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maemo.org - Talk (https://talk.maemo.org/index.php)

- Nokia N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/forumdisplay.php?f=44)

- - N900 battery life questions, issues, scenarios (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=31020)

GeneralAntilles

2009-11-28 08:18

Re: N900 battery life

Quote:

Originally Posted by shapeshifter (Post 397114)

btw, is it possible to disable the keyboard backlight? I won't need it during the day.

It's controlled automatically by the ambient light sensor.

qole	2009-11-28 08:23

Re: N900 battery life

Yes, if you want to keep the backlight off during the day, don't be left-handed. :(

marauder

2009-11-29 09:51

N900 battery issue

I think my N900 has some kind of serious battery issue I still haven't read about in the other posts... I have been using it for a week now, and occasionally (not always) the battery will drain fast.

This morning I think I beat a new record. Unplugged my N900 this morning at 6.00 a.m. after having left it charging for the whole night. Battery was completely drained by 10.30 a.m.

The use of the device included 5 minutes on a wifi connection to check mail before I left home, no more than 1 hour browsing (UMTS 3G connection) later in the morning. I've downloaded and installed AMSN, played a little with it (by the way very slow loading). That's it. No phone calls, no pictures, no radio/music listening, movies watching this morning.... and the battery is empty.

This is not happening always, the battery will usually last a whole day, but occasionally fast battery drain occurs. Once I tried rebooting the device and the battery draining seemed to stop: eg. it took 2 hours to drain half battery, but after the reboot I was able to run for 6 more hours, and I'm talking about the phone being idle most of the time.

I am not a Linux savvy, but I have the feeling that occasionally something hangs? Some process is draining the battery?

One thing that also happened (3 times) is that I disconnect from my wifi router, and the N900 will not see the router anymore (the other devices I have don't have any issues with the router). I have to reboot the N900 and everything works again. Some service fails?

Are there some Xterm comands I can run to check if something is wrong when these strange behaviours occur? I have tried the "top" comand, but I really don't now how to use the output I get...

Any help appreciated.

Active Desktop widgets: OMWeather, Converstions Inbox Desktop Widget, Calendar viewer.

maxximuscool

2009-11-29 10:04

Re: N900 battery issue

have u upgrade your firmware to the latest software? Sound like some app is Not Responding and is using your RAM and CPU. Something definitly out of ordinary. May be try reflashing it might help. I have not got my N900 yet but this is all I can help you with, SOrry.

There is not reset button for N900 either. You either have to download the flasher and reflash it. Usually it fixes problems you've had on the N900.

But have you recently installed any applications?

RevdKathy

2009-11-29 10:06

Re: N900 battery issue

Can you please tell us what apps you have downloaded too in case one of the them is causing a 'hang'.

imdev

2009-11-29 10:08

Re: N900 battery issue

I noticed this too. If I add up widgets needing WIFI connectivity my battery time reduces drastically. Normally if I m not using it a lot, I need to recharge it once a day otherwise twice.
Had to buy a car charger which really helped me keeping it alive through out the day.

marauder

2009-11-29 10:13

Re: N900 battery issue

Firmware should be the latest (1.2009.42.11) as I got it just one week ago.

Installed apps are:

aMSN
Bounce Evolution
Conversations Inbox Desktop Widget
Facebook Installer / Facebook Widget & Photo Uploader (disabled)
OMWeather (with 2 extra icon sets)
Password Safe
rootsh
vim
vncviewer
zoutube
fennec (which seems to install xulrunner)

that's all, everything else is standard.

I would try reflashing only if there's no other way... I really don't like the idea of reflashing after just one week.

maxximuscool

2009-11-29 10:20

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by marauder (Post 398795)

Do this buddy. Uninstall the app that you've recently installed one by one and monitoring the battery level. If the battery improving then the app that is uninstalled is the cause else keep going and note down on the list. Other wise I cant really tell you which one causing the hang. Since I dont have the N900 yet. But I experienced this sort of thing on my YDL6.2 linux on my PS3. lol. It does slow down very badly and seem to make my PS3 runs warmer.

