N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

I received my shiny new N800 this morning and used it all day. After about 8 hours of running, this happened:

I had the N800 plugged into the AC charger and the battery was charging. The battery was never completely discharged all day. 3/4 of the time it was in use today, it was plugged in. The battery appeared to be charging normally. (the battery icon indicated that it was charging whenever it was plugged into the charger)

Suddenly, while I was using Skype, the device threw an alert that the battery was completely discharged, then the device quickly shut down without further warning. I haven't been able to get it to power on since then. I even moved the charger to two different outlets and the device won't boot. Once every 4 tries, it will display the NOKIA screen briefly, but then goes black. I tried unplugging it and taking out the battery and putting it back in, and that didn't help. It also won't boot with the battery out and the charger plugged in, with the battery in and the charger unplugged, etc.

Is there anything I can do, or is it junk after a day of use?

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

:::

Disconnect Charger.

Remove the Batt.

Let them air for 3 mins.

Install the batt. Close the batt Door.

Wait 3 mins.

Plug in charger. Wait 3 mins.

Do Not Power On.. The charge screen should come up already.

If not, Let it charge for 30 mins more.

If still not, repreat all steps again.

:::

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Thanks Talon88, I'm following your directions. So far, I have removed the battery for a time, put it back in, waited 2 minutes, then plugged in the charger. The Nokia screen displayed for 10 seconds, then it shut off. Now I'm letting it charge for 30 minutes as instructed... Any idea what causes this?

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Now I got the charging screen.. not risking powering it up all the way yet, I'm going to let it charge like this for an hour. (Assuming it IS charging..) I'll post updates...

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

:::

When using high drain program & out of power,
your IT can't start the safe shut down step, so
the charging step or power on step cannot call to function.
You IT will then like dead. After all Batt take out for a while &
all data inside the RAM will gone & reset. When you give power
again, watch dog will start the proper & normal low power step again.
So your IT will start charging step again. But still it's very low in power
inside the batt. So, don't power on the IT because Power ON
is also a high drain activites. It will dead again due to not enough
power & brick again. This is why I told you to let it charge
till full before turning your IT on again.

:::

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Talon88, thanks very much for your help. I let the N800 charge for about an hour and a half, and she boots fine now. To summarize, here's what happens:

- The charger does not provide enough current to both power the device under heavy continuous operation AND replenish the battery.

- When the battery charge has dropped to zero, even with the charger plugged in, there is not enough voltage to power the device. This confuses it, as it knows that it is plugged in and charging. Low battery warning occurs.

- As Talon88 described, the device doesn't have enough power to properly shut down, and something is corrupted. The battery must be removed and installed, and the device must have time to get a good charge before booting as described above.

So I suppose that the moral of this story is to let the device charge while it's off, and not charge for long periods of time while under heavy use.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Or have more than one battery and use a battery charger. That's what I do, and I've never had a problem at any time. When the N800 is dead, I put in a fully charged battery and I'm good to go.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Let me see if I understand the conclusion...

The N8x0 ITs cannot be run on continuous duty (WiFi going & screen active) while connected to the charger because the power supply/power management is dependent upon having some cushion reserve in the battery and the charger cannot keep up with demand?

Most users who have laptop/notebook computers end up having to run while constantly connected to the charger (on line power) because their batteries won't hold a charge for long.

So you can't operate the N8x0 on line power?

This makes your battery a CRITICAL piece of equipment as you have no back-up mode of operation (i.e. operating on line power).

Gee thanks, Nokia! This should be in BIG BOLD TEXT on the start-up screen. No wonder so many people are having "bricks".

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Mmmmm... I'm really not sure about this. Several times I've got the LOW BATTERY warning (while using the IT battery powered of course) so I connected the power charger asap and no further problem in continuing working with ac mains and charging proccess on background.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

:::

Your case is different. When you are low power, you still have some
power to operate, still have enough power to start the Charging
step successfully when you plug the power. Same as my IT,
it shouldn't be any problem. The problem only occur when
really too low batt & suddent off.

