Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Like I said - It won't help your problem. But, this shows that your system is -not- bricked and -is- recoverable.
Also the code 8, yea it does that. I still haven't figured out why, so you can safely ignore it.

This means you should be able to:
1. Flash the eMMC (without the -R option)
2. Flash the PR1.3 RootFS (with the -R option), let it boot. -DO NOT TOUCH IT- during the first boot(wait at least 10 minutes).

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

k i try again, am redownloading images again, have a feeling ive done something stupid but dont know what. also dling old images too to try.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

having trouble flashing, not holding "u" i get (on pc)
Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Program Files\maemo\flasher-3.5>flasher-3.5.exe -F emmc.bin -f
flasher v2.5.2 (Sep 24 2009)

Image 'mmc', size 255947 kB
Version RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA
Suitable USB device not found, waiting.
USB device found found at bus bus-0, device address \\.\libusb0-0001--0x0421-0x0
1c8.
Error setting USB configuration

C:\Program Files\maemo\flasher-3.5>

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

same if i try flashing pr1.3 first

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

phone won't start unless usb is plugged in... weird

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Ok, so you've got a PC problem. I'm not entirely sure what you will need to do, but you probably should go download a Ubuntu (32-bit) LiveCD and burn it.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

i only got 10 min internet access, so my last post for today...
I'll get ubuntu, but XP flasher has worked fine (well, apparently anyway) up to now.
Got a BSOD before playing around putting battery in and out,
i'll muck around tonight but i can get the backup menu up, can i use this menu to restore to flashable state?
a smaller linux distro will do? (1hr for 150mb... even at internet shop)
tia,

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

i have been thinking about the flashing thing and i think it is more a problem of not being able to put phone into flashing mode...
however i have found an old mandriva live cd so can try through linux, if i can work out how to install and run flasher...

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

I'd download a Ubuntu cd unless you can figure it out yourself - Mainly because there are a few quirks that I know how to workaround on ubuntu/linux mint/debian-based, but I, at least, don't know anything about mandriva.

And, your problem with w7 was that the flasher couldn't gain control over the usb port - hence why it can't find the device, and the "configuration error".

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

got a linux mint cd, ubuntu doesnt want to be read on Win XP (cd drive fault)..

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

installed linux mint, flasher, now i get this error:

USB device found found at bus 001, device address 016.
Using flashing protocol Mk II.
SU_VERIFY_COMMS_REQ timed out.

cant type much more, got to go back to work

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

sorry robbie forget it: i was in the wrong thread.
all nonesense what i wrote for this problem. for this problem robie is perfectly right.

(the thread i had in mind had broken kernels and i delete it to not misguide ...)

but what does make sense is take two clean sane working images from nokia an flash them.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

yeah but now i can't flash...

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

get the battery charged. having it on a walcharger should charge it without booting.



and a remark: i already deleted the nonsense post. not in order to hide something but to not confuse anyone(was garbage / wrong topic...).

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

been charging for 2hrs, still same error

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

bad thing is: i don't not know when exactly the errormessage means. i only had it once and that was because of low battery and flashing failing cause of that(yes should know better but...). and in my case i was only turning RD mode off. that is where the battery idea comes from. helped in my case and charging doesn't hurt.

looking at it, solution others gave to this matter are unrelyable for they just describe the final steps they got it working again but never the real cause(in essence they fiddled arround with everything they could and doing that for a while they hit something that made it work again but no clue to what it was) .


there is three hints:.
1. sane images /from nokia/ that fit together. nokia says you cannot flash the emmc without flashing firmware. and there are hints this really is important.(there are parts they wanted to lock to individual devices, parts they wanted to keep propretary ... can't say what they really did in the end but i saw things they wanted to have for the phone which suggest this.). so this a hint(not more) i can give you.
2. try to get the phone in a state that you have a bright screen(not darkend) and can press "u" key to prevent it from booting. that state seems to be a fairly sane state.
3. there is the 0xffff guy(pancake) creating a free flasher. he should have looked closer into the flashing maybe you want to look there for one who digged into that stuff and knows a lot about it.
http://nopcode.org/0xFFFF/ (i'm not saying use that flasher but say there is a guy who knows a lot about the flahing and might have the knowledge to give you definite answers you might want).

