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[SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Hey guys.
I've just changed my n9's housing and after that the device shows 'The charger isn't working properly. Replace it or contact the nearest Nokia Care point' message when I'm plugging the wall charger.

bmestat shows:

Code:

~ # bmestat

++ BME stat

   charger state:         DISCONNECTED

   charger type:          NONE

   charging state:        STOPPED

   charging type:         NONE

   charging time:         0

   battery state:         OK

   battery type:          ERROR

   battery temperature:   34.85

   battery max. level:    8

   battery cur. level:    8

   battery pct. level:    100

   battery max. capacity: 1000

   battery cur. capacity: 1000

   battery last full cap: 0

   battery max. voltage:  9999

   battery cur. voltage:  4112

   battery current:       76

   battery condition:     UNKNOWN

I've heard that flashing only kernel might help, so I did it, but the result is the same.

Is there something that can be done, or the charge controller is broken?

----------

Seems it was a hardware problem and the metal plate which is under the display closed the circuit in the worng place or sth like that *facepalm*
Mods, please, close the thread and/or delete it.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

I have a similar issue. How did you realise the metal parts were the problem?

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

@asd123
I checked the wire once again and noticed that it was pinched.
Though I also remember I flashed kernel several times and left the phone charging for some time. Not sure what really helped back then.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Quote:

Originally Posted by zxcvbnm3230 (Post 1523903)

@asd123
I checked the wire once again and noticed that it was pinched.

Pity.

Quote:

hough I also remember I flashed kernel several times and left the phone charging for some time. Not sure what really helped back then.

You probably mean charging when the battery is completely dead. I see it as a terrible design flaw that the phone needs to boot up even for such trivial tasks as change the battery. So to charge the battery, you need at least some juice left. Starting the flasher bypasses that problem.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Quote:

Originally Posted by pichlo (Post 1523907)

Uou probably mean charging when the battery is completely dead. I see it as a terrible design flaw that the phone needs to boot up even for such trivial tasks as change the battery. So to charge the battery, you need at least some juice left. Starting the flasher bypa sses that problem.

It's only semi-true and only when phone is in developer mode.
Typical phone user, uses phone as-is, doesn't play with developerbmode, open mode or ubiboot.
And off-the-shelve Nokia n9 (or after clean flash) doesn't boot up automatically after connecting USB cable), until you enable developer mode(I was told there that's root cause, not open mode).
Another one problem is ubiboot, it's normal kernel, but with limited userspace(lacks bme/charging support), and by default it boot ups to eecovery mode, after connecting USB cable.
You can change thst behaviour of ubiboot in theory in config file, but it only covers clean harmattan shutdowns and works a bit like loterry (sometimes it worked only with stock ooen kernel, sometimes only with kernel plus), and only cold boot(doesn't work after dead battery).

So all these annoyances shouldn't be problem for average jo^H^Hn9 user. The problem isn't directly in how stock n9 behaves, but with TMO sect, which owns most of harmattan devices and uses them in non-conventional way. So the problem exis in "us", we(TMO members) are mental and nothing can fix that ;-)

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Sorry, but I'm completely not an expert in whatever you're referring to above. The phone does not charge, power on or connect to PC.

In simple language, what do I need to do to the metal parts to stop them shorting out please?

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

You may need to consult some of the N9 disassembly videos on youtube.com to see the correct placement of the metal covers and placement of the wires for the battery.

I suggest in the future when disassembling the phone be observant of the placement of the metal covers to avoid shorting anything out.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Quote:

Originally Posted by badpixel (Post 1523911)

I'm sorry to tell you but you are wrong there; the same boot problem with empty battery exists for stock devices too, it is not only a problem of developer mode or open mode.

When the battery of a N9 goes so flat it cannot boot up in "act dead mode" when you plug in the USB cord it will not be able to charge.
The HW of the device is designed so that it needs the kernel to be minimally alive to be able to switch on the charging logic, there is no HW charging support at all in the device.
Hence, for a totally dead device you have to use the flasher trick to revive it, even on totally non-modified closed-mode device.

The way the flasher charging works, is it injects a very low-power-consuming kernel (called the APE algorithm) into the device that turns no peripherals on and hence is able to run on the USB juice alone. This kernel then starts the charging process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by badpixel (Post 1523911)

Another one problem is ubiboot, it's normal kernel, but with limited userspace(lacks bme/charging support), and by default it boot ups to eecovery mode, after connecting USB cable.
You can change thst behaviour of ubiboot in theory in config file, but it only covers clean harmattan shutdowns and works a bit like loterry (sometimes it worked only with stock ooen kernel, sometimes only with kernel plus), and only cold boot(doesn't work after dead battery).

Yes, the ubiboot kernel has no charging support which is too bad. Hence when you run a device long time with ubiboot, for example when doing a backup dump of the device it will deplete the battery during the operation.
For that reason you should not attempt such without a full battery.

