Rans6 - yes, a hardware issue.
It hinges on the feature known as otg or on-the-go. The Samsung Ace does not support otg but the S3 does.
The hardware difference is that a fifth pin in the usb plug is used to signal the direction of power flow. When the pin is open, power flow is into the phone or tablet for charging. When it is shorted to the 0V pin the power flow is out of the device so that it can power memory sticks or other peripheral devices.
I think your charger cable is the wrong one and has an otg plug so it will get power into the Ace (no otg protocol) but is telling the S3 (which recognises otg) to disconnect incoming power and send power outbound.
The remedy is to replace your charger cable with one that is designed for charging.