battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

*** Update *** Bought new battery - tried to start N900 and didn't get past the screen with Nokia in blue on white background. Thinking the new battery might not be fully charged I left it charging all night, this time back in my home country ith a wall charger - and now the second battery is empty also!

I now assume I will have to reflash - but before getting a third battery or an external charger - I want to make sure it will work. When I connect the phone to the computer via usb I cannot see the n900 as a flash drive. Does this mean I won't be able to flash?
*****


Hi,
I am in the middle of a trip in the USA (not my own country), and my phone suddenly died - I'm pretty sure it is the battery (not charging, begins with yellow constant light, then flickers, then this starts over and over).
The big problem is, I use the phone as a GPS - and now I don't know my way around....:eek:
Where would be the place to look for a battery (in a real store - not amazon or ebay where I would have to wait a few days), what retail store carries them? I am in Daytona Beach Florida.
:(

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

Probably not going to find a store carrying N900 parts unless you find a highly specialized cell-phone store.

Fortunately the N900 uses the same battery as the 5800XM (i think). If that is the case, you can try any T-Mobile store as they (used to) carry the 5800 so should have spare batteries for sale.

At least you would think so...

Are you sure the battery just does not need an overnight charge from an AC outlet? I heard that if the battery gets to the point of switching off it can be difficult to get it to charge.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

if you've just been using the car charger try using a wall charger, mine done the same on a trip and i bought a new car charger first, no help, then in the shop before i bought a battery got the guy to try a wallcharger out and afer a few trys it would charge again.

dont know about american markets, but it uses the same battery as the 5800 which was reasonably popular here so most small phone stores stock them if its totally dead.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

the nokia 5230 is carried by t-mobile stores in the US(or at least it was recently) and shares the same battery with the n900

also really has kind of better maps and gps in my opinion

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

Unfortunately - I did not take the wall charger with me. Only charging in the rental car, or through my laptop. Neither are doing anything to the battery after 4 hours - but I will leave it overnight.
Thanks both of you for responding.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

just call some cell phone shops in the morning and ask if they have a bl-5j nokia battery, it should be pretty common. nokia website shows 9 different phones that use it.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

the wall charger should be a lot easier to get hold of, its a pretty standard connection these days. and cheaper. just avoid any multi-adaptor style ones they can cause problems too.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

You're more than likely to find a shop carrying a battery or battery charger using google search to find a store near you... than posting your request here. Try walmart, Radio shark, Best Buy, etc... Good luck.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

it sure looks like a symptoms of reboot loop to me and not a battery problem what did you install before this happen.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

i've had the n800 and n900 do some weird reboot loops that seemed to be caused by using usb to charge instead of the wall socket charger, so i think some weird stuff can happen. people have tried to explain it before but i never really saw a good explanation.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

Thanks. Not everyone is American, and know what shops to google. I had tried radio shack with no results - but will try the other suggestions now.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

I installed a GPS program (sygic - no battery indicator I could see while driving). This is the first time that I have used the phone with display on pretty constantly and with sattelite\gps for 4 hours.
The phone was relatively warm before this happened.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

Batteries Plus has an aftermarket battery by Rayovac (I think). It doesn't have quite as high mA rating, but I picked one up when my Nokia battery started acting flaky. It seems to last about as long as my original Nokia battery did, but I've never done a direct comparison. Google Batteries Plus and see if they have a store near you.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

Bright yellow means emergency charge, battery is too low to boot the system and start normal charging.

What do you mean by flickering? If it's doing a short flash every second or so, it's a repeating error condition. Could be battery or charger gone bad.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

I think there is a shop called Jons Mini Mart 7-11 near Daytona Beach. It's on Parrock Street if my memory serves me correctly, but i might be wrong.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip. Where can I find a relacement today?
 

Getting a new battery should fix your problem since it won't be completely empty by default. N900's battery is common so just go to a shop and get one. However, it should be pretty easy to get a wall usb charger. It is included in some travel kits for phones.

If your battery is empty then the phone cannot power itself. For usb charging to work, the phone needs to negotiate with the usb host to get some power, which is not possible if the phone has no battery at all. AFAIK that's why you need a charger. However, if you have a powered usb hub you can try using it without connecting it to a pc (or leaving the pc off). Some hubs give power when they do not operate.

Finally, just for testing, try removing the battery and the sim card and re-adding only the battery.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

*** Updated the OP***
Hi everyone, Thanks for your help so far. Here's an update - help still needed.
Bought new battery - tried to start N900 and didn't get past the screen with Nokia in blue on white background. Thinking the new battery might not be fully charged I left it charging all night, this time back in my home country ith a wall charger - and now the second battery is empty also!

I now assume I will have to reflash - but before getting a third battery or an external charger - I want to make sure it will work. When I connect the phone to the computer via usb I cannot see the n900 as a flash drive. Does this mean I won't be able to flash?

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

Are you familiar with the flashing process in general -- have you flashed before? If not, you may not realize that the usb symbol only appears momentarily unless you are following the flashing documentation very closely.

Flashing almost always works, once you understand exactly what you need to do, and are set up correctly. The main obstacle would be if your usb connector is damaged for some reason. Then you won't see evidence of a usb connection because there isn't one.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

Did you try removing the sim card and starting the phone without it?