I can't wait to get my N900 from the stupid Amazon.

maxximuscool

2009-11-29 10:22

Re: N900 battery issue

Facebook Installer / Facebook Widget & Photo Uploader (disabled)
OMWeather (with 2 extra icon sets)
Password Safe

try get rid of these 3 apps. I think the Facebook and Omweather may be the cause. But don't take my word for it. I've seen some forum somewhere about the Facebook App draining RAM out of the N97. So I am hoping it is the Facebook app.

marauder

2009-11-29 10:25

Re: N900 battery issue

The "top" command in xterm gives me the following info:

Mem: 224748K used, 20800K free, 0K shrd, 1972K buff, 76036K
CPU: 4.3% usr 1.5 sys 0.0% nice 94.2% idle 0.0% io 0.0
Load average: 0.88 0.86 1.37

every 60 seconds I see the CPU value get higher, around 11/12% (usr around 9.7%)

N900 is idle with 3G connection to network (no data connection active) and Xterm window open.

maxximuscool

2009-11-29 10:32

Re: N900 battery issue

wow all your RAM lol is only about 18MB free.. What is using it? all i see is about 220MB used up by some app you've installed. Normally it should have 100MB free I think, I've read it somewhere that the RAM will be about 100MB left over when boot up. Something that using your RAM is draining your Battery for sure. But which one?

The swap RAM is not show up though.

RevdKathy

2009-11-29 10:54

Re: N900 battery issue

You might get some useful information by running this app.

Though it sounds like you know you have a problem: the issue is working out what's causing it.

sljonson

2009-11-29 11:35

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxximuscool (Post 398822)

Don't freak out about the the amount of free memory. The kernel will tend to use most of the memory available as the system runs.The expect stuff will be application code and data pages. The kernel will use the rest for file buffers so it can avoid having to access (abysmally) slow disk (as compared to RAM). The kernel is quite deft at managing RAM. RAM is a very slight battery drain as compared to te CPU running at full speed, or the WIFI or Ceullar radios.

jaysire

2009-11-29 11:54

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by marauder (Post 398813)

The "top" command in xterm gives me the following info:

Sort Top by CPU usage by pressing capital "P". What percentage is the greediest process sucking down? The processes will jump back and forth, because the one using the most will change all the time. You should however be able to identify one that is greedier than the rest, if you have a "runaway" process.

You can sort by memory usage by pressing M.

Do you have flash enabled websites open in "background" windows when this occurs?

If you want screenshots, I have a short "tutorial" at my blog (sorry for spamming guys). n900experience.blogspot.com.

range

2009-11-29 12:01

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxximuscool (Post 398809)

Password Safe

try get rid of these 3 apps.

Where do you see a problem with Password Safe? How could that possibly be the cause of battery drain?

eiffel

2009-11-29 16:09

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by jaysire (Post 398902)

...I have a short "tutorial" at my blog (sorry for spamming guys).

The people who post links to worthless spam, those people never apologise.

And the people like jaysire who post links to their genuine original relevant content, those people feel they need to apologise.

The world is the wrong way round!

Regards,
Roger

quark

2009-11-29 20:45

Re: N900 battery issue

Same problem here, and same battery life (about 4.5 hrs).

I think it is something related to wifi, but need more investigation.

pycage

2009-11-29 22:47

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by quark (Post 399640)

Same problem here, and same battery life (about 4.5 hrs).

I think it is something related to wifi, but need more investigation.

If the problem goes away when switching off WiFi, then it's most likely that the WiFi router doesn't support power management (or doesn't have it enabled).

Venomrush

2009-11-30 01:00

Re: N900 battery issue

I have the following:

Recorder
Hermes
Quik
Bounce
Sheet to go
Slideshow To Go
Word To Go
Mauku
iNES
VGB
VGBA
eCoach
Gonvert
ATI85
Mirror
FM Radio
MasterGear
Xournal
Location Test
Crash Reporter

On Desktop, there are the following that needs Web connection:
Facebook widget
RSS widget

I have the device for the 4th day now.
1st day 18 hours of usage - a lot of mocking about, installing different apps and setting up stuff, merging contacts and some running some GPS tests
2nd day 24 hours of usage
3rd day 24 hours of usage

I can easily last a day without needing a charge on medium usage.
My device is always hooked to the Web either by Wifi at home or 3G when I'm on the road.

I have a habit of closing running apps that I don't need. I never have more than 3 apps running simultaneously in standby.

My device is UK CV running 1.2009.42-11.203.2

As for the Wifi router, I'm using the O2 Wireless Box III router which is essentially the Thomson TG585N

bbrindle

2009-11-30 01:54

Re: N900 battery issue

Not sure what kind of case you are using if any but my case was causing serious battery issues for me. It has a magnet to keep the lid shut on it and the phone will unlock and light the screen when it gets near it. Killed the battery very quick. Guess the camera shutter or something uses a magnetic switch?

maxximuscool

2009-11-30 02:01

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by range (Post 398905)

Where do you see a problem with Password Safe? How could that possibly be the cause of battery drain?

