Atom PD4 Not Charging Intermittently

I’ve been using my Atom PD4 for a couple of months now. It worked great for a while. Now, it seems like certain ports are now having problem charging. If I unplug and replug in, it will start working for a while. Then it has problem again. Is this a defective charger, or is there something else going on?

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I have the Anker PowerPort Atom PD 4, been using it for almost a year (or so I think), gets a bit warm but all ports work well.

Do you see it on all 4 ports? Is it when all the ports are used?

May be contact Anker Support support@anker.com

also capture a video if possible, support usually ask for such cases.

Have you tried multiple cables @matt_braunstein ?
Sometimes cable can cause faults. So it’s worth trying different cable in all the ports to rule that out.
Aparrently the reset process for Anker chargers is to disconnect from the mains, disconnect all cables and leave for 5 seconds.

This is happening with multiple cables on all 4 ports on multiple types of devices, so I’m pretty positive it is the charger.

What happens is that the device will start charging when first plugging it in. Occassionally, when coming back later, when the device should be fully charged, it looks like it didn’t charge at all. This is especially troublesome with my laptop. I will open it up, or be working on it, and all of the sudden the battery runs out. This is even when the charger has been plugged in the entire time.

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That appears a failed unit.

Email support@anker.com with your order details and serial number, describe the fault and what you attempted to fix. They may know some tricks we don’t know, if so report back here so we know for next time, but I’d say this looks like a warranty replacement.

Thats a shame @matt_braunstein
I think @professor is spot on, its time to contact support or your retailer for an under warranty exchange.

Definitely a faulty unit

Looks a faulty unit you got there… Do contact Anker Support.

However doesn’t your laptop have a indicator that it’s charging / connected to charge or using battery… Try to get this checked on Laptop… Multiple failure (based on windows setting) may impact the HDD also, you lose the work you do on if it totally shuts off.

Anker makes reliable stuff, and if it does fail, always a satisfactory quick solution, so good to buy Anker.

But.

There is always a small chance chargers fail, so it is one reason when I travel I err on the side of two chargers, so if one fails I’m not totally stuck with no charger but rather reduced port capacity. Learn to love the $7 Mini charger as a backup / extra ports, or the $12 Nano now, these smaller ones are so low cost now the PD 4 $99 has always been dubious value unless you really really needed 100W in one port.

Over years, and many chargers, I’ve had exactly 1 Anker charger fail on me, one port failed, that’s all! But I know it’s a possibility of a worse situation so two smaller chargers preferred over 1 big charger when leaving house in a charger-dependent situation.

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Completely agree on 2 chargers :grin:… have 2 Anker chargers with me on table (or when we travel) if I ever need / one fails… So far none has failed !!

There was some news initially for Atom PD 4 having heat issues, had verified with Anker Support, they mentioned the one I had was an newer version and did not have any heating issue, been using this for almost a year I think, all good.

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Probably a faulty unit however just to be thorough have you tried plugging it into a different outlet because I had an use not with that exact product but a similar one and turned out it was the outlet. So maybe just give a different outlet a try as well. Hope it all turns out well

I did receive a response from support. They suggested first trying to unplug the unit completely and let it sit for 5min. Then plug it back in. Apparently, this will reset the charger.

I did this, and it seems to be working so far. It’s been about a week now, and hasn’t had an issue. Crossing my fingers that this solves the problem going forward.

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That’s interesting, thanks for posting response from Anker Support!

Good to know, thanks for posting here for other members benefit :+1:

Thanks for reporting back what worked so we can remember for the next PD4 owner.

That fix is a fairly common, unplug for a while to let it reset automatically, has been a fix from way back with the Powerport 5.

Just purchased this charger for my 2017 15" MBP and I’ve noticed that while it does an okay job with the laptop alone, if I plug in my Anker 5W wireless stand and eventually unplug, the laptop will still discharge. I’m on the second day where I woke up to find my laptop completely discharged even though it’s the only device plugged in (via USB-C)!

Do I have a defective unit?

This MacBook Pro mostly requires around 87W (that is the wattage of charger provided by Apple)

Was the USB-C port (for MBP) and the Anker Wireless Charger connected or any other ports also used?

Though it says 100W, the power distribution is not even…

I had the same issue as you. I would try the fix that I mentioned. Unplug the unit for 5 minutes. Then plug it back in. If you are still having an issue, contact support. You probably have a defective unit.

This unit should be capable of charging up to a total of 100W. So 87W from your Macbook plust 5W from you wireless stand should be possible at the same time.