I have an iPad mini. It is my only Apple device. Before retiring, I had been in the computer field for ~21 years, first as a database developer in the pre-Win DOS days, (ah... the stress-free computer days, pre Windows - though my first system was an Apple III, (THE hot-rod Apple IIe, and the last good computer, IMHO, but I digress...).
I spent the last 14 years of my 21 years as an independent ; built my own systems,installed & managed networks, etc, etc. I tried three different times to integrate Mac systems into PC networks because I would occasionally have a client request such a connection. I bought three different Macs over about ten years and killed all of them within 3-4 days, just noodling around in the OS, trying to get acquainted; doing what I have always done on PC's: change icons, customize UI, nothing very brave since I didn't know the OS. None of the systems ever ran right again after I got the first 'bomb' message.
Needless to say, though I will say it, I don't have a high opinion of Mac products and my limited exposure to 'i' products have not changed it much.
To the subject; I finally replaced my dead cable Internet router and got a wireless version. I only did this because I had tried to connect the iPad to my laptop for data transfer only to find out it wouldn't. Then I tried to connect the iPad to an Xfinity hotspot and couldn't get connected to it. I sat down tonight to connect the iPad to my new wireless router and also to charge the iPad.
I couldn't get connected to the wireless, but surprise, the iPad found and connected to Xfinity. Then I noticed the iPad was displaying a Not Charging message.
This was strange because I got this laptop last year just before I officially became 'bi-coastal'. My wife took a job in NY, (our home is in Oregon), several years ago while we were in the 5th year of an 8 year lawsuit with a criminal enterprise masquerading as a mortgage company and we were running out of money to may attorneys. Since the lawsuit ended last Spring, (they surrendered!), I embarked on my first three month stay in NY with a laptop in hand. (Three months in NY, three months in Oregon is my life for the foreseeable future for those keeping score).
My wife had won the iPad Mini at work and it was sitting idle in a drawer. I decided to adopt it and used THIS laptop to charge it from then on, so I am very puzzled it now is saying it is 'Not Charging'.
It trying to figure out why it is not charging, I found this thread and several others on the subject of 'iPad not charging'. What I learned was it actually is charging, just slowly. I guess to Apple if it's not charging at the most optimal rate, then it is not charging; kinda the same the mentality that causes a new product version to be brought out each Fall and people flock to it, even though the present model s working just fine, but there's my digression tendency, again.
Now, I read on this thread a solution to the non-charging, (or at least the spurious message issue), is to download and install Asus Ai Charger. AS I WAS DOWNLOADING it, I read another post related to iPad non-charging and IT GAVE ME PAUSE.
Read it here, yourself:
https://techpinions.com/why-apple-couldnt-go-to-micro-usb-charging/10212
WHAT GAVE ME PAUSE was the statement: "Here’s the problem: The micro USB pins are very small, and the power-carrying connectors, pins 1 and 5, are rated to carry 1.8 amps at 5 volts DC. That means that the maximum charging power that can safely flow across the connector is 9 watts. But the iPad wants 10 watts to charge"
The author is specifically speaking about micro USB, so I am curious if full size USB has the same amp specs. Here's a quote regarding USB 2.0 & 3.0: "USB 2.0 standard allowed 0.5 Amps originally, but they revised it to keep up with the higher battery capacities that had to be charged with microUSB. USB 3.0 standard allows up to 5 Amps." (Wrong, wrong, wrong: USB 3.0 only supports 0.9 amps, v 3.1 supports up to 3.0 amps, see link below)
So, check to see if you have USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 ports, 'cause you ain't gonna get faster charging from Ai Charger if it's a v.2.0 USB port. What you might get is, 'magic smoke'. (a common technical term in the electronics field.) It's magic because it instantly renders any device emitting it DEAD.
Ai Charger may well get rid of the 'Not Charging' message, but if it does something to up the charge rate of a USB not capable of it, then it's not so good. BEWARE.
Something else: get the shortest cable possible for charging. Wire absorbs amperage, it's the nature of the beast. Granted, the wires in a USB cable are teeny, but we're also not talking about much amperage. A drop of .1 amp is 20% of .5 amps, after all.
In looking for the amp specs of USB ports, I also found this article:
http://www.extremetech.com/computing/115251-how-usb-charging-works-or-how-to-avo id-blowing-up-your-smartphone
This article is more up expansive and contradicts some of my worries, but that's also the nature of the computer world. This article is also responsible for the edit in the quote above about USB 2.0 & 3.0.
A technical note: volts x amps = watts. (Watt's Law) don't get your amps and watts mixed up or you might get 'magic smoke'.
Confused? Join the crowd. As for me, I'm retired, I'm in no hurry about anything, and after three marriages over 40 years time, I find it very easy to ignore spurious messages, but there I go, digressing again.
