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Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I

by vr46 6y ago

Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. All my apple kit works fine off the Apple chargers, but I do have an external hard drive that has mixed Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 ports, which are absolutely not the same. I love the port, but the standard just hasn't caught up and when a company like Nintendo flouts it anyway, you have a big problem.

izacus 6y ago
> Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. It has worked reliably with pretty much every charger I threw at it so this sounds like one of those urban myths.
- majewsky 6y ago
  I have a 2018 Switch and it works well with all chargers I've tested so far (mostly Apple and Lenovo besides the one that came with the Swift). My guess is that the problems that existed in the original hardware were fixed in a subsequent hardware revision.
  - tdsamardzhiev 6y ago
    So does mine, 3 years and counting.
  - vr46 6y ago
    Maybe the problems were fixed, but not by the time mine was ordered from Amazon on 8 December 2018. It charged fine with an Anker and Apple charger for, well, until it went pop this July. I'm glad yours is working fine, and it does come with a two-year warranty, but this was considered damage. From Nintendo's repair service: > Our engineers have inspected your Switch Console and found damage due to USB-C Connector Damage. Under our warranty policy we do not cover the cost of the repair for damaged items. A payment of £53.50 is required for us to complete the repair.
- klohto 6y ago
  How about you read the Nintendo docs & warranty before throwing one of your myths around. It’s a well known thing combined with their controller.
- dx87 6y ago
  It's not an urban myth, Nintendo acknowledged it and told people to not use 3rd party chargers. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/heres-why-nintendo-switch-consoles-keep-frying/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/heres-why-nintendo-sw...
  - matt_heimer 6y ago
    The article says the issue was with a third-party dock made by Nyko that supplies 9v on the CC pin when it should be 5v. How is that Nintendo's fault?
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- ahmedalsudani 6y ago
  > And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. GP is giving you their first-hand experience with this issue. It’s a little disrespectful to call it an urban myth replying to a first-hand account. FWIW, the Switch charger outputs a higher voltage, IIRC.
  - pen2l 6y ago
    Don’t think it’s necessarily « disrespectful « to doubt another’s account. This reminds me of the « bend gate » problem with iPhones. There were some here who reported the problem... but somehow it was not a problem in the grand scheme of things. We have a lot of skeptical folks here (a good thing!) so we should be respectfully skeptical of the skeptics at times, without an exchange of ill feelings. :)
    - ahmedalsudani 6y ago
      Honestly it’s mostly about the tone. Skepticism is welcome. What was bend-gate?
      - edoceo 6y ago
        iPhones would get the frame bent https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8288566 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8288566
    - cyphar 6y ago
      While the whole "bend your phone in half" thing was overblown, it definitely is a major issue. The whole class of touch disease issues (where the screen has grey bars flickering and touch stops working) were caused by the same underlying problem -- the phones are less rigid and small flexing (such as in your pocket) causes the Touch IC chip to become unseated. An incredibly large number of iPhones have succumbed to this issue, and Apple had a "repair program" for it[1] (which is their terminology to get around calling it a "recall" because their product was faulty) -- and as usual their description of the problem is incredibly skewed (you don't need to drop your phone to trigger it and it affected a very large number of devices because it was a design flaw of the phone). [1]: https://support.apple.com/iphone6plus-multitouch https://support.apple.com/iphone6plus-multitouch
- 4sak3n 6y ago
  I think you'll find that if you do even a small amount of research you will find that this is not the case. There are many sources which confirm this, many of them official. Your comment amounts to: "Well since it hasn't happened to me then it can't possibly be true." Really?
- maccard 6y ago
  Another vote for the switch being evil here - just because it works for you doesn't mean it's an urban myth. The OnePlus adapters have historically had issues with the switch - https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/5xexiz/fyi_the_oneplus_3_dash_ac_charging_block_will_not/ https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/5xexiz/fyi_the_one... and the iPhone usb adapters have also had issues. The fact that there's a wiki on "what usb c charger to buy" for your switch suggest many others are having issues too - https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/6jnkl4/list_of_recommended_switch_usbc_chargers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/6jnkl4/list...
