N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

First of all let me explain why i started this thread.
There are now many detrimental issue's being reported about the N900 and i want to prove just how clever the N900 actually is from the design point for developers so here is YOUR chance to add comments from a pure technical viewpoint.
First of all i want to clear something here about the word "bricked".
Countless threads are talking about "bricked" my N900 etc etc etc and i feel its very unfair indeed to use the word BRICKED in the case of the N900 because any mobile in the past that has earned this title means that to reverse the "bricked" situation normally required specialised manufacturers equipment or hacking equipment to get the device "un-bricked" and can not normally be done by end user or it's owner AND sometimes has indeed been an IRREVERSIBLE situation in many cases ie DEAD device.

The design of the N900 i must say after looking at both the hardware and software designed by Nokia has been done with great expertize as any of the so called "bricked" situations has been easily reversed by end user with very little equipment or knowledge needed (if any at all) as the advice is here on this forum for ANY given problematic "bricked" situation in easy read and understandable form thanks to the work from members of this community so therefore the "bricked" situation is no more than a REVERSIBLE loop situation to get the device back up and running simply by flashing the devices firmware back to reverse the fault of programming failure in the very worst scenario.

The N900 is actually an incredible piece of hardware as the design was well thought out for development purposes to enable just about anyone to have a go at programming with any mistakes REVERSIBLE with a simple flash situation and that to my knowledge is a very first for any mobile phone and is also subject to debate on this thread.

Now here is your chance to have input to really enlighten all the skeptics and the very people that put down the N900 as a piece of garbage basically that it is in fact an incredible device with HUGE potential, this i feel is important to the community and the N900 to gain back some credibility.

I have looked at every angle here and can not find a way to destroy or truly brick (non reversible) the N900 apart from one aspect that will indeed damage and that is the overclocking situation.
This is another aspect and i am not asking overclocking to be even talked about here as its obvious potential damaging results without proper cooling to the processor will indeed brick (irreversible) the N900 (unless new cpu component(s) can be replaced).
Also the USB design fault is indeed repairable so is not permanent.

I am asking for anything and everything at all SOFTWARE wise that will truly brick IRREVERSIBLY the N900 to be talked about on this thread.

Over to the community for discussion.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

i just bricked my n900!!!


(nah... just kiddin') :D

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Thank you. The word "bricked" has been horribly perverted, originally it meant that YOU CANNOT FIX IT without swapping hardware (if you can fix it at all) for example a failed BIOS flash on a PC mobo.

Over time it's been used for less and less serious situations, until we're at this point where if your Windows install fails to boot because of a corrupted system file, they say your "PC is bricked"...

http://bsaidso.files.wordpress.com/2...lm_picard2.jpg

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Let me try....

Play n900fly on a concrete ground, make a record height but fail to catch it back?

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

No, that's "your N900 cratered" not "your N900 was bricked."

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

It's not easy to brick, but it's ridiculously easy to botch OTA updates and require reflashing and a few hours of restoring from backup! I don't think I've ever had a successful OTA update since I bought the device in December!

But it is impossibly hard to brick :)

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

... Pick up a brick and smash your phone to bits? Surely that has to count as bricking it, and I really doubt a reflash would fix... although you never know!!

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

If you read the starter post of this thread it actually say's "I am asking for anything and everything at all software wise that will truly brick IRREVERSIBLY the N900 to be talked about on this thread."
Damaging the N900 by any other means is silly to even suggest let alone do lol.
The N900 is worth far far more than throwing it because of frustration gained from not knowing how to programme it in the first place lol.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

It'll t cut out then it should reflash :)

But I agree, a very versatile device. Try and "reflash" an iphone due to a bad os update, doubt that would happen.

There is potential for this to be the next jesus phone, but we need the developers to help that along!

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Botch your CMT MCSU and use flasher --disable-cmt-verify. See what happens.

The N900 has JTAG-ability, so the majority of all things CAN be fixed, you just need the proper hardware and software.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

From what I understand the N900 has something like a "mainboard firmware" that is updated with some of the distro upgrades. I guess pulling the battery while this firmware is being flashed could truly brick the N900.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Bricking it to the functional level of a brick is pretty hard to do, but saying that messing the device (OS) up is VI, is a stretch beyond any known modulus of elasticity ;)

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Can you please explain that in FULL so everyone knows what your talking about? because even i would love to know how you know Nokia made such a ballsup to leave prototype elements on a production pcb lol.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Actually I'm quite glad they left JTAG lands available, I'd be interested in actually running them out to a board and hooking it up to a BDI-2000. Makes debugging the kernel real easy.

After all this isn't your average, locked-down cellphone, now is it?

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Why would anyone want a complete step-by-step on how to totally and irreversibly break a device?

Cool factor?

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

I am astonished to know any programmer that would deliberately kamikaze his N900 lol

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

This thread is going to get very interesting lol and as we are talking about high level language source code, you would need full source available to even access break points and as we are talking about progression here why would anyone want to burn bridges? This is pure speculation here unless its coming from the Nokia development team that worked on the prototype.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Underneath your battery, next to the id sticker there are some odd little holes.

These aren't really for show or anything, you can connect something to these pads, probably with fancy pogo stick thingies. Just like the first xbox and almost every router in the world.

The only thing you need is $10 in DIY or a $2700 'professional' JTAG programmer (BDI-2000)

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

I specifically won't give any more information. The amount of stupid people on these forums is astonishing.

having JTAG is not a "ballsup" as you so eloquently put it. A LOT of consumer devices have contacts for JTAG. It's there for a purpose and 99% of the time, consumers don't know about it.

