Re: N900 battery issue
 

Just wondering setting the wifi lan transmission to 10w instead of 100w make any difference in the battery life??

Re: N900 battery issue
 

A SIM card can cause the issue. Read more here: http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/...&thread.id=106

Re: N900 battery issue
 

This sounds like the problems we used to have with the metalayer-crawler, until we started disabling it. Is there still a crawler on the N900/Maemo 5? It's a stupid thing to have running on a mobile system.

Re: N900 battery issue
 

Was this metalayer-crawler giving issues on the N800 only with a memory card inserted? I don't have one in my N900 right now.

Re: N900 battery issue
 

I can't answer that, because I have never used my N800 without a memory card (or two, actually - I've always kept two cards in it, from the beginning).

Re: N900 battery issue
 

Im pretty sure metalayer-crawler still runs even with no card inserted, cause some people may put their media directly on the device. It's been so long since I ran an N8x0 without disabling..

Re: N900 battery life
 

Wow a 24 page post with only the last 3 pages when people have the actual phone…LAME!!!!

First, all you speck wankers, it does not matter how many milliamps the battery has, 1200, 1350, 1500…it's the apps! I can kill my N97 in 3 hours on battery…running multiple apps, WiFi , plus 3G, profimail, Gravity, face tube. I can kill my E71 in about 4.5 hours – both phones with the magic 1500 BP-4L.

Secondly do yourself a favor don't show your ignorance of systems by doing comparisons to the iphone and E61i… that is like saying that a Prius gets better mileage than an M3. Also understand that if you drive a Prius hell bent like an M3 it will actually get 16.7 mpg vs the M3's 18.3 mpg.

Thirdly, configuration, configuration, configuration! RTFM- explore the setting and tweak! Weather widget can use Wifi and GSM or just GSM or just Wifi…this has battery implications. qgil is correct about bad widgets- as any 5800xm, N97 users will tell you, a bad widget can be a killer.

I am glad that we finally have some users posting long battery life experiences.

When you see someone posting a claim of running without a charge for 18+ hours don't be a normob and moan "whats wrong with my N900", but think hummm what am I doing/running that is causing my battery to drain.

Out of the box I was killing the N900 in 3-4 hours, T-Mo full 3G. Now... 16 to 28 hours during work week and 12 to 18 hours in weekend mode. Additionally on the support forums we have had users who have experienced poor power performance due to using old SIM cards or SIM cards swapped from other phones.

Please, please, please… someone fix the WiFi sub-system so that it shuts off after widgets/e-mail has finished it's polling cycle. Yes keep WiFi radio on if web page is open… but all other connected apps should cycle the WiFi radio on/off.

Re: N900 battery life
 

That would go completely against how I use my N800, and thus how I plan to use the N900. Web pages is what I use the least (once a day, maybe). I am online through wi-fi at all times, if there's wi-fi available (e.g. at work or in town). I expect to get my google talk connections, my skype incoming calls, etc. I think I have about 5 or 6 apps that should be either available for incoming connections, or for going out on the network now and then.

I definitely plan to use the N900 the same way. wi-fi shouldn't affect the battery too much. GSM phone, and even more 3G, probably sucks more.

Re: N900 battery life
 

sweet hadnt had an excuse to add that repo. guess i do now eh?

Re: N900 battery life
 

Ok, I can report on the battery life so far.

I gave the thing an initial charge yesterday at 1pm, and then started surfing on it for about 4 hours or so, Installing apps (ssh, nmap,etc), setting up 3 email accounts, loading music and videos over wifi. And I have used it for 2 hours as a MP3 player in my Jeep.

The thing is still 90% charged!

I was crushing it with wifi and disk RW, I would have figured it would be at 50% or so...

Re: N900 battery life
 

Care to expound on this a little - my Sim card is from 2004 its the original card I got when I joined Tmobile. In what way could that affect battery drain?

Re: N900 battery life
 

I'm no authority on this, but apparently the SIM card sucks some power while the phone is on. Or gets the phone to suck some, I don't know.

What I do know is that my carrier sent me a new SIM card some years back, with a note that a) it would hold more SMS messages on-board, b) it would have room for more phone numbers, and c) it would use less battery.

But that was years before 2004, so if your card is that new you probably have a "low-power" SIM (whatever that actually is, technically speaking).

Re: N900 battery life
 

I use the usb from the computer at work. Charges fine and of course allows for file transfer.

Re: N900 battery life
 

When are we going to see a larger battery option from somewhere? The camera lense slider & mechanism adds extra complexity for an after market option.

Re: N900 battery life
 

i also confirm turning off widget for facebook and ap news helped a lot for battery life i have wifi on op weather i did few phonecalls little surfing and sms and it still 3/4 full took it off the charger at 730 in the morning so 5 hours so far

Re: N900 battery life
 

I have used my N900 three months and the norm working day N900 usage for me is exact 16 hours and it's OK and I charge it always overnight.

During weekends the battery holds about two days with light use.

The best usage time has been about five days with only sometimes 3G connection and text messages and some phone calls.

I have poor 3G coverage where I live and that's why I put the phone in GSM-mode instead of dual-mode.

Sometimes the device is quite warm when I use it in dual-mode and the the battery drains in some hours if I don't change it to GSM-mode.

Re: N900 battery life
 

I really was hoping to get a day's use out of the N900 but it isn't happening, even with light use. I do keep the WiFi on, but in the lowest power mode. My N900 needs a charge mid-afternoon or it won't last through the day. Then I charge it again overnight. Disappointed (but keeping an eye on this thread in case I see a way to improve things).