  - fullstop 6y ago
    With OnePlus adapters, I would only ever use it for Dash / Warp charging of their phones. It's unique enough that I wouldn't even consider attempting to charge a laptop or a switch with it.
    - maccard 6y ago
      Given the topic of the post, it's worth pointing that out. Even though both are usb c devices (switch and oneplus), they do a really good job of proving the article correct.
- lstamour 6y ago
  Actually it isn’t but I’m not finding the article I’d previously read on the topic. Personally I think it comes down to both the charging profiles the switch will accept are limited, such that some chargers don’t work with the switch - each USB PD charger supports a different set of charging specs (volts/amps/watts). https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/ch99aj/apple_87w_pd_charger_teardown_the_back_of_the/eut02ie/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/ch99aj/apple_... I’d also suggest that some PD bricks/chargers might not be as reliable at sending power, if so, or if a cable’s wiring sends it down the wrong path, it could be disastrous for many devices that don’t take this into account. I am reminded of reviews of USB-C cables from a few years ago from Benson Leung.
  - arthur2e5 6y ago
    Like someone said upthread, the issue isn't with how it does not accept all profiles, but with how it says it accepts 20V while expecting 15V.
philplckthun 6y ago
I think it's fine to point out the Thunderbolt mess, or the PD vs non-PD devices (although non-PD is becoming exceedingly rare as far as I can tell at least for "larger" devices), but using the Nintendo Switch seems like a bad example in my opinion, since it explicitly does not follow all USB standards, especially in fact on charging.
- falcolas 6y ago
  And yet it's a USB-C plug that, on the surface, appears to charge from USB-C chargers just fine. Nintendo is to blame, but it hurts the USB-C landscape. Plus, Nintendo is far from the only offender in the USB-C space.
- reader_mode 6y ago
  Why ? You have the same plug but it's not actually compatible - this to me is a good example of confusion - I would be the first to assume you can charge it with whatever USB-C power cable available and not bother checking the docs.
  - zenexer 6y ago
    It seems like a deliberate effort on Nintendo's part to cause chaos. They could've done the same thing with any other standard, including micro USB. They made it just different enough that it's dangerous to use third-party peripherals.
    - dathinab 6y ago
      No it looks honestly like a mistake and then not caring for standard compatibility. Else we wouldn't be in a situation where most (all?) Laptop USB-C PD chargers work without problems with the switch.
  - derefr 6y ago
    Because it could have happened just as well with any other plug. It could have been a non-conforming micro-USB charging port. Either way, it would have nothing to do with “the mess that is USB-C” (i.e. the inability to identify which of the various wire protocols that work over USB-C cables that a USB-C port follows/supports), because such a port isn’t following any of the USB-C-cable compatible standards. It’d be like saying Nintendo hurt the mini-DVD format when they used non-compatible mini-DVDs in the GameCube. Those discs have nothing to do with the mini-DVD standard; they just happen to share a physical substrate and so a physical appearance. They’re not claiming to be mini-DVDs. And nor does Nintendo claim the Switch’s charging port to be a USB-C port. In all the docs, it specifically says that it’s just a port for the Dock or the Switch AC charger to plug into. It just happens to share a form-factor. Do you remember the days when every connector looked like a DB9 connector with only some of the pins populated? (E.g. the various game-controller ports on the Atari, Commodore, Amiga, etc.) Or later, when every connector looked like a PS/2 port, with only some of the pins populated (e.g. Apple Desktop Bus)? None of these were claiming to be the same type of cable or jack or socket. None of them were claiming cross-compatibility. They all just happened to share the same physical connector—because it was a cheap and plentiful, easy-to-source part to build your own proprietary cables and jacks and sockets in terms of. Heck, do you know how many random different types of cables are terminated with TRS or RCA connectors? Would you blame your hairdryer for “destroying the audio ecosystem” because its wall-charger is terminated in an RCA jack, and you could