Chromebook 11 CATCHES FIRE at last, FLIES off shelves

HP's Chromebook 11, which the world got excited about back in October because it appeared to be the first charge-over-USB laptop, has been pulled from sale because charge-over-USB is too hot to handle. Literally. Google has issued what it's euphemistically calling an ”important update” about the device saying it and HP “... …

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Surely?

USB isn't the best connector to use for power, which is why they made it 5v at 500mA.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Surely?

"Or even simpler, just plug the other end of the USB cable into one of the other USB ports on the chromebook for automatic self charging?"

LOL... :-)

Reminds to me the definition of bootstrap.

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Surely?

Or the definition of recursion:

Recursion (noun) : see recursion.

[Luke McCarthy]

Re: Surely?

Yes, but it will take a lot longer. The charger supplied with the HP Chromebook 11 is 3A.

[Hideki]

Re: Surely?

In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!

[Paul E]

Australia only?

As on an oz google blog and refering, I think, to an oz institution it may well only be a problem with the adapters provided in australia?

[Phil O'Sophical]

Re: Australia only?

You're holding them upside down.

[Amish-Bill]

Just another power hungry HP

It's probably no different than my HP Touchpad (now running Android, thank you very much Cyanogenmod ! )

Unlike an iPad which will charge, if slowly, from just about any USB charger, the Touchpad is a hungry beast that requires a higher power charger. (I've seen it LOOSE power when plugged into a laptop port to charge)

If the HP Chromebook is anything like my Touchpad, it's probably designed to suck a large amounts of juice at a rapid pace. Something clone chargers are rarely good at handling.

[Magnus Ramage]

Re: Just another power hungry HP

I have an HP Touchpad too, happily running Android 4.0 via CyanogenMod 9 (to whom I'm very grateful). It only charges at all well with the charger which came with it, rated at 2A. I've never had it successfully charge much at all on any of the other chargers in our house, whether no-name or from a specific manufacturer. Even a Nexus 7 (2012) charger didn't do it much good.

[Richard 22]

Re: Just another power hungry HP

iPads can lose power when plugged into a laptop port too (my iPad2 does). Being plugged in via USB generally means the device can't sleep fully as it's expecting USB comms, so it's in a relatively high power state. If the laptop is only providing 500mA consumption may exceed supply.

You could try using a USB charge-only cable (ie one with no data wires) and see if the charging works better from a laptop, as the device may be able to enter a lower power state.

[tony2heads]

Touchpad

rename it to Torchwood?

[vadertime]

I've had the Samsung Chromebook for over 6 months now and never had any issues with heating or anything else. I love the device so much that I gave my daughter my 3 year old, very powerful, Dell Laptop. My only issue is that I wish it had better battery life. I leave it in sleep mode most of the time, but 3 days is about as long as the charge lasts even with very light use and the device being in sleep mode most of the time. Of course, that's a lot better than my Android smartphone, which needs to be charged nightly.