N9 totally dead - help please
 

Hi all,

my N9 encountered a sudden death, maybe you can help me narrowing down the problem...

It just turned off in my pocket, no button no led no charging anymore..

I took the screen off and reconnected the battery but still the same - what else can I do to narrow down the problem?

Should the phone work without battery connected only to the charger?

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

Would be very surprised if worked without battery in place. Do you get any response if connecting to PC and using Harmattan flasher? See here for more detail: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=82693

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

I'd do what aspergerguy said, and see if it charges with the flasher utility. (I think I'd try that before disassembling it, but that's water under the bridge now.) The thread he pointed out has plenty of help in it to get started.

Unfortunately, I have to add that this is the manner in which my first N9 died, not to be revived. It would flash, but never turned on again. I was able to save important data with the "fixing MALF state" procedure and exporting and mounting the phone's partitions.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

thank you, I'll try and report..

So I connected the phone using "flasher -i" and there is zero response, whether from flasher nor from phone..

So that was about it?!

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

Before leaving it for dead, it would be a good idea to make sure that flasher itself is working. Maybe post the output here. If possible check the USB port, cable and computer used by swapping those components out one at a time. Several users flashing their phones had non-working cables, ports and OSs to contend with on top of the phone troubles. Do you have access to another N9 so you can perform a "sanity check" on your setup?

Good luck.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

this is the output for "sudo flasher -i" in linux shell
I had switched USB port and the cable, all of which I know they work, and nothing happens. It doesn't list anything with lsusb either. I don't have another N9, I could try with Windows... but this should work

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

Possibly just fully empty battery?

Try the flasher trick to charge battery (up to 10%).
And add --flash-only=kernel to not overwrite data on your device if flasher starts immediately.

--edit
If that does not help (please provide outputs) I assume either a dead battery or an USB (other HW) failure.

What does dmesg say?

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

dmesg says ..erm well nothing. And the flasher won't do magic when it can't recognize the phone.

so.. should I get a battery?

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

I would try so.
As totally depleted battery may act so, too.

But first search a post here by finnish guy whose N9 (left in winter in car overnight) acted similar to yours.
He could get it charging again by either just opening and reconnecting or charging battery outside device (cannot remember).
A new battery should work too. But as you need topen anyway try that first.

[SOLVED] N9 totally dead - help please
 

N9 revived again!!!

I found the thread you mentioned
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=91722
and thought well, give it a second try...

So I let the battery plugged off for ~10min and replugged everything - and got a LED blink.. The joy was short, while reassembling a sudden cloud of electronic dust and the typical short circuit smell came out of the top right corner. I unplugged as fast as I could and saw the display cable (the one with the wide plug) was damaged on the outer side of a bend and had gotten contact with the metal cage in the housing.

I couldn't break any more so I just isolated the damaged cable area - put it back together and voilà - up and running.

The damage must have occured when I opened the device 2 months ago.

I thank all of you, appreciate your help very much.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

...and I found out the problem I actually have is the display ribbon cable. The funny thing is - the display is fine, but proximity sensor doesn't work any more. I reopened and fiddled a little, then it started working again. But again, I had little sparks coming from the damaged display cable, which is not good.

Very odd that the display still works... After doing forum search I'll get a new prox sensor and see how things go.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

How did you narrow it down to the sensor? I don't believe that that's what killed my long-dead N9 -- I think it was a different hardware fault -- but I've never been able to rule it out definitively.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

Well, whether prox nor light sensor work anymore - and they did before - but the initial problem I had, the device not turning on, definitively lied in the display cable because that's the one that threw sparks. I fiddled around with both cables and now I assume this has not necessarily to do with the sensor function - especially after reading the sensor is rather "sensitive".

I have been "donated" a display to do further testing - thanks to Heik - I'll report as I get along.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

Mine died just a few minutes ago too. Suddenly shows 4% battery and turns off. At the moment it is not possible to turn it on again.

connecting the N9 to usb = no sign of life.
(btw I use and love it since Nov 2011)

May be I should buy a new battery and try again - what do you think? I need some inspiration and motivation.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

What about connecting to wall charger?

Or what happens if you have connected to PC with flasher started. And then press power button for about 8-9 seconds?

It's still alive. A hour later I looked at it in a dark room and could see that the black screen wasn't off, could see a very low elumination. After pressing the on off button a long time, the display turns off. I'm sure, I did this before...
I could start the phone again. It shows 42% battery but I put it to the charger over night. May be the 4% bug came along, as I received a call.

Re: N9 totally dead - help please
 

Possibly?

Maybe modem took to much current so shutdown was iniated but not fully done?
Either a one time quirk. Or if this happens more often I would guess on a f'at/old/exhausted batt.

Yes, battery is rather old. Profilematic is good for an 'adult' battery. On next drop I will change it.