N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Well, that's it. I plugged my N800 in for recharging last night and it wouldn't. Recharge, that is. No funny sound, no animated battery icon, nothing. At first I thought I had a wonky charger, but my old 770 charged just fine from it.

So I tried a few things; different charger, swapped batteries with the 770. left the N800 with battery out overnight... nothing worked. It still won't charge. The charging plug looks normal, nothing is wobbly (at least, not wobblier than before), nothing looks weird inside, so I guess something must've broken deeper inside the tablet. I'd send it back, but... you know.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Guess that Pandora can't come too soon?

FWIW I never use the N800 to charge batteries anyway, I have an external charger and spare batteries for that.

While it is may not be the end of the world, I still wouldn't want my N800 to be faulty in that regard either. So, a bit of a bummer really.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

I figure I'll use my 770 as a battery charger for the remainder. It'll certainly lower my N800's uptime statistics though...

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Maybe the power socket is faulty.
My n800 fell (a long time ago), it almost broke the plug (it was bent) and the socket.
I had to push a tiny amount of foam in the socket, behind the negative plate, so that it made good contact with the almost broken plug.
It worked for many months, then the plug broke completely, so I replaced it with a cheap ca-100 (usb charger) knock off from dealextreme.
It worked for 2 weeks, then it stopped working.
I simply pushed a couple of strands of fine electrical wire inside the plug. It's been working well since last august (from time to time I have to put another couple of strands of wire).
I don't know if the cause of the problem is the cheap plug or the half broken socket, but I don't really care as long as it works.
You could try it as well, just be careful not to short the contacts of the plug (the strands have to stay completely inside the hole of the plug, so they shoul be 5-7mm long).

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Well, I've compared the powersockets in my 770 and N800 (they appear to be identical parts) and from the outside they look the same. No apparent damage is visible, the center pin is in the same position in both sockets and appears to be of equal length in both devices, there is no noticeable wobble in the N800 (both sockets wobble a bit when the plug is inserted; I mean: The entire socket wobbles, including the plastic surrounding) and -- most importantly -- I didn't do anything destructive to my N800 prior to it giving up. It just refused to charge.

As I'm uninclined to perform surgery on the thing, I'm probably going to wait until my Panda arrives before sending it back to Nokia; my 2 year warranty doesn't end until January 17.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

My "Millenium Falcon" N800 took a bit of shear damage to the charger port when I carried it around connected to an external battery charger; it now is extremely finicky to charge. I found I got a better connection by taking a jeweler's screwdriver and carefully prying the metal plate on the outside ring of the hole so that it touches the plug better, but that doesn't sound like your problem.

It sounds like your charging port had a weak solder point, and that has broken somehow. I agree, if you can return it under warranty, that's better than opening it and resoldering the connection. I really hope the Pandora comes on time, you're cutting the warranty close by waiting to the end of this month...

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

I had a similar problem with one of my N800's. Mine was self induced though by having the polarity wrong on a generic charger and plugging my N800 into it. Quoting GreyGhost from another forum "Electronics run on smoke, if the smoke gets out it stops working"

On my N800 this caused a small surface mount fuse to go bad. I ordered a replacement fuse and have it at home but have not replaced it yet to see if this was the only damaged part.

Not sure if if the cause of your problem is the same as mine but the symptons are the same.

These are very very tiny components and unless you have experience with soldering these small Surface Mount Components I would have some else do it. I have the schematic on my home PC and can get more info tonight if you need it.
______________

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

This is very interesting... Thoughtfix's picture of the open N800 shows the charger isn't even soldered to the board, it is embedded into the plastic back of the N800, and it just has two contacts that press against the board... So if that board gets separated enough from the charger port, it would stop making connection and stop charging... Try pressing the charger port upwards (towards the "face" of the N800) while the charger cable is in the port and see if you get any response... maybe just pinching that area while the charger is in...? very interesting...

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

That's weird; inverse polarity should normally not be a problem for the tablets. In any case, the battery's circuitry has amenities for that. In any case, I haven't used any new charger, just the ones that used to work (and came with the tablets).

As to my soldering skills: I haven't got any.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Tried pushing up and pinching. Fail.

It has to be either the contacts or Dan's fuse suggestion -- although it must have been blown by a stray cosmic particle then, because I'm extremely anal about the things I shove into my electronic gadgets (perv pun obviously intended).

