I recently wanted to play around with Android development, but I didn’t have any Android devices. So I picked up a cheap Android tablet from Walmart. It’s an RCA Viking Pro 10.1″ running Android 6.0. The model number is RCT6303W87M, although in software it identifies itself as RCT6303W87M7. But…Walmart’s website says it’s an RCT6303W87 DKF. I have no idea what is really correct, but I figured I would write out all of the model numbers so that people from Google can find this post.

Anyway, I realized after I bought it that the micro-USB port is strictly for charging. Oops, my bad. It turns out that this tablet wasn’t really designed with USB connectivity as a device in mind. It does have a USB type A port, but that’s for connecting other devices to the tablet, not the other way around. I tried turning on developer mode and any options on the tablet I could find, but nothing allowed connectivity with the computer.

I did some Googling, which seemed to indicate that other people had been in this predicament. There was talk of a mysterious “special cable” that RCA provides as an option to buy. I also found people discussing using a USB A-to-A cable with varying levels of success. I decided the best thing to do would be to contact RCA support, which led me down a bit of a rabbit hole.

The friendly RCA support person told me I needed to buy a special cable, and gave me a link on RCA’s store to order it, along with instructions for using the cable — in particular you have to connect the cable while the tablet is off, and the blue end needs to be plugged into the tablet. The cable had a price tag of $5 on their store, but it looked just like a standard USB A-to-micro cable that everyone has laying around. I went ahead and ordered it anyway, but sure enough, it wasn’t actually a special cable. It was just a run-of-the-mill micro USB cable, which I had already tried myself. There wasn’t a blue end — the entire cable was black. To make matters worse, the cable came from Canada, so I had to overpay for shipping, not to mention the foreign transaction fee on my credit card.

I wrote back to RCA support. The same person who helped me first time apologized and indicated that I hadn’t actually ordered the special cable. It appears that the special cable is available from RCA, but it’s not publicly available on their site so you have to do a special order to get it. So this time RCA sent the correct cable my way for no additional charge.

Today the cable arrived, and it is indeed special. It’s a USB A-to-A cable (well…since it came from Canada, maybe we should call it an eh-to-eh cable?). The ends are clearly marked so you know which end goes to the tablet and which end goes to the computer, and the tablet’s end is blue (although you can’t see it in the picture, because the part that goes into the computer is the part that’s blue, like a USB 3.0 cable).

I don’t know if there’s anything special about the cable over other A-to-A cables. The blue end that goes to the tablet appears to be a USB 3.0 connector, which makes sense because USB 3.0 cables are typically blue. So there are extra pins for USB 3.0–but the tablet itself doesn’t actually have connections for any of those pins. I dunno. It’s a mystery. I think they just used a 3.0 connector so they could get one that is colored blue. I think there must be something special about the cable other than just being an A-to-A cable; why else would they mark which end is which? I don’t have an easy way to do any further tests on the cable to try to figure out which pins are connected to which pins.

I guess you could say I made out like a bandit, because the special cable would cost $15 according to the label on the package. The label indicates the product is a “special cable” and it’s for the RCT6513W87, so I assume that tablet has the same problem. For reference for readers, here are the instructions RCA provided me for using the cable:

  1. Tablet has to be completely off
  2. Connect the special cable from tablet to computer, please note that the blue end goes to the tablet
  3. Plug the AC adapter into the tablet
  4. Turn on the tablet
  5. Open My Computer to see if PC will recognize the device, if not, please proceed to the next step
  6. Open Device Manager on your PC
  7. Choose Portable Devices and select Upgrade Driver Software
  8. Click on browse my computer for driver software
  9. Select “Let me pick from a list of a device drivers on my computer”
  10. Go to Portable Device and choose MTP USB Device

As soon as you do this, your PC should recognize the tablet. [In] some instances, if [your] PC will not recognize the device again, you may have to through the instruction[s] above.

I can confirm that if you start with the tablet turned off and then plug in the cable, it does seem to work properly and enumerate as a USB device on the computer as soon as you turn the tablet on. It worked out of the box with Android SDK on Linux. If you unplug the USB cable, you do end up having to power the tablet off in order to reconnect the USB, so if you do Android debugging, it would be smart to set up Wi-Fi debugging using the steps on this StackOverflow answer.

Hope this helps someone out there!

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14 comments

  1. RONALD E BEAL @ 2019-12-27 14:53

    The only site I could locate which actually provided information on the problem.I suppose from all you said, I need to contact RCA and get a special, mystery cable in order to connect the two devices!
    Thanks a lot.

  2. timdaniels @ 2020-01-16 22:15

    Thanks for posting this info. You may have saved me some grief. Greatly appreciated, eh

  3. Robin R Heatherly @ 2020-03-22 10:42

    WOW! Thank you for all the effort and frustration you went through with this.
    Not many people would have kept pursuing this issue and would give up! Myself included.
    Think of all the same tablet owners that haven’t seen your post and most never will therefore they won’t know something that WE ALL SHOULD KNOW!
    Thank you so much for sharing! If not for people like you, there are many things we are not privy to.
    Shame on RCA & all the companies that do not give detailed user manuals. Your customers should be given all Big & small details of the products you sell!
    Thanks again DOUG BROWN for your help!

  4. fuck this im not buying a specia usb cable

  5. I still can’t move the file from my laptop to my tablet

  6. It keeps saying the device has either stopped responding or has been disconnected, but it hasn’t.

  7. Marilyn Hobson @ 2021-03-30 10:34

    What kind of mouse do I buy with out having a USB port on my Viking 10 tablet?

  8. Use a wireless mouse if you must, but you have touch screen.

  9. A wireless mouse needs an empty usb port for a dongle. The only external mouse that can be used is a wifi mouse and that would need your wifi to be available. Obviously RCA did not think this one through or they just didn’t care enough to think it through.

  10. What is the link RCA provided to you for the “special” usb cord?

  11. April, they never gave me a link. They don’t list it as a product on their store. I had to talk with their support team in order to get the cable.

  12. Note: I can’t vouch for the seller at the link in the above comment because I didn’t buy from them, but the cable pictured at their link looks identical to the one I received.

  13. RCA COMPUTER @ 2022-08-23 16:05

    I hace no trouble sending stuff from my coumpter to the rca using just bluetooth on both devices Iam just mot having any luck transfering files from the rca to my pc.
    Ihope this might help some one out.

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