Well just random apps you know. Beside I dont know which apps does what to the RAM. FYI, I dont have N900 yet. lol. My point is to walk backward and follow the steps you took to find the answer

sondjata

2009-11-30 02:39

Re: N900 battery issue

SInce I don't have a 900 I don't know how helpful this will be but from my 800 I have learned to set the refresh time on the rss reader and anything else that needs to update to at least twice what the default is.

Also I check modest from time to time to see if it choked, which it does often, which can lead to battery drain. And occasionally browserd will duplicate itself and eat battery. I think fennec (firefox) is "browserd" now so that may not be an issue.

So generally I'd suggest checking the update intervals. Also since this is now a phone, if you're in a spot with poor cell reception your battery is going to get drained because the phone is trying to reach the cell tower more frequently (or whatever it does in poor reception conditions). That alone kills the battery on my chinese iPhone knock off in 24 hours even when I've not used the thing.

Bratag

2009-11-30 02:47

Re: N900 battery issue

Its strange that the original OP says it only happens some times. If I didnt know better I would say it was a signal problem and the phone was trying to connect over and over, especially if something was running that required a feed.

Nothing drains the battery on my g1 like being in a bad signal area

RevdKathy

2009-11-30 06:06

Re: N900 battery issue

I'd agree normally but actually my n900 battery stands up quite well to being in a poor signal area.

marauder

2009-11-30 14:19

Re: N900 battery issue

My N900 seems to be working fine now, since I recharged yesterady evening. I still have an almost full battery right now after 12 hours.

I tried using the "top" command in xterm window again, this time sorting the processes with the P and M keys (as jaysire suggested, thanks!), but found nothing abnormal, all processes under 5%.

When I had the battery problem yesterday, I had no active data connection, no browser windows open. The device was inidle connection.

I'm wondering if there could be some kind of issue with the N900 wifi receiver being turned on even if the status icon doen't say so? (Could have something to do with the fact that occasionally I disconnect from my wifi router, and if I want to reconnect, the N900 won't see the router until I reboot it). Or maybe sometimes when charging the N900 reports the battery is fully charged but it's not...I really don't know. I will have to wait for it to happen again and investigate further. If it won't happen again so much better.

All I know is that now everything looks good, the battery seems to be performing very well. Yesterday I was shocked to see it get empty in 4.5 hours on and idle device...

justinwhyte

2009-11-30 17:03

Re: N900 battery issue

I had the same issue when I first received my phone. I was charging it sometimes more than once a day. I started searching online and found this forum. Unfortunately nothing on this thread was very helpful. I started looking at the different settings for my N900 and realized that the GPS had been enabled out of the box. I disabled GPS by going to 'Settings' and then 'location'. This increased the battery charge-life exponentially. I also decided to turn off bluetooth until I actually need to use it. I hope that this is helpful.

gskimmel

2009-11-30 17:10

Re: N900 battery issue

I had the same issue. After removing facebook and OM weather, my battery improved greatly. Yesterday at this time (noon) my battery would be about half dead (after disconnecting from the charger around 9AM). Today, after disconnecting from the charger around 7AM, my battery right now is still near full. And I've used the N900 more this morning than I did yesterday morning.

quark

2009-11-30 20:02

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by pycage (Post 399793)

If the problem goes away when switching off WiFi, then it's most likely that the WiFi router doesn't support power management (or doesn't have it enabled).

That's the point: the problem appears with a wifi connection, and then stays until a reboot is done.

@marauder: please as you stated above now the device is running quite well with normal battery duration, so can you share your free ram as reported by top command in a shell?

I'm convinced the device has some problem with wifi, during "high battery drain" periods I fell it become quite warm.

marauder

2009-11-30 20:26

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by quark (Post 401355)

quark, the top command in xterm gives the following:
Mem: 194344K used, 51204K free, 0K shrd, 2004Kbuff, 59652K

but I stopped caring about ram usage as sljonson said that:

"The kernel will tend to use most of the memory available as the system runs.The expect stuff will be application code and data pages. The kernel will use the rest for file buffers so it can avoid having to access (abysmally) slow disk (as compared to RAM). The kernel is quite deft at managing RAM. RAM is a very slight battery drain as compared to te CPU running at full speed, or the WIFI or Ceullar radios."

I've read that more than once. N900 will usually use all available RAM.

marauder

2009-11-30 20:28

Re: N900 battery issue

Battery is still good now. Looks it is going to last the whole day and maybe even a little more...

Crussader

2009-11-30 22:02

Re: N900 battery issue

good to know :) good luck

vinc17

2009-11-30 22:32

Re: N900 battery life

About the keyboard backlight:

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeneralAntilles (Post 397355)

It's controlled automatically by the ambient light sensor.