EDIT: and there is another thing i want to say. it's for sure good to have a forum like this to get some hints from other users. but looking at your case it's really something nokia should give you 1rst hand support. differrent to other users you did imo nothing wrong but flash /their/ images just the way they tell you and it broke your device. so they really should give you aid to how to fix it(different story if users don't do it the way they say).

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

yep, probably should have posted at nokia support... ty for input n advice though.

edit. also flashed original images exactly as the sparse documentation on nokia flasher said, os then emmc then reboot. at least that is what i undestood from wiki page. dl'd images twice in case corrupted somehow but still didn't work, so i thought i must've done something wrong...
device probably broken from original mysterious crash, a way to fubar it for warranty replacement would be just as nice as a fix now...

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

maybe to show what i mean:
pancake writes
see? that matches my observation looking at dev lists and requests from nokia folks for certain features(without knowing how and if they finally used the feature they wanted. )

that means: that all + the emmc work together. so if you got something badly broken you might need /all/ of that back. and not only a part and make all work together. that's why i say the /nokia/ images. for the potantioally hidden stuff that can render the device (un)usable. again: don't know what they really did in the end. but: no harm done if you do it the way they say it has to be done and excludes a quite possible cause for problems.


edit: also order might matter. this is: emmc and firmware in one flash session without interrupting( no rebooting inbetween).

and like i said before if that doesn't work: imo a case for nokia support.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

robbie i have your back up menu installed can i do anything with it?

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

got it to start flashing... now this error:
USB device found found at bus bus-0, device address \\.\libusb0-0001--0x0421-0x0
105.
Found device RX-51, hardware revision 2101
NOLO version 1.4.14
Version of 'sw-release': <no version>
Sending xloader image (14 kB)...
100% (14 of 0 kB, avg. 14 kB/s)
Sending secondary image (106 kB)...
100% (106 of 0 kB, avg. 106 kB/s)
Flashing bootloader... done.
Sending cmt-2nd image (79 kB)...
100% (79 of 0 kB, avg. 79 kB/s)
Sending cmt-algo image (507 kB)...
100% (507 of 0 kB, avg. 507 kB/s)
Sending cmt-mcusw image (5826 kB)...
100% (5826 of 0 kB, avg. 5826 kB/s)
Flashing cmt-mcusw... Sending request 0x50 failed: No error

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

as an update im sending it back for warranty replacement, thanks lunat for your help and advice, I wish i had paid more attention to what you were saying and didnt listen to robbiethefirst.
Robbie after following your suggestions now i have a phone which has every chance of being denied warranty repair. I appreciate that was not your fault or intention, it was my choice to experiment with your backup menu and flashable images, but i don't understand why you stopped participating in this thread as suddenly as you did, leaving me pretty much stranded with little knowledge or understanding how to proceed. It is pretty ****ing rude actually and i wish you had said nothing at all.
If i figure out a way to flash it back to normal in next 24 hours i'll post it, otherwise just have to leave this unresolved, will edit 1st post so is summary of thread with lessons learnd etc.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Sorry for late update.
phone was returned fixed, but by 3rd party repairer not nokia. Was paid for by phone supplier. Worked for many months.
Recently I plugged into cheap car charger and now I have same problem, have contacted the company that supplied the phone and they have said they will try to get details of the repair for me. Have done a lot of reading and this is a common problem, with a variety of reasons and fixes. I will also try purchasing a new battery and wall charger, although when i sent the phone back for repair i did not send the battery because of postal restrictions and it is still the original battery from the original fault.
Hopefully details from the repair company will provide some accurate information on cause and fix of this problem.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

