Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Last Friday was one of the worst days of my life when my N900 decided not to start beyond the Nokia logo anymore.
Also I couldn't get it to charge

I spent the whole evening trying to get it started up again.
I reflashed the firmware and eventually reflashed the EMMC.
No matter what I did, it never went past the Nokia logo.

Now the insurance company picked it up and said they will send it to a Nokia care center and that i will get it back a soon as they fixed it.

Now I'm using my old N95 and I realized that my N900 was actually the greatest device I ever owned. Not just as a phone and not just as Internet tablet.or a combination of the two.
This little gadget really grew on me. I spent a lot of my spare time on it. I practically never touched my PC at home, since i got my N900. Everything I needed to do, I could do it on my N900.
I browsed a lot on these forums and the Maemo wiki. I tweaked a lot.

I really really hope they can fix it, or I hope that the rumors of Nokia discontinuing the N900 isn't true so i can get a replacement in case it can not be fixed.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

If it's considered worse day in your life then you must be living in a pretty happy life. XD

In retrospective, you shouldn't reflash when the battery was not fully charge, it'd brick your device.

It's good to hear that you've a responsible insurance company to get help with.

Thanks for the report. Good luck!

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I have to admit, the rest of my life is pretty good :-)

Regarding the battery, I have 2 batteries of which one is always full. I used that one to reflash the device. I'm not a frequent poster of these forums, but a very frequent reader :-)

Thank you for the good luck wishes

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

The N900 is almost impossible to brick it. Brick mean no longer working whether you doing anything and it will not turn on.

People miss used the term and as long your device can still be turned on then it isn't brick. You just need to charge the battery and then reflash it properly. If you currupted the Flash memory then it might be screw. Nokia can may be force flashing it to make it work again.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

As mentioned before, I used a fully charged battery and was able to flash both the firmware and EMMC. This didn't change a thing.

How could I have corrupted the flash memory so badly an full reflash couldn't fix it.

I really hope you're right about Nokia having other ways of reflashing my device so i can get it back soon.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

tlex26:

some questions out of curiousity:


1.) did u ever overclock your N900, and how much?

2.) did u try removing the battery for 20 mins?

3.) u said u flashed both NAND and EMMC... that was a good idea - but did u use 32-bit windows or 64-bit windows to flash it?

4.) did u run any apps that may destroy NAND or EMMC because of too many writes... such software could be software that makes HEAVY swapping to NAND/EMMC?

5.) did u run any other OS on your N900?


i hope everything turns out alright with your N900 :)

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Okay, here are the answers.

1) I never overclocked it.

2) I had the battery removed for aprox. 7 hours (during a good night sleep).

3) I have a 32-bit windows XP machine which i used to reflash my device.

4) To be honest I don't know which apps might cause heavy swapping between NAND en EMMC.
The latest thing I put on it was the homescreen selector for 9 desktops and a couple of QB-widgets.
Last Friday afternoon I couldn't pickup a call because the whole device became extremely slow.
After missing that call i decided to restart my phone where only the shutting down part of the restart worked.

5) I had nitdroid and multiboot on it for a while.
I had put it on my device when nitdroid was at version 0.0.5-4-final.
I didn't use any autoinstaller.
Last time I used multiboot was weeks ago and by accident when i forgot to close the keyboard when rebooting.
Last time I used nitdroid was months ago.
At the time I used the first post on http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=58890 to put nitdroid on my N900 and
I used the second post to upgrade it to 0.0.6.
After that i haven't used nitdroid again.

I hope everything turns out alright as well. I did notice that the shop I bought my N900 from is still selling it. So if my N900 can't be restored, there is still an option for a replacement.

Grtz,

Lex

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

my condolence

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I'm glad that totally extraneous suggestion about overclocking was disproved.

Since you had a spare fully charged battery, you didn't deserve
this problem. You did the right things, in general, it appears to me.

It would be nice if Nokia would report what they found wrong, but that probably won't happen. If they do, let us know.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Remove the memory card and sim card - then try to switch it on.

Better to rule it out!

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I recommend you just go out and buy a new one. It's easier that way. It's the Nokia way. :P

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Why do you think that comment was worth making?

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Why do you think it was worth even pointing it out? :P

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Thanks for your condolences.


I'm a very frequent reader of these forums and because I regularly tryout different apps from testing i decided to always keep a spare battery fully charged on the side. Just in case.

It would be nice indeed if Nokia would report what they found, but unfortunately this is not my first Nokia device I had to send to Nokia. The reports i got in the past didn't make much sense.


Memory card and sim card where also removed, when i removed the battery.
I even Cleaned the sim card, because I read somewhere that dirty sim cards could mess up the booting process as well.
Actually, I flashed my device with and without memory card, since i was kind of desperate you know ;-)
I had to try everything I could think of first before sending it to Nokia

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I'd try flashing a framebuffer kernel: http://mohammadag.xceleo.org/public/...s/framebuffer/ Then, you can watch it boot up and see where it fails.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Well, such situations is when warranty is good to have.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

If I could I would have bought 2 of them in the first place :-)
Unfortunately my financial situation forces me to have faith in Nokia's care center and/or the insurance company.


