IPAQ 214 Charging Situation Demystified

Hello All - My first post.

Just purchased an iPAQ214. Nice piece of kit but after trawling the web and this forum there still seems to be some confusion over what cables do in the box and how to charge the thing properly.

In the box is a mains power adaptor with a dc round-plug which in turn goes into another adapter that connects to the wide interface at the bottom. Additionally there is a USB cable with a wide interface connection to the iPAQ *and* and a tap for the mains charger.

The combination of these two cables is contradictory to say the least.
Furthermore - on ebay/other sites you can purchase a "compatible" mains charger that has a mini usb connector on!

Can anyone have a definitive answer on what the situation is. I would like to keep my charger at home and connect the PDA to my PC usb socket during the day at work. Connecting it to USB on my PC, does not show any signs that it is charging, or even maintaining the battery power whilst in standown mode. This is strange. Slow and Fast USB charging is on and makes no difference. The tap for a mains charger in the USB cable suggests that it is not meant to charge purely over USB. What does the USB charge option on the PDa actually do?!

My main questions are:

1) Is there a way of charging/maintaining charge on the PDA through just a USB connection (no mains)
2) If not to above - why can i not seem to buy a second charger with wide adaptor connector for the office (a duplicate of what is in the box)
3) Will a mains adaptor supposedly compatible with the PDA with a mini-usb on teh end actually charge the PDA as well?>

Thanks in advance. This seems to be a vert confusing subject.

Alex.

[getsurfers]

You need to turn on USB charging. Tap the battery icon, and it's in there on one of the tabs.

Originally Posted by getsurfers

You need to turn on USB charging. Tap the battery icon, and it's in there on one of the tabs.

I was hoping for a little more information. I *have* enabled USB charging and as many other people have found it *appears* to do nothing, or if it does, it is so negligible that it is unrecognizable.

Originally Posted by Daywalker

I was hoping for a little more information. I *have* enabled USB charging and as many other people have found it *appears* to do nothing, or if it does, it is so negligible that it is unrecognizable.

Ok - so how many people have fallen into this trap!!????

You *cannot* USB charge the iPAQ unless you purchase an extra cable (or you have a large usb to small usb cable).

It appears that plugging in the included cable which goes into the wide interface not the mini-usb doesnt charge!

I plugged my motorola usb sync cable into the PC and the mini-USB on iPAQ and magically...it begins to charge...

Why the hell don't they tell you that.

Which begs the question...what is the point of the large connector at the bottom when you can charge the thing with a mini-usb cable attached?

So much convolution for such a simple concept like charging.