Charging the Nokia E61
I’m mostly happy with my new Nokia E61, but there are 2 or 3 things about it that have been annoying the heck out of me. The most serious one is power-related: it’s been a royal pain in the neck to charge the phone. When I plug the phone into the charger, it’ll charge for a little while–30 seconds to 10 minutes–and then beep and say “Not charging.” If I unplug and replug the charger, then it’ll charge for a little while longer, but I have to keep doing it over and over again to get a full charge. This isn’t exactly an enjoyable and productive way to spend my days.
Obviously, it isn’t supposed to work this way. From doing a bit of digging online, it looks like I’m not alone with this problem. The general issue seems to be the charger–some third-party chargers (or even older Nokia chargers) don’t put out enough voltage to charge the phone. The phone sees the voltage as too low, so it aborts with the “not charging” message. I can see why this happens with the cheap third-party car charger that came with my phone, but it’s not at all clear why Nokia’s own wall charger does it. Admittedly, the one that came in the box with the phone is a UK model, but it’s supposed to take 100-240V. I just doesn’t quite manage to work right. There’s a slim chance that the vendor that sold me the E61 swapped out an older charger, but that’s kind of weird.
In an effort to avoid having to return the phone, I picked up a Nokia AC-3U charger from CompUSA on the way home today. The AC-3U is the travel charger that Nokia lists on their website for the E61. It uses the right connector for the phone (unlike the charger that came with the phone–it needs an adapter), and it’s quite a bit smaller then the original charger, too.
I plugged it in and the phone charged for about a half hour before “not charging” showed up. That’s a new record, but more importantly, it claimed to be fully charged at that point. So, most likely, the AC-3U does the trick. I’ll give it another shot tomorrow once it’s drained down a bit, but I think it’ll be okay.
I work for Nokia support in the UK, and I’d normally say that your phone probably is broken and needs repair.
Unfortunately, you’re in a bad position having bought a UK phone from the US: Nokia UK support is not allowed to help you, and neither is Nokia USA support. If you have any problems with the phone, you’re probably screwed.
(I stumbled across this while looking for information on Typo.)
Scott,
Have you tried replacing the battery? Perhaps it is the battery not able to handle the charging cycles…being complex power management chip integration. I would go to a nokia store and see if you switch battery and wait in the store to see it still occurs. If yes then it is the phone, if not then you have isolated the battery as the culprit. buy it as a second backup and send the other one to us for replacement.
Happen to my other cell battery. but “knock on wood” no problems with this E61 so far. and it is great if they release a firmware upgrade to enable better use of all the functions…one problem when on Bluetooth headset..pressing the end call on phone results in reset..go figure!!
Hi,
I need some help guy I have been looking at the new nokia E61, I have read amost every review and forum online , however I am abit hesitant as there seems to be bugs with the OS… as I am living in Sydney, Australia the phone has not yet been released here so I will have to get it sent from HongKong…
Is this a good idea (buying from HK) and are the bugs major..?
Hi guys. I hope that you can help me. I dropped my Nokia e61 this morning, and my screen is really faint and words are only showing up on half the screen. Does anyone know how to resolve this? Is there a reset button maybe? I dropped it on carpet, so I shutter to think that this phone is so fragile. Thanks
Hi there can anyone help …..how can i reset my Nokia E61? it has got some bug and I want to reset it. please help!
khawar azgar (pakistan)
Looks like E61 is v fragile. I dropped mine and am starting to have problem with it shutting off intermittently. Quite a let down if thats the case as its been a wonderful phone for its funtionalities.
Your US charger is not rated for 240V (strange but true). I recently had the same problem with a european houseguest who forgot his charger. I checked my north american one and it was only rated for 110v so his phone gave error messages. I had a spare euro one lying around and sure enough it worked fine.
I just purchased an E61 and all is fine. But I am trying to find the right ‘tip’ for the phone that will work with my Kensington power supply. The site does not reference the phone, but was hoping that it uses the same tip/Nokia power supply used by other Nokia phones. Is that true? Does anyone have a sampling of other Nokia phones/chargers that work with the E61?
There is a reason that your US chargers aren’t doing the trick. The standard power overseas is 220-240V and it is 110-120V in the US. You need to go over to Radio Shack and buy a little adapter (called a “Reverse Voltage Converter”) that converts US power to overseas power. It steps the voltage up from 110-120V to the 220-240V your phone requires. I have tried this on my Nokia E61 and it works great.
Ryan Gillette AzroTech Web Solutions http://www.AzroTech.com
Ryan: the adapter that shipped with my E61 was 100-240V, which is pretty typical for electronics these days. It works, more or less, with US power. The US-specific adapter that I bought works a bit better, but both of them are prone to cutting out after a while.
I live in Finland, the country of Nokia, and the voltage in 220V @ 50Hz, but I still have same prob: 3Not charging” :-S
I’m getting this with my nokia 3250 too! I got a proper charger with it (nokia logo, proper plug that fits in socket) and an adaptor for the older nokia chargers.
