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Bode	2012-01-10 , 00:09
Posts: 10 \| Thanked: 0 times \| Joined on Jan 2012 @ Portugal	#1

Hello! I just bought a Nokia N900 and I f**cking love it. It's the perfect hacker's phone/tablet. Seriously great.

... I love every part of it except the dismal battery life.

Example:

Got out of the house at 4PM with the phone @ 100% charge.
I had it connected to wifi for 5/6hrs light usage -- just my twitter client and xchat, plus the odd webpage. It was totally idle for most of the time.
Had it charging for 1h+.
Played 45min of Ur-Quan Masters (try it if you haven't -- great game).
Sent 20 or so SMS, chatted a bit on google talk, made 15min worth of phone calls.
Modest checks email every 30min or so.
Played with the GPS for about 5 minutes.

It's at 25% now.

I have it locked at 2G. My wifi power-saving is set at maximum. This is kinda bad -- I don't want to abstain from using the phone so it can last me a full day

Here's a htop screenshot of the idling phone:

Here's my kernel-config:

Code:

[00:06:17 root@Nokia-N900:~]
# kernel-config show
current kernel configuration:
current frequency: 500
supported frequencies: 125 250 500 550 600 720 805 850 900 950 1000 1100 1150
min. frequency: 125
max. frequency: 900
avoid frequencies: 125
active frequencies: 250:24,180 500:34,360 550:36,400 600:39,430 720:45,520 805:50,600 850:52,600 900:55,600 950:60,600 1000:60,600 1100:72,600 1150:72,600
SmartReflex VDD1=1, VDD2=1
governor ondemand: ignore nice load= 0, up threshold= 95, sampling rate= 300000, powersave bias= 0

Any tips ... ? Can this be due to advanced-power? I also have speedpatch installed, just on a trial basis.

By the way, the battery is an original Nokia one, with very little wear.

Thank you very much for your time!

Last edited by Bode; 2012-01-10 at 00:30.

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	5spdvl	2012-01-10 , 00:13
	Posts: 220 \| Thanked: 66 times \| Joined on Aug 2010 @ Melbourne, Australia	#2

Welcome to life with the N900.

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Bode

Bode	2012-01-10 , 00:22
Posts: 10 \| Thanked: 0 times \| Joined on Jan 2012 @ Portugal	#3

Originally Posted by 5spdvl

Welcome to life with the N900.

It's that bad, eh?

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sixwheeledbeast	2012-01-10 , 00:42
Posts: 2,290 \| Thanked: 4,133 times \| Joined on Apr 2010 @ UK	#4

Could try removing apps or widgets. Especially if playing with devel and testing apps.
Some are known to eat battery life, uninstall one by one until battery life increases.
Also you're overclocking, have you considered using different voltages.
Stock voltage levels on overclocking will eat battery life.
Try Ideal or LV if using Kernel Power.
Read up on Overclock and Undervolting if you haven't.

With normal usage I only get a day or so (250-600Mhz/LV). You're usage to battery ratio sounds about right.

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Bode

	Mike Fila	2012-01-10 , 00:54
	Posts: 412 \| Thanked: 480 times \| Joined on Feb 2011 @ Bronx, NY	#5

By the way, the battery is an original Nokia one, with very little wear.

How do you know this? You might want to check this out for more battery info and possibly getting a scud

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=65568

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Bode

Bode	2012-01-10 , 00:56
Posts: 10 \| Thanked: 0 times \| Joined on Jan 2012 @ Portugal	#6

Originally Posted by Mike Fila

How do you know this? You might want to check this out for more battery info and possibly getting a scud

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=65568

Yup, already read that. I have a spare, too.

I've checked using HAL. When fully charged, the battery has a mA count close to advertised.

Originally Posted by sixwheeledbeast

Could try removing apps or widgets. Especially if playing with devel and testing apps.
Some are known to eat battery life, uninstall one by one until battery life increases.
Also you're overclocking, have you considered using different voltages.
Stock voltage levels on overclocking will eat battery life.
Try Ideal or LV if using Kernel Power.
Read up on Overclock and Undervolting if you haven't.

With normal usage I only get a day or so (250-600Mhz/LV). You're usage to battery ratio sounds about right.

