N900 charging problems

Hi,

I have a new problem today with my N900: it won't charge anymore through
USB (pc-connected) when powered on.

The N900 is connected via the monitor's USB hub to the pc, or directly
from the pc's front plugs. When powered on, if I plug the cable it will
charge for a few seconds, then stop charging and show a notification
yellow bar saying "Défaut de charge", which roughly translated means
"Charging defect", then charge stops.

I see nothing special in the N900's dmesg.

If I turn it off, it will charge happily (the yellow led blinks slowly),
and act as an USB key.

This morning it was charging ok (powered on) on the wall charger.



Does someone have an idea how to find where does that come from ?

Thanks,
Xav

On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 16:40 +0100, ext Xavier Bestel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a new problem today with my N900: it won't charge anymore through
> USB (pc-connected) when powered on.
>
> The N900 is connected via the monitor's USB hub to the pc, or directly
> from the pc's front plugs. When powered on, if I plug the cable it will
> charge for a few seconds, then stop charging and show a notification
> yellow bar saying "Défaut de charge", which roughly translated means
> "Charging defect", then charge stops.

The animation is stopped if you are not getting more power from PC than
you are using in the N900. So it could be that some process is using lot
of CPU in the N900 and causing this consumption. This happens to me
with browser playing Youtube, for example, unless I use the dedicated
charger (that provides more power).

-Kimmo

> I see nothing special in the N900's dmesg.
>
> If I turn it off, it will charge happily (the yellow led blinks slowly),
> and act as an USB key.
>
> This morning it was charging ok (powered on) on the wall charger.
>
>
>
> Does someone have an idea how to find where does that come from ?
>
> Thanks,
> Xav
>

On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 16:40 +0100, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a new problem today with my N900: it won't charge anymore through
> USB (pc-connected) when powered on.
>
> The N900 is connected via the monitor's USB hub to the pc, or directly
> from the pc's front plugs. When powered on, if I plug the cable it will
> charge for a few seconds, then stop charging and show a notification
> yellow bar saying "Défaut de charge", which roughly translated means
> "Charging defect", then charge stops.
>
> I see nothing special in the N900's dmesg.
>
> If I turn it off, it will charge happily (the yellow led blinks slowly),
> and act as an USB key.

Ok, my bad, it just charges for a little while more than when powered
on, but it still stops after a while.
So it looks like a hw problem. Well, that phone sure didn't live for
long.

Xav

On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 18:04 +0200, Kimmo Hämäläinen wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 16:40 +0100, ext Xavier Bestel wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have a new problem today with my N900: it won't charge anymore through
> > USB (pc-connected) when powered on.
> >
> > The N900 is connected via the monitor's USB hub to the pc, or directly
> > from the pc's front plugs. When powered on, if I plug the cable it will
> > charge for a few seconds, then stop charging and show a notification
> > yellow bar saying "Défaut de charge", which roughly translated means
> > "Charging defect", then charge stops.
>
> The animation is stopped if you are not getting more power from PC than
> you are using in the N900. So it could be that some process is using lot
> of CPU in the N900 and causing this consumption. This happens to me
> with browser playing Youtube, for example, unless I use the dedicated
> charger (that provides more power).

My N900 just switched off by itself (no more juice), and now plugging
the USB cable does nothing. It's dead.

I'll try the wall charger when I get back home.

Xav

2010/3/1 Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel@free.fr>:
> My N900 just switched off by itself (no more juice), and now plugging
> the USB cable does nothing. It's dead.
>
> I'll try the wall charger when I get back home.

On mine, the N900 becomes totally unresponsive (won't even charge)
depending on turning power on and off and charging while power is off,
etc. I have to remove the battery and reinsert it, then it behaves
normally. Maybe you can try that if you haven't already.

On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 11:44 -0600, Paul Hartman wrote:
> 2010/3/1 Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel@free.fr>:
> > My N900 just switched off by itself (no more juice), and now plugging
> > the USB cable does nothing. It's dead.
> >
> > I'll try the wall charger when I get back home.
>
> On mine, the N900 becomes totally unresponsive (won't even charge)
> depending on turning power on and off and charging while power is off,
> etc. I have to remove the battery and reinsert it, then it behaves
> normally. Maybe you can try that if you haven't already.

I just tried your suggestion.
So now, when plugging the cable it enters into a loop where it starts to
charge (the yellow led slowly blinks), the USB mass storage mode is
entered, than after 5 seconds the led stops blinking, 2 seconds after
that it powers completely off for 1 second.
Rinse and repeat.

Is there a mean to ask for charge without even entering the mass-storage
mode ?

Thanks,
Xav

On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 18:54 +0100, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 11:44 -0600, Paul Hartman wrote:
> > 2010/3/1 Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel@free.fr>:
> > > My N900 just switched off by itself (no more juice), and now plugging
> > > the USB cable does nothing. It's dead.
> > >
> > > I'll try the wall charger when I get back home.
> >
> > On mine, the N900 becomes totally unresponsive (won't even charge)
> > depending on turning power on and off and charging while power is off,
> > etc. I have to remove the battery and reinsert it, then it behaves
> > normally. Maybe you can try that if you haven't already.
>
> I just tried your suggestion.
> So now, when plugging the cable it enters into a loop where it starts to
> charge (the yellow led slowly blinks), the USB mass storage mode is
> entered, than after 5 seconds the led stops blinking, 2 seconds after
> that it powers completely off for 1 second.
> Rinse and repeat.

... and after trying to power it on while plugged, it's just black with
a red led faintly blinking. Even when unplugging and replugging the
cable.

I didn't find a mention of red blinking led in the manual.

Xav

On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 19:07 +0100, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 18:54 +0100, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> > On Mon, 2010-03-01 at 11:44 -0600, Paul Hartman wrote:
> > > 2010/3/1 Xavier Bestel <xavier.bestel@free.fr>:
> > > > My N900 just switched off by itself (no more juice), and now plugging
> > > > the USB cable does nothing. It's dead.
> > > >
> > > > I'll try the wall charger when I get back home.
> > >
> > > On mine, the N900 becomes totally unresponsive (won't even charge)
> > > depending on turning power on and off and charging while power is off,
> > > etc. I have to remove the battery and reinsert it, then it behaves
> > > normally. Maybe you can try that if you haven't already.
> >
> > I just tried your suggestion.
> > So now, when plugging the cable it enters into a loop where it starts to
> > charge (the yellow led slowly blinks), the USB mass storage mode is
> > entered, than after 5 seconds the led stops blinking, 2 seconds after
> > that it powers completely off for 1 second.
> > Rinse and repeat.
>
> ... and after trying to power it on while plugged, it's just black with
> a red led faintly blinking. Even when unplugging and replugging the
> cable.

So I got back home, and instead of trying the wall charger I tried on my
home computer (because it has the original Nokia cable, instead of the
one I bought on eBay), and there it worked.
Tried on another pc, it worked too. Of course the wall charger worked
too.

And now, back to work, with the eBay cable, it charges happily.

But strangely the first time I plugged it, it thought it was a wall
charger (it didn't ask for mass storage/pc suite mode), and after
unplugging/replugging it worked normally.

Strange ...

Xav