Firewire charger vs. USB charger?

[BigDaddy5]

Well I'm on hold with apple right now because I used an ipod firewire charger (I left my USB charger at home, I'm using someone elses), and all of a sudden my phone vibrated, so I went to check it. I couldn't get it to respond, as in the screen wouldn't turn on. So I held the top button to shut it off. No "slide to turn off" screen, but I pressed it again and got an apple logo like it was powering on.

The screen then faded to white, and got hot like it had been in use for a few hours. It wasn't dangerously hot, but I hadn't used the phone for a while.

Is this an issue with using the firewire charging port? I couldn't find the output specs of the USB power chord on the apple website, anybody have that available? And what's the next step, to do a full restore? Or is it bricked, anybody have any advice on this?

 

[Telp]

It should be fine, i would just restore it and go from there. I accidentaly pluggeed my iphone into my firewire ipod cord today 3 or 4 times (couldnt figure why it wasnt showing up in iTunes or iPhoto ) and nothing happened. But it makes sense that something could possibly have gone wrong. Try restoring and if that doesnt work, i would take it to apple and see what they have to say. Looks like i might have gotten of lucky (or your just really unlucky)

 

[dscottf]

I spoke with Apple support before I bought my phone. I use my iPods mostly in cars. Older car ipod integration stuff is all 12v like firewire is. They said it would be fine

 

['73-B]

I use an ipod firewire charger all the time to charge my iphone at the office. I've never had an issue with it. Let us what response you get from Apple.

 

[jeffmc]

I use an ipod firewire charger all the time to charge my iphone at the office. I've never had an issue with it. Let us what response you get from Apple.

you should NEVER charge your phone via fire wire if there is nothing on the screen.

if the phone is locked or off it can cause some severe damage to the battery. this was information given by apple directly, apple engineers freak out if you mention you are doing this to your poor iphone

 

['73-B]

you should NEVER charge your phone via fire wire if there is nothing on the screen.

if the phone is locked or off it can cause some severe damage to the battery. this was information given by apple directly, apple engineers freak out if you mention you are doing this to your poor iphone

Yikes! Looks like I won't be using that charger anymore. Here's hoping that I haven't caused any damage or premature wear by using the FW charger. Thanks for the information.

 

['73-B]

Just a quick follow up on this. A google search revealed a number of forum posts indicating problems with charging via firewire. A call to my Apple store also indicated that charging by firewire is not good. Some have noted in other posts that firewire can put out up to 30v, which would certainly be enough to cook your iphone. Looking at my firewire wall charger from my 2nd gen ipod, it states that output voltage is 12v, which could explain why I haven't seen any problems using it to charge my iphone.

So, for those who have had problems: What type of charger are you using wall charger or firewire port? What is the indicated voltage output?

At any rate, it looks like charging via firewire is a bad idea.

 

[BigDaddy5]

So, for those who have had problems: What type of charger are you using wall charger or firewire port? What is the indicated voltage output?

I used the wall charger, which is rated at 12v and .67 amps. I don't have the USB charger so I can't compare.

The apple CS rep wanted to put it into recovery mode, but I didn't have enough charge left on the battery. So I asked him what I would do and let him get off the phone. No point in making him hold on while I charge the phone for 15 or so minutes.

I did however manage to recover my phone by forcing it off with the home+stand-by button and once the screen went black I pressed the stand-by button until it turned on. Close call, but at least it recovered and I didn't have to recover it with itunes.

 

[BigDaddy5]

Well just as a follow up, today I pulled my phone from the charger, and all was well. Until right now when I got a 10% warning with 2 hours of use, and 10 hours of stand by. Time to get back on the phone with apple.

 

[AirmanPika]

Something must be up with some of the old firewire chargers because I've used my old firewire iPod Video charger solely to charge my iPhone since I got my phone in June with no problem. Maybe parts going bad that are causing spikes or drops in voltage?

Also as a quick addition, remember most accessories out there still use the firewire connectors to provide power, not the USB ones. This is to provide universal power support since all iWhatevers can charge via firewire. They would have disconnected this function if it were a real issue.

 

[jeffmc]

Something must be up with some of the old firewire chargers because I've used my old firewire iPod Video charger solely to charge my iPhone since I got my phone in June with no problem. Maybe parts going bad that are causing spikes or drops in voltage?

Also as a quick addition, remember most accessories out there still use the firewire connectors to provide power, not the USB ones. This is to provide universal power support since all iWhatevers can charge via firewire. They would have disconnected this function if it were a real issue.

firewire charger on your video is a-okay
it will actually charge it MUCH faster and it's 100% safe to use

the iphone if a different beast inside

 

[DylanG]

I know a hardware engineer on the iPhone team. He won't tell me any of the secret stuff (I've tried) but he did answer me when I asked him about FW chargers. FW comes in on a different pin of the dock connector and the iPhone is designed to handle up to 30V on this pin to meet the FW spec. So you should be fine with a properly functioning FW power supply.

 

[mattster16]

USB and Firewire charge through different pins in the 40-pin dock connector. No company in their mind would create a pin compatible plug that would damage your device.

Charging with firewire is fine (unless something really weird is going on). If firewire charging was a problem Apple would not have put the firewire charging pins in the iphone, they would only have included the usb charging pins.

I charge my phone from all different sources regularly; power adapters (USB and Firewire) and USB and Firewire on my Macbook Pro and the 12v charger in my car..never had any kind of problem.

 

[jeffmc]

USB and Firewire charge through different pins in the 40-pin dock connector. No company in their mind would create a pin compatible plug that would damage your device.

Charging with firewire is fine (unless something really weird is going on). If firewire charging was a problem Apple would not have put the firewire charging pins in the iphone, they would only have included the usb charging pins.

I charge my phone from all different sources regularly; power adapters (USB and Firewire) and USB and Firewire on my Macbook Pro and the 12v charger in my car..never had any kind of problem.

it's long term damage, not something you will notice over night
trust me, it's something they teach in cupertino...

 

[AirmanPika]

it's long term damage, not something you will notice over night
trust me, it's something they teach in cupertino...

Sorry but thats a bunch of BS. Apple would have disabled firewire if it was gonna do damage and said not to use firewire chargers in the official documentation. Alas they don't. The phones can sense this and apple could have just thrown on that little disclaimer saying not to use the device when you plug it in. Based on what you say my iPhone should be fried by now after 3 months solely using firewire (as should just about anyone else who uses 3rd party accessories that charge the phones). They'd also be informing stores and customer service as a whole to inform customers. If they teach it then why don't they preach it?

Also Apple still officially lists firewire as an option to charge the iPhone if you happen to look at the iTunes iPhone troubleshooting page. Its item #2 under Retry

http://www.apple.com/support/iphone/troubleshooting/itunes/#

If this could damage the phone why would they show it for charging still?