Latitude e6230 - Powershare USB 3 not working as required

Hello Vjnan,

Please ensure that the External USB Ports under USB Configuration in BIOS setup is enabled. 




In case it is not enabled, please click the check box and click Apply. Once done, check if the issue persists. 

Hope this helps!

 

Hi Allan,

Thank you very much.

The Powershare USB works now but only when the laptop is connected to the power supply via AC adapter. On battery mode, it does not charge any device when the laptop is shut down. I don't know if this is a standard feature or if there's another setting change required.

VJNAN

Hello VJNAN,

The system is working as designed. It will not charge a device if the AC Adapter is disconnected when the system is turned off.

DELL-ALLAN D is not correct (from my experience).

The power share should work even on battery but only under certain circumstances:

• Your device must be connected to the powershare port (lightning bolt)
• Powershare feature, USB Boot, and USB ports must all be enabled in BIOS
• Your laptop must be in sleep mode, not off or in hibernation mode.
• Your laptop must have at least 51% charge on the battery or greater for power share to work. Once the battery hits 50%, powershare turns off. (the only exception is if your laptop has bios settings that allow you to designate at what battery percentage the powershare stops at. some models have this some don't)
• I have also found that it will not work if you are using a usb charge-only cable (usually very cheap cables). You must use a cable that supports data connection and charging. I know this sounds stupid, but the data signal the phone sends to the computer is what triggers the powershare port to start charging the phone.

I have spent weeks working on this issue. Finally escalated through our corporate Dell rep and after many emails I got in touch with an engineer who confirmed this for me. Dell's documentation is horrible on powershare. It's very misleading. When they say "Off" they really mean standby. And I have yet to find any mention of the 51% battery requirement anywhere. They did tell me they are working on the documentation.

Hope this helps!

DELL UPDATE YOUR DOCUMENTATION MAN!

-Chris

I've tried using the powershare feature with a fully charged battery and still nothing. No such issue with E6330 and the same cable/device. I'm on BIOS version A10 for my E6230

This is a E6320 BIOS feature flaw. Someone just got lazy.

Don't bother listening to Dell guys writting here. All they will do is ask to do "standard" checks - waste of time, or keep claiming that i works as designed. it does NOT. 

Powershare function should let You power USB devices while system is in sleep/hibernation/powered off and disconnected from mains.

On E6330 it looks and works ok, someone should get a screen photo of that BIOS page and post it here, so Dell guys (sic!) will see how it should look like.

Hi if the device is already plugged in and then you turn your laptop off or into sleep. It will stop charging. You then have to remove and reinsert it on the laptop end.  This I believe is a safety feature to stop you from accidently leaving something in and it draining your battery.   

I am having the same problem with my E7440 laptop.  This feature worked great with my previous HP laptop.  I would love to see this resolved.

On my old XPS14 PowerShare only works after re-seating the battery...

1. Power off the laptop.
2. Unplug the power cable
3. Plug in the USB device
4. Notice the USB device is not charging.
5. Remove the battery from the laptop.
6. Reinstall the battery into the laptop.
7. Notice USB device is now charging.

No idea if this is how it's intended to work, just my experience.

Something else I just discovered...

USB 2.0 only supports power up to 500 mA.  This is not enough juice to power most newer apple devices.

(ironically powershare will provide more amps when just on battery)

I found a tool called ASUS AI Charger that somehow gets around the USB 2.0 limit of 500 mA.  The webpage looks a little sketch but no virus.  Also, is works on most motherboards, not just ASUS.

http://event.asus.com/mb/2010/ai_charger/