theoretically plug said RCA jack into an iPod (probably frying it in the process)? The outlier in all this isn’t USB-C, but rather the previous USB physical-connector standards. Pretty much nobody used those for anything other than USB devices. Probably because the connectors were 1. expensive as parts, and therefore not really worth using in your own project unless you specifically were trying to be a part of the USB ecosystem; and 2. weren’t designed to be physically capable of meeting the current-draw requirements that proprietary cabling standards would want to place on them. In being both cheap and capable of high current delivery, USB-C connectors are just bringing us back from the temporary reprieve of USB-A/B, to the world of the 100 years before that, where a physical connector tells you nothing about what type of cable you’ve got, because every fly-by-night company uses any random connector for whatever they like. You know how USB jacks and sockets had the USB icon on them? That was because the USB Consortium assumed people would do random things with the USB connector standard; and so the icon was meant to distinguish the USB connector as applied to a USB use-case. It never really became relevant in USB-A/B, but it’s actually relevant now in USB-C. That icon is what tells; not the shape of the socket.
jeremymcanally 6y ago
I use it with my Apple charger without issue, and I've done that since I got it quite a while ago. While I don't doubt your experience, it sounds like perhaps your situation isn't quite universal. Defective Switch hardware maybe? Not sure, but it works well for me.
- maxbaines 6y ago
  I have also had no issue.
cameronh90 6y ago
I charge my Switch with various USB PD chargers (mostly Anker but also Apple, Google and others) and haven't had a problem so far. I was trying to find some information about what would cause PD-compliant chargers to fry the Switch. It appears that while the switch is PD-compliant itself, they used a slightly non-standard connector that reduces tolerances and could, in some situations (most likely worn cables) cause some pins to electrically bridge and fry the port. To be honest, this doesn't seem like an issue with USB C, just Nintendo intentionally implementing it wrong. They should have either used a proprietary port for the docking mechanism rather than modifying USB C in an unsafe way then saying only to use their proprietary charger.
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  I found that Switch cannot use Apple's charger with the dock. It literally complains about the cable being wrong.
  - ulucs 6y ago
    The dock is a special case and requires some specific voltage/amperage support. But the switch itself abides by EU regulations.
    - JAlexoid 6y ago
      65W Apple charger.... My Lenovo 65W USB-C charger had no issues at all.
      - novok 6y ago
        A USB-C PD brink specifies which voltage and amp combos it supports charging, and the one that the dock & switch ask for as their 'optimal' power profiles most apple USB-C bricks do not deliver, despite having the wattage capability for them.
      - univerio 6y ago
        The Switch dock requires the 15V PD profile, which the (old) 61W adapter from 2016 did not support, but the newer 61W adapter from 2018 does.
api 6y ago
That is Nintendo’s fault.
chmod775 6y ago
>$60 bill from Nintendo A $60 bill to fix their fuckup? I'd have returned that under the (legal) warranty.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
JAlexoid 6y ago
I use my Lenovo USB-C charger - charges everything perfectly well. No issues for over 3 years now. It's Apple's stuff(the irony of it, right?) that has all kinds of problems. I don't even charge my MacBook with Apple's chargers anymore.
Spooks 6y ago
Charging is fine, the issue is using under wattage 3rd party docks or using a bad charger for the dock while playing, as it pull more power when it is in dock mode. Charging it has never been an issue for anyone and this is the first I heard being a charging issue
arghwhat 6y ago
Aha - you may find that this is not true at all. Not only has the Switch always charged safely, later revisions are also more compliant. The issue has always been with the charger and dock. Never PD compliant chargers straight in the switch. The thunderbolt 3 + usb C thing is true though. My Thunderbolt 3 dock won't charge a non-TB3 device. I'd consider that a minor issue though, especially as USB4 fixes it entirely.
rolobio 6y ago
From my research a few years ago, this is caused by the Switch asking the charger for 20V, but it actually expects 15V. The Nintendo charger obeys this hidden rule, but any other charger will happily provide 20V. I think the difference between a 20V and 15V charge isn't significant enough to blow the Switch up the first time you use it, but, over time it will blow up.
- Chris2048 6y ago
