HP Prime Connectivity only works with supplied HP Prime USB Cable

[blyons3]

Hi,

I'm experiencing some odd behavior and wanted to post to the group. I've discovered that although my Prime calculator will charge just fine with any old USB <-> microUSB cable, the HP Prime and Prime Connectivity Kit will only see my Prime Calculator if I use the original cable supplied by HP with the calculator. This seems strange to me because I've seen several posts online that say that you can use any cable with your Prime calculator. That's true for charging but does not seem to be true for using the HP Connectivity Kit for sharing and updating. Knowing this I'd love to get a spare cable now. I've found the part number but cannot find a supplier of the cable.

[Tim Wessman]

Are you sure it is an actual USB cable and not just a power only USB like cable? I have discovered an increasingly large number of cables in things I buy lately that are only power wires and no data wires in them.

Do other devices work and show up on the cable and not Prime? If so that is a big mystery... there is absolutely nothing special about the provided cable.

[grsbanks]

(05-09-2020 02:29 PM)blyons3 Wrote:  I'm experiencing some odd behavior and wanted to post to the group. I've discovered that although my Prime calculator will charge just fine with any old USB <-> microUSB cable, the HP Prime and Prime Connectivity Kit will only see my Prime Calculator if I use the original cable supplied by HP with the calculator. This seems strange to me because I've seen several posts online that say that you can use any cable with your Prime calculator. That's true for charging but does not seem to be true for using the HP Connectivity Kit for sharing and updating. Knowing this I'd love to get a spare cable now. I've found the part number but cannot find a supplier of the cable.

As Tim said, the chances are that your non-HP cable is just a charging cable that doesn't have the data lines in it. I have several non-HP cables and they all work fine. In fact I'm not even sure where the original cables that came with my Primes are...

[jonese]

Been bitten by this before. When I get a new "device" that comes with a USB cable, I see if it's lacking the data pins. If it is, it goes right into the garbage, without even unwrapping the twist-tie on the cable. You can kind-of tell before inspecting the cable ends that something is up by how thin the cable is.

Absolutely no tolerance for power only USB cables.

[blyons3]

Thank you to all who responded. I was able to find a microUSB cable that advertises as a Prime Data replacement cable. Should be good to go now. Nice to know that this will be preserved for posterity should some poor victim trip over this problem again.

Thanks!

[cds]

Well,
other cables definitively do work. I don't even remember where the cable which came with the prime is....

But I agree - one gets bitten by the "charging only" cables quite often.

Carsten