P.S.: rdcinhou's conclusion is not 100% right.

:::

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Talon88, your explanation makes a lot of sense and it sounds right. It certainly explains issues and the (previously) un-explained "tricks" people used to fix such problems.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

I cannot trust the power meter at ALL. I caught the power meter wrong on 2 occassions, it charged overnight full of charge and no problem with power on, but the meter showed 1 square in 1 occassion and none on another. It has not been reproduced. On the average, I think the power meter is misleading at least. I found a get around solution to this power on issue, use software reboot, shutdown, http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...363#post127363, thread #173. Of cousrse, it does not do resurrection :)


bun

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Somebody REALLY needs to figure out how to write software that will at least give us a battery charge percentage. The Nokia battery status is absolutely useless. I've never had it report that I've had more than 1 hour left before warning me that it's shutting off. I've looked for for software that would give more info on the state of the battery, but can't find any. Even 15 year old cell phones have better battery status indicators!

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

i experienced this exact scenario and theorized that my n800 didn't have enough battery power to initiate a charge. i tried everything, including waiting after i had plugged it in, and nothing seemed to work. then, magically, the nokia screen stayed on longer and it showed the charging icon. this all happened after running a torrent app drained the battery faster than the charger could supply power and it shut down. the fact that this thing can't run on power from the ac adapter alone is a major flaw in the design. i suspect that nokia prioritized backwards compatability with its phone chargers to supplying adequate power to the n800. i'll probably buy an extra battery and external charger to guard against this happening again.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

the dailykos site drained my fully charged battery in 2 minutes. i would have preferred the space that went into the kb went to a longer lasting battery.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Shouldn't this be a design issue with IT?

Low battery warning should be raised sufficiently in advance so that shutdown could be initiated before processor drains the battery completely.

Why would processor use up the battery ( or whatever is remaining ) all in few minutes when actual battery life is expected to be 5+ hours of use?

I am wondering if my problem is / was similar. The problem I had was IT not powering up at all after a normal shutdown with battery having sufficient charge.

On recharging the battery it would turn on only to have similar problem repeat. I tried taking just the battery out for few minutes and reinstalling it. Seems to work.

So my problem could be hanging process rather than discharged battery. Is it a similar problem here?

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

There is... battery-status. It is a command line app that you should find by searching this forum... (sorry, didn't want to spend my time to look it for you...)

I have it installed and it seem to work very good.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Wow thanks very much! I don't know why I couldn't find this when I googled and looked on the maemo site. Thanks a lot!

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

LOL good thread, i just got my n800 should i wait a certain amount of time before powering up?

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

No, for most users this isn't a factor. Just follow the instructions about fully charging your battery to start with, and the overwhelming number of users will not have a problem.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Well, I just sent my N800 back after one week due to this problem. Last night, I was watching a movie with my N800 plugged in, when it suddenly died again and would not turn back on. I even left the battery out for 8 hours and tried the resurrection procedure numerous times. The charger WAS NOT EVEN CHARGING the battery, as it was not the slightest bit warm. (It usually gets quite warm when I'm charging the N800 without using it at the same time)

I called Nokia about the problem and they said that I should return it to the vendor.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

I call boloney on that one. It can't possibly be legal.

Re: N800 dead after 8 hours. Help!
 

Hmm yeah. I read the N800 warranty and it didn't say anything about the warranty being void when purchased through an unauthorized vendor, so I called Nokia about it. They said that the warranty is valid since I have an invoice proving the purchase date through the vendor.

I think the first guy I talked to today thought Buy.com was an auction site, or that I said eBay.com. Devices purchased from individuals on sites like eBay do not have a one-year warranty, even if they are sold as new, since the integrity of the seller can't be verified.

Thanks for questioning this, GeneralAntilles. The guy at Nokia I talked to the second time cleared it all up. Glad I called.