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Forum Discussion
ajohnsonmc
May 17, 2017Tutor
Nighthawk M1 battery charging problem
I have just bought a Netgear Nighthawk M1 through Telstra to enable working in the field. Plugged into the wallmount to charge and the battery seems to drain instead. It will only charge through USB which defeats the purpose of being completely mobile. There is a community discussion on this going back to 2014 but no obvious solution offered. Any suggestions?
45 Replies
ajohnsonmc wrote:Plugged into the wallmount to charge ...
What's the "wallmount"? That's not a term that I am familiar with. Nor is Google in this context.
A transformer with a USB output?
Is this a weird Australianism? The plug that goes into the wall is what makes it a wall-mounted plug. And yes, the USB goes into it. Exactly like most charging devices.
Bests, Anne.
- PepitoBirdAspirant
I believe he's referring the AC wall socket.
I'm finding the same thing unfortunately. The Nighthawk M1 wont charge while plugged into AC power via the included wall charger.
I'm also in Australia so maybe we received a bad batch of wall chargers?
- glenndrumsAspirant
- TThumper89AspirantI’m sorry glenndrums but I have no idea what you’re talking about, but nice mature response nonetheless.
- jenjo77Aspirant
I received a Netgear Nighthawk M1 23 May 2017 as a replacement for one I received in March. The problem is similar and happened almost two months to the date –
- The Netgear has been working well, but last night it wouldn't recharge, and now it seems totally dead.
- It had recharged [via wall mount socket] to approx. 80%, and yet when I returned around 10 mins later the charge had totally drained so that there was only one bar in the battery image.
- I tried recharging instead via the USB port in my computer, and went to m.home, but while I still had wifi, for a brief tine, the page just kept trying to load. I checked a Netgear support page, and other people had had the same problem, with the battery draining rather than charging. They thought it was the adaptor.
- Now the Netgear won’t turn on, no lights, nothing. No lightning bolt to show charging.
- I have removed the battery and put it back in, and tried to reboot the router to no avail.
Is this common with Netgear Nighthawks? Should I buy a nbew battery? Is it the adaptor? Desperate minds want to know!
Hi there,
After advice from this site I used a different adaptor (wall mount) and the unit seems to be working fine now (at least for the last eight weeks). Good luck. A
- jenjo77Aspirant
Thanks, A.
Telstra is replacing the Nighthawk since it is still under warranty, but this is the second time it's happened in exactly the same way, two months between each time. I'm getting spooked about the two month doom-time! I'll try it again and see what happens in september!
- Dom198AspirantI’m having the same issue and the battery gets super hot I’m scared it’s going to burn my house down and netgear is not offering support in a timely manner
- JamesGLMaster
Hi Dom198,
You have to contact Telstra and have it replaced.
Hi there, this link is for an AirCard replacement request, not for the Nighthawk.Telstra won't accept it.
I have the sam problem, bettery level keeps dropping while indicating its plugged in and "charging". Forced to turn off, wait to charge and then resume. Terrible work Netgear.
- TThumper89AspirantI purchased my Nighthawk through my phone carrier about a month ago. I just realized, while my device is plugged in, the app is indicating the battery level is only 38% and I’m not seeing the typical charging “lightning bolt” I’m accustomed to seing when devices are being charged. This led me to explore some of the setting in the app. I decided to try changing the tethering selection (Settings>General>Router>Tethering) from “charge and tether” to “charge only.” I am now seeing the lightning bolt indication the battery is charging and I am now seeing the battery percentage slowly increasing. Hoping this may be a solution for my particular issue.
- tilba16Aspirant
Yes I too have the same issue having bought the unit yesterday from Telstra in Sydney. Wanted to used as a fixed hotspot as I was getting hopeless speeds from Optus cable I decided to outlay quite a bit to at least get a decent consistent download speed. Took the battery out and found the unit would power off and on continually. Put the battery back in and it worked but did not get past 44% after charging for 24 hours.
Saw this post and substituted my Ipad charger for the netgear adapter and have not seen any more issues.
Returning this unit today for replacement but am not confident that the next one will work as the problem seems to be the adapter.
- JasonNNETGEAR Employee Retired
Hi Tilba16,
Thank you for adding to the post. Please let us know with the new unit. Thank you again. :]
- Jason N
- Cage1010Guide
- Zoomtank99AspirantNo avail... I've tried with S8 and Huawei Mate 9 chargers... useless both of them..!
It seems is some hardware issues, because already updated to the latest version of firmware, removed and reinserted SIM card, change the charging feature from "charge and tether" to "charge only" in Settings-General-Router (scroll to bottom)... none of these worked so far! Definitely I'll return the unit to the shop and waiting a new model release!
- MeriAAspirantI took mine back to the Telstra shop and they said it’s a common issue with this model and is nothing to do with the battery or plugs. Apparently the battery when charged for a long period becomes “ too charged” to be recongnisws by the software. I was fairly cynical but when a new battery was put in it worked fine. Even though it’s “Netgear” they use different component distributors and the new generation won’t have the same flaw. Telstra said they would replace the battery as often as needed but typically just one replacement “does the trick”. We will see I guess....
- GmsuttonAspirant
I’ve had it with newer hot spots (after years of success). Now going to a router that hooks up to AT&T. Newer netgears don’t charge reliably even after using a timer to avoid over charging.