Is it possible to control the sensitivity? On the N810, the keyboard backlight is switched on even when not really useful.

phreck

2009-11-30 22:42

Re: N900 battery life

i still cant complain. i streamdd music for two ours straight yesterday, and took two calls during that time while also browsing the web....pretty heavy use. battery was over half full after everything.

phreck

2009-11-30 22:46

Re: N900 battery life

Quote:

Originally Posted by qole (Post 397344)

Just a few notes from personal experience.

If you mess at all with the WiFi power settings, your battery life will really, really suck.

Also, beware desktop widgets that display info that gets updated regularly. I was warned at the Summit by people in the know that the Facebook widget isn't very power-optimised.

If you need better battery life, turn off e-mail checking, too. I've heard reports from hard-core users that it can really help your battery life.

Taking a lot of photos really seems to hammer the battery.

Best thing to have is that "load-applet" mentioned above and watch the left indicator. If it stays at four squares, with the top one flashing red, for any length of time, your battery is headed for a premature demise.

I notice that occasionally (seems it might be related to XChat? Not sure), some mysterious process called hildon-xinput-sounds hammers my CPU and I have to kill it or suffer a quick battery death.

uh. howto on the xchat pls. :p

phreck

2009-11-30 23:00

Re: N900 battery life

Quote:

Originally Posted by qole (Post 397358)

Yes, if you want to keep the backlight off during the day, don't be left-handed. :(

put into simpler terms... the phone shuts off the backlight if it detects that it is light out via the prox sensor, so dont cover it with your hand. youll know youre messing the sensor up when the screen randomly dims on you while using the device.

qole	2009-11-30 23:02

Re: N900 battery life

XChat is in the Extras-devel repository... What specifically do you want in the way of a how-to?

Vodrin

2009-11-30 23:16

Re: N900 battery life

disabled facebook widget... made a massive difference in usage.
went from 8am - 10pm. Played music for 1 hour, maintained 3G connection with Nokia Messaging, Yahoo and MSN constantly connected.
Used about 1hr total of responding to IMs/reading emails and showing video playback off.

Not sure how the facebook app made such a huge difference. Had to half-charge it midday last time I was at work with it on. Plus its not what i want anyway, I want just the notifications not a feed. Would rather bring up the full website in this lovely browser.

farmatito

2009-11-30 23:26

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by marauder (Post 400650)

Yes , i experienced exactly the same issue with the wifi refusing to reconnect
until reboot and this was in the day with worst battery life (about 4 hrs).
There must be some bug in the wifi driver or wpa_supplicant....

I've also changed some settings in rcS with values that improved battery life in my G1:

Code:

# User settings to reduce battery drain

# Was 100

echo 40 > /proc/sys/vm/swappiness



# Experimental settings

# Was 5

echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/page-cluster

# default: 0 Helps keep SSD from getting worn

echo 5 > /proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode

# Was 500

echo 5000 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs

# default: 500

echo 800 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs

# default: 5

echo 10 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio

# default: 10

echo 16 > /proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio



#Over Clock CPU when in use, puts at lower freq when idle

# available frequencies 600000 550000 500000 250000

echo 550000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq

echo 600000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq



# default: 0

echo 200 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/powersave_bias



# Was 300000

echo 2000000 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/sampling_rate



# Was 95, percent cpu usage before going up a speed step

echo 45 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold



# Set "No-op" scheduler for mtdblocks and mmc

for i in /sys/block/mmcblk0 /sys/block/mmcblk1 `ls -1 /sys/block/mtdblock*`

do

        echo "noop" > $i/queue/scheduler

done

and there seems to be some improvement in battery life, but it still needs
more testing. I will report in the next days if there are some improvements.

Update:
so far after 15 hrs still 90% battery with normal use pattern: a few calls
a little wifi, some sms.

Guyver

2009-11-30 23:54

Re: N900 battery issue

Quote:

Originally Posted by marauder (Post 400650)

Ok this has happen to me today, Unplugged at 4pm, dead at 11pm. No data connections.. nothing open......... just idleing.

marauder

2009-12-01 05:35

Re: N900 battery issue

This morning my N900 had the same problem again. It could not find my home WiFi connection. I would suspect it has something to do with battery draining.

Is there something that can be done through xterm when N900 fails to find an existing WiFi signal, without having to reboot? Is there a wifi related service I could try to restart to get this working or some way to check wifi module status?

I'll try to find out how to reproduce this wifi issue...

Quote:

When I had the battery problem yesterday, I had no active data connection, no browser windows open. The device was inidle connection.

I messed up here. I meant "in idle condition". No data connection.

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