I am sorry I have neglected ubiboot for a long time; as N9 is not currently my daily driver device I have been very lazy with it! :D
However, I started to study it again some time ago, so maybe I'll get one day to the point of adding the charging support to ubiboot kernel.

I also have an idea of integrating the APE algo fatureset in the ubiboot so you'd be able to boot an empty device up without the flasher trick but I'll see if I get to do that someday ;)

Quote:

Originally Posted by badpixel (Post 1523911)

So all these annoyances shouldn't be problem for average jo^H^Hn9 user. The problem isn't directly in how stock n9 behaves, but with TMO sect, which owns most of harmattan devices and uses them in non-conventional way. So the problem exis in "us", we(TMO members) are mental and nothing can fix that ;-)

As you say, ubiboot does have the configuration option of loading up the 2nd level kernel in "act dead mode" when USB charger is plugged into a non-powered-on device; however as I explained above it is not enough to help if the battery is totally dead; it has to have a tiny amount of juice left.
When ubiboot does this, it has to anyway boot up 2 times and this eats up some of the weak battery; first time the ubiboot kernel boots, and then it kexecs to the Harmattan kernel with ACT_DEAD flag set on kernel command line.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Regarding the no charging with an empty battery:

I recently purchased an N9 from a fellow TMOer. I has a dual boot of Harmattan and Sailfish, I am not sure if that is in any way related. But... I do not use it and often forget about it for days and - you've guessed it - the battery goes completely empty. Needless to say, it does not charge afterwards.

So what do I do? Kick off the flasher to charge it again?

No. I plug in the charger. The indicator LED goes dim white for a few seconds, then off again. That's it. Device dead. I unplug the charger and plug it in again. The whole thing repeats. After a few dozen cycles like that, the charging eventually starts in earnest. The downside is that it can take half a day.

I have no proof other than this anecdotal experience but my assumption is the battery is being charged for those few seconds while the LED is on. Then the kernel (or something else, I do not know or care) finds out that the battery level is too low and cuts off. Restarting the cycle enough times boosts the battery enough for the cut off to not take place.

I plan to make a charging device that disconnects and reconnects the power automatically when the current drops to zero :)

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Quote:

Originally Posted by pichlo (Post 1523996)

Regarding the no charging with an empty battery:
...
No. I plug in the charger. The indicator LED goes dim white for a few seconds, then off again. That's it. Device dead. I unplug the charger and plug it in again. The whole thing repeats. After a few dozen cycles like that, the charging eventually starts in earnest. The downside is that it can take half a day.
... :)

Can confirm.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Hi.
I'm currently trying this out.

My first N9 died a week ago and couldn't charge it anymore. Reading the posts here I decided to buy a new battery, but the thing didn't work either......maybe it's wishful thinking but there may be another internal battery inside the device apart from the main one, and it is discharged?

Fortunately I happen to have a USB controlled USB switch and now I'm powering it on and off in duty cycles with 26 seconds on and 4 seconds off.

Let's see what happens.

Regards.

PS: The USB device is this.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Hi.

After a lot of hours of charging and trying the device won't boot. I've been searching high and low for information about cold flashing my N9, but I have only found good information for the N900.

This is what I do to cold flash it:

Code:

user$ sudo flasher -f -F DFL61_HARMATTAN_40.2012.21-3_PR_LEGACY_009-OEM1-958_ARM.bin --flash-only=nolo -c

flasher 3.12.1 (Oct  5 2011) Harmattan

WARNING: This tool is intended for professional use only. Using it may result

in permanently damaging your device or losing the warranty.



Using 1st image to detect HW

Suitable USB interface (bootrom) not found, waiting...

USB device found at bus 001, device address 056.

Device identifier: (null) (SN: N/A)

Waiting for ASIC id...

Got 69 bytes.

ASIC ID:

05 01 05 01 36 30 07 07  13 02 01 00 12 15 01 7d 

ab c6 ea 0d 96 c9 60 c3  cd 15 c5 0d 72 76 a1 d6 

18 df 52 14 15 01 12 dd  2f 66 d4 55 fe 19 2c 62 

b9 b8 e2 65 0a fc 1d 9f  3f 90 15 09 01 13 bf 3e 

ef 15 52 e7 03 

HW variant: HS

Found matching 1st (916)

Sending 1st image (26496 bytes)... done.

Sending HWID query... usb_bulk_read: Resource temporarily unavailable

timeout!

failed.

Sending HWID query... usb_bulk_write: No such device

write: No such device

failed.

Sending HWID query... usb_bulk_write: No such device

write: No such device

failed.

Sending HWID query... usb_bulk_write: No such device

write: No such device

failed.

ERROR: When cold flashing, please supply 1st image OR specify hardware type

From this I draw the conclusion that the battery is fine and the USB port is also OK, but I have run out of tests to bring it back to life.

Can anyone point me to a good source of information about this 'cold flashing' stuff? As I said before I tried the info available here for the N900 but the flasher has different options....

Regards.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge

Hi.

Bumping this old question.

I'm trying again to bring this device back to life...... any ideas?

Regards.