  Is this a purposefully-engineered flaw to reduce confidence in 3rd party chargers?
  - Tijdreiziger 6y ago
    If that would've been the goal, why would they have made the device with a USB-C port in the first place (rather than a proprietary port)?
    - malka 6y ago
      Because Nintendo suxx as en engineering company.
  - numpad0 6y ago
    More like Gen 1 Switch hardware was designed too early in USB-C era. It’ll probably be fixed in future generations but Nintendo decided not to make design changes for Gen 1 and Gen 2 Switch to fully comply with USB-C PD specs.
    - willis936 6y ago
      The timeline here doesn’t jive. The Pixel C came out in 2015 with a USB-C port using the same SoC as the Switch (2017). Nintendo’s non-compliance is intentional.
      - kalleboo 6y ago
        Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. Nintendo has a long history of proprietary plugs, if they wanted to make something proprietary, they would have just done it and nobody would bat an eye, they wouldn't bother making a slightly buggy USB-C implementation. Do you also think that the Raspberry Pi 4 USB-C incompatibility is intentional? That came out waaay later
JohnTHaller 6y ago
Side Note: Make sure you buy your Apple chargers from Apple. If you bought it from Amazon or similar, there's a good chance it's fake.
- LexGray 6y ago
  Additional side note: non-Apple chargers are often scary inside. They rarely contain the safeties of Apple chargers. That is outside this whole hackers setting chargers on fire issue.
  - dathinab 6y ago
    Additional sitenote: And even if they are not a scary mess some Apple laptops are prone to dath by third-party charger.
birdyrooster 6y ago
Also if your switch battery ever gets really really low, you can’t charge it with anything other than the OEM charger.
- dathinab 6y ago
  As a side note that's common for undercharged batteries. Charging undercharged lithium batteries must be done exactly right or it can get dangerous because of this is often only supported by OEM chargers or some workaround like keep your device plugged in for 12h even through it in no way indicates that is charging and it will then magically work again (my last phone )
sergeykish 6y ago
This explains why there are so many "no charge" Nintendo Switch in TronicsFix videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xix7qzbOT6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xix7qzbOT6Q
oso2k 6y ago
I haven’t found this to be true. I’ve used 4 or more different chargers. A couple off-brand USB-C chargers, USB-C dock/charger, Apple USB-C chargers, USB-C to USB 2.0/3.0 cables with 1A, 2.4A, 2.5A chargers. All worked without issue. In fact, I left the Nintendo wall wart at home (I usually travel for work) and just bring along a USB-C to USB cable with me.
- dathinab 6y ago
  Yes only with either of following you might be in danger: - A dock, the alternate mode used isn't fully standard conform and prone to fry your switch. - A unlucky combination of cheap but fully standard conform charger with bad cable with switch.
  - danhor 6y ago
    The issue with docks were very non-compliant 3rd party docks which used 9 V for signal lines, which is way to high: https://hackaday.com/2019/08/04/the-not-quite-usb-c-of-nintendo-switch-accessories/ https://hackaday.com/2019/08/04/the-not-quite-usb-c-of-ninte...
    - dathinab 6y ago
      Yes in practice it's very unlikely to accidentally fry your Switch. Through wrt. docks there is some non standard compilant parts about switching to the "dock" alternate mode, maybe I misremeber and that can't damage your switch. Anyway if you by anything but super cheap potentially broken chargers in 2020 I would be very surprised if it damages yours Switch. Especially laptop chargers tend to work very well with it. Actually I observed (but maybe wrongly) that somehow my Lenovo think pad laptop charger does a better job when charging and at the same time playing in handheld mode .
- vangelis 6y ago
  It's possible to buy USB-C 2.0 cables and USB-B 3.0 cables, for when your printer needs the extra transfer I guess.
willis936 6y ago
I was livid with Nintendo when the Switch launched. It took decades of hard work to get the interconnect industry to play nice with common standards. It’s a fragile, prosperous peace. It doesn’t take much to destroy it. Nintendo’s careless actions threaten a lot more than a few toys.
rsync 6y ago
"I love the port, but the standard just hasn't caught up and when a company like Nintendo flouts it anyway, you have a big problem." Can't this hazard be eliminated with some kind of "USB Condom" that would, at least, universalize your cables and ports ? I have a USB condom that I use for standard USB ports for disabling data lines (turning them into power only cords) - I assume you could build a smarter, more sophisticated USB condom that would allow you to safeguard against these edge cases and incompatibilities ?

