N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Just few minutes ago i plugged in the wall charger in my N900 and nothing happened, same with the PC cable.
The only sign on life i can notice is the led blinking orange when either cable is plugged in but that only happens if the device is turned off.
After i plug it in and its turned off Nokia logo shows up, phone does a short vibration the dots show up and it does that over and over again.
If i remove it from the charger it boots up properly.

Well, not any more, during writing it seems the battery died completely and now it stays dead with the led constantly glowing yellow.

Oh, when i try to boot with the pressing U on the keyboard while i plug it in the PC USB Cable the USB icon is not showing up, only the nokia logo is visible but now not even that works, only sign of life is the led constantly glowing yellow.

Any help is appreciated, thanks.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

This is emergency charge. When it's too low to boot up, it stays like that for a while, trying to gather enough charge to power up OK.

Not every wall charger, USB port and the like can charge the N900, and the LED goes orange but battery is eaten. Use Nokia's, or a good, non-hubbed port. Also, there could be an issue with your battery.

Leave it solid orange for a while. After half an hour or an hour, try to boot. If it doesn't, use a known good charger. If it does, charge while booted up.

Also, while-off-charging is buggy. Don't do it :P

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Thanks ndi, i'll give it a shot :)

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

No dice.
After being plugged in for a while even the led stops glowing yellow.
It starts glowing again if i unplug and plug it in.

I'm using the original charger and cable, although i'm in Japan and the voltage here is different so i use the wall charger with an adapter and the cable is plugged in my laptop USB.

I'd try anything, just give me an idea, Thanks again!

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I understand that after being yellow for a while, it still won't boot after removing the charger.

Does it try, does the LED fade in when you hold power? Voltage in Japan doesn't matter, the power supply is switching.

At this point, it's either the charger (least likely, since USB doesn't do it), the battery (likely) or charging circuit.

If I were you I'd get another BL-5J from another phone (Xpress music 5800, e.g.) and try to boot it up. If it does (and likely will), try to charge that battery. If it charges, it's the battery. If it doesn't, Nokia Care Centre.

I'm leaning towards the battery. Find someone to lend you a battery for 10 minutes. Swap them, use LSHAL to get voltage, let it charge for 10-20 minutes, then unplug and compare.

If you can't find anyone to help, buy a battery. Worst case scenario, you have a backup battery. Store it in a bag with a bit of rice or silica gel, in the fridge, approx 50 percent charged. Shelf life in these circumstances is about 10 years, you won't lose it.

It certainly looks like a dead battery, but it could be other things, a poor contact in the USB charger socket, burned charging circuit, etc.

Don't think it's software related, but you said you can't flash.

If you can't boot up several times in a row, it's bricked and needs to be taken to Nokia. If it no longer does anything, even with USB flash mode, you likely need to take it to Nokia. Try a battery swap if you know someone, but if it does nothing any more, it's time for service.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Sorry but I just wanted to try helping...do you remember doing anything prior to that happening, e.g. installing something?

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Thanks for the help guys, i really appreciate it!

The status at the moment is this: When i plug in the charger it only glows yellow for a while, maybe an hour. After that it doesn't show any signs of life.

Not any more, nothing happens.

No, not really. I was playing some game on my Laptop while watching if i get any Skype IMs on my N900.

Thanks again guys, i guess i'll try to get a spare battery, finding one in japan will definitely be a challenge :)

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

You could probably try one of those universal cellphone battery chargers, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Universal-Mobi.../dp/B001AHU6QU

I'm in an Asian country too (Philippines) and that kind of charger is very common and cheap compared to trying to find a spare battery.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I'll give it a shot if i can find it in a local store. I already tried buying a spare battery from Amazon but their deliver time is too long.
I will be going back to my home country on the 8th of june so i guess i will score a battery there.

I really don't know how will i indure two and something weeks without my trusted companion.

Since i have the N900, my laptops and PCs have been collecting dust, even when i'm at home. This little gadget has been steadily nesting itself in my life so right now...i am embarassed to say this about electronic device, but i really miss it :)

Thanks again guys!

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Remove (e.g, take out) the battery from the device for one hour, then put it in again and try to recharge. Used to work for me when that happened :)

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I left it out for half a day already, no dice ;)

Thanks for trying!

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I had a similar scare over the weekend. The wall charger became hit or miss whether it would charge. Sometimes the wall charger would make the N900 think USB was detected. Connecting it to a computer would tell me it couldn't charge and USB mass storage would not work.

I ended up spraying some electronic switch cleaner (available from radio shack) into the USB port and that cleared it up.

Frank

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Glad to hear it worked for you, but if Nokia finds traces of fluid it's not going to honor any claim for warranty and frankly can't be blamed. Used the stuff myself, but when it comes to expensive, in-warranty devices, it's best to let them take a whack at it first.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Hi,
I experienced similar problems (with original adapter) and have come to the conclusion that the charging software of the N900 is broken from design. Also, depletion can suddenly go very fast without any obvious reason.

