Hello community,

My n900 has started to exhibit a rather disturbing bug that seriously affects its reliability as my primary phone.

It happened first a month ago; the gsm modem (I assume) goes all zombie on me such that I can not receive calls, or receive / send text messages, upon attempting to call myself I get a "general error" (very useful). The problem is fixed with a reboot.

The major issue here is that the phone gives no indication of the problem. The network bars are there, and the operator name. My phone is continuously connected via 3g / gprs but I do not get a "internet connection failed" report. So I tend to go hours with people trying to call me whilst Im oblivious to the issue.

Has anyone heard of a similar case?

Is it while you're connected to 2.5g internet?

Know you can't receive calls while connected online on 2g, 3g is ok.

I believe being connected via 2 or 3g does not affect incoming or outgoing calls, 2g connections are suspended during calls.

Anyway the issue has occured in a 2g and 3g network; it has also happened whilst internet connection was facilitated by wifi. So no packet data connection at all.

Have you updated it to the latest firmware? Its possible a reflash could help.

What is the wireless provider? It could be their problem and not your device - or a coverage issue.

I've had mine lose data network in spotty coverage areas and require a reboot to recover that, even though I have moved into a better coverage area. I've had that same thing happen with a lot of devices on both GSM and CDMA networks - it does happen.

This exact issue happened to me for the first time yesterday, and then today again. I use WIND Mobile in Canada for what it's worth, and both times that it happened a reboot fixed the problem. Hopefully it doesn't happen again.

I've noticed this once, the issue started when I connected via 3G and started driving around town. At one point at a red light, I noticed that I couldn't do anything on the net, like check email or surf, but I didn't really need it and left it like that.

After a couple of hours I needed to make a call and that's when I noticed that I can't do that, so I had to reboot. After the reboot everything started working and I got several texts that I had voice mails.

From this anecdote I can conclude that you shouldn't be driving around with GPRS on, or your GSM chip/software might lock up and you will not be able to receive or send calls and texts.

The phone started to lag a lot, open keyboard display lits up after a few seconds. No incomming calls nor smses. After reboot several texts and missed calls notifications. 2.5G connection in the status, not a sign of dead network.

I've installed camkeyd last friday and suspected it. the other suspect is unstopped alarm. i was away from the phone when the alarm started and haven't stopped it for about 5 hours.

before rebooting checked with htop processes only evolution-address.. was getting about 15% cpu every few seconds.

i've had the same problem. i phoned vodafone who reckon that the phone hasnt registered with the network for a long time, sometimes doesnt re register when you re boot the phone

they recommended manually connect to another network, then reconnect back to your own network and then back to auto

this has resolved the problem for me

hope this helps

Sounds like im not the only one with this problem.

I use Saunalahti / Elisa in Finland; latest firmware. The timeout thing did cross my mind since people trying to call me get the "person you are dialing could not be reached" thing, the same they would get if the phone were off. Then the first time this happened I started getting angry people calling my friends trying to reach me after I made a phone call just 2 hours ago, so the phone died some time within the two hours, so its not like the the phone has been sitting idle for ages. And to the best of my knowledge my phone tries my email server every 10 minutes...

I really know very little about gsm networking. Maybe there is some inherent process in all mobile phones that pings the network every x minutes telling it that its still there, and maybe this process somehow miraculously dies on the n900 occasionally.

Its odd cause Ive used this phone for >4 months and the first time this happened at all was about a month ago. Could be some buggy app (yes I have extras-testing enabled) but cant recall anything that should be directly related to gsm.

When the next firmware comes out Ill just dump half of the apps I dont use anyway, maybe that will help.

@MoKopila...hey...i bot a n900 yst...nd wen i cal its showing the same msg "GENERAL ERROR"....bt i recieve msgs nd calls...bt i cant cal.....any solution???....plzzzzzzzz....