I am using a modified dsp profile (the original goes to 805 IIRC, mine goes to 950). Didn't care much about voltages since I have smart reflex enabled.

Edit:

Since I created this thread, the battery is now at 17.5%. It has been idling connected to my wifi on maximum power saving.

Last edited by Bode; 2012-01-10 at 01:19.

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ed_boner	2012-01-10 , 01:37
Posts: 336 \| Thanked: 129 times \| Joined on Jan 2011 @ portugal	#7

i have recently installed some apps, and i am noticing battery drain..one of them is fastSMS and fast SMS evo...do you guys know if this app particularly coud be causing this?..tks

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_David_	2012-01-10 , 01:41
Posts: 131 \| Thanked: 184 times \| Joined on Dec 2011	#8

Unexpected power draining can be caused by applications, by settings and by faulty hardware.

Install rootsh & powertop, uninstall any suspect apps, reboot, disconnect battery for 10s, turn on, wait 5 mins and run powertop under root access. If you get anything < 70% C4 (sleep) then you need to reflash.

My N900 still gets kicked out of sleep state with no apps on it, so you need to retest in that state. Assuming all is good, you then reinstall a few apps at a time and test again.

This is what all the battery drain threads say. [Should I put it in the Wikia?]

Last edited by _David_; 2012-01-10 at 03:07.

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Bode

Bode	2012-01-10 , 02:21
Posts: 10 \| Thanked: 0 times \| Joined on Jan 2012 @ Portugal	#9

Originally Posted by _David_

Unexpected power draining can be caused by applications, by settings and by faulty hardware.

Install shroot & powertop, uninstall any suspect apps, reboot, disconnect battery for 10s, turn on, wait 5 mins and run powertop under root access. If you get anything < 70% C4 (sleep) then you need to reflash.

My N900 still gets kicked out of sleep state with no apps on it, so you need to retest in that state. Assuming all is good, you then reinstall a few apps at a time and test again.

This is what all the battery drain threads say. [Should I put it in the Wikia?]

SSH'd to the phone. Put it to sleep. Ran powertop over SSH. I can't make sense of the program's output, can you give it a look for me?

Keep in mind, the phone is as it was. Haven't rebooted, uninstalled apps, reflashed, anything. I was running TwimGo (a twitter client), an IM chat and the conversations menu.

Code:

# powertop
Powertop 1.13.3
status: Unknown job: pmtrackerdaemon
Sleeping for 11 seconds before sampling
Collecting data for 30 seconds
Sample interval was 00m 30s 20752us

C#      | Ratio  | Avg/dura | Frequency | Ratio
--------+--------+----------+-----------+--------+
     C0 |   7.1% |          |  1150 MHz |   nan% |
     C1 |   0.0% |    0.2ms |
     C2 |   5.4% |    6.3ms |
     C3 |  38.9% |  129.9ms |
     C4 |  48.6% |  502.7ms |

IRQ#    | Activity   | Type           | Name
--------+------------+----------------+---------------------------
     12 |       1093 |           INTC | DMA
     37 |        434 |           INTC | gp
     86 |        317 |           INTC | mmc1
     56 |        304 |           INTC | i2c_omap
     11 |        233 |           INTC | prcm
    202 |         76 |           GPIO | wl1251
     57 |         34 |           INTC | i2c_omap
     21 |         33 |           INTC | SGX
    225 |         11 |           GPIO | omap2-onenand

