The way you charge the PS3 controller is a bit weird to me. When I first bought my Playstation 3 I thought I would be able to charge my PS3 controller while the machine was off, that was a mistake because the next time I tried using the controller the battery was still at the same low level.
This makes absolutely no sense to me why would I charge my controller while my PS3 is on and I’m playing around with the machine, wouldn’t it make more sense if I could plug my controller into the PS3 while I’m not using it, so that the next time I do want to use the controller it would be fully charged and ready to go. And the usb cord they give you is so short I have to sit like two feet in front of the TV while I’m playing games because I’m charging the PS3 controller.
Ok, enough ranting. To charge your PS3 controller your PS3 will have to be on. Plug the controller into the usb port with the usb cord that came with the machine. When it’s charging the little red light on the controller will be flashing. Charging takes a couple of hours to fully charge.
You can also use other devices for charging the controller as well such as a computer, cable boxes with usb ports, and other types of charging devices that has a usb port.
{ 91 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
I completely agree with you, it does seem a bit strange. I like to find out the ins and outs of a ‘new toy’ by playing with it rather than reading the manual, to start with anyway. I thought it would have been logical for the controller to be able to be charged while the PS3 was in standby (red light). I tried it and like you found it doesn’t work, this is obviously because the USB ports are inactive until the PS3 is on (green light). I think the best solution is to use your PC.
Yeah I use my computer too, I’ll probably end up buying a longer usb cord so I can charge the controller while playing. The charging cord that comes with the PS3 is ridiculous.
Yeah, and that ethernet cable too…3 ft!? Sony is funny.
You think only 5v is required. I purchased an externally powered USB hub today for sole purpose as to charge my Wii & PS3 controllers… Negatory, I was able to charge the Wii via the USB hub however the PS3 controllers would not. On my PC they (being PS3 controllers) would only charge if the drivers (USB human interface…) were installed, ie: motorola cellular phones w/ mini USB.
Now I have return the USB hub for longer USB cords….
You can do it with iPhone, or iPhone charger…
lol no frank, sonny is just cheap
USB chargers such as those made for cell phones, including the iphone will NOT work.
The PS3 joystick must acknowledge a connection to a USB source, such as a PC/cable box/PS3 etc. A simple USB power supply will not work.
In order to charge the joystick the joystick and USB port must be able to communicate with each other.
So even if you buy a charging station the USB cord must be connected to a “intelligent” USB source.
Why did Sony do this? I imagine they Sony doesn’t want the joysticks to be plugged into any power source which may shorten the expected life span of the joystick.
I bought a dual charging station and plugged it into my cable dvr’s usb hard drive port.
I leave my dvr on 24/7 so it works great.
@graham
sony cheap?
they give their stuff away.
HUGE contributor of electronics to European countries that cannt afford it, especially to muscians.
the ps3 costs over $800 to make, they sell it for under $500.
american parents complained their kids got muscle strain from playing too much, and formed a class action suit against sony using shameless lawyers. sony gave them free gloves that help prevent strain.
last year sony made less then 2% profit.
i thank god there are companies like sony.
god knows if countries like france were dominating the high tech industry a tv would cost as much as a car.
Ps3 has such a small USB cord it sucks im like sitting so close to the tv
I bought a charging dock, pluged my old sliver charger in to the dock & it seems to work just fine. Plus I can charge my bluetooth from the dock as well.
The ps3 controlers are so great they stop charging all by them self
the led light on mine stops flashing after like 10 seconds.
is it still charging?
I can never get my chargers to flash and charge. im playing the game, the system is on, but its a pain in the ass too charge the controllers, they just wont charge! i have the right cord and everything!
yo wat else can u use to charge the controller
If the battery is built in do you have to buy a new controller when it dies? as that would work out very expensive.
I was going to ask when your charging the ps3 controller does it always flash it does it flash due to it charging whilst in process?
The Playstation 3 is an amazing gaming system. It blows the xbox 360 out of the water with all of it’s great features. The USB cord may be a little short, but for $299 you cant beat this system. It is a fully functional media center in a box. Sony made a winner. I LOVE MY PS3!!!!!!!!!!
