You would think that it would be a simple process, but it’s not.
There are three tricks that you need to know:
1) You must install a device driver on your PC before the USB cable will charge the phone
I know, I know. Why do some manufacturers insist on doing this?!
2) The device driver’s primary purpose is to treat your phone as a modem.
Yes, I realize that it sounds strange that you have to install a modem driver to get your computer to charge the phone, but that’s the way it works!
3) While you’re installing the device driver
software, you can’t let the phone go to sleep or lock its keypad.
As you’re installing the software on your PC, you have to keep the phone busy and awake by pressing buttons on the keypad.
Instructions
- Visit Motorola’s USB
and PC Charging Drivers web page. - Near the bottom of the page, click the link to download the ‘PC Driver 2 (W216, W230, W230x, W23x, W259, W270, W270x, W27x, W388, W396, W397,
W397v)‘ file. - Unzip the file to a folder on your hard disk. For this example, we’ll assume that you extract the files to C:\drivers
- Insure that your phone is awake and that the keypad is not locked. You can unlock the phone by pressing the center button (play/pause symbol on it)
followed by the star (*) key on the dialing keypad. - Quickly, before the phone begins to sleep again, attach your Motorola W233 to your PC using a USB cable. Your phone will prompt you to answer the question, “Connect phone as storage device?”. Press the right soft-key to
answer “no“. - Have a friend keep the W233 phone awake and busy by constantly pressing buttons on the phone. This will leave you free to install the device driver. If you allow the phone to sleep/lock, your PC will give you the error
message, “Device driver installation failed. Device is no longer connected”. - Windows Vista will now detect new hardware. Select the “Search for Device Driver”. At first, Windows will scan Live Update for the driver, but it
won’t find it. When it gives you the options to “Specify location of files
(advanced), select “C:\drivers\USB_Driver_3.4.6_patch_ for HG” (or whichever folder contains the .INF files that you downloaded and upzipped
from
Motorola’s website). - Complete the installation. Unplug the phone from the USB cord.
- Now, whenever your phone needs a charge, insure that it is awake/unlocked by pressing the center button (play/pause symbol on it) followed by star (*) key. Connect the phone to the PC using the USB
cable. When your phone asks if you want to “Connect phone as a storage device?”, press the soft key for “no”. You’ll hear a “power up” noise, and
then the phone will start to charge.
Common error messages: