[SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

Hey guys.
I've just changed my n9's housing and after that the device shows 'The charger isn't working properly. Replace it or contact the nearest Nokia Care point' message when I'm plugging the wall charger.

bmestat shows:
I've heard that flashing only kernel might help, so I did it, but the result is the same.

Is there something that can be done, or the charge controller is broken?

----------

Seems it was a hardware problem and the metal plate which is under the display closed the circuit in the worng place or sth like that *facepalm*
Mods, please, close the thread and/or delete it.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

I have a similar issue. How did you realise the metal parts were the problem?

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

@asd123
I checked the wire once again and noticed that it was pinched.
Though I also remember I flashed kernel several times and left the phone charging for some time. Not sure what really helped back then.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

Pity.

You probably mean charging when the battery is completely dead. I see it as a terrible design flaw that the phone needs to boot up even for such trivial tasks as change the battery. So to charge the battery, you need at least some juice left. Starting the flasher bypasses that problem.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

It's only semi-true and only when phone is in developer mode.
Typical phone user, uses phone as-is, doesn't play with developerbmode, open mode or ubiboot.
And off-the-shelve Nokia n9 (or after clean flash) doesn't boot up automatically after connecting USB cable), until you enable developer mode(I was told there that's root cause, not open mode).
Another one problem is ubiboot, it's normal kernel, but with limited userspace(lacks bme/charging support), and by default it boot ups to eecovery mode, after connecting USB cable.
You can change thst behaviour of ubiboot in theory in config file, but it only covers clean harmattan shutdowns and works a bit like loterry (sometimes it worked only with stock ooen kernel, sometimes only with kernel plus), and only cold boot(doesn't work after dead battery).

So all these annoyances shouldn't be problem for average jo^H^Hn9 user. The problem isn't directly in how stock n9 behaves, but with TMO sect, which owns most of harmattan devices and uses them in non-conventional way. So the problem exis in "us", we(TMO members) are mental and nothing can fix that ;-)

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

Sorry, but I'm completely not an expert in whatever you're referring to above. The phone does not charge, power on or connect to PC.

In simple language, what do I need to do to the metal parts to stop them shorting out please?

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

You may need to consult some of the N9 disassembly videos on youtube.com to see the correct placement of the metal covers and placement of the wires for the battery.

I suggest in the future when disassembling the phone be observant of the placement of the metal covers to avoid shorting anything out.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

I'm sorry to tell you but you are wrong there; the same boot problem with empty battery exists for stock devices too, it is not only a problem of developer mode or open mode.

When the battery of a N9 goes so flat it cannot boot up in "act dead mode" when you plug in the USB cord it will not be able to charge.
The HW of the device is designed so that it needs the kernel to be minimally alive to be able to switch on the charging logic, there is no HW charging support at all in the device.
Hence, for a totally dead device you have to use the flasher trick to revive it, even on totally non-modified closed-mode device.

The way the flasher charging works, is it injects a very low-power-consuming kernel (called the APE algorithm) into the device that turns no peripherals on and hence is able to run on the USB juice alone. This kernel then starts the charging process.


Yes, the ubiboot kernel has no charging support which is too bad. Hence when you run a device long time with ubiboot, for example when doing a backup dump of the device it will deplete the battery during the operation.
For that reason you should not attempt such without a full battery.

I am sorry I have neglected ubiboot for a long time; as N9 is not currently my daily driver device I have been very lazy with it! :D
However, I started to study it again some time ago, so maybe I'll get one day to the point of adding the charging support to ubiboot kernel.

I also have an idea of integrating the APE algo fatureset in the ubiboot so you'd be able to boot an empty device up without the flasher trick but I'll see if I get to do that someday ;)


As you say, ubiboot does have the configuration option of loading up the 2nd level kernel in "act dead mode" when USB charger is plugged into a non-powered-on device; however as I explained above it is not enough to help if the battery is totally dead; it has to have a tiny amount of juice left.
When ubiboot does this, it has to anyway boot up 2 times and this eats up some of the weak battery; first time the ubiboot kernel boots, and then it kexecs to the Harmattan kernel with ACT_DEAD flag set on kernel command line.

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

Regarding the no charging with an empty battery:

I recently purchased an N9 from a fellow TMOer. I has a dual boot of Harmattan and Sailfish, I am not sure if that is in any way related. But... I do not use it and often forget about it for days and - you've guessed it - the battery goes completely empty. Needless to say, it does not charge afterwards.

So what do I do? Kick off the flasher to charge it again?

No. I plug in the charger. The indicator LED goes dim white for a few seconds, then off again. That's it. Device dead. I unplug the charger and plug it in again. The whole thing repeats. After a few dozen cycles like that, the charging eventually starts in earnest. The downside is that it can take half a day.

I have no proof other than this anecdotal experience but my assumption is the battery is being charged for those few seconds while the LED is on. Then the kernel (or something else, I do not know or care) finds out that the battery level is too low and cuts off. Restarting the cycle enough times boosts the battery enough for the cut off to not take place.

I plan to make a charging device that disconnects and reconnects the power automatically when the current drops to zero :)

Re: [SOLVED] n9 won't charge
 

Can confirm.