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

sounds like you finally performed a successful Windows Mobile installation

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Some people just have too perfect a memory for their own good.;)

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Oh come on, Karel, how could we forget? That WinMo install post was the Best. Post. Evar.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

In truth? I'd eat my Itablet before attempting to install wince on it, even if it were possible (although I have to admit that munching down on it before trying my own hack might not exactly be the smarted course of action).

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Just an update: In view of what I actually still use my N800 for (ebook reading and nothing else basically) I've now decided to mothball the b0rked N800 completely and go back to my trusted 770. It's smaller, less bulky and much better protected than the N800.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Well, send it in for repairs before mothballing it...

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

I'll probably do that. The problem is that I see no future use for my N800. OTOH, I can see me using my 770 (as an ebook reader) for quite a long time...

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

You could try selling it, I suppose. Or keep it around until the 770 dies. (If you don't anticipate carrying the Pandora everywhere you want an ebook by then.) Or put it in a ziplock bag (with a power cable heat-sealed in through the side) as a shower radio. The possibilities are endless, but do asymptotically approach complete weirdness.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

As a general rule, I never sell any of my old gadgets. They end up in storage, awaiting the construction of a display case, a tribute to my follies, so to speak.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

If you want I would be glad to take a look at it and see if the fuse is actually the problem or not. Or if you know someone that does electronic repair I can post where the fuse is and have them check it with a Multimeter to see if that is the problem or not.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Thanks, but I'll probably just send it to Nokia. Like I said, it's still under warranty (EU mandatory two years) and nothing has been done to it other than applying a screen protector, so they'll have to fix it.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

But after six months you have to prove it's their fault. Many big name (and even not so big) manufacturers just give you 2 years of full warranty, no strings attached, but that's not what the EU requires.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Are you sure about this? It is always best to take legal advice unless of course this is what you are providing here?

Directive 1999/44/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 May 1999 on certain aspects of the sale of consumer goods and associated guarantees
Article 5
Time limits
1. The seller shall be held liable under Article 3 where the lack of conformity becomes apparent within two years as from delivery of the goods.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

AFAIK the warranty kicks in by default. If it is your fault and they can prove this you have to pay for the costs. For example, if you solder on your hardware and **** it up or you play football with it you "did not use the device as intended". This is manufacturer warranty; not sales warranty. The latter is minimum 1 year. This matters because it defines who has the liability and who you must contact to send the hardware to. One has to be careful though. Some corporations appear to believe they're not dealing with EU customers. If you buy from a vendor such as Dell or Apple they want to shove you some additional warranty (for after that 1 year) while you have the right to have 2 years of warranty. They shove it to call this additional warranty seemingless but its bullocks. BTW, if a device would suddenly stop functioning while this would not be expected (some devices you may expect to function for a longer period than 2 years) you might have a case as well. A computer loses 33% of its new price every year, and after 3 years its regarded as garbage.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

Pretty sure, yes

No, IANAL, but I read various articles about it when this directive was implemented here, and all of them explained the 6 months trick. After 6 months the validity of the warranty depends on the good-will of the seller (in many cases it will be the manufacturer that will take care of the warranty, however the law is only binding between the buyer and the seller), or if you're willing to pay for an expert opinion and the legal costs involved.


That same article 5, paragraph 3:

Unless proved otherwise, any lack of conformity which
becomes apparent within six months of delivery of the goods
shall be presumed to have existed at the time of delivery unless
this presumption is incompatible with the nature of the goods
or the nature of the lack of conformity.


i.e, the first six months, by default it is considered to be defective, after 6 months you have to prove it was defective when it was sold to you.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

No, in the first six months the manufacturer has to take the goods back by default (unless they can prove gross buyer error or something like that). After that period, the manufacturer has the right to seek proof that the fault was the buyer's. The burden of proof always lies by the manufacturer.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

The directive says otherwise (see articles 3 and 5)
Btw, the manufacturer, according to such directive, is never directly responsible, the responsibility lies on the seller, which in turn can "pursue remedies against the person or persons liable in the contractual chain", so even if normally is the manufacturer that takes care of the warranty it is not required (yet) to do so by EU law.

Re: N800 no longer wants da elektrikxx.
 

About a month after finally getting my developer discount N810, the battery has taken a dirt nap. Arrrgh.