Charging n900
 

Im getting annoyed! Why is it that the n900 cant charge descently? Whats wrong with this thing?

Battery is emty and phone shuts down. i plug in the charger, it vibrates i see a orange light flashing 3 times. screen goes black orange light goes out. and nothing anymore... need te re-plugin the charger or start the n900 before the damn thing charges!

Whats wrong with this thing?? Allot of people i spoke have even bigger trouble. they need to externaly charge the battery after it shuts down. because it wont start and wont charge.

Another pain is to start the n900 while charging. first time you start it actually shuts down the charging process and need to start the phone another time.

Why didn't nokia made this atleast work a little??

sorry for this but i really needed to get this out of my system!

Re: Charging n900
 

The problem is technically with your charger...probably.
Are you using a generic USB charger? or the nokia official one?

if you are using a generic USB charger the problem is probably that it has the datapins as if it is a computer, but it is not negotiating the charging (because it's not a computer)
either a) use a computer to charge, b) use a real nokia charger or c) read: http://danielwould.wordpress.com/201...-dumb-charger/

if you are using a real nokia charger... then sorry. I don't know

Re: Charging n900
 

Works fine for me, but then I plug it in before the battery goes flat.

Re: Charging n900
 

@rob1n, LOL i dont have problems before it goes flat either.

@ dwould, i just connected my phone using the official nokia usb cable packed with my n900 and im charge it with the computer. I can even look in the mass memory of my n900 but there is nothing charging. screen is completly black (no backscreen on) and no LED is flashing burning. MAybe it is charging but i cant see any sign of it. When i hit the power button the phone starts and the charging LED pattern is shown.

Re: Charging n900
 

weird, the symptoms you described sound exactly like the cycle it goes through if you plug in a charger which for some reason is failing to negotiate the charging rate.
But obviously the real nokia charger should be fine.
that said... if you are using a data cable to a windows box, I have heard that windows will basically refuse to negotiate usb charging until it's figured out the device drivers. So it's possible that something on the computer is confused and not responding to the charging negotiation.
I would try a real nokia plug-in charger, or perhaps a different computer?
if it's linux you could check out dmesg to see if there is anything during the initial plugging in that would indicate a failure.

Sorry you're having so much grief.

Re: Charging n900
 

If the battery gets very low then th charging indicator doesn't come on until the battery has made it above a certai level. Try leaving the phone plugged in for a couple of minutes and see if it starts to show the indicator.

The other point to consider is if the computer is supplying enough power. Some computer USB sockets fail to provide the expect 500ma expected. This is an issue for usb disks too.

Re: Charging n900
 

This is strange i just shut down my n900 again and it shuts down the os, it gives me the nokia logo with usb logo top right. then the screen goes complete black and the LED stops flashing. I then get the message from my PC that the n900 is connected via mass storage i can then browse my files on my n900. Dont remember i got this in the past..

@ fargus the phone starts without the charger so i think it has enough power. the power failure could be a problem. but it indicates charging fine when n900 is on. i will try to charge when device is off with the normal power charger and see what happens then.

Thanks for all the replies!

Re: Charging n900
 

It's not a good idea to wait until the battery is empty to recharge it.

What I prefer to do is use a desktop battery charger, so when my battery runs low I just put in an already-charged battery. I don't like to spend time with my phone plugged in to a charger, it makes me less mobile. Total cost for charger plus spare batteries -- less than $20. This assumes you don't buy from Nokia, which apparently doesn't sell a desktop charger anyway.

Re: Charging n900
 

it is actually charging. i just put back on my n900 and it is allready at 33% charge so even when nothing is shown the battery charges.

Why is it bad to let the battery die out? It shouldn't be bad because it can always happen.

I also dont buy 3rd party batteries. why not? because last time i had one in my n95 it became twice as big making my battery cover pop of the back of my phone. Luckily i just had to buy a new back cover. who knows what could have happend if it was in my phone a few hours longer.

