[Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Hi everyone,

I got my N900 last December.
Recently, I noticed that everytime I take my battery out for like 10-20 seconds, the N900 will 'forget' all time and date settings.
It didn't used to be like this.

The N900 actually has a backup battery as seen here: http://www.gerry-mobilfunk.de/9991965.html (German)
The backup battery is used to remember the time and date settings once the main battery is taken out.
Maybe mine just ran out of juice?

What happens if you take out the battery for 10-20 seconds and then turn the device on again? Does it reset all time and date settings?

Thank you for participating!

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

No!

... and good luck in resolving your problem!

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Thanks for replying! To all the people who said "YES": Did your N900 used to remember the date? Is it a recent problem?

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

yes i have the same problem too. also when i change the sim card!!! i got mine in january!!!

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

well.... interesting question...
sometimes it does forget time, and sometimes it remembers!
i think it is just a matter of how long the battery is pulled out!
(maybe) O_o

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

I change the battery every day (avoiding usb issues...)

It never resets the time/date, but then again i never have it out for more than five seconds.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Mine forgets about 3 out of 4 times. May not seem like a big deal but when I tell you my usb port does not work so I have to charge externally it becomes a very big deal as I have to switch batteries everyday so I am having to reset time and date like everyday. I am also no longer able to use my N900 as my alarm. If I change battery at night before I go to bed I do not switch it on so do not know at that time whether it has reset the date and time.

I have tried to determine whether there is a trick to the 1 out of 4 it works. Do I leave battery in for a minute after switching off before taking it out? Do I wait a minute to put in new battery? Do I do everything superfast before the device realises what has happened? I can't find the answer. Seems totally random.

Don't know when the problem started. Until my usb port became faulty I did not really have much reason to remove the battery.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

mine has always forgotten if i leave it out for more than about 10 of 15 seconds. im usually really quick, sliding the new one in under the flat one. so usually ok.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Hey youxing :D!
we met in JFK airport if you remember!!
And, im not clear on the backup battery.

Are you talking about a SPARE battery that you use when one has run out of juice?
or are you talking about a battery INSIDE the phone itself for safety purposes etc?

If its the former, and your having problems with switching batteries constantly, battery hotswap IS possible. Its in the forum somewhere.

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=57734

how you bin!?
hows the phone working out for you?

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

If you take the battery out by force shutdown or force battery removal then the DateTime will be lost. If you press the power button to shutdown (may be let the N900 shutdown properly) before removal of battery then your datetime won't be lost.

Hope this help.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Mine forgets it and to the best of my knowledge, always has. I didn't realise it had a backup battery - all motherboards do to remember CMOS and BIOS and previous phones always have, so I thought it was strange that the N900 didn't.....

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

I didn't when I bought it, but do it now. Don't know if this changed after PR1.1 or PR1.2

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Hey sk8erboy! I just sent you an email!
Actually, I'm talking about the backup battery.

The backup battery is a small, non-removable battery inside the phone, which is by the phone to remember the date and time!
My thoughts would be that this battery may have run out of juice.
Interesting point with hot-swapping batteries! I didn't know about that!

And thanks to all other people answering to this thread! I didn't know that this was such a widespread problem!
I also tried to see whether it mattered if I force shutdown or use the powerbutton! To me it makes no difference!

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Where do i find this battery in the phone? can run out after less than a year? if that's true nokia needs to send me another one asap.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

I don't know where the battery is located at on the N900, but this is how it would look like: http://www.uni-bonn.de/~nraeth/platine.jpg
That's the picture of a backup battery on the 2004 released Nokia 6230 (which I also owned).
Today, I asked a Nokia Service Center to replace it, but they said that they'd have to send it to Nokia to fix it!

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

You forgot the option - sometimes. Sometimes it happens and other times it does not happen. I did not find a pattern yet, and it seems to me that the time it takes to replace the battery is not the deciding factor.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Thanks, that's a good point! You don't seem to be the only one where it only happens sometimes! Unfortunately, I can't edit the poll anymore, or can I?

By the way, I found out that the backup battery is soldered to the N900 board, so "normal" Nokia Service Centers won't be able to replace the backup battery.

Here's the picture.

http://img821.imageshack.us/img821/2477/batteryp.png

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

very interesting.
i didnt know that with the backup battery.
maybe mine is empty??

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

As far as I remember I always had to reset the date when I take the battery out.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Mine didn't used to do this, but does now...

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

hows that going for people using the hot swap script? i was thinking of trying it....

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

this has always happened with mine since day 1. Thought it was normal. Doesn't happen if battery is only out for a few seconds, but does if battery is out for longer.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

My N900 is bought together anextra battery in June. I have this habit to swap the batteries weekly. It did not ask me to set date & time until yesterday.

Yesterday I upgraded the browser from Firefox Mobile to Firefox 4. I found Firefox 4 very slow; it took forever to load a web page. I uninstalled & reinstalled it but no help to its performamce. Then, for some reason, I went into Setting and tried to access the ProfileMamagerX, for the 1st time, I obtained a error message - "Internal Error ........". So I decided to soft reset it by switching off and removed the battery for some seconds and then turned it back on. Starting from that time, N900 asks me to set time & date. Besides, its ringtone also resets to default "Nokia tone" but it does not reset the customized tone for SMS.

