So a week ago, I bought an N900. Been wanting one for awhile, and finally pulled the trigger. It arrived NIB yesterday, and while I'm head-over-heels in love with the device, the battery (coupled with some reading I've been doing online) has me a bit concerned. I've seen a number of different stories and suggestions on the battery, and charging, and just wanted to through my short experience in the ring and see what advice I could get.

So when I got it, the battery was nearly dead. It booted, and I plugged it into the included wall charger, so I could use it while it charged. Said it was charging, seemed fine. Then, it eventually just died, while still plugged in. And after dying, I noticed the yellow charging light wasn't on when the device was off. Doubly weird.

So I switched to the USB cable (plugged into my laptop) and it started charging, and eventually rebooted. So I left it for a bit, and then started using it again (still on the charger). Updated Maemo and installed a few applications. I went to the next room (with the wall charger), and upon taking it off the charger (an hour or so after starting to charge it), I noticed the battery level didn't move. Weird.

So I plug it into the wallcharger again, use it for a bit, and it dies again. And again doesn't seem to charge when off, on the wall charger (flickering red light, not the pulsing yellow).

I left it all night on the USB charger (and then wall charger once it was back on) and it seemed to be charging (though the battery level on the phone didn't seem to change). This morning, I took it off the charger, rebooted and the battery was full. o.O

After playing with it a bit this morning at work with the chargers and rebooting... it appears the following:

*The phone charges normally via USB. It will only really charge via wall charger when already on.
*The battery icon in the status bar doesn't change. It'll change on a reboot, but once booted, remains static.
*I downloaded a battery widget, to see if I could get some better info, and it seems like it will slowly count down as it's used (went from like 86% to 84%), but won't go back up when charged. And that even seems to change more drastically on reboots (jumping from 78% back to 85%).

I've been trying to read about battery issues and charger issues with this phone. I was trying to figure out, should I just send the phone back for a replacement (probably safest bet, but will take like three weeks), or could it just be the battery (maybe buy another battery from Amazon)? Or could it have just be a software issue reading the phone's battery level?

Sorry for such a wall o' text, but this phone seems to kick-***, and this battery tomfoolery has me worried.

Welcome to the party! I assume your 'new' N900 is in fact second hand?

1. Perform a COMPLETE reflash, that is rootfs and eMMC. The previous owner has buttfu**ed the software. Read the wiki, it is actually really easy. This will cure all your problems (unless you have a hardware issue (these are pretty uncommon)).

2. Update to the community SSU (CSSU).

3. Install 'kernel power v50'.

4. Buy a new Battery (read the battery thread, get a SCUD or whatever the current best one is). It is almost certain your current one ls old/broken/worn out/fake/fooked.

Wow, thanks for such a fast reply. I actually bought (apologies if this is bad) one off of eBay that, from what I could tell, was wrapped and in solid working order (battery wonkiness aside). That said, these suggestions make me feel a lot more confident I can clear this up.

((Edit to avoid a double-post: I've been reading about adding repos to my N900 (I wanted to get DropN900 for Dropbox support), and is it okay to enabled Extra-Testing and/or Extra-Devel... or what should be proper protocol to not screw myself by doing it (looks like the kernel might be in Extra-Testing)?))

Just look up the wiki entries on adding extras, extras-testing & extras-devel. Exercise caution when Installing from these repositories, loads of stuff in devel is broken/half assed/half finished. (but it is also where a lot of the cool stuff is).

The BEST advice I can give you is learn to reflash NOW! It is the first thing you should figure out. It will let you fix the N900 when you break it (which you will).

In addition to that figure out how to use the program 'backup menu'.

Backup menu + reflash will save your *** literally 100s of times in the next couple of days as you figure out what how to use your N900.


...

Also, do not bother with NITdroid or multiboot. It is a world of breaked n900's.

In fact, I retract that statement.

Do Not enable extras-development, at least till you get some experience!

All of this advice is awesome, thank you again. Just waiting on a download, and then I'm gonna reflash. Does it matter in which order I flash (eMMC or rootfs)? Also, while a nub with Maemo, I'm thankfully not coming into this completely blind: I've been a Linux user for years. Part of the draw of this device.

It's actually quite safe, really, and it's where you install stuff and know "holy crap, this app is horribly broken and unmaintained, time to post on tmo and restore".

SAFE AND RECOMMENDED THINGS TO INSTALL OFF EXTRAS-DEVEL:
fapman (hildon app manager sucks so bad for daily package management)
openmediaplayer semi-monthlies
semi-latest version kernel-power (repo management is broken, by the time it gets pushed to devel pali has a newer one on the usual place)
pierogi
h-e-n
busybox-power
GNU Core Utilities
tracker-cfg
bluemaemo
mbarcode
mypaint
frontview
easy-debian

While yes I agree, devel is more or less safe if you are not a complete spacker. Thus it would be unwise to recommend it to a new user without knowing his level of ability.

It would seen OP has experience with linux for years so he is probably gonna be all right.

Read the reflash wiki page. You do the eMMC first THEN rootfs.

I guess my only worry is, do I have to be concerned with normal software on my N900 being suddenly overwritten with a bunch of testing/dev versions, or am I okay to just install say, the new kernel and backupmenu for Testing/Devel without it janking up my other packages?

EDIT: Reflashed, set up PR1.3.1, and I'm just waiting on the CSSU install to finish. Also lining up to buy the SCUD Dream battery (thought about the Mugen, but this think is a behemoth already, lol).

Once you have installed backupmenu, you have the equivalent of a net, so it is safe to walk the tightrope with practically anything, as long as you are also comfortable flashing if necessary. I have had incredibly good luck being reckless over the years, though I have bombed myself back into the Stone Ages a few times.

The N900 is practically indestructible (except see the usb problems thread), so even if you got a used one you should be fine.