Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Problem 1: Battery is so **** that if i use the phone for 1 and a half hours it goes completely flat.

Problem 2: Updating and searching for updates and preparing installations can take up to an hour for the process bar to load.

Problem 3: FM Transmitter is about as much use as a chocolate BBQ. Can't hear anything even though all volumes are turned up to full. Can't even listen to online radio stations via their websites.

Can someone please help me out here?

Thanks.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Answer 4 problem 1 : Might be your battery is not genuine....buy new battery to compare it....

Answer 4 problem 2 : this is depend on your connection & repo...not by your device....

Answer 4 problem 3 : try using other handfree & see the result...if it the same the flashing your device is a gud start...

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

leave it plugged in to charger,connect to wifi and do updates,im guessing its still on an old firmware version...

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

1 How fast your battery goes flat depends on what you are doing with it and how much battery you started with. Before testing. make sure it is fully charged.

2. Updating can take a long time, but I've never seen it take an hour. There is a program called Faster Application manager that you might try.

3. My FM transmitter plays louder if I am transmitting to something that plays loudly.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Depending on which firmware you are using (it is highly recommended that you use the latest firmware 20.2010-36.2 iirc) and how heavily you use the device, your mileage with battery life varies.

There are many factors that can effect battery usage such as (and this is not a fully exhausive list of the potential factors):
- Enabling R&D mode.
- Using any programs from extras-testing, extras-devel or any other experimental repositories/applications as per indicated by their respective developers.
- Having backlight at full strength when you do not really even need such bright screen. Even having backlight timeout set for too long can have impact on battery life when it is not necessarily needed.
- Having too many programs running in background. Having too many widgets running on the home screen and you having switch back and forth between multi tasking or switching to other home screens, etc.
- Having too many chips enabled (such as wireless chipset, bluetooth chipset, accelerometer chipset, etc) when it is not needed.
- Running programs that have significant impact on the performance of the device (firefox fennec/Nightly is a perfect example of this, so is OpenOffice). HAM (Hildon Application Manager) with many repositories enabled including extras-testing and/or extras-devel significantly reduces the usability of the battery, especially extras-devel).
- Not using autodisconnect program and/or having autodisconnect settings set too high for it to have any impact on saving excessive battery consumption. Note that this pont reinforces the point above on having too many chipsets enabled and when not in use. Also for me I find having 3G constantly enabled decreases usable battery life.

Points highlighted above answers to questions 1 and 2. Question 3, with listening to online radio stations could be issues with having bluetooth enabled and using wireless LAN to stream the music from online radio station. Both wireless LAN and bluetooth uses very similar radio band (2.4GHz band) and could easily interfere each other when both of those have antennas are in relative proximity of each other. Remember, N900 is a small device with at 4 chipsets using radio networks (wireless LAN, bluetooth which also has FM receiver capability, mobile/cellular connectivity, and FM transmitter). All these chipsets have antennas in close proximity as they share the same PCB board.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

1. If your phone is indeed brand new, it might still be running an older firmware version. If you go to your phone application and choose the dial pad, type *#0000# to see what version firmware you have. The latest version is PR1.3 and it´s mentioned in the dialling pad as V.20.2010.36-2

2. HAM (Hildon Application Manager) is really, really slow. Basically you have two options here. Work from the command line with apt-get, or install Faster Application Manager.

3. Try FM Boost, which should improve signal strength of the transmitter.
http://maemo.org/packages/view/fm-boost/

Edit: redundant as others have already posted the same suggestions. Typing is slow on the n900 :)

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Thanks very much for your reply.

ah! i didnt actually have the headphones plugged in at all and was thinking the sound would just come straight out the mobile speakers is that incorrect?

QUOTE=stew-b;]leave it plugged in to charger,connect to wifi and do updates,im guessing its still on an old firmware version...[/QUOTE]

Which would need updating on the phone and where would i update it from? The only updates i am aware of are firmware and catalogue but you probably know way better than i do! :)

Regarding the firmware, i have just done "*#0000# and it says: V 20.2010.36-2 RX-51, Nokia N900" what would be the relivent firmware for this exact version?
Is it an easy process and is there a guide for total newbies like me?

QUOTE=geneven;1062087]Updating can take a long time, but I've never seen it take an hour. There is a program called Faster Application manager that you might try.[/QUOTE]

Thanks shall look into that!

@ tuxsavvy, very useful information there thank you! & thanks to everyone else.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Wow! ok well im pleased to know i have the latest firmware!
You guys have been so helpful and i am most grateful to all of you.

Mart :)

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

I don't understand fully your scenario here. I presume this is referring to the FM transmitter from post 1. Do you wish to receive an FM signal to eg. listen to Radio1, using the FM receiver or are you trying to use your phone to send a signal to a nearby radio using the FM transmitter? Are the mobile speakers you refer to those on the n900?


Also if you could be a little clearer as to which applications you are running/ which steps you have take to try do what you want to here, it will be easier to help.:)

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Think very carefully. Is this phone brand new? Or is it second hand/refurbished?

If it is brand new, never touched by another person it sounds like the battery is fuc***. Perhaps too old and stored in noin ideal conditions (possible if it has been on the shelf since 2009).

If it is second hand/refurbished, again battery also do a COMPLETE reflash. rootFS and eMMC.

