Over the last three weeks my N900 (PR1.2) has been constantly using the HSPA connection whenever there is no wifi connection. This runs the battery flat in about 2 - 3 hours.

I normally have MfE running at 15 minute intervals, but even when I set this to manual the is no change in the N900 hammering the HSPA connection.

Even with no VoIP or Skype running and the browser is closed, the HSPA connection is still active. The only only other application that I can think that uses the internet is gPodder and closing that makes no difference.

The strange thing is that the battery life is normal when on a wifi connection.

I tried uninstalling most applications, but this made no difference.

I reflashed with PR1.2, restored my data and installed only a few applications, but again no improvement.

Unless anyone else has a better idea, the only option I can see is to reflash without restoring my back up and only putting in the settings for the HSPA internet connection. (Obviously this is a pain as I can't use the N900 properly while in this testing mode).

You can change this in the internetsetting.. that not to connect automatically.

But 3g is probably not your problem. Even with 3g the phone should be able to last more than 2 hours. I am using wifi home and 3g while at work. My battery holds for about 30-48h before i need the charge.

Sure I can disable the 3G internet connection, but that defeats the whole purpose of having an N900. Besides it has worked ok for 5 months using the 3G internet connection and the battery has lasted as you would expect (more like 10+ hours).

it connects automatically because its set to do that. you can turn this off and that doesnt disable 3g.

go to settings - internet connections - connect automatically.

I understand it connects, but what is happening is the connection is being used heavily when there should be no activity on the connection.

As I said above, disabling the connection doesn't solve the problem, it just disables the problem. A problem that wasn't there 3 weeks ago. I had no problem running with the HSPA internet connection on.

I have since found out from another forum that another user has had this same problem. The only solution they found was to reflash and put all the settings in from the start.

Clearly then there is an issue and its not just limited to my device.

what is your reception like? is it up and down, my work is right on the edge of a cell and my reception is never a constant, right now there is a van parked out the window and I have no reception at all! if I set it to 3g and had it checking emails every 15 minutes my phone wouldn't last long, perhaps a working day i.e 8 hours but not 2...

Maybe your reception has dropped in your area? You could try autodisconnect and see if that helps, it will tell you if it's the traffic as it has a limiter i.e if less than x kb is downloaded in y minutes then disconnect.

The problem doesn't just occur when I am in my local area. It was even a problem when I was located 50m from a tower that was giving me better than 5Mbps downloads.

one or more widgets or programs are trying to accessing the net and you set it to automatic connect that is why it connecting without letting you know.

change the internet connection rules and turn it to always ask. That should fix the problem. Althernatively reflash to wipe every apps and start from scratch. Hope you solve your problem.

This had not been a problem for five months and is how the N900 was designed/needs to be used.

Ok this won't fix the problem, but it might give me an idea as to what the problem is.

Ok, I know this is an option, but we will never know what the problem is/was. As I am not the only one to have reported this problem now it would be good to know what the bug is. I don't like the idea of wasting four hours to set up the device only to find I have to do it all over again in a months time.

Do as we all have said and you might find the problem. By changing the internet option to not connect automatically. It will not disable your connection just ask when it want's internet. But as i said.. don't think this is the problem.

Have you looked in xterm and writing dmesg? Look for repeating strings.