by vr46 6y ago

izacus 6y ago

> Aha - you may find that your Switch CANNOT in fact share a charge - Nintendo's port is not necessarily safe to use with anything but its supplied charger. And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. I only have reputable chargers in the house from Apple and one from Anker aside from the Nintendo's own. It has worked reliably with pretty much every charger I threw at it so this sounds like one of those urban myths.

majewsky 6y ago
I have a 2018 Switch and it works well with all chargers I've tested so far (mostly Apple and Lenovo besides the one that came with the Swift). My guess is that the problems that existed in the original hardware were fixed in a subsequent hardware revision.
- tdsamardzhiev 6y ago
  So does mine, 3 years and counting.
- vr46 6y ago
  Maybe the problems were fixed, but not by the time mine was ordered from Amazon on 8 December 2018. It charged fine with an Anker and Apple charger for, well, until it went pop this July. I'm glad yours is working fine, and it does come with a two-year warranty, but this was considered damage. From Nintendo's repair service: > Our engineers have inspected your Switch Console and found damage due to USB-C Connector Damage. Under our warranty policy we do not cover the cost of the repair for damaged items. A payment of £53.50 is required for us to complete the repair.
klohto 6y ago
How about you read the Nintendo docs & warranty before throwing one of your myths around. It’s a well known thing combined with their controller.
dx87 6y ago
It's not an urban myth, Nintendo acknowledged it and told people to not use 3rd party chargers. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/heres-why-nintendo-switch-consoles-keep-frying/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/08/heres-why-nintendo-sw...
- matt_heimer 6y ago
  The article says the issue was with a third-party dock made by Nyko that supplies 9v on the CC pin when it should be 5v. How is that Nintendo's fault?
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
ahmedalsudani 6y ago
> And I've just learned this lesson with a $60 bill from Nintendo repair after the port went pop and couldn't charge the device. GP is giving you their first-hand experience with this issue. It’s a little disrespectful to call it an urban myth replying to a first-hand account. FWIW, the Switch charger outputs a higher voltage, IIRC.
- pen2l 6y ago
  Don’t think it’s necessarily « disrespectful « to doubt another’s account. This reminds me of the « bend gate » problem with iPhones. There were some here who reported the problem... but somehow it was not a problem in the grand scheme of things. We have a lot of skeptical folks here (a good thing!) so we should be respectfully skeptical of the skeptics at times, without an exchange of ill feelings. :)
  - ahmedalsudani 6y ago
    Honestly it’s mostly about the tone. Skepticism is welcome. What was bend-gate?
    - edoceo 6y ago
      iPhones would get the frame bent https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8288566 https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8288566
  - cyphar 6y ago
    While the whole "bend your phone in half" thing was overblown, it definitely is a major issue. The whole class of touch disease issues (where the screen has grey bars flickering and touch stops working) were caused by the same underlying problem -- the phones are less rigid and small flexing (such as in your pocket) causes the Touch IC chip to become unseated. An incredibly large number of iPhones have succumbed to this issue, and Apple had a "repair program" for it[1] (which is their terminology to get around calling it a "recall" because their product was faulty) -- and as usual their description of the problem is incredibly skewed (you don't need to drop your phone to trigger it and it affected a very large number of devices because it was a design flaw of the phone). [1]: https://support.apple.com/iphone6plus-multitouch https://support.apple.com/iphone6plus-multitouch
4sak3n 6y ago
I think you'll find that if you do even a small amount of research you will find that this is not the case. There are many sources which confirm this, many of them official. Your comment amounts to: "Well since it hasn't happened to me then it can't possibly be true." Really?
maccard 6y ago
Another vote for the switch being evil here - just because it works for you doesn't mean it's an urban myth. The OnePlus adapters have historically had issues with the switch - https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/5xexiz/fyi_the_oneplus_3_dash_ac_charging_block_will_not/ https://www.reddit.com/r/oneplus/comments/5xexiz/fyi_the_one... and the iPhone usb adapters have also had issues. The fact that there's a wiki on "what usb c charger to buy" for your switch suggest many others are having issues too - https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/6jnkl4/list_of_recommended_switch_usbc_chargers/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/6jnkl4/list...
- fullstop 6y ago
  With OnePlus adapters, I would only ever use it for Dash / Warp charging of their phones. It's unique enough that I wouldn't even consider attempting to charge a laptop or a switch with it.
  - maccard 6y ago
    Given the topic of the post, it's worth pointing that out. Even though both are usb c devices (switch and oneplus), they do a really good job of proving the article correct.
lstamour 6y ago
Actually it isn’t but I’m not finding the article I’d previously read on the topic. Personally I think it comes down to both the charging profiles the switch will accept are limited, such that some chargers don’t work with the switch - each USB PD charger supports a different set of charging specs (volts/amps/watts). https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/ch99aj/apple_87w_pd_charger_teardown_the_back_of_the/eut02ie/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3 https://www.reddit.com/r/UsbCHardware/comments/ch99aj/apple_... I’d also suggest that some PD bricks/chargers might not be as reliable at sending power, if so, or if a cable’s wiring sends it down the wrong path, it could be disastrous for many devices that don’t take this into account. I am reminded of reviews of USB-C cables from a few years ago from Benson Leung.
- arthur2e5 6y ago
  Like someone said upthread, the issue isn't with how it does not accept all profiles, but with how it says it accepts 20V while expecting 15V.