I have a similar problem. Have you tried to boot in R&D mode?
My n900 starts up in that mode but it doesn't charge the battery because that mode doesn't supports battery charging...
Please post any news! This is the thread someone initiated while ago and now I'm writing: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...82#post1047282

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

here is the thread at nokia support: http://discussions.nokia.com.au/t5/M...1051551#M26012
one of the posters there suggests nokia have a different method of flashing or something (at least, i think that is what is implied), maybe a serial cold flash or something, but i do not know. I will ask him to post details here, because the nokia forum rules prevent him telling me anything more.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Another flash method can be performed using pins under battery - without actual battery - but i doubt it results in different outcome. AFAIK it uses USB D+/D- pins from beneath battery - only difference there is that they're connected directly to chip, without protection circuit (so no wrong polarity protection, no static protection, no any protection - still, nothing that could result in "better" flash than with normal USB).

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

I guess the best thing to do is wait for details of the repair to come through. It is hard not to blame the car charger for the problem, both times it has been from starting the car with phone plugged into charger. It is encouraging that the phone has been fixed before though.

Oh, battery is now flat, and plugging into charger results in a very quick reboot, so I doubt I will be able to flash or connect to laptop.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

You can always charge battery externally.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

You could also use a nokia X6, 5800 (i think others xm models work) or C3 to charge the battery.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

thanks quokka for keeping us in the loop.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Thanks for advice people. I am going to buy a cheap wall charger with dock and some batteries recommended by dr frost, and wait for details to come though from repair company.

expect an update as late as 6 weeks away, or as soon as tommorow ;P, depending when portagadgets get back to me. It has been over three weeks since they said they would try to get details of the repair. I feel I have some leverage, because the product information provided by portagadgets says I have a manufacturer warranty, but nokia have no knowledge of any repairs being done by them to my device (meaning, a third party did the repair). Personally I am easy, I would just like a fix.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

You should take your words back, you were given tons of great help.

Lets be pretty clear on one thing, even if you could manage to complete dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/mtd<0 through to 5> before the N900 borked itself, you can still cold flash it back to a working state. It is indeed a temperamental machine at times, but it is also incredibly user proof.

The only real reason you would be unable to flash would be hardware failure, though you haven't posted anything to indicate this is the case at all.

Keep trying.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

[I think disappearing from thread with no explanation was rude, and am not going to change my stance on this]

It is good to know that the device is probably recoverable by someone who knows what they are doing, or that if I learn more I can possibly fix it myself, thank you I appreciate that.


However, it is not all bad. The whole journey is documented, and I expect a solution will be found soon, which will potentially help some other people in a similar position.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Although I can understand how one might doubt things like 'microsoft might be your problem' - it is actually a legitimate possibility which is why I sort of think it might be better to be more moderate and work through each issue step by step to eliminate everything until you reach the solution.

Sort of just on that but off topic a bit, trying to update firmware for Symbian in a virtual Windows machine running on a Linux host results in a quagmire of driver and USB issues on both sides of the fence, fortunately you can overcome these with a little bit of perseverance - same for the N900.

You don't really need to know a whole lot about the boot process of the N900 to be able to successfully flash it, you just need to know the failure modes you might encounter and why they might occur.

First up, get yourself a copy of the emmc and rootfs directly from Nokia, you'll need to enter your IMEI to do this - don't bother downloading tweaked firmware from anyone, get it from the original source.

(which is here) http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N900.php

I'm not sure if you still have your N900 with you or if you've already sent it to Nokia, but if you have it, just post back when you have the original firmware files and I'll assist you from there.

Cheers.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

I am sorry if I have not made this clear (please read the first post). Prior to installing robbies boot menu I had successfully flashed and I might have even cold flashed my device (i can't remember... I remember experimenting with cold-flashing, but not sure if prior to installing robbies image or after...), using flasher 3.5 under winxp with the correct images. This did not solve the problem.

