Spontaneous Reboots related to bme_RX-44 [Archive] - maemo.org

Solomon

2009-05-28, 05:01

I have noticed reboots of my tablet when i leave it to charge overnight recently. It might reboot several times, or it might not...more often than not if it is on the charger it will reboot at least once. Following some info from the developers mailing list, I have reviewed /proc/bootreason which indicates it was a software reset (sw_rst) and then reviewed /var/lib/dsme/stats/lifeguard_resets to determine that it seems to be related to bme_RX-44. Unfortunately, things break down for me there and I'm not sure what to check next. I haven't been able to relate it to any specific change that I made, since I charge almost exclusively overnight, so I'm not sure when it started happening.

Any advice would be appreciated.

alephito

2009-05-28, 11:17

I am suffering the same problem with my N810. The problem started a couple of weeks ago.

Currently, I am testing different chargers, since I suspect the problem might be there (so far, the problem only occurs with a particular charger). Or in the battery itself.

Solomon

2009-05-28, 13:27

Mine is also an N810. It probably would have helped to mention that. I had not considered the charger, since I'm seeing it with all three of my chargers (home, work, and travel). I've been looking around for a battery, but i haven't found one locally, so I haven't challenged that either. I thought it might be related to the Advanced-Power app except: 1) no one else is complaining and 2) I uninstalled it ~24 hours ago and I'm still having the problem.

alephito

2009-05-28, 14:12

I am not using (and I never did) Advance-Power app.

I reflashed my N810, installed all my usual applications (without restoring them) and after a couple of days the problem reappeared.

So far, I have only one charger (house) that makes the N810 reboot. I will continue testing with my car and office chargers. But if you have this problem with all of them, maybe the issue is in another place.

I noted also that the battery started to behave in a funny way: sometimes is empty in a couple of hours, I restart it while charging and the battery immediately says it's full. Also, the battery uses to be really hot while charging.

Last night it did not reboot, but after four hours of low use the battery says the remaining charge is 5 hours. Very little, from my experience.

If the chargers are not the reason, I will try with a new battery.

mfortner

2009-05-28, 17:14

I had similar issues with my n800 about the time I installed flipclock and a python dependency (if that is the correct term). This pyhton process kept multiplying until there were so many instances that it would crash. It was an mmc boot so recreated it.

alephito

2009-05-28, 17:56

I do have flipclock installed.

Removing it solved the problem, mfortner?

Solomon

2009-05-28, 18:42

i have flipclock installed as well. I'm not sure about the timeframe, but it has been recent for both of them.

It looks like you reformated, mfortner...did you try to just remove things first?

alephito

2009-05-28, 20:19

I do not remember either, buy it could be possible that the reboots started with the upgrade to the last version of flipclock. But it's strange that nobody else complained.

I removed flipclock and will continue testing.

mfortner

2009-05-28, 23:53

Sorry guys I'm not sure what fixed it because I wanted to reformat the card into multiple bootable patitions anyway. Here is more on what I had:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=28032

...but yeah try uninstalling of course first.

Thesandlord

2009-05-29, 00:04

My N810 would reboot while charging until i replaced the battery.

alephito

2009-05-29, 02:45

Well, that was my next test. But I will give flipclock (or the lack of) a chance.

Thanks.

Solomon

2009-05-29, 05:11

I uninstalled flipclock this afternoon, and I've had a couple of reboots on power since then. I guess it's looking like i should go ahead and order a battery.

Edit: Anyone have a suggestion on where to order them?

pekkis

2009-05-29, 08:10

Just like mine - reboot loop while charging (perhaps once in 5 minutes).
New replacement battery fixed it !

alephito

2009-05-29, 11:06

Well, I will start the hunting for a battery in Argentina... It will not be easy, I am afraid.

spirytsick

2009-05-29, 15:41

I am not sure about N810 but for the N800 the battery is exactly the same as in nokia E66. Battery model: BP-5L.

fpp

2009-05-29, 15:47

And N810 is the same as E71...

Solomon

2009-06-03, 13:45

I received the new battery yesterday, and my n810 has been on the charger for ~12 hours without a reboot. That's about 12 times as long as normal, so I am hopeful that this fixed things. Thanks for your help.

alephito

2009-06-04, 20:37

And N810 is the same as E71...
Nokia is selling the E71 in Argentina, but they do not sell the battery. Believe it or not.

I will have to order the battery overseas. Where can I buy one? Would it be smart to try with one from Mugen?

Thanks.

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-04, 20:51

I've had my tablet reboot at least 3 times (that I witnessed) in the last 2 hours, while not hooked up to a charger. The tablet was in idle. It did it at least once yesterday, since then I uninstalled anything I had installed recently. I have flipclock (like mentioned previously in this thread) but I've had that installed for a long time and never had any problems with it.

<edit> I have a N810, Diablo (current version, 43-7)

alephito

2009-06-04, 20:59

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-04, 21:07

Nelson,

At least in my case, it is not Flipclock's fault. It is the battery. But all my reboots are while charging, with different chargers (some seem to provoke reboots more often than others, though).

How old is your battery? I've had my tablet since summer of 2008. So I'm just coming up on a year of usage. To me that seems like a short number for a faulty batterym but who knows. Could have had a defect from the factory.

alephito

2009-06-04, 21:09

I bought my N810 in February 2008.

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-04, 21:18

Ok. So its only a few months difference. My battery power was low so I'm on charger power now. So far its 30 minutes uptime on the charger. Before I plugged it in, I shut the tablet down first, removed the battery for about 15 seconds, replaced the battery and put it on the charger. Not sure if it helps, but I thought I'd give it a try.

I'll be at work for 45 more minutes, at which point I'll be removing the charger. I'll post if I get any more reboots.