I plugged the nokia charger in and it charged fine, the next day my phone had run down (had left it on all day playing music / games / etc.) so I plugged it in to charge. Nothing happened. I did some plugging/unplugging and eventually got a “Not charging” message. So I tried my old nokia charger with the adaptor and it booted up the phone and showed the battery status in the top right. Now, that battery status wasn’t moving which is odd. I found in the Nokia manual that it says to turn off the phone and leave it for a while then try again, so that’s what I’m doing now.
Good luck all you “Not Charging” people and thanks for making this post!
Same problem with my new E61 too. Charges for a few seconds and then flashes the Not Charging message. I turned the phone off and on a few times, gave it a few whacks on the backside to let it know that I am not amused….so far it is charging for the last ten minutes….lets see how we go from here. This seems like a common problem to me, can be branded as a manufacturing defect as far as I am concerned. Booo Nokia !!
Hello there.
I have the same/similar problem. I have the e61 for about 4months now and it worked charmingly so far. but a few days ago I had a trip to Turkey, where I charged it in the hotel room.. so far so good. Then on my way back I switched it to offline mode on the plane in order to watch a movie.. when we landed I switched it back to my general profile - the phone froze. so I tried to remove the battery and reboot it.. w/ no luck. still the phone froze @ the NOKIA logo step. so I obviously tried to remove the battery, wait a few minutes and replug - no luck, then I removed the battery, sim card, mmc… then only the mmc, then again only the sim card.. still no luck. then finally when I got home I tried charging it and then boot it.. tada.. It booted up and worked “fine” upto now. I use the USB craddle which is available at some online shops. usually I have it set to sync as soon as it’s connected, on my surprise it didnt sync. so I started figuring whats the deal. the craddle charges and can transmit the data, so I tried a few usb plugs a few other computers w/ no luck. then I tried the cable that comes along w/ nokia. nor pc suite or the pc found any phones connected… so again i tried to remove the battery, mmc, sim yadda yadda.. still no luck. then I tried to charge it and guess what. got the message “charging” and a second after “not charging” .. so here I am now.. stuck @ the “not charging” message w/ my battery low. so im guessing it’s my phone that it’s starting to bug on me, or maybe the hotel room in turkey had a too strong power outlet (which does not rly make sense) or.. wtf ?
please someone help me out on this, before I send it in for repairs (which is not really what I want)
thank you, harris
Yeh - my 3250 is doing the same thing - got the older charger with the CC-44 adapter and it’s just showing not charging.. its showing the battery status in the right hand corner - but it just shows not charging.. Anyone found a solution yet?
I bought a E61 in August 2006. I have been using it for a while charging without any problem. Sometime in Oct, I notice it will no loger charge the unit (same experience as Scot, charge it, and 10-30 seconds later it prompt message “not charging”).
I tried different methods to get it to charge, somtime I can get it to charge while I continuously using the web browser and then connect to the charger.
I called Nokia and they says they cannot help me.. :( I was very disappointed.
is this still a problem or was it fixed in the latest firmware upgrade? Did buying that thing from radio shak help? What happens when you charge by USB? Can you use any nokia charger to charge the phone as long as you have the tip converter? I have a charger from the 6600 series
I have a 3250 and i had some charge issues..yup i got the “Not Charging” message.( i use the ca-44 adaptor for old nokia chargers) I might came with an answer for this… i did it and it worked 1-take off your phone battery and charge it through a universal cellphone battery for about 15min 2-put it on the phone again power your phone on than plug the charger into it. It if say’s Not Charging keep on trying by pluging and unpluging the charger several times until u got the charge message ( it could take up to 5min lol) If u did it and ur battery is getting charge and the electricty cut’s off or u unplug the charger by accident take off the battery and repeat the cycle hope that helps… it worked for me
i have the same problem but with a N90 :((((…..my phone doesn’t charge anymore…i don’t know what to do….i’ve tried with ca 44 adapter and with original charger too….but nothing…it still says…”not charging” please send me an email if you have any sugestions. thanks
Just got to the US from Ireland, plugged in my Nokia US & Euro charger and both refuse to power for longer than few seconds. I read you posting, called Vodafone and told that “this is the first that they have heard of problems with E 61, sounds like you need a new charger!” Strange, because I also have a Nokia Bluetooth headset and that charges 100% with both chargers. Long story cut short, got from Amazon.com the Nokia AC-3U compact travel charger ($9.99, four day delivery) and it worked first time. If Vodafone say “the fault lies with Nokia, as they make the handset, Nokia say that we have had no problems with the E61, then what the hell is wrong with my/everyone else’s E61 on this blog? ..just a thought…
BTW, just saw this warning on net as well re: E61: ..snip..”Have found what appears to be an E61 bug - which 9500 communicator users have also experienced (same battery: BP-5L) If the battery is quite low then it refuses to charge - and actually discharges! When this happens the battery is dead and the E61 microprocessor cannot turn on and charge the phone…”
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47291