PID#    | Activity   | Name           | Function Entry (Expire)
--------+------------+----------------+---------------------------
      0 |        291 |  <kernel core> | tick_nohz_restart_sched_tick (tick_sched_timer)
   3517 |         73 |         TwimGo | schedule_hrtimeout_range (hrtimer_wakeup)
      0 |         57 |  <kernel core> | hrtimer_start (tick_sched_timer)
     38 |         46D|            awk | cpufreq_governor_dbs (delayed_work_timer_fn)
    559 |         36 |         wl12xx | schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
    559 |         28 |         wl12xx | queue_delayed_work (delayed_work_timer_fn)
   1356 |         12 |       wlancond | ieee80211_ioctl_siwpower (ieee80211_dynamic_ps_timer)
    612 |         12 |          mmcqd | schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
    612 |         10 |          mmcqd | cfq_completed_request (cfq_idle_slice_timer)
    612 |          9 |          mmcqd | queue_delayed_work (delayed_work_timer_fn)
    740 |          6 |      bme_RX-51 | sys_timer_settime (posix_timer_fn)
     10 |          4 |    omap2_mcspi | inet_twsk_schedule (inet_twdr_hangman)
    695 |          4 |           dsme | __enqueue_rt_entity (sched_rt_period_timer)
      0 |          4 |  <kernel core> | queue_delayed_work (delayed_work_timer_fn)
    695 |          3 |           dsme | do_nanosleep (hrtimer_wakeup)
      1 |          3D|  <kernel core> | queue_delayed_work (delayed_work_timer_fn)
   3486 |          3 |telepathy-gabbl | sk_reset_timer (tcp_write_timer)
    720 |          2D|<kernel module> | queue_delayed_work (delayed_work_timer_fn)
    740 |          2 |      bme_RX-51 | sys_timer_settime (posix_timer_fn)
    740 |          2 |      bme_RX-51 | do_nanosleep (hrtimer_wakeup)
    740 |          2 |      bme_RX-51 | schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
   3517 |          2 |         TwimGo | sk_reset_timer (tcp_write_timer)
     10 |          2 |    omap2_mcspi | sk_reset_timer (tcp_delack_timer)
   3522 |          2 |         TwimGo | sk_reset_timer (tcp_write_timer)
     10 |          2 |    omap2_mcspi | neigh_add_timer (neigh_timer_handler)
   4684 |          2 |            cat | setup_wb_timer (wb_timer_fn)
   4887 |          1 |           sshd | sk_reset_timer (tcp_write_timer)
    612 |          1 |          mmcqd | schedule_timeout (process_timeout)
   1061 |          1 | hald-addon-bme | schedule_hrtimeout_range (hrtimer_wakeup)
   3517 |          1 |         TwimGo | journal_get_write_access (commit_timeout)
   3517 |          1 |         TwimGo | ubifs_wbuf_write_nolock (wbuf_timer_callback_nolock)
     13 |          1 |        pdflush | blk_plug_device (blk_unplug_timeout)
   4909 |          1 |       powertop | do_nanosleep (hrtimer_wakeup)

Power domain activity breakdown
Domain  | % of time spent in states
--------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------
usbhost |OFF: 100%|RET:   0%|INA:   0%| ON:   0%| now:(OFF)
    sgx |OFF:  98%|RET:   0%|INA:   0%| ON:   1%| now:(OFF)
    per |OFF:  86%|RET:   6%|INA:   0%| ON:   7%| now:(ON)
    dss |OFF: 100%|RET:   0%|INA:   0%| ON:   0%| now:(OFF)
    cam |OFF: 100%|RET:   0%|INA:   0%| ON:   0%| now:(OFF)
   core |OFF:  48%|RET:  37%|INA:   2%| ON:  11%| now:(ON)
   neon |OFF:  48%|RET:  38%|INA:   5%| ON:   7%| now:(ON)
    mpu |OFF:  48%|RET:  38%|INA:   5%| ON:   7%| now:(ON)
   iva2 |OFF: 100%|RET:   0%|INA:   0%| ON:   0%| now:(OFF)

Clock activity breakdown at end of period
Domain  | Active clocks
--------+---------------+---------------+------------------
   core |          SDRC | HSOTGUSB_IDLE |      OMAPCTRL
        |     MAILBOXES |
   wkup |          GPT1 |       32KSYNC |         GPIO1
        |          WDT1 |           SR1 |           SR2
        |
  ckgen |          CORE |          PERI |           96M
        |           48M |           12M |           54M
        |      EMU_CORE |
    per |         GPIO2 |         GPIO3 |         GPIO4
        |         GPIO5 |         GPIO6 |

Total wakeups  3161, 105.4/s | IRQ 2535,  84.5/s | Timers  626,  20.9/s
HW wakeups      233,   7.8/s |     Real gp_timers expired  178,   5.9/s
[02:21:21 root@Nokia-N900:~]

Last edited by Bode; 2012-01-10 at 02:27.