So I bought a cheapo wallcharger and a second battery. When the battery in the phone is too far gone, I just switch them and charge the empty one.

I like the N900 for its commandline. But it will certainly be the last Nokia I will buy.

Paai

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

The battery management software has decade of legacy in it

The measuring relies on two crucial things: BSI (Battery size indicator), which is a resistor through the third pin on the battery, And the battery's true capacity.
If the two deviate too much, the battery state tracking gets thrown too far off, resulting in sudden big corrections.

The two (BSI and battery actual capacity) can disagree in some third party batteries, or if battery has aged significantly giving it lower capacity and higher internal resistance, or if there's poor conductivity between battery contacts on the battery and the battery terminals on the phone (dirt, corrosion, etc).

When charging, the software is very reluctant to admit/reveal if charge rate is lower than discharge rate. And, when it does, you probably miss the notification anyway. The response to input undervoltage conditions is to check whether voltage on input port still exists, and if so, retry charge at lower rate.
Thus, a power adapter unable to supply enough current, a damaged cable, excessive resistance at the connector (dirt, corrosion, too loose mechanically, etc) can cause charge rates below normal. A loose USB port can cause intermittent errors which can be misinterpreted as a weak charger. Multiple repeated intermittent connection issues in a short period of time can cause even stranger issues, such as the hardware chip resewtting itself to failsafe defaults, which results in a partial slow charge at best.
Again, connectivity issues between battery and phone can cause charging issues just as well as connectivity issues on input.

In the case of Solid orange light, there is no software running at all. The hw chip is doing an independent charge until there's enough power to boot. This should only happen if one disables bme and runs the device beyond the normal cutoff. If you reach such a situation, it's indicitative of a faulty battery or parasitic constant drain in the device itself. Also after prolonged periods at empty battery with the battery stored in N900 you'd see a few seconds of solid orange, that would be normal-ish. If it doesn't recover from Solid Orange to the next stage (which would see the solid orange replaced by glowing orange and/or reboots), it would in addition to the possibilities of parasitic drain and bad battery mentioned before also be a possible fault in the DC adapter, cables, port or N900. Further measurements and troubleshooting would be required.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

If my device were in warranty, I guess I might have gave up my phone for days while they deny the claim due to some other reason. And I'm guessing if they haven't run out of replacement N900s, they soon will.

I didn't submerge the phone, just foamed up the connector slot, nothing into the phone itself.

thanks,
Frank

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Small update.

I bought a spare battery, plugged it in and the phone booted up fine.
Both the USB cable and the wall charger are not detected when the phone is running and it doesn't charge.

When the phone is turned off and i plug the charger or the cable in, the led blinks orange couple of times, phone does a short vibration as when turning on, nokia logo shows up, then the dots.

After this it shuts down and starts doing the things i described before in a loop. I noticed that the battery is actually drained and not charged during this loop.

Thanks in advance, any ideas are welcome :)

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Hello mate,

I had almost the same problem too. For me my N900 was fine but the battery pins were too wide to have a good connection. What you can try is ta make sure the battery is full. If you have a something like a baby pin try to push the connectors closer carefully and try it again on your phone. It might make a difference. Let me know if it worked.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I will give it a shot, although i tried with 3 different batteries already.

Another update. I have noticed that it gets unusually hot even when i don't run any apps that strain the cpu or even any apps at all.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I have the same problem. Could be that your usb connector is coming loose. Try gently wiggling it side to side and see if there is any play. The usb port on the n900 is shody by design and can easily come loose or even break off merely as a consequnce of what would be considered normal, every day use (I didn't abuse mine, yet it started coming loose a mere three months or so after i bought the phone). At this point, plugging in my (or a friend's) n900 charger goes completely undetected. strangely, the charger from a $40 Samsung phone works perfectly. Also, charging via usb cable worked well until recently.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Search.....Loose......broken....damaged....USB.

The problems there match many of your symptoms.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

OK. I guess i will have to take it to the repair shop, thanks again.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Same thing happened to me yesterday, plug in the USB lead and I get the orange light for a while, plug the wall charger in, nothing.

After some messing around with the multimeter, I'd say your problem is the same as mine (and 2000 other people) - broken USB / Charging port. In my case it was a dry solder joint on one side that allowed a very tiny (almost imperceptible) amount of movement to occur.

The solution for me is to go to the cell phone market and finally visit one of those people that annoy you with "You want cell phone repair sir?" - they all have heat guns, I'm sure one of them can fix it :-)

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

-Update-

Well, i left my phone at the phone repair store and after a few days of examination they concluded that the hardware part is functioning fine and they want to reflash the device.