At the moment the device has a flat battery, and plugging into the wall charger (removing battery with cord in/out, and various combinations etc) results in a fast reboot, holding "u"" does not hold the device in a usb ready state, or allow battery to charge.

I will most definitely appreciate your advice/input if I start to experiment with re-flashing again, but for the moment I am going to wait for details of previous repair to come through. I think a fully charged battery is going to be a requirement for me to be able to get the device to connect to pc via usb, so I will most likely have to wait for wall charger to arrive too. I think it is unlikely there will be a fix in short term, but hopefully in less than six weeks.

I will also do some more reading so I understand the basics of the relevant watchdogs that may be prompting the reboot. And also more about the device in general.

I still have 2 months of warranty left, and seeing as portagadgets did not honour their stated manufacturer warranty and get nokia to do the repair, it is an option to hold them liable for a fix. I don't want to go that way though, on the whole they have been pretty good about the whole thing.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

We'll, good luck with that then. Denial is just the first step, you'll get through it :-)

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

here is reply from portagadgets:

this phone, customer upgraded software of this phone himself, causing
warranty to void on our side. We didn't replace any part previously,
svc ctr only reloaded the correct software again in the repair
previously.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Huge ********, cause N900 is Open Device (to be 100% precise, at least in this matter), and even Nokia Care don't try to use flashing kernel as voiding warranty. Joys of sending phone to "amators", only used to "regular" phones and rules regarding them - I bet that if You send Your phone with "I forget my lockcode problem", they would also try to solve it with reflash ;)

My totally uneducated and impossible to verify assumption is that they flashed N900 via pins beneath battery. They probably don't even know that pins there are USB D+/D-, just without ANY kind of protection circuit, going directly to chip.

Still, this info adds to not-so-small count of people claiming that some "unfixable" problems were fixed by "?repair center" (be it Nokia Care or not) by flashing via serial pins. It *shouldn't* give different results than normal flashing, but it seems that, nevertheless, it actually *is* different.

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

I am re-downloading images from nokia. I have noticed that the first time i flashed i did it in the wrong order (or at least, that is what I have stated in this thread). Also there are 2 versions of emmc available at image download page, I think I researched the proper one to use but it is quite possible I made a mistake. Or that I made some other error. The flash was repoted successful by flasher 3.5, but maybe I used the wrong images or something.

Tomorrow I will clean up this thread and remove judgmental stuff from my posts, it is useless.

Funnily enough, still have no confirmation on original reason for reboot loop, it is hard for me not to blame car charger but that is not absolutely certain.

I don't want to accuse portagadgets of misleading me because I have no proof. I linked to this thread in the warranty claim, which would have notified them of the unauthorized software flashed to my phone (not to mention the alien boot display). It is quite possible they flashed my device to pr1.3 with the intention of returning to nokia if that did not fix (I did not manage to successfully flash to pr1.3 before sending the device back.) At the end of he day, they made an effort to fix the device despite having knowledge of actions I took that voided their obligation, which is pretty bloody excellent really.

Or are you saying I cannot void warranty by installing third party software? (genuine question) I assumed homebuilt kernels voided warranty.

I have asked them to specify how they did the flash, which will be icing on the cake in terms of post-sale support, for me.

Anyway, I'm having trouble articulating as always, will clarify some more things tomorrow,
chur,
mike

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

I have been sent this link by portagadgets in relation to the way my device was flashed, http://gsmsearch.com/faq/nokiaflasher.html
I dont have time to look at it at the moment, and probably won't for a few days, but it doesn't look like flasher3.5...

...Well, had a quick look and can't see anything that would specifically relate to an n900, have emailed portagadgets back asking to clarify, will keep thread updated as i have time...

Re: infinite reboot loop reflash pr1.3 and emmc wont fix...
 

Not going to get any more from them than that. Oh well. Ordering batteries and that now, will update thread some day in future