philplckthun 6y ago

I think it's fine to point out the Thunderbolt mess, or the PD vs non-PD devices (although non-PD is becoming exceedingly rare as far as I can tell at least for "larger" devices), but using the Nintendo Switch seems like a bad example in my opinion, since it explicitly does not follow all USB standards, especially in fact on charging.

falcolas 6y ago
And yet it's a USB-C plug that, on the surface, appears to charge from USB-C chargers just fine. Nintendo is to blame, but it hurts the USB-C landscape. Plus, Nintendo is far from the only offender in the USB-C space.
reader_mode 6y ago
Why ? You have the same plug but it's not actually compatible - this to me is a good example of confusion - I would be the first to assume you can charge it with whatever USB-C power cable available and not bother checking the docs.
- zenexer 6y ago
  It seems like a deliberate effort on Nintendo's part to cause chaos. They could've done the same thing with any other standard, including micro USB. They made it just different enough that it's dangerous to use third-party peripherals.
  - dathinab 6y ago
    No it looks honestly like a mistake and then not caring for standard compatibility. Else we wouldn't be in a situation where most (all?) Laptop USB-C PD chargers work without problems with the switch.
- derefr 6y ago
  Because it could have happened just as well with any other plug. It could have been a non-conforming micro-USB charging port. Either way, it would have nothing to do with “the mess that is USB-C” (i.e. the inability to identify which of the various wire protocols that work over USB-C cables that a USB-C port follows/supports), because such a port isn’t following any of the USB-C-cable compatible standards. It’d be like saying Nintendo hurt the mini-DVD format when they used non-compatible mini-DVDs in the GameCube. Those discs have nothing to do with the mini-DVD standard; they just happen to share a physical substrate and so a physical appearance. They’re not claiming to be mini-DVDs. And nor does Nintendo claim the Switch’s charging port to be a USB-C port. In all the docs, it specifically says that it’s just a port for the Dock or the Switch AC charger to plug into. It just happens to share a form-factor. Do you remember the days when every connector looked like a DB9 connector with only some of the pins populated? (E.g. the various game-controller ports on the Atari, Commodore, Amiga, etc.) Or later, when every connector looked like a PS/2 port, with only some of the pins populated (e.g. Apple Desktop Bus)? None of these were claiming to be the same type of cable or jack or socket. None of them were claiming cross-compatibility. They all just happened to share the same physical connector—because it was a cheap and plentiful, easy-to-source part to build your own proprietary cables and jacks and sockets in terms of. Heck, do you know how many random different types of cables are terminated with TRS or RCA connectors? Would you blame your hairdryer for “destroying the audio ecosystem” because its wall-charger is terminated in an RCA jack, and you could theoretically plug said RCA jack into an iPod (probably frying it in the process)? The outlier in all this isn’t USB-C, but rather the previous USB physical-connector standards. Pretty much nobody used those for anything other than USB devices. Probably because the connectors were 1. expensive as parts, and therefore not really worth using in your own project unless you specifically were trying to be a part of the USB ecosystem; and 2. weren’t designed to be physically capable of meeting the current-draw requirements that proprietary cabling standards would want to place on them. In being both cheap and capable of high current delivery, USB-C connectors are just bringing us back from the temporary reprieve of USB-A/B, to the world of the 100 years before that, where a physical connector tells you nothing about what type of cable you’ve got, because every fly-by-night company uses any random connector for whatever they like. You know how USB jacks and sockets had the USB icon on them? That was because the USB Consortium assumed people would do random things with the USB connector standard; and so the icon was meant to distinguish the USB connector as applied to a USB use-case. It never really became relevant in USB-A/B, but it’s actually relevant now in USB-C. That icon is what tells; not the shape of the socket.