I told them that i want to make a backup first so i will take my phone, boot it up with a charged battery and perform a backup if possible.

Since they say the only solution is reflashing, after i perform a backup i plan to do it myself.
Can the the N900 be flashed from its command line and if so, how? I don't see any other options except some dedicated expensive hardware those stores might use since the USB is not being detected.

Thanks.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

i get this when im [failing] trying to hold the usb in steady enough to flash [ due to my usb not being attached to my phone] flashes yellow and turns off damn phone i will fix you!

gav

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I thought its a bad usb connection as well, but the repair shop said the hardware is fine.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

hi,

i'm experiencing nearly the same problems:

1. wall charger was detected stating "battery is charging". after some time (not moving the device) it wasn't loading anymore. now it's not even detecting the charger when only pluging it in.

2. moving the device or charger cable it's switching back and forth between "battery is charging" and "charger disconnected". and the led is shortly flickering red when doing so.

3. connecting it to my pc via the original usb cable it's loading just fine. even when i move the cable or phone.

4. when loaded via pc cable the battery lasts very long. so it's not a broken battery problem. (right?)

so i thought that maybe the wall charger connector is broken and bought a new (original) nokia charger. i plugged it into the phone and had the same problems as described above.

now i think that my usb port on my n900 is slightly broken.
but then... why is the usb cable on my pc is working fine while both wall chargers are failing?!

next thing i will do is getting a closer look at the connectors. and maybe playing around with them.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

@b666m
My device had nearly the same symptoms before my usb port completely died. The day after this started, I could wiggle the port side to side. After all not a good sign. Sorry.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I think Nokias broken BME might have some responsibility in this issue, add to that, CSSU, Multiboot, Meego and whatnot.

Like i said, the phone repair shop said the hardware is fine and that reflashing might solve the issue but my phone doesn't detect the USB, so, how do i reflash the device without using the cable?
The device works normal when i insert a charged battery, except it drains it really fast and heats up a bit.

It wouldn't hurt to check out the connections, at least you would know if its a hardware or apparently a software problem like mine.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Lolz...yeah that's very common here in the Philippines. Hope you're enjoying your stay! :) Though they seem annoying, it's an enjoyable experience...a lot of "repair" stuff here are...how shall I say it...more "convenient" here. It's just a matter of getting a local person to join you so that they won't take advantage. ;) Where are you in the Philippines right now?

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Change Your repair shop ;) Your symptoms have NOTHING to do with rotfs/optfs (especially, when You try to reflash with "u" and even the USB icon doesn't appear on screen), and guys on repair shop are just idiots, used to repair generic cell phones. They know nothing about N900.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I am under the same impression as well but i am willing to entartain the opportunity, i got nothing to lose, everything to gain :)

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

i had the same problem abt 6 months bak.... ihad access to other n900.... tried everything!.... replacing with fully charged batery and everything..... the final option which wrked ws reflash via linux..... windows doesn't seem to do it.... the phn just wont switch on! i tried everything...... the boot time power manager has gone corrupt. read the wiki fr linux reflash. else reply here

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I will gladly read the wiki you mentioned, can you provide a link please?

Thanks!

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Here you go: http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_firmware

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

If they screw something in Your N900 and deny to take responsibility, it may be hard for You to proof that it's they fault. I have experiences like this with repairing not working backlight in notebook - should be easy cause it's common problem - for me, it was broken tape-like cable, shortcutting something. But idiot in repair shop wanted to replace inverter on motherboard, and to check if it's not fuse problem, he replaced it (fuse) with wire, really frying inverter. At last, on 3th repair shop i find someone capable of diagnosing properly and repairing everything. Also he was the one who discovered responsible flat multicable, and wire in place of fuse. Still, it costed me 100 $ more, cause fried inverter - that was perfectly fine before idiots in 1st or 2th shop put their hands on it.

I would not risk allowing any "technican" who seems to not even diagnose issue properly, to go "intimate" with my N900.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I feel the same way exactly so i decided not to take my N900 back to that same shop.
I tried to reflash on my own using fresh backupmenu images but It didn't work so i am taking my N900 to a Nokia Service Center.

I hope they will know what to do.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

just gave mine to the repair shop. i'm curious to see what will be replaced/repaired. loose usb port, broken camera lense cover, shaky keyboard and a screwed display surface by bad protector foil. >.<

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

Don't think they replace them any more.

Re: N900 detects beeing plugged in but does not charge, led constantly glowing yellow, usb icon not showing when trying to reflash.
 

I'm having the exact same problem. Had the not charging/ connected usb device even when connecting the wall charger for a few days. There isn't any wiggle on the port though.

Today when i woke up after a nap, the n900 just refuses to boot up. The wall charger won't charge it either. The data cable does charge it though.

@Daneel have you heard back from nokia care?