Oh would you kids stop crying and just connect the dam controller to a computer and let it charge, by the way I am loyal to sony products, I love my PS3
You can also use the USB chord that came with the psp.
you can use ANY usb cord, those things cost practically nothing so if you like you can buy one that’s up to 30 metres long so to speak, and connect that to your ps3, you’ll still be able to walk to your neighbour across the street holding your controller
Kevin, USB doesn’t work over 5m unless you use powered extendors.
can I charge my PSP to my PS3?
itsnot that bad that the usb fr charging ps3 controllers is short, geesh stop complaining. ps3 is awesome so one flaw to an already amazing system is nothing. SONY ROCKS!!!
Oh, the charging system with the PS3 controller really sucks. The only thing worse would be if you had to go out and buy a pack of AA batteries every couple days. Oh wait, isn’t that how the 360 works?
yeah i was disappointed to find i couldnt charge in standby mode, but oh well im not a baby and im not going to cry about it, JUST PLAY UR FREAKING PS3 babies… i absolutly love ps3
can i charge psp with ps3 ??
lol @ iAAPL…….u said it! i used to think xbox’s were great but then i found out bout the red ring of death…….the noise the fan makes….you have to buy ur own wifi…..THE AA BATTERIES……now thats just being cheap…..YOU GUYS CAN STOP FREAKING WHINING CAUSE ID RATHER CHARGE MY PS3 WITH A SMALL CORD THAN REPLACE MY BATTERIES EACH DAY……
I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE PS3
DUDE!! it seems to me that you didn’t understand, the idea of charging the ps3 joystick, I believe it’s the best compared to other consoles like xbox, when you get that heavy and bulky joystick, that has 2 battery slots behind, you do need to have the ps3 on, so you can charge it for a while, than you can unplug your joystick and play cordless for hours, you can charge your joystick from your laptop or PC, you just need to plug it.
just brought ps3, doing initial set-up, nothing is happening, i’ve done what the manual is telling me to do. what’s wrong ?
Lol yeah while we’re at it, why can’t we charge our Ipods without turning on our computer, why can’t we charge our phones without turning on the wallsocket.
Damn son
You can still play your damn ps3 while the controllers are charging. The power lead and HDMI cables are long enough for you to place the ps3 coloser to you.
I have a PS3 and an Xbox 360. I have to say the Xbox play and charge kit is a Whole lot better for me (You don’t have to buy AA batteries). I can charge my controllers any where and when you charge it on the Xbox the machine shuts off when it’s done charging, I wish the PS3 did this. Hope this doesn’t set off the fanboys because I really like Both systems I just don’t like leave the PS3 on.
PS3 fanboys make me chuckle. The PS3 is an inferior platform for gaming compared to the 360s hardware and it shows in every cross-platform title. It’s a blu-ray player that was disguised as a console with minimum effort. The 360 is a gaming platform first and foremost and HD movie player (with upscaling on ALL models) second. Oh and what price did your glorified blu-ray player get released at? Ridiculous…
The ps3 has a shutdown timer in the system properties. Just set it to turn off 1 or two hours later while leaving the controler plugged in. No more problems.
Lol at fanboys….Why are you so bitter and angry? It’s a damn game. Relax.
All ya dumb ppl who said that the Xbox 360 you have to buy a AA battery all the time are just dumb!!….Cuz they have the rechargeable batteries and the USB which also when they sell a controller it comes with a USB not like the ps3 that they just give you the controller…I have both systems and say that I like them both!!….
I got both and they are both good for different reasons.
If you have the play and charge kit for 360 you can hook it up to the 360 and turn off the 360 using the pad and it will charge it in standby mode. THE AWESOME THING IS THAT YOU CAN ALSO CHARGE THE PS3 CONTROLLER WITH THE 360 AT THE SAME TIME, AND THE 360 WILL GO OFF AUTOMATICALLY after the 360 Pad is charged. Thought it was cool to charge my ps3 pad like this since the ps3 needs to be on, I can charge them at the same time.
Pretty helpful if you got both. I havent tried charging my 360 pad from the ps3 yet…..