3rd party batteries are absolutely not safe! there is a reason that they are cheap! you can count on that!

Re: Charging n900
 

Charging empty battery with computer's usb is a chicken and egg problem.

N900 must be alive to negotiate with your computer for 500mA, but to be alive it must have power, and to have power it must negotiate with the computer...
I've heard it'll draw the maximum allowed (100mA) when "off", it would take a while before it has charged enough to startup (which uses more than the max 500mA even, let alone 100mA)... I suspect if you try start before that, it aborts and switches off as soon as it notices the battery is too empty.

Hopefully it works better with the real wallcharger that's able to both supply 1200mA, which should be sufficient for booting, and has a very simple method for signaling "it's okay to take as much power as you want".

Re: Charging n900
 

It appears that many of the 3rd party batteries you get these days are from the same factories that make the real ones.

Congratulations; you are the first person to report a significant 3rd party battery problem like this since this site started, that I know of.

Many people on this site are buying 3rd party batteries. I have been buying them for my tablets for years without problems. Can you promise me that if I had been buying official Nokia batteries instead I would have had no problems as well? I have personally seen more battery problems reported with Nokia batteries on this site since I joined.

It is not particularly good to let batteries die completely out like you have because some people have reported problems when doing so. You seem to be one of those people.

Re: Charging n900
 

You may not always have that option.

You've NEVER had a phone battery go flat?

What about a natural disaster where there is no power for a period of time. Earthquake, Blizzard, Electrical storm, Hurricane, etc, etc.

Relying on personal PERFECTION is not a viable plan IMHO.

Re: Charging n900
 

This is caused by some (I guess) common 3rd party app -- mine didn't do that until after a few trips to rootsh.

Re: Charging n900
 

The real problem is not in letting the battery die (in my idea of things), the problem is in trying to get it started again with zero charge.

My suggestion of having a battery at hand that is not flat deals perfectly with the natural disaster scenario. You don't have to rely on perfection; you just have to know how to swap batteries.

Re: Charging n900
 

you wont be using n900 that's for sure, i would just take out my sim and put it into my trusty old Nokia 6310i and make calls all day long if i wanted to:D

Re: Charging n900
 

I had an Apple battery in my MacBook Pro try to destroy by getting as big as a pregnant guppy after about 2 years. OEM is no guarantee.

Re: Charging n900
 

You seriously suggest this as a solution? How about making the device behave correctly?

I live in South Florida, a couple years ago we didn't have electricity for 2 weeks. Guess the folks in Haiti better stay away from it also. I'll bet in DC area right now, there may be some flat N900s as well.

Re: Charging n900
 

its stupid that a flat battery cant be charged with the n900. then nokia obviously did something wrong there! you can say to people yeah well dont let the battery hit zero or else you need to buy a new battery. sometimes the n900 drains the battery so fast that i didn't even mention it is emty when pulling it out of my pocket.

Second of all i allready told you that the battery is still charged but without the indicator or any sign of life from the n900. while normally the phone LED would flash.

I havent tested it though with a completely emty battery though.

@ the Wizkids out there... isn't there a way nokia can fix this problem by re-addressing a part of the power directly to the phone. so that it atleast starts up when battery is totally emty? (like a laptop can be used without a battery) Or is this all hardware doing this function

Re: Charging n900
 

The N900 can charge a completely flat battery, it just takes a while to get started. It really does, I have verified this.

What it can't do is recharge a battery (flat or otherwise) if the firmware is messed up, i.e. if it needs a reflash - at least if it needs a cold reflash, as I experienced.

Another charging question
 

Another charging question - I put my N900 (turned off because of insufficient battery power) on the charger - after a few minutes, green light goes on ... charging stops ... I take the phone off the charger and it starts yelling "battery low" ... WTF I say. BTW It was allright the whole month I have this thing ... Do you think a flash could help?