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- - N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What? (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=83879)

N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

Got a supposedly 'New N900' off of eBay recently. Box was sealed...opened it up and N900 looked new. However, after I bit I did notice that Angry Birds was installed and had scores for the first level....So, don't know how that could be if it was new unit. Only thing I did at that point was to put in a microSD card I had....

Anyway, seller gave me a credit back for that and N900 seemed to work OK.....

Last week I installed CSSU-Testing, backupmenu, and some other apps. Then the other day I installed EasyDebian and then Ubuntu and Fedora image files, per other forum posts. So, some large files located in MyDocs...but things were working OK...

However, last evening, something happened, think I was using EasyDebian or may have been Application Manager and N900 crashed. Since keyboard was open, when it rebooted, I got to backupmenu program. I selected option to quit and reboot and it started to reboot, but never completed process....

I thought perhaps battery got low, so, connected N900 to the AC charger and let it charge....left it plugged in overnight. This morning I thought it odd that the indicator light was not green.

Charging indicator light is sort of a orangey-red color that blinks on and off....I tried to boot up, but nothing happened.

I took N900 to work with me and have tried charging it up further, but no go....ie, not boot...nothing happens when I press the power on button....

Have tried removing battery for about 45 minutes and then reinserting, but still nothing happens, display does not light up at all....

So, assume that I need to reflash, correct?....but if so, how do I do that, when it won't react when I connect the USB cable to my PC and N900 while pressing the 'u' key?

Starting to think that perhaps I got a 'bum N900' ie, actually, an Asian refurb or ???

If I can fix, then OK, otherwise, maybe I need to see if I can get refund from ebay seller?

Thanks for any and all suggestions...

Mark

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

UPDATE

Well, not getting any response or suggestions here, I decided to contact the ebay seller. He replied that I should send him the N900 to check out. If it can't be fixed, he said he'll send me another one.

So, to be safe, I will take him up on his offer.....hopefully, won't be without a N900 too long!

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

have you tried reflashing the device?

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kent_autistic (Post 1197415)

have you tried reflashing the device?

Yes, but as I said above, display does not turn on or light up at all now....

So, how can you reflash???....

In other words, thought you need to see the USB symbol, etc, when you connect N900 to your PC to do reflash.....

Thanks.

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

@ArxhiMark
Hi first of all read the updating software wiki to understand what is gonna happen and follow this guide which vontain every single step hope this help.

Quote:

orgianly posted by ammyt
I have a windows 7 32bit flashed my N900 7 times till now:
1. the process is extensive but quite comprehensive
2. you'll need to know ur imei for software downloads
Now roll up ur sleeves we'll bring ur N900 back to life!:
1. go to tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N900.php
2. there r clear instructions on how to find and enter ur imei
3. after that throw the eula in a trash and click I agree
4. find RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin latest global release for Maemo 5 and click on it then download it
5. find RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin latest vanilla emmc content click on it then download it
6. place ur 2 .bin in the folder where maemo flasher was installed (e.g. C:/program files/maemo)
Now u should have the 3 required files for flashing:
1. flasher 3.5
2. RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin emmc content
3. RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin fiasco (OS)
The following procedure is the important one:
1. Be sure ur N900 has at least 50% of its battery charge
2. disconnect any internet connections (this is the issue with windows 7)
3. go to start menu then in the search type maemo flasher u should find it.
4. click on it it will open a cmd window
5. connect ur usb cable in ur pc not in the N900 yet
6. open ur N900's keyboard and press u button and keep holding it while plugging the usb cable in ur N900
7. faded Nokia logo with usb icon on top right corner shall appear
8. ur cool stop holding the u button now or ull suffer from finger constipation :P
9. returning to maemo flasher issue this command:
flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f (u can copy and paste it in maemo flasher)
10. HIT ENTER the windows 7 screen about allow and don't allow should appear click allow another cmd window shall appear it will show the flashing status takes about 5mins
11. after it finishes the other cmd window will close and u return to maemo flasher issue this command:
flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R
12. the same other cmd window will appear showing flasing status after it finishes ur N900 will reboot
13. disconnect ur usb cable close flasher be happy
Now a bit work with ur N900
1. once ur N900 reboot open the ur battery cover, remove the battery, and yep we're not letting it boot
2. with the battery removed press the power button long press it for 5 seconds to leave away any static electricity from usb connecting
3. count 30 seconds then plug ur battery back do not put back the cover.
4. boot ur N900 by pressing the power button ur N900 should boot happily although it will take time with the 5 dots in the booting process
5. after it boots ull get the seetings of time and date etc...
6. put the cover back and brick ur N900 again :P
p.s. if ur led flashes orange when ur N900 boots after flashing NO WORRIES just repeat the takeoff battery static electricity process

If you're using custom EMMC just rename the custom emmc to RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sifo (Post 1197468)

@ArxhiMark
Hi first of all read the updating software wiki to understand what is gonna happen and follow this guide which vontain every single step hope this help.

Thanks for your help, sifo....but as I keep saying how can you reflash if display is not turning on, ie, no response from N900 when I press down power button or when I connect the USB cable to PC and N900?

Also, I did try to reflash....held down 'u' key while connecting the USB cable to N900....no response on display....

maemo flasher showed message about 'waiting for device' or 'device not found'....something like that.....

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

@ArxhiMark
hmm.. i think you should try another battery or another USB cable

Quote:

6. open ur N900's keyboard and press u button and keep holding it while plugging the usb cable in ur N900
7. faded Nokia logo with usb icon on top right corner shall appear

what about the icon ? can you see it ?

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sifo (Post 1197484)

@ArxhiMark
hmm.. i think you should try another battery or another USB cable

what about the icon ? can you see it ?

Unfortunately, I don't have another battery or USB cable...

I don't see anything on the display...

The display is dark like the way it looks when N900 is turned off or asleep....

I did try flashing again. Get the message:

Quote:

Suitable USB device not found, waiting.

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

woo you are really stock in this.
what kind of OS you are using on your PC ?
and really try to have another battery from your friends maybe ? at least just to flash also try using another USB port on your PC any try may make a difference.
hope this will help

Re: N900 Bricked? Won't Turn On At All - Now What?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sifo (Post 1197519)

woo you are really stock in this.

Yep, sure seems like it.....

Quote:

what kind of OS you are using on your PC ?

Windows 7...running flasher as administrator...

Quote:

and really try to have another battery from your friends maybe ?

I don't have any friends....with N900, that is... :o

Quote:

at least just to flash also try using another USB port on your PC any try may make a difference.
hope this will help

Thanks for suggestion....but the little Fujitsu U820 that I'm using now only has one USB port on it... :(