I would have tried this if I had this tip sooner :-)
My device is already somewhere between me and Nokia.

Just out of curiosity.
Would it actually made any difference if i knew where it fails during booting?
What i mean by that is this.
If fully reflashing a device doesn't make my device boot beyond the Nokia logo, could I have fixed it if I knew where it fails?


Warranty and insurance :-)

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

It depends - Either it'd let you know -where- it fails, or one of us could (probably) figure out a solution involving a custom fix of some sort. Say the problem was the RootFS NAND had some odd issue involving bad blocks - a complete reformat of it(which -doesn't- happen with just a flash) could help.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

My condolonces. I live in fear of that happening. My old N95 is now my sisters. It is having a lovely retirement not being hacked to death. My N97 was sold in disgust.

Nokia will (hopefully) give you a new one. I hope you have all your media and a backup on your PC. I've just lost all Octobers photos after forgetting to back them up, when I reflashed the eMMC ("A Homer moment" for sure). Good luck.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Ahh I assumed that with flashing a reformat was done as well.
I know, I know. Assumption is the mother of all f*ckups

At this point I can't try it out anymore since my N900 is on it's way to Nokia.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I was surprised because it conflicted with my positive opinion of you, so I wondered why you made the comment.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Google no help here,
what exactly is the framebuffer kernel?
Is it just a kernel booting with the stdout displayed instead of a logo?
Thanks...:)

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Im on the edge of a breakdown here, Mine just died in my arms not more than 5 mins ago. Rebooted after the update, never made it passed the Nokia startup logo. It vibrates , shows me the nokia logo, then it just restarts and keep doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Does anyone have and good ideas?
Dont want to lose my baby :<

-Futtawuh

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Well, erm... a format is done, but - as I learned from Stskeeps - it doesn't erase the eraseblock information, for whatever information. So, if that got corrupted./

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Sounds nasty. I know what you're going through.
I difference with my device is that it doesn't reboot.
When I try to switch it on, i see the Nokia logo for a longer period of time than usual.
Then the back light switches off and withing a few seconds the Nokia logo fades away and it is switched off.

Did you update OTA or did you reflash it?

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

At this point a can only hope that Nokia can fix it.
(or send me a new one)

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Used the App man. to update via my home WIFI , so guess that's OTA.

Ohwell, if noone knows what to do, guess ill just go buy a new one, since i guess my varanty is long gone.(overclocking = loss of varanty?) But its rather hard to get one at the stores in Norway. :<

Im now thinking it migth have been the kernel config, Cause thats the last thing I updated of my apps.

-Futtawuh

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I wish you get it back soon, and well...

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

That's OTA alright
Obviously I'm not the expert here, otherwise I could have fixed my problem (if fixable) myself, but isn't it an option to try and reflash the firmware first?

Have a look at this first:
http://wiki.maemo.org/Updating_the_firmware
and please look at the extra notes!

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I'll take a look at that link tomorrow , Thanks.
So is there a way to just set the phone to "Factory" settings WITHOUT turning the phone on?

-Futtawuh

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I.. I love you, man. ;)

Besides, I was providing the comment tongue-in-cheek. It appears he took it the right way, from his response.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I have no idea how to flash my N900, but I figured its worth a shot.
Only thing is, my battery is not fully charged, since i had been using the N900 for a day befor it died. And im really not sure if it charges when i plug it to the charger , cause the "charging LED" dont show, and the phone just boots to the Nokia logo, and reboots untill i remove the battery.
So my question is, what can go wrong if the battery aint fully charged?

-Futtawuh

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

I don't exactly know what will happen, but I can image you don't want your device running out of juice while flashing.
My guess is you would probably end up like me and you'll need to send your precious N900 back to Nokia.

I think you'll need to find a way to get your battery fully charged first and don't take unnecessary risks.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

Yeah makes sence. And I don't think it would be a good idea to flash it since the phone wont stay OFF while its plugged to a charger, and just reboots like its getting paid to do it. Guess that would ****up the flash.
Ohwell, I'll take my baby to the doctor tomorrow then :)

-Futtwuh

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

tlex26:
i know its too late now - but maybe your bootloader was corrupt.

check out this:
http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/maemo-d...-downloads.php

download "maemo-flasher-3.5", and read the "help.txt" file.

in that file they explain how to "cold flash" the bootloader of the N900.
...maybe your N900 problems had something to do with it, or not.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

S0urcerr0r,

It was indeed a bit to late, but still thanks for the help.

Re: Oh no. My N900 died on me :-(
 

This afternoon a brand new N900 was delivered to my home, while I was at work.

It took Nokia a long time to find out that it couldn't be repaired, but at this point I couldn't care less. I got an N900 again :-)

I'm happy again.