I guess this is not a back up battery issue but caused by software conflict.

TC

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

In my last feedback on October 24, I commented the time & date reset issue on N900 after swapping batteries could be software issue instead of its back up battery.

Last week, I received SMS from NOKIA informing me the launch of the new firmware. After the firmware was completely installed, I realized it was not an upgrade but full installation because my N900 asked to download and install all the apps. I used to have and it took me about an hour. I had no complaint about that as I thought it might be good to my N900 in case there was any software problem previously.

During the weekend, I did as usual to swap the batteries. When I re-powered up the N900, it still asked to reset time & date. So, I guessed I was wrong in my last feedback, it might be a bad back up battery issue.

Last night, I was playing the Labyrinth Lite game, then I went into a conversation with a friend without closing the game. After the conversation, I found the N900 hung up; no key responded including the Power On/Off button. My only option was to remove the battery to set it off. While doing this, I thought I would have to reset the time & date again. However, surprisingly, all settings were kept after rebooting this time.

It is bizarre!!

TC

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

My N900 _always_ lost time & date since I bought it (6 months, running FW 1.1, 1.2, 1.3).
Last week I had to flash rootfs [first time] cause my optification-trial script was buggy an messed up /usr/share :(
The day after I took out the battery to put in my SIM-card again and -WOW! - the device *did* remember the correct time & date!
Anyway, the next battery-outs brought back the old well-known annoying time & date prompt.
Since it happened only once and never again in months,
it imho cannot be a hardware-related issue [secondary battery broken/fixed/broken again ;].

Has anyone asked Nokia support /local NSC yet?
I'd be interested in any offical answer related to that annoying issue.

CB

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Could be I was pretty wrong when thinking about blaming Nokia for that annoyance and was pretty right when stating it is imho a software problem.
When the N900 booted up once wihout t&d prompt, the only thing that was different from all the other battery-out-boots was: No 3rd party software, esp. no extras-testing,no extras-devel. Fresh and clean as a new born, no backups were applied etc.
So there comes the idea that some 3rd party app breaks t&d continuity. Could this possibly be a problem with paths a/o read/write permissions? I'll take a close look at log files the next days.
So: all of you happy owners of a user-friendly N900 that remembers time and date as it is supposed to: do you have rootsh and /or sudser installed? What other 3rd party software?
Can you find coincidence between the system's t&d 'behaviour' and the installation of a special appliction?

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

To swap batteries quickly, I have the replacement battery ready in one hand (in the correct orientation) and pull the old battery out with the other hand.

If the battery is out for longer than about 2 seconds, I lose the time & date. It's always been that way for me.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Mine didn't use to.. now it has started.. since PR1.3... very very irritating.. bought mine last year on launch day.. Seriously, if a backup battery can go flat in under a year considering the total time my phone has been without a battery inserted or totally flat is about 5 minutes, something is very wrong :(

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

This happens to me since the PR1.3 update.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

i think this problem applies to all n900. since day 1 everytime i take the battery out and put it back in. it won't retrieve the time.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

It started happening to me recently, and no, it's not a problem that applies to all N900s, since obviously, there's an internal (crappy) battery in the N900.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

what if that internal battery retired? 0.o can we replace it like bios battery? :D

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

I guess it can be replaced, kerio on IRC mentioned it's the same as the one in the OpenMoko Freerunner (joerg_rw should know the make in that), it's directly above the vibration motor, feel free to disassemble your N900, it's an easy process :P

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Let the warranty pass a bit :D and time for a major overhaul :rolleyes:
reserving those warranties in case of usb port malfunction :eek:

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

note that if you change the sim card it asks for time and date, but it is correct, you just have to press ok
________
Web shows

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

well, i dont know about you guys, but mine always retrieve the time with no problems, all i have to do is set the timezone.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Wonder if we could find a place to paste in the last timestamp
that the device was used so that at least when it starts up again
at least the year and month, and perhaps the day, are the same?
I have been wondering about that - I have some NAS drives
that reboot without a BIOS battery into the year 2001 or so,
it always seems such a pain to find the SYSLOG reports
going from 2010 back into prehistory.
All of our wifi units reboot from time to time and their syslogs
have ancient dates.
Having this issue on a handphone is an in-your-face bummer.

The business of losing date-time on a reboot can screw things up
where data that depends on well-ordered time-stamps are concerned.

This is not a problem specific to the n900,
but this issue suggests a solution is needed in linux itself.

Maybe at least the handphone manufacturers could insert
a small solar cell to keep the onboard battery company.

Just thinking out loud...

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

it used to happen to me but after countless re-flashes for other issues it stopped and have not had it since.

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Yesterday I've remove the battery for about 2-3mins. I turned the phone on in 2 hours. There was no problem with the time and date. Have you tried with another battery?

Re: [Poll] Does your N900 'forget' time & date after battery change?
 

Every of my Nokia phones has this problem after several month of massive usage. Some earlier. Some later... I guess this is a general failure by design.

My N900 began this behavior after 8 Months of usage. My N95 had this problem after about 20 Months...