Regards,
Roger

Re: N900 battery life
 

User in UAE was having bad battery drain issue. Returned N900 for second brand new unit, same issue 6 hour battery life. Had a 4 year old sim card with mild wear and scratches from multiple inserts/removals. Was given new sim card now all fine 16 hours.

Re: N900 battery life
 

Wiggy. Maybe I should get Tmob to send me a new one :) Though the battery life seems alright for me

Re: N900 battery life
 

eiffel: Seriously, that's not normal. That was happening with Nokia World firmware, but not now.

Install "load-applet" and watch the bars. The left column should spend most of its time with one grey box. If it isn't, then we need to diagnose your n900.

Re: N900 battery life
 

The best laid plans....just as you are a unique individual the N900 is unique from your N800. you will be disappointed if you think the N900 will work as you describe. All evidence (as opposed to speculation) seems to support a very power hungry WiFi system.

Secondly have you every surfed/used 3G,3.5G - just as functional as WiFi - with less power consumption.

Re: N900 battery issue
 

Ok I had the same problem and after a lot of testing I think I worked out a solution.

The problem is in the wifi connection: no matter which parameters are in use (10/100mW or WPA mode only or else): every time you connect or try to connect to a wifi lan, you will notice a battery drain problem and the device itself getting warmer (as if the wifi chip wouldn't go off).

The only solution for now is a reboot, so every time you connect (or try to connect) to a wifi lan, you have to reboot the N900.

Hope this helps for now :)

Re: N900 battery life
 

load applet is not working correctly there is a bug for it, it will cause memory problems and from what i notice it drain battery also my personal experience

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6227

Re: N900 battery life
 

Hrmm havent run into that one. This is the little status bar applet as opposed to the widget correct?

Re: N900 battery life
 

I also confirm a massive improvement in battery life since I disabled the facebook widget: Battery used to start "ringing" at 6pm, now I finish the day (12pm) with 20% battery

Re: N900 battery life
 

For those of you using the Facebook widget, how often did you have it set to refresh (if you can set its refresh interval?)

Re: N900 battery issue
 

Sounds unlikely. Surely if the bug is that simple it would have been noticed a long time ago. Is it just certain WiFi connections, new WiFi connections?

It must be more specific than ANY WiFi connection because pretty much everyone would have the problem if it was.

Re: N900 battery life
 

I took my n900 to work today and to my shock, I noticed that the once steady battery had begun to drain fast. I restarted and ensured nothing was running in background all to no avail. Finally I found that wifi scanning was at 10 minute interval ! I changed interval to 'Never' then drain stopped.

Re: N900 battery life
 

yeah, that wifi was a pain to turn off. No so intuitive once you turn it on you tend to forget. i will do a real test sometime this week with mine.

Re: N900 battery life
 

I was really eager to get this phone when I first read about it but now im having second thoughts, why do all new phones focus so much on cramming as much hightech stuff as possible in a phone and let the battery come second? Currently using an n85 wich is supposed to have decent battery life 30 hours playing music and so on but if I stream over 3g the battery is drained in a matter of hours.

If I were to get this phone I would most likely have the music player on and playing atleast 9 hours a day monday to friday. How would the battery last by only playing music stored on the device for 9 hours straight?

Re: N900 battery life
 

I sense contradiction

On the one hand, you say that you want battery life and screw the technology, but on the other hand, you're talking about streaming music over 3G...

You need to pick a device that suits what you want from it, and only you can tell what that is - as for me personally, I'd quite like one device which can serve as a camera, GPS, MP3 player, phone, email, organiser, and quick note taking device.

Re: N900 battery issue
 

I don't think the problem affects every device, but for "bugged" ones (like mine), every use of wifi leads to the problem.

I tried different routers, different network setups ecc and that's what I found for my device.
I cannot extend the same conclusions to every device, of course; I posted just in case this could help someone.

Re: N900 battery life
 

yes next to it, shows two little bars one for cpu usage and the other one for memory, when you play with screen shots from that applet it freezes memory to the point you have to reboot

Re: N900 battery life
 

Imagine what it would cost, when already the "simple" covers seem to add $40-$60...

Re: N900 battery life
 

Didnt say screw technology just put it on hold and let the batterys wich power these tech things catch up.

Thing is such a device doesnt exist atleast not that ive seen. Only thing that I can think of is carrying like 3 extra batterys with me (wont happen cant carry that much while im working). Ive been looking for a bigger battery wich fits the n900 like mugen power ones but not found one that seem to fit. Will there be extended batterys to be bought for the n900 or if not why doesnt nokia for example make a standard battery as they have now and one or 2 bigger batteries with new battery covers to fit the size. Not all of us have jobs in an office with unlimited supply of electricity to charge our phones :p

Re: N900 battery issue
 

Wouldnt' it be a good solution to rmmod the wifi modules rather than reboot?
This could be done with a simple script (maybe with a launcher on the desktop,
if something like that is possible on the n900)

Re: N900 battery life
 

Thanks, I appreciate the reassurance.

I've been watching load-applet for a couple of days and haven't noticed any unexpected activity, nor do I see anything unusual when I run "top".

Anyway I will turn off WiFi tomorrow and see if that makes a difference.

Regards,
Roger

Re: N900 battery life
 

No u can't if u hold the widget it's only settings is to change the user login i think. When ur connected is when it updating i'm assuming and u can't stop it either till u remove the widget.

Re: N900 battery life
 

Just to clarify. This is the normal WiFi mode, "On (maximum)", right? Not the lowest power saving mode ("Off")?

Because if it was set to "Off", that would explain everything.

Re: N900 battery life
 

When did you get yours? :)

The priority placment apparently helped when you called?

Now- Get to work on a photo / barcode super app! :) ;) :)