Charging your Blackberry through a USB computer cable

We've had alot of questions from Carphone Warehouse Store Managers, employees and customers. Some of them have been easy ones we can solve

A popular one seems to be:

'How do I charge my Blackberry through a USB cable without the use of the Desktop Software?'

We loved this question. It seems as though the functionality for this idea isn't readily available 'out of the box' so to speak and yet there is a way to make it work without much hassle.

Let us run through what we have to do step by step.

First of all we have to install USB drivers through the Windows Update feature.

Using the Windows Update feature

By far the easiest way to install these drivers is using Windows Update. Firstly, you should plug the Blackberry into the PC using a USB cable. Wait for it to be detected and you will see several yellow bubbles in the bottom right of the screen detailing new devices detected and drivers being installed.

Once that is done, start up Windows Update. To do this, you can click on the Start button and go to Windows Update. Alternatively, you can open your web browser and go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and you will see the following screen:

Press the Custom button as highlighted above and you will then see the following:


On the left hand side, you will see (as highlighted) an optional Hardware Update. Click on this and you will then see:



If you have several items on this page, just put a tick in one that says Research in Motion – Other Hardware – Blackberry Device. When you do this, you will see link to Review and Install Updates:

Click on this and then click on Install Updates:

When you click on the Install Updates button it will then go through installing the driver, it doesn’t take long. Once finished, you will see the following screen:

The battery will now charge fully without the need for the Desktop Software!

Note for Mac Users:
It would seem that on the latest Macs, this simply works without the need for tinkering. Without further testing we cannot be percise in saying whether it is the latest Mac hardware or which of the various incarnations of the Mac's OSX operating system that makes this work. However, searching online through Blackberry support websites and forums and simply asking many Mac owners who call us up, it would seem that most new Macs bought in the last 3-4 years seem to be able to charge Blackberrys through USB automatically. Of course this is not a guarantee, just an imperfect survey which could prove to be unfounded. We shall update you when we get more information. In the meantime, give it a go on your Mac and if it works, give us a call or leave us a message on the Blog and tell us how you got on.