Update: So, I unplugged the N800 from the charger and turned it off using the power button. I pulled the battery, left it out for 10 minutes, then put it back in. Using the power button, I turned it on, and this time got the blue line running across the bottom, etc. Now the battery indicator is back in the upper right corner, and it shows 1 day usage left.

I've currently got it plugged into the charger, where it seems to be doing its charging thing OK. I'm stumped as to why it turned itself off earlier today, and why the battery indicator went *poof*. (And of course, now I'm fretting that it's about to brick itself just like my first N800 did.)

Maybe this disappearing icon is of no significance, but I figured I might as well throw it out there in case it means something to somebody smarter than I am.

In order to iron out wether hardware is also involved in the power on/off enigma, I did an experiment with my swithch, the on/off power switch, the one with a minus sign inside a circle.

In the last 5 days, I have used the on/off switch more than 100 times. I pressed it in a regular manner, not too long, not too hard, not in any particular manner, and then I would use all the functions in the menu except "Switch off!", i.e., I would do "Lock touch screen and keys, Normal mode, Lock device and wake the tablet" etc. Whenever I am in a meeting, waiting for reports, 'talking' with 'unimportant people', I would keep striking the on/off switch, bring up the menu and turn the tablet to sleep, wake up the tablet and turn it to sleep again. Again, I am NOT turning the tablet off, I did not use the "Switch off!" function. All together 100+ use of the on/off switch have been performed.




Result: Not even one failure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The tablet goes into sleep mode as it should and wakes up as it should.

Conclusion: the power on/off enigma is ALL software. At least that is the case of my N800.


bun

If it's a pure software problem, why has a hardware replacement changed my experience from not knowing when I'll be able to power back on to hitting the power button with impunity?

This is on freshly flashed systems, btw, nothing but the base software running on my 810.

Maybe the problems are different between the two devices?

What is a hardware replacement? You mean the Nokia repair bill or something like that reported a hardware replacement, like replace your switch, or physically replace something in your tablet?



bun

Based on your own text, that seems to be a non sequitur. You're saying that the switch works properly and the computer reacts to it, which is a far cry from ruling out hardware involvement in the actual problem.

That said, software may be able to work around fickle hardware, especially in cases like this one which exhibits various symptoms of being a race condition of some variety. Nokia's statement in the bug report confirms as much.

sudo gainroot
halt

Fine for me

I've never encountered this problem.
Yet...

Hi,

I have the same problem but I haven't been following this topic for a while, so I don't know if this is any news for anyone, but Nokia has admitted that it was a software (or at least software correctable) bug. It has something to do with the timings in the initialization code. That could also explain why only some of the devices are affected.

Here is the link to the bugtracker where the developpers accept it as a software bug: https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2673

It was returned as faulty. I got a new replacement tablet. The replacement one works absolutely fine. As the software in use is identical (the fact is that software does not deteriorate and can be verified to be identical in different instances), the only change was the hardware. As I said in my earlier post, the replacement does have different markings on the main board underneath the battery.

Provably identical software running differently on two different (but supposedly functionally identical) hardware devices indicates that there is a fault in one of the hardware devices. Now, there may be a software workaround to make the device appear to work - which may or may not appear in the next OS release (sorry, but shutdown scripts do not count as a software fix as they are only usable when you are planning to restart the system and will not help in the occasion of a software crash or battery failure) - but that does not detract from the fact that there was a hardware fault that prevented it from functioning correctly with the software it was designed for.

Hi,

I've only been using an N800 (OS2008) for a few weeks and was quite distressed to get this problem in the first couple of days. After trying to avoid power offs for a while, I have now found that I cannot reproduce the problem. One thing I have done is to set a 'lock code'. Has anyone else found that using a 'lock code' affects power on problems.

Thanks,

Alan

An observation on my N810 for the on/off problem:

It seems to be worse when the battery is fully charged.
I can usually expect a failure just after I charge it but, if I discharge the battery a bit through use, it will turn on until I have to charge it again.