I can see why people have been bashing you. Dummy.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Now that there was funny, given my age i think i just peed my pants :)

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

I agree with you. Way too much 'fear-mongering' and even blatant trolling about how the N900 can be bricked.

Just some quick examples:

Etc, etc, etc...

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

classic quotage!!!

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

I don't know the difference between N810 and N900. But I indeed bricked my N810 by doing
warning: please don't try it, if you don't know for sure.
/dev/mtdblock0 is for bootloader
/dev/mtdblock1 is for config

Now there are nothing show on screen when do firmware flashing or firmware cold flashing by using USB.:confused:

I know there are Serial Console connector under the battery which perhaps can be used for cold flashing.
TTL level converter is needed and tools to access pad connector also needed. I have found this

http://img01.taobaocdn.com/bao/uploa...FIZ_031217.jpg

I haven't try to unbricked it because I haven't bought these tools.

Under Nokia label, other pad connectors can be found perhaps for JTAG port. But no function for each pad connector can be found.

N810 don't have ROM/BootRom let user choose booting from NAND or from MMC/SD, when all code on NAND is zeroed, it will be bricked. That's all I know about this situation. :)

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

no need to mock abill_uk...
each thread should be judged fairly and this one is very good.

there may be one way to brick the N900. im not sure if i use the terms correctly now, but if u manage to manipulate/overwrite the bootloader flash rom on the n900 it may get ugly.

it would be comparable to playing with overwriting the bios on a pc, with the purpose of adding features but it may turn out that the bios is incompatible and ends in disaster.

if the N900 boot loader (if it has one) is overwriteable it can create some situations where more complicated hardware approaches is needed... maybe thats where the JTAG writer comes in? :)

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

overclock to 9GHz

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Yes, I'm happy to see someone bring back proper usage of "brick".

If it is bricked it is like a brick. It doesn't light up. It doesn't charge. It just sits there like a brick.

Unfortunately, so many people use it incorrectly that you may as well assume that a phone reported as bricked isn't bricked till proven otherwise.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Oh, there was no mocking intended. I was simply agreeing with him :)
Seeing some of abill_uk's posts I'm pretty sure he has a good sense of humor.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Oh man... you guys are so overlooking the incredible rate at which better "idiots" are being created in order to break better technology.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

it's over 9000!

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Mine goes to 11GHz.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

ROFLMFAO

That was funny.......


But on a serious not I agree here It is impossible to brick the n900
They only condition i can see it being bricked is if the hard drive malfunctioned and stopped working which I think i slim but then again who am i

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

I'll shoot him down. ^^

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Yeah, one of the better points of the device

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

I came as close as you are going to get doing an OTA to PR1.2 on mine.
It got stuck in a mode where is was saying it was updating and to leave it alone after 8 hours it was still in that mode, turning it off, taking the battery out resulted in it coming back on in that mode. It just went back to that same mode again and again, trying to flash it fresh would not work because it would not come out of that mode no matter what you did to even get it into usb flash mode.

Finally I hit upon the idea of taking the battery out hooking up the USB cable and holding the U key down as I slid the battery back in and was finally able to get the USB symbol up in the top corner and flash it.
But for a day I thought it was a going back to Nokia for a hardware reset.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Some level of charging is a hardware function.
It will charge to ~3.7 volts slowly, using the inbuilt charger chips default settings.
And this will light up the charging LED a solid yellow.
This is totally independant of the CPU.
Though it automatically tries to boot when it hits a certain voltage.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibility back to the N900.
 

I was thinking the same way but with regard to thread titles. :)

@ abill_uk

A little over a week ago you started this thread:

Beware of some applications available on this forum can seriously damage the os.

Now today this one:

N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.

:eek:

BTW, thanks for the "chance" to provide input but the credibility of the N900 was never a question for me.

...perhaps credibility is a problem for others when they see the titles to threads like these pop up on the main board. :)

>> http://talk.maemo.org/search.php?searchid=7520308

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the universe is winning.

You are way too optimistic about the power of Nokia engineers to prevent every possible f.up that a stupid user can think of. We, at maemo.org, are just a small set of mainly geeky people and we cannot even imagine the things your average Joe might do, so yes, for us it may be way too, close to the damn-impossible to brick the N900; but for them it maybe is as easy as plugging an ethernet cable into a wall el. socket...

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

There has certainly been some clever thought out comments on this thread regarding the topic but really why bring in the jtag possibilities which is high level using specialist tools and high level code and we all know this is just not within normal programming done from this community and really is pointless to even talk about as the bricked situation i referred to was only regarding software being installed from developers on the community via the USB port OTA or wireless methods !.
When i referred to bricked mobiles on the threads asking help it was always obvious to me that it was in fact NOT a true sense of the word "bricked" and time to bring it to the forefront as a wrongly used and termed explanation of a fault brought on by self programming by whatever means.
This is also a means to give every "noob" user CONFIDENCE to play and take the worry out of killing the device altogether knowing their is a simple way to reset the N900 back to working order in any event.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

Oh don't worry lol i am certainly old enough and stupid enough to joke and sometimes defend myself by reckless talk on here.
Luckily i do have the knowledge to know better so i just let everyone rant on regardless lol.

ps no offence taken on your post.

Re: N900 is virtually impossible to "brick" here is the chance for everyone to have input on this and put credibilty back to the N900.
 

can any one help me...... i m usual mob user .. i rcently try to unstall kernel by x terminal bt failed... then i reboot bt my n900 does nt start... only show nokia sign ......... plz help me ........... wht to do.......