over the 5V bus.

Quote: Pacomartin

is your charger USB? If so what standard?

Gloria comes with a split-type charging port that can take a regular USB < 3.0, or a Samsung-specific charger tip which contains the USB part. it's odd, but you can charge her with any USB < 3.0 charger as well.

It's not the charger. All three chargers I have work perfectly well with all other devices and batteries.

Yesterday morning, Gloria lost battery charge when hooked to the car charger with the screen on. with the screen off, she slowly gained some charge. later in the day, she charged just fine. this morning she kept charging merrily in the car with the screen on. Same charger both days.

I still think I ought to upgrade the OS, because Waze keeps freezing and crashing. and Google Maps just isn't as good finding routes.

I think I may have identified the problem.

See, Gloria's been charging well and behaving for the past two days. then today I ran a game, and alter she started not charging right.

But then if the games are the problem (they run through or with an app called Google Play Games), then the solution is to either reset the phone or upgrade the OS. I'm leaning towards the latter. If I have to reconfigure the phone and reinstall the apps, I may as well get a newer OS.

I don't think it was the software. gloria had Lollipop installed Friday, and the charging bues persist. So I'll try a new battery.


Now for the inexplicable glitch of the moment:

The Dogcatcher podcast app crashes whenever I search for "Egyptian History."