Solomon

2009-06-04, 21:24

I've had my N810 since Jan 2008, and it looks like replacing the battery has solved my problem. Since putting in the new battery two days ago, I haven't had one reboot on the charger, which was impossible with the old battery.

Not sure if this is related to what you're seeing Nelson, but it is worth looking at the battery anyway.

alephito

2009-06-04, 21:32

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-04, 21:45

My battery suddenly stopped lasting for a whole day. After that moment, my battery status is sometimes low and if I reboot it I have 3 or 4 more hours available.

I think it is something broken in the battery logic. Not something that depends in the battery age.

I experienced that sometime last week. It was at about 50%, then randonly rebooted. After the reboot the battery level was at 90%. Thing is, the tablet didn't reboot any time after that, and I didn't have to charge the battery until a day and a half later I think.

When I use my tablet, I run the GPS and plug the tablet in for that. It isn't supposed to affect Lithium Ion batteries, but would plugging the battery in and out over time cause faulty battery logic?

alephito

2009-06-04, 22:27

Well, I read a lot of times that this kind of use does not affect the battery.

I do the same as you while driving. Additionally, I left the NIT charging all night, sometimes more than 12 hours.

Maybe the charger, at some point, damaged the battery. I do not know. It seems we are a minority.

qole

2009-06-04, 22:37

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-04, 22:57

For me, two things have caused the problem you describe.
1) E-Mail program (modest): automatic checks were causing the reboots
2) Corrupt partition on SD card: my cloned partitions are particularly susceptible to this. Things just start going wrong for no apparent reason. Even if I repair the partition (using fsck), the damage usually has been done, and things never work quite right again.

Are either of you using Modest or booting from SD?

I'm running Modest with the automatic checks turned on. No booting from SD though. Modest makes the most sense. I've never had problems with it before, and I've had it set to constantly check for emails since I got it. Is this a bug in modest that only happens occasionally?

qole

2009-06-04, 23:06

Is this a bug in modest that only happens occasionally?

I think it might also have something to do with SD card corruption... Modest usually stores its files on the SD card, and if that gets damaged, it gets ugly...

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-04, 23:15

Modest usually stores its files on the SD card, and if that gets damaged, it gets ugly...

Is that the Internal SD, or the Removable SD? About a month ago I put in a new microSD card (N810 external slot)

alephito

2009-06-04, 23:23

I am booting from SD, but the same behaviour (reboots while charging) happens if I remove the SD and boot from flash.

I just ordered a new battery from Mugen. I will report if the reboots stop when I change the battery.

alephito

2009-06-05, 03:40

Bad luck. They are (http://shop.eten.hu/mugen-power-1800mah-extended-battery-for-nokia-e61i-e90-n810-e71-p-212.html) out of stock.

Anybody knows another site where I can buy a battery with free shipping?

Nelson L. Squeeko

2009-06-05, 12:45

So after shutting down and removing the battery, so far I haven't had any problems with rebooting (connected to power or not connected to power). So far my uptime is 16 hours...

If you haven't alephito, try shutting down your tablet and removing the battery for a minute. I can't say if this is a fix or not, and our problems were a little different, but I haven't had the reboot problem return yet.

eber42

2009-06-21, 12:47

I've got exactly the same problem : random reboots caused by bme_rx-44 when device is plugged, battery level dropping down to 0, and back up after reboot, device sometime becoming very hot, removing and putting back battery is just a temporary fix.

I read in the above thread it may be caused by the battery, so today i tried to swap batteries between my n810 and a brand new one.

Guess what, the new n810 crashed with my old battery within 10 minutes. No problem on the other device after 4 hours.

So it's probably a battery fault.

After reading this thread, it seems Nokia has produced a lot of defective (or short-lived) batteries ...

alephito

2009-06-25, 12:34

I have been using my new Mugen battery for 3 days. The reboots are gone.

So far, the battery seems to behave similarly to the Nokia original.

skatebiker

2009-10-20, 12:14

I sometimes get these reboots as well.
When I check the file /var/lib/dsme/stats/lifeguard_resets i see:

/usr/bin/metalayer-crawler -F : 170 *
/usr/sbin/ke-recv : 6
/usr/bin/hildon-input-method : 7
/usr/sbin/icd2 -l0 : 1
/usr/bin/hildon-desktop : 1
/usr/bin/clipboard-manager : 3
/usr/bin/esd : 1
/usr/sbin/multimediad : 1
/usr/sbin/dsp_dld -p --disable-restart -c /lib/dsp/dsp_dld_avs.conf : 1
/usr/sbin/gpsdriver : 1

I am trying to disable matalayer-crawler, hope that helps.

/etc/init.d/metalayer-crawler0 stop

And can I safely remove /usr/bin/metalayer-crawler ?

VulcanRidr

2009-10-20, 15:26

I haven't gotten to the point of reboots on external power (yet), though now I have to recharge through the day (I've had my N810 since February 2009, but I use it almost constantly...Listening to mp3/ogg podcasts on the drive to/from the train, watching movies on the trains, reading books/playing Angband/doing crosswords occasionally through the day, etc.)

One thing I have noticed over the last month or month and a half, is whenever I plug into external power, I get the "Battery is charging" chime twice. Sometimes they come one after another, sometimes they are separated by a few seconds. Is this related? A harbinger of auto-reboots?

skatebiker

2009-10-20, 17:04

The device rebooted again, slightly more than 24 hours after the previous one.
The line in the abovementioned file is now
/usr/bin/metalayer-crawler -F : 172 *

There is also a file in the same folder "sw_rst" with the number "21" in it and a file "32wd_to" with the number "48" in it.
So there should be some process which deliberately resets the device. Any idea what that process can be ?