“Not Charging” iPad May Be Charging After All

We previously reported that the Apple iPad was not charging when plugged into a Windows PC or older Macs. I confirmed” this in my own personal test by plugging in the iPad. There was a message stating that the iPad was Not Charging.” However, when I saw an article on TUAW that said one of their readers charged his iPad overnight using a Lenovo computer I wanted to try it out. The article states that despite the status claim that the iPad is not charging, if you leave it plugged in long enough, it will charge.

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So I plugged my iPad into my computer at 5:21 p.m. and it reported 89% battery life at the time. Once plugged in it said, Not Charging” as usual. But after just 20 minutes of being plugged into the front USB port on my Lenovo desktop system, it in fact was reading 91% battery life, as you can see in the shot I took with my iPhone. At that rate, if the charging rate remained constant, it would take more than 16 hours to charge from a fully discharged battery to 100%.

I wanted to see if it would charge while turned on (not sleeping) so I turned off the Auto-lock feature which puts it to sleep after not using the iPad for awhile. I plugged it in at 5:56 p.m. with a reported 90% battery life remaining. I ignored it for a little while and then used it for a little while and at 6:30 p.m. I disconnected my iPad and it reported 90% battery life. It did not drain the batter at all in that 34 minutes.

While I there is still a problem with charging an iPad over USB, since it charges so terribly slow, at least we can say that while plugged into a computer’s USB port, the battery is not discharging and is even getting a tiny amount of juice, if it is in sleep mode. In a pinch you could plug your iPad into your computer and use it. You don’t have to worry about draining the battery.

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