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My Motorola SLVR (L7) hasn’t been charging from a USB cable since a few weeks after I got it*. I’ve never really worried about it as I don’t actually sync the phone with the PC, so I never use the USB cable.

This morning, however, I had a battery crisis. I couldn’t find the charger when I left home, so I figured I’d left it at work. Nope. One bar of battery left and no charger in sight. Time to solve this USB charging issue.

I did some digging and found a USB Settings entry in the settings menu (under ‘Connectivity‘). There are two options for the USB settings: Memory Card and Data/Fax Connection. Mine was set to the latter.

It turns out that:

• With USB settings on Data/Fax Connection the phone will only charge from the USB cable if the PC you’ve connected it to has the correct driver installed. No driver, no charging.
• With USB settings on Memory Card it will charge regardless of the driver that’s installed on the PC.

As soon as I changed the setting to Memory Card it started charging perfectly.

I’m sure there’s some logic behind this driver -vs- setting issue, but I can’t understand it. If I plug in the USB cable, charge the phone. Who cares about drivers on the PC? Motorola engineers obviously do, but I’m pretty sure consumers don’t (and neither should we). Drivers should be about real functionality and not about whether the power that’s flowing down the cable is permitted to charge the battery. That’s dumb.

I had to follow up (of course) by hunting down the SLVR L7 driver and installing that, and it now charges on Data/Fax Connection as well. That took some sniffing though; lots of google hits for Motorola L7 driver are forum posts from people asking where they can find the Motorola L7 driver!

* I must have changed the USB Settings at some point, not realising the implications of what I was doing. I know it used to charge correctly, and I guess I didn’t associate the lack of USB charging with the obscure setting I’d fiddled with optimised.

Another win for Lewis Hamilton in the US Grand Prix last night. At 22 years of age, and in only his 7th F1 race, he’s a full race clear of his double world champion teammate.

No wonder Alonso was looking so glum after today’s race. He can’t beat Hamilton today at tracks that Lewis has never seen; how hard will it be when Hamilton has had a season or two of racing at this level?

There are two other things that came out of last night’s race.

1. Kimi, give up on this year’s championship. 26 points behind a 7-race-old rookie as we approach half season? Forget it; you’re done, buddy. You’re crap this year, and it’s all over. Spend the rest of the year finding a way to justify that US$40M annual salary, because your driving doesn’t.
2. Bye, Ralf. Today’s amateur first lap accident pretty much guaranteed you’re unemployed next year. You’ve been a waste of a seat for a good few years now, and today sealed the deal. Leave before you disgrace the Schumacher name any further, and don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.