The FM transmitter is known to be a bit wimpy (for legal purposes) however there is a program in the application manager called FM booster that increases it's power. It helps ALOT.

Also ONLY use application manager over wifi...

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

To mrsellout - What i was trying to do is tune into radio stations on my phoneby going into 'media player' and then i select 'internet radio' to which it loads the station (technobase.FM) and then plays...like the timer counts but i hear no sound.. do i need to activate something?

Ok since ive had this phone i have put Sygic Mobile maps onto it, xarhiver & transmission and the rootsh.. that is it!

To vi_ - Got the phone from Ebay from a bloke selling them in HongKong he was given very good feedback so i could only really go by that! How wouldi know if it was refurbished and if it is, is that a big problem? If so, why?

Reagrding the flashing with RootFS and Emmc... this is my current Firmware: V 20.2010.36-2 RX-51 which is the latest i think?
would i just reflash it with that same firmware? do you have a good link with a full guide for flashing aswell as the download links?
I am honestly such a noob to this so i would need a very straight forward guide.



Thanks guys for ya help!

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

If this is the case I would flash the firmware. rootFS AND eMMC. This is essentially a hard factory reset.

Read this, all of it. It looks intimidating however it isnt when you understand the process. Also don't worry, these phones are practically unbrickable!

As for piss poor battery, sounds like you have a dud battery. Do yourself a massive favour and invest $7.5 (yes around £4.8 in a SCUD 'blue' battery. They have around 20% larger capacity than Nokia original.

If you like to fiddle, tweak, customize and perfect your pocketable then you have bought the ULTIMATE device. People here will fall over themselves to help you operate it as long as you don't display an signs of recalcitrant noobery.

Just ask with further Q's.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

yeah even with wifi my battery last a good 5-12hours.

try fast application manager for updates

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Welcome to the Nokia's world of self-investigate and doing-it-all-by-youself!! You're on your own buddy. I have gone through every problem i encounter and solved everything by myself :)

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Well romanianusa you must be very proud of yourself indeed! Well done!
I'm afraid you've come in a bit too late (saying what you just did) seeing as these very helpful people have already done a fantastic job of solving my problem for me... afterall that's what the people on here are here for right? They do a fantastic job of it too....
Thanks v much everyone for ya help.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

@marty
are you trying to listen to local radio stations? if that's the case then you need to install "FM Radio" from you app manager. this might sound odd but the N900 has the hardware to receive fm radio signal but doesn't have the software for it out-of-the-box. :) you're going to love this community. and i definitely agree with vi_ (though have no idea about the SCUD battery he was talking about). congrats on the purchase! :)

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

If you're getting a new battery, I'd definitely go with the SCUD. My N900 on original battery wouldn't last a day. With the SCUD, I get close to two days with light usage.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Fantastic guys very helpful info you have given me!
Always happy that there are places like this to help people like me who are very new to this kind of thing!
so it is gr8ly appreciated!

Mart.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

hi5 there :) I managed to answer a fair few threads whilst waiting in the hospital to get served so you weren't alone there at that time (well even now). It is also quite a bit of challenge to type as fast as you can on such a small keyboard (I'm personally using the physical keyboard.)

Getting back to the topic, if you are looking to purchase those SCUD batteries, search for that 3000mAh hack where the OP made examples with those batteries to achieve that amount of capacity. I personally do not use that battery, I am still stuck on my stock Nokia batteries and have been pretty happy getting out about a day's usage with my device with moderate usage. Mind you that's usually with lots of things I previously stated as a potential cause of battery drain I am actually contracting that myself for most parts.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

I used to use AutoDisconnect, but I like tinkering so I'm now using 3G/2G/Dual Mode Selection Applet instead.

Whenever I don't really need the speed, I use 2G for IM and IRC and Email and such. 3G is a huge battery hog, while on 2G I can idle on IM for the whole workday and lose maybe 10% battery capacity or less.

Sometimes in a poor network area (forests, islands, etc) I use 2G for better signal, as phones tend to use more power in poor signal areas.

I also recommend installing Wifi Switcher and turning off Wifi module whenever not using it.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Great ive saved all this useful information guys so i can look back whenever i get stuck on certain things!

thanks so much.

Just another question.... Is there software out there for the N900 which displays private numbers... i know there are some sites you can subscribe to where you can do this but was wondering if theres a software which cna be used to do it?

Also i am going abroad next week and want to be able to dial in remotely to my windows based computer... is there software for the n900 which would enable me to do this?

Thanks so much again

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

Private numbers? No.

Remote computer access? Depends what operating system you are running. If it is linux, then yes. There is a 101 different ways.

If you are running windows you could set up a VNC server on your home PC then forward the appropriate ports on your router.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

I'm running windows xp on my home pc but was wondering if teamviewer, pcanywhere or letmein might have developed software for maemo in order to be able to view windows based computers from the N900?

Thanks so much for your help.

Re: Big problems with my brand new N900
 

I found Presence VNC client so nice to use, that I wouldn't even consider using Teamviewer or something instead.

I used this guide: http://talk.maemo.org/showpost.php?p=504854&postcount=7
I may have missed it, but I don't see that post mentioning anything about the VNC server for Windows; I use TightVNC.