Hi all,
I've recently started having a weird charging problem with my N900: sometimes when I connect it to the charger (PC USB or wall charger - it doesn't matter) the battery starts to charge and I get the 'Charging' message popping up (which rules out any chance that the mini-usb port is damaged or loose), but effectively the battery does not charge - e.g even after "charging" it all night, in the morning it'd stay with a low battery almost exactly as when I left it to charge.

"HealthCheck" and "Battery-Eye" both show 'charging: 5mAh' which may explain this weird issue.
Moreover, a message pops-up after a short while which says something in the likes of "Battery consumption is higher than recharging power".

Now, I have no idea why this happens (but it happens once or twice a month) but I suspect its due to the fact that I'm using the power-kernel with clocked CPU @ 930Mhz + DSP @ 500Mhz.
While I'm having the problem and the device is at idle, the CPU is not stuck at max frequency, rather it doesn't go less than 500Mhz (not as far as I've seen anyhow).

Anyways, I've found a 'solution' to this problem - I refer to it as a 'solution' as its rather troublesome and inconvenient, but it does the job: I remove the battery from the device for at least an hour, this way it resets itself and the backup battery gets drained as well, so I have to re-set my time and date and timezone, etc.
After one hour, I put my battery back and the device returns to charge normally...

To be honest, I'm kinda tried of this happening, so I think I'll reflash to 800Mhz and hope that the problem will not repeat itself anymore.

i had the same pro... i didnt overclocked the device... :/ .. soo weirdd :P....
but i couldnt solve it so i send the phone to nokia... because i didnt knew ur solution or at least didnt tried it!

I have faced this problem too. My assessment so far has been that this happens when you do a quick disconnect and reconnect (e.g. for me, when the charger comes off the wall and I reconnect).

What works for me is to disconnect micro-USB from the phone for like 4-5 minutes, and then connect again. Unsure this is the same problem you guys are facing too, but you may just want to give this a try.

~aiyush

USB charges at lower amps and therefore if there is damand by the CPU then you can get this message but it is usualy because of maxing everything out.

If you get it as well with the wall charger, have you tried a different Nokia charger? Just windering if the is failing.

If it is not either of thoughs then may be you device has a problem.

In X Terminal type:
Then plug the charger in, you should have an output something like this:

Code:

Start monitoring devicelist:
-------------------------------------------------
18:24:56.502: usb_device_1d6b_2_musb_hdrc property usb_device.vbus = 1 (0x1)
18:24:56.686: bme property maemo.charger.connection_status = 'connected'
18:24:56.693: bme property maemo.charger.type = 'unknown'
18:24:56.701: bme property maemo.rechargeable.positive_rate = true
18:24:57.253: bme property battery.rechargeable.is_discharging = false
18:24:57.277: bme property battery.rechargeable.is_charging = true
18:24:57.374: bme property battery.remaining_time = 7200 (0x1c20)
18:24:57.433: bme property maemo.rechargeable.charging_status = 'on'
18:24:57.528: bme property maemo.charger.type = 'wall charger'

Does it say 'wall charger' ^

After charging for a bit a charging status update should appear:

Code:

18:25:15.246: bme property battery.voltage.current = 3975 (0xf87)
18:25:15.289: bme property battery.reporting.current = 788 (0x314)

Thanks JonWW, I've seen this post before (by you). I don't think that the problem is with the charger as I'm having the same issue when connected to the usb from pc, and with the wall charger.
Moreover, as I mentioned in my first post - the problem "comes and goes", so most of the time the wall charger works just fine.

I'll try the "lshal -m" command, will keep this thread updated.

What happens if you turn off the Device and THEN charge it?

Been there, done that
It still won't charge...

you say its sticking @ 500Mhz, i take it thats on 'ideal' you can remove the avoid freq so it will drop to 125/250

do you have it set to 'stays lit whilst charging'?

Nope... I like my screen turned off while charging, so the light won't bother my sleep

take it you don't have anything running on it over night

if the screen is off and there's nothing running the processor should be @ 0Mhz

if there is something running or its connected to gprs/wifi it will be draining the power once its charged
if you plug it in @ 11pm and its full by 1am, even tho its still plugged in, its no longer charging so any connections, running apps or even missed calls/sms will be eating power