jeremymcanally 6y ago

I use it with my Apple charger without issue, and I've done that since I got it quite a while ago. While I don't doubt your experience, it sounds like perhaps your situation isn't quite universal. Defective Switch hardware maybe? Not sure, but it works well for me.

maxbaines 6y ago
I have also had no issue.

cameronh90 6y ago

I charge my Switch with various USB PD chargers (mostly Anker but also Apple, Google and others) and haven't had a problem so far. I was trying to find some information about what would cause PD-compliant chargers to fry the Switch. It appears that while the switch is PD-compliant itself, they used a slightly non-standard connector that reduces tolerances and could, in some situations (most likely worn cables) cause some pins to electrically bridge and fry the port. To be honest, this doesn't seem like an issue with USB C, just Nintendo intentionally implementing it wrong. They should have either used a proprietary port for the docking mechanism rather than modifying USB C in an unsafe way then saying only to use their proprietary charger.

JAlexoid 6y ago
I found that Switch cannot use Apple's charger with the dock. It literally complains about the cable being wrong.
- ulucs 6y ago
  The dock is a special case and requires some specific voltage/amperage support. But the switch itself abides by EU regulations.
  - JAlexoid 6y ago
    65W Apple charger.... My Lenovo 65W USB-C charger had no issues at all.
    - novok 6y ago
      A USB-C PD brink specifies which voltage and amp combos it supports charging, and the one that the dock & switch ask for as their 'optimal' power profiles most apple USB-C bricks do not deliver, despite having the wattage capability for them.
    - univerio 6y ago
      The Switch dock requires the 15V PD profile, which the (old) 61W adapter from 2016 did not support, but the newer 61W adapter from 2018 does.

api 6y ago

That is Nintendo’s fault.

chmod775 6y ago

>$60 bill from Nintendo A $60 bill to fix their fuckup? I'd have returned that under the (legal) warranty.

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

JAlexoid 6y ago

I use my Lenovo USB-C charger - charges everything perfectly well. No issues for over 3 years now. It's Apple's stuff(the irony of it, right?) that has all kinds of problems. I don't even charge my MacBook with Apple's chargers anymore.

Spooks 6y ago

Charging is fine, the issue is using under wattage 3rd party docks or using a bad charger for the dock while playing, as it pull more power when it is in dock mode. Charging it has never been an issue for anyone and this is the first I heard being a charging issue

arghwhat 6y ago

Aha - you may find that this is not true at all. Not only has the Switch always charged safely, later revisions are also more compliant. The issue has always been with the charger and dock. Never PD compliant chargers straight in the switch. The thunderbolt 3 + usb C thing is true though. My Thunderbolt 3 dock won't charge a non-TB3 device. I'd consider that a minor issue though, especially as USB4 fixes it entirely.

rolobio 6y ago

From my research a few years ago, this is caused by the Switch asking the charger for 20V, but it actually expects 15V. The Nintendo charger obeys this hidden rule, but any other charger will happily provide 20V. I think the difference between a 20V and 15V charge isn't significant enough to blow the Switch up the first time you use it, but, over time it will blow up.