A LOT I CAN FINALLY PLAY IT AGAIN
you big babies i have had my ps3 for a year now and i havent any problems with it unlike my xbox it makes well 2 much noise and it cost 2 much to get rid of the red ring of death which comes back in a week PS3 ALL THE WAY !
It’s not that this problem is very significant, it’s the fact that this problem is part of a larger group of problems that makes the PS3 experience inferior to other multimedia devices.
When you think of this charging problem for someone who uses their PS3 mostly to watch Blu-Ray or DVD movies, it becomes a pain for someone who does not own the remote control since the comtroller’s battery is drained even when idle.
Other problems with the general PS3 experience include long downloading and installation times (including ridiculously huge game patches), the inability to do anything else while downloading and installing something, a Blu-ray drive that is slower when compared to 360′s DVD drive, and an OS that is virtually unreadable to someone with an SDTV.
These are all problems that are not present on 360.
I agree that it is quite gay the controller does not charge while the ps is off, but its not a big deal since i can use my puter to charge it. As far as the 360 is concerned, only an ignorant person buys regular batteries anymore. rechargeable all the way!
Ah the battle of the consoles. which one is better? answer: its a tie.
It all comes down to which console has the games you want to play.
@the chair
people like u never tried a ps3 everything u said a ps3 cant do it can do u retard
just bought my first ps3 today and to tell u the truth all u need to do is go an rent a blue ray dvd from redbox for a messley 1.50 and leave the damn controller plugged in while u watch the movie… duh easy 2 hours there…. anyways works fine for me the way it is… love the new upgrade!
guys you have the older ps3 with ps3 slim you can charge it while its off its so great but i heard about this before i got ps3 slim so i ended up getting two controllers but its still great for if i forget to charge.But still mostly xbox and ps3 are tied. ps3 just has first person shooters and kid games. xbox has mainly just sport games and shooters which really sucks and little big planet IS ALL THAT thats like the best game ever
I just bought mine off of ebay for 70 dollars brand new now i got to wait freaking 2 to 3 weeks before I can play which totally sucks i couldve got a xbox 360 or a wii cus i had the money but i wanted a freaking ps3 so blah but luckily for my brothers they both bought theirs a few months back but neither have internet so i get to play with them while i hook them up to the net so what if the freaking usb cord is 2 inches long at least your lucky enough to have a ps3 .
at least i’m not only one having the charging prob. seems like no matter how long the controller is supposedly charging the damn thing never gets enough juice. i’m returning it if it cannot be fixed. why wait 2 hours when you wanna play now. lame
@the chair
The new slim ps3 turns the controller off after 10 mins of idle. If all you do watch movies on the ps3 then your controller will stay charged for a least a month.
Most people have 2 controllers anyway charge one, while using the other.
I have a Fat and Slim Ps3. I cannot attest to the slim charging while the ps3 slim is powered off. I didn’t think that it would charge when off. I will try it though.
PS3 rules the world.
As for software patches, they now have an automatic patch download.
Right now you have to purchase the Plus package.
It downloads your game and system updates at a time of your choosing. It will automatically turn the ps3 on at your selected time and download any available update. Then turn off.
Pretty cool addition
As for SDTV PS3 owners. They don’t really exist. I don’t think people purchase a $300 system without purchasing at least, a low end 1080p lcd tv for sub $200. I can attest to this I purchased at 24 inch lcd 1080p from best buy $180 4 the bedroom it works awesome with my second ps3
lol @ fanboys.. I have a $ 3000 PC, an xbox360, a PS3 and I love them all!! Envy meeeeeeeeeeeeee
Chris: I have a life… envy me
I like to use a 3rd party USB wall charger. You can get the nice little docks but they are pretty pricy for what they do and might not accomodate all types of controllers now that Move and the side nub are out.
What I’d really like is a wall charger with 3 or 4 short mini-USB’s off of it.
Quite crying both great both few minor problems nothing that can’t be fixed as for the charging there are so many ways to solve this problem u have computer charging dock charge ps3charge etc.. .ps3 and xbox… Which shall be dominate neither they tied I have to give ps3 the grAphics and xbox game play but both R dependent on what u want to do lol as so many people have said so far.
Next Comments →