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

tried that. doesn't work.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

I have flashed before - only once. Right now I don't get a symbol because I have two empty batteries. But i did get one when the battery was full. It just didn't boot then. But even then, hen the battery was full I didn't see the directory tree, or get a sign from the computer that it was connected. I just saw the little anchor-like icon in the upper corner of the phone.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

It is recommended that you make sure the battery is fully charged before you flash, that is probably excessive caution since the flash only takes a few minutes, but I wouldn't try flashing on a battery you think is empty. Get an external charger to charge the battery first, or see if you can borrow a compatible charged battery from someone (remember a few other phones use the same battery)

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

As long as you saw that icon, flashing will probably work. Good luck!

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

No, it won't show up as a USB drive until it has booted and you have selected the "mass storage" option.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

Thanks. I will get an external recharger and then try.
I assume I should start flashing the FIASCO/*COMBINED*/"rootfs", and only if that doesn't work to try vanilla/eMMc?

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

As long as flashing works, starting with the less drastic change sounds reasonable, yes.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

exactly the same problem with me....mods kindly merge the thread.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

tried flashing with ubuntu live cd...flashed the emmc then rootfs successfully..but still unable to boot.
Hardware problem I think !

will miss my N900
:((

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

If you flashed successfully, you WERE booting, weren't you? What happens when you try to boot? How did you know you flashed successfully?

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

when the flashing is complete...the message said flashed successfully the message is something like this
..


USB device found found at bus 002, device address 013.
Found device RX-51, hardware revision 2101
NOLO version 1.4.14
Version of 'sw-release': RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_MR0
Booting device into flash mode.
Suitable USB device not found, waiting.
USB device found found at bus 002, device address 014.
Raw data transfer EP found at EP2.
Image(s) flashed successfully in 4.711 s (9199 kB/s)!

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

Exactly the same problem that was present initially...Nokia logo for 10 sec then shut down.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

after searching and searching....there are total of 12 posts regarding the same problem....no one has found the solution...so I'm making up my mind this is the major hardware problem
:(

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

not going to give up so easily...

after carefully watching the flash process...I noticed few things...while flashing the eMMC,it starts good...progression dots run nicely,but just as the flash is at 10 % the dots get stuck at no.2 from left position....the final message of flashing is flash completed successfully...

those hanged dots remain in status quo even after this message is displayed...

so concluded as the flash is not getting done completely...

one culprit being the battery...charged externally with 5800...as dont have the voltmeter...cant assess the post charge status of those...now going to buy new batteries...and try again.

wish me luck.:)

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

making a clown out of me....

but wish you will understand my desperation..

bought new battery...charged to full with my 5800...even kept it there charging for 2 more hours...

flashed the fiasco then eMMc...both flash said...flashed successfully..

still no success...

again gonna try after charging the battery for 5 hrs...any more suggestion? ( p.s. it's out of warranty )

this time going to try the eMMC then Fiasco....(fingers crossed )

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

I wonder how closely Nokia checks the warranty status. Can anyone say for sure that their damaged phone was not repaired because it was out of warranty? Is there anyone who got their N900 fixed despite its being out of warranty? I saw at least one message to that effect.

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

so tried flashing eMMC then fiasco image in one go...

strange thing happened...while flashing fiasco the message displayed was..
Raw data transfer EP found at EP2.
Using flashing protocol Mk II.

then phone rebooted as i used -R flag....so does the problem lie between the pc and chair ??

any help..??What am i doing wrong ??

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

Remove the battery, connected your N900 to the computer;
1- Enable R&D mode: flasher-3.5.exe –-enable-rd-mode
2- Cold flash with your Fiasco Image: flasher-3.5.exe -c -h RX-51:<hw_id> -F <FIASCO image> -f (The code "RX-51" used in the example is the product code for the N900 device. The <hw_id> is the product HW revision, which is a 4-digit code. Both product code and HW revision can be found from the type label of the device to be flashed. The type label is on the back of the device, underneath the battery. )
3- Disable R&D mode: flasher-3.5.exe –-disable-rd-mode
4- Insert the battery and reboot
.....
this was found in a thread describing Mk II protocol..
should i try this ?

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

As advised by some senior member tried to flash with global firmware,but could not complete the flash,due to error,

error log as follows:

tried...

but could not flash the os...



errors as follows :



Bootloader error log follows :

Error :i2c: tranfer timeout

Error: LP5523 not found

Error::i2c: tranfer timeout

Error:SMB138 not found

Error :i2c: tranfer timeout

Error:BQ24150 not found

Error: Invalid argument for 'cmt'

Error:Error processing request, stalling

Error: EP0 stall sent

Error: Error reading spare of block 492,page 0

Error:Error reading spare of block 1134,page 0

Error:Invalid UBI magic in block 39,page 0

Error: RX DNA IRQ,while no RX packet

Error: EP2 RX for 512 bytes, but shouldn't

Error: EP2 RX for 512 bytes, but shouldn't

Error:Image not complete

Error: Error processing request, stalling

Error: EP0 stall sent

Error:Premature end of control tranfer

Help please...

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

taken to nokia care...they found out that my n900 is from singapore...so much relunctant to accept the phone also...
I need to flash with global firmware...tried ....error as already posted...somebody please helpppppp..

this is the only place which could offer some help...

Re: battery suddely died in midst of trip.need replacement (update - found battery- still not booting- need help)
 

another thing whenever i try to flash eMMc it takes around 3 min to complete flash whether i use xp or ubuntu....as per wiki it onley takes few sec....in few sec you will see progression dots.