Chris2048 6y ago
Is this a purposefully-engineered flaw to reduce confidence in 3rd party chargers?
- Tijdreiziger 6y ago
  If that would've been the goal, why would they have made the device with a USB-C port in the first place (rather than a proprietary port)?
  - malka 6y ago
    Because Nintendo suxx as en engineering company.
- numpad0 6y ago
  More like Gen 1 Switch hardware was designed too early in USB-C era. It’ll probably be fixed in future generations but Nintendo decided not to make design changes for Gen 1 and Gen 2 Switch to fully comply with USB-C PD specs.
  - willis936 6y ago
    The timeline here doesn’t jive. The Pixel C came out in 2015 with a USB-C port using the same SoC as the Switch (2017). Nintendo’s non-compliance is intentional.
    - kalleboo 6y ago
      Never attribute to malice what can be attributed to incompetence. Nintendo has a long history of proprietary plugs, if they wanted to make something proprietary, they would have just done it and nobody would bat an eye, they wouldn't bother making a slightly buggy USB-C implementation. Do you also think that the Raspberry Pi 4 USB-C incompatibility is intentional? That came out waaay later

JohnTHaller 6y ago

Side Note: Make sure you buy your Apple chargers from Apple. If you bought it from Amazon or similar, there's a good chance it's fake.

LexGray 6y ago
Additional side note: non-Apple chargers are often scary inside. They rarely contain the safeties of Apple chargers. That is outside this whole hackers setting chargers on fire issue.
- dathinab 6y ago
  Additional sitenote: And even if they are not a scary mess some Apple laptops are prone to dath by third-party charger.

birdyrooster 6y ago

Also if your switch battery ever gets really really low, you can’t charge it with anything other than the OEM charger.

dathinab 6y ago
As a side note that's common for undercharged batteries. Charging undercharged lithium batteries must be done exactly right or it can get dangerous because of this is often only supported by OEM chargers or some workaround like keep your device plugged in for 12h even through it in no way indicates that is charging and it will then magically work again (my last phone )

sergeykish 6y ago

This explains why there are so many "no charge" Nintendo Switch in TronicsFix videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xix7qzbOT6Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xix7qzbOT6Q

oso2k 6y ago

I haven’t found this to be true. I’ve used 4 or more different chargers. A couple off-brand USB-C chargers, USB-C dock/charger, Apple USB-C chargers, USB-C to USB 2.0/3.0 cables with 1A, 2.4A, 2.5A chargers. All worked without issue. In fact, I left the Nintendo wall wart at home (I usually travel for work) and just bring along a USB-C to USB cable with me.

dathinab 6y ago
Yes only with either of following you might be in danger: - A dock, the alternate mode used isn't fully standard conform and prone to fry your switch. - A unlucky combination of cheap but fully standard conform charger with bad cable with switch.
- danhor 6y ago
  The issue with docks were very non-compliant 3rd party docks which used 9 V for signal lines, which is way to high: https://hackaday.com/2019/08/04/the-not-quite-usb-c-of-nintendo-switch-accessories/ https://hackaday.com/2019/08/04/the-not-quite-usb-c-of-ninte...
  - dathinab 6y ago
    Yes in practice it's very unlikely to accidentally fry your Switch. Through wrt. docks there is some non standard compilant parts about switching to the "dock" alternate mode, maybe I misremeber and that can't damage your switch. Anyway if you by anything but super cheap potentially broken chargers in 2020 I would be very surprised if it damages yours Switch. Especially laptop chargers tend to work very well with it. Actually I observed (but maybe wrongly) that somehow my Lenovo think pad laptop charger does a better job when charging and at the same time playing in handheld mode .
vangelis 6y ago
It's possible to buy USB-C 2.0 cables and USB-B 3.0 cables, for when your printer needs the extra transfer I guess.

willis936 6y ago

I was livid with Nintendo when the Switch launched. It took decades of hard work to get the interconnect industry to play nice with common standards. It’s a fragile, prosperous peace. It doesn’t take much to destroy it. Nintendo’s careless actions threaten a lot more than a few toys.

rsync 6y ago

"I love the port, but the standard just hasn't caught up and when a company like Nintendo flouts it anyway, you have a big problem." Can't this hazard be eliminated with some kind of "USB Condom" that would, at least, universalize your cables and ports ? I have a USB condom that I use for standard USB ports for disabling data lines (turning them into power only cords) - I assume you could build a smarter, more sophisticated USB condom that would allow you to safeguard against these edge cases and incompatibilities ?