This is another poll to investigate what is causing the battery issue...

Guys if someone has figured it out, please tell us, I have searched all over the place and there is no definate answer. Some people get 1-3 days, I get 12-14 hours, regardless of how moderately I use it and many others are the same.

Another thought occured to me about what the issue might be so lets test it with a poll. The more answers we get the more justified an conclusion we get so tell your friends!

RULES FOR VOTING:

• Only vote if you don't use the "3G/2G Mode Selection Applet", or you use it but are constantly on 3G mode.
• If you never use 3G and still have battery life issues, then reply to this thread (sorry I left out the option)
• "Battery life issues" = much less than 18 hours
• "No battery life issues" = a good day's worth (18 hours or more)
• "Unstable" doesn't have to mean it always switches between 2-3G, but rather, your network coverage bars tend to move around fairly occasionally, rather than staying at "maximum", or whatever level you find it at.
• All with moderate usage (Not too much more than 3 hours network usage on 3G - i.e. mobile internet, phone calls, even talking on IM too much when not on wifi. )

Thanks soooo much guys and girls, especially those who have no battery problems, your feedback is really important to us evil battery life victims



Further details about what I am investigating: 3G uses a hell of a lot of battery life. The N900 is smart enough to have it not drain the battery when 3G is not in use, i.e. idle, which should be most of the time. I noticed that I have battery life issues and awfully unstable network connection, with the bars always moving around, and occasionally switching to 2G/GSM mode. If this means that the phone is constantly checking its 3G connection, then it is not idle and the battery is being chewed like a hungry dog with a new bone. I could test this myself of course, but the more feedback we get, the more conclusive an answer we get as to whether this is one of the main battery problems for everyone. Go for it guys ^^ Hopefully we can get a lot of red and purple answers, and put this problem in the closet once and for all...

I hate to do this so soon but........bump!

Don't hold back your votes guys, every one counts!

Bump again, maybe this is the wrong time of day?

Afternoon bump. Gotta get more votes!

A friend of mine had a similar situation. His N900's battery life was about 12h regardless its usage.

It was apparently a pulseaudio bug, using the top command in terminal the pulseaudio process was always there and eating a little but important amount of %cpu and RAM.

Updating Maemo 5 to its last version (PR1.1.1) solved his problem, now pulseaudio isn't there anymore, and battery's life has increased to 24h.

Hmm wow, yeah I just looked and I saw about 10 pulseaudio processes (although they were not registering any CPU usage at the time). I will see if that makes any difference, but I shall also continue this little test. Its very early, but the results are already pointing to an possible other solution

Thanks a lot torpedo!

Er...BTW my Maemo 5 is 2.2009.51-1.205.1. When you say update to its "last" version, do you mean previous? Or is that a new one? I'll assume you mean the first as there isn't a Maemo 5 update out yet, and I am at the latest...

Thanks ^^

With the expression "last" version I mean the 3.2010.02-8, I think your Maemo 5 is outdated, please update it as soon as you can.

Wow, 10 pulseaudio processes, you have got a serious problem!

It is not coming up as an available update...is there another way?

Here is the bug, I've just found it in Bugzilla and it has been marked as FIXED, so I'm probably right when saying that update has solved my friend's problem:

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6868

Can't understand why it's not shown in your application manager, are you sure you have activated the proper catalog? It is called Nokia System Software Updates (or similar, I'm translating from italian), with web address 'https://downloads.maemo.nokia.com/fremantle/ssu/mr0' (again, this is the italian catalog, don't know if it's the same for everyone).

Yeah I have that, though it ends in /205 instead of /mro, which I don't think matters. I'll just have to wait. It will be available eventually, or I will find another way to update it ^^

Thanks again for all the tips and info, hopefully we will be able to get the battery life issues all sorted with the various problems being addressed.