770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Cool....now I too have fallen the NOKIA SUPPORT BLACK HOLE. Yep, had the unit for a few days when the dreaded WSOD struck. I called NOKIA "Support" and was chistised for buying the unit at BUY.COM. The rep kinda blamed BUY.COM for selling me a broken unit. What? Yep....I should have recorded the conversation....unbelieveable!! Anyway, the "L2" "Support" rep told me that they (NOKIA) was never heard of the screen controller issue. My, my...I guess I should count myself lucky for having reached someone of her stature in the company. WOW....to be able to speak for the entire company...now that's really something!!! Er...or not. Anyway, the 3 days that it did work it looked promising, but I'm glad I only wasted the $139.00 I paid or should I say 'rented' the device. Oh well, from the other posts regarding the WSOD it looks like it will be a reoccuring problem. Sigh! Wise up NOKIA management....selling bricks is often a bad business move. Hugs & Kisses NOKIA...I'm going back to my HP!!! Btw, HP offers advance replacements for their defective products. (I guess they don't have cash flow issues):mad:

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

So they're not doing anything about it? Isn't there some sort of warranty on these devices?

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

http://www.nokiausa.com/A4410055

One year for US purchasers only. Others are probably covered under a different warranty.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

bobm: Most likely you paid your purchase with credit card. Some cards have accidential damage/loss insurance, thus you may be able to file a claim with the CC company and get your money back...

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

BUY.COM stepped up to the plate and is sending a new replacement unit AND a pre-paid UPS shipping label to put on the return box. Now that's first class customer service!!! I'd like to point out that BUY.COM's NOKIA 770 site clearly states that ALL RETURNS must be handled thru the manufacturer. Something I clearly understood and that's why I tee'd it up with NOKIA first. Since NOKIA couldn't get their collective act together I tried BUY.COM and they didn't blink an eye to make the sell right. Anyway, I look forward to receiving the replacement unit and will report back here if the WSOD strikes again. I'm really hoping not, b/c I truly want to play with this tiny box. However, I can say that it's going to be a tough user adoption road if other folks :eek: get yanked around like I was. Wake-up Nokia or another industry player will have you for breakfast.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Be aware that the "white screen of death" is due to a design fault... if it happens again persist with Nokia and don't accept "no" for an answer, they are 100% responsible.

Good job that Buy.com stepped in though, saves you a lot of hassle as Nokia will only repair your unit.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I wish I could say the same. I called buy.com and they told me that they have to email the return dept to get permission. They told me it will take 3-4 days to find out their answer. Is this what you had to do?

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I also called Buy.com, and they issued a return label and RMA# while I was on the phone. My WSoD 770 was sent yesterday, and scheduled for delivery to them today. I guess they could always deny the return once they receive the item, so I've got my fingers crossed.

Wish me luck!

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Ouch, seems that the mid-batch of production runs for 770's had problems with WSOD. Early and very late models didn't have that problem or at least don't appear too. I'm guessing buy.com is blowing out old stock that appears to be mid-production stock since quite a few people have had WSOD from there with the recent price drop.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

yep I emailed BBB cause they wont swap mine they want me to send to nokia. I did but I am extremely dissatified with buy.com nor will I ever use them again

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Well, it sucks that you have to deal with nokia's support, but in defense of buy.com, it clearly states on thier page that they don't accept returns on the 770, not sure why you think that you should be treated different from what's listed on their web page :confused:.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I bought my N800 at CompUSA and had to pay extra $35 or so for a 1 year extended warranty in order to be able to get a replacement from them if something goes wrong; returns to Nokia seems to be the default policy.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

well when you get a device out of box that is bad and turn around and have to get it refurbished. I think you would not like it. Nokia will not take it back or replace it. See they are putting up false information.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

What do you mean Nokia won't take it back and repair it, the product is under warranty.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

they will repair it but 2 things come to my mind


1) It is brand new and before I could even use it, it will be refurbished

2) It will probably take about a month to get it

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Yeah, i am having the exact same issue with Buy.com and Nokia support. My brand new Nokia 770 WSOD item's serial number shows INVALID, so they are NOT even repairing it. I am very disappointed by NOKIA's support and Buy.com's support.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I got the same thing happen to my nokia 770 after flashing the new 2007 hacker edition. I got a white screen of death! luckily i bought mine from amazon.com and replaced it for free. Any idea why i got a white screen of death after flashing the OS 2007 hacker edition?:)

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Random chance. The WSoD is caused by a race condition that occurs at boot - it's got nothing to do with the software you had just flashed on to the device, and it might have happened the next time you had booted OS 2006.

The WSoD flaw should have been fixed on the production line for later units (it didn't affect the original units either) so hopefully your replacement will have come from a later run.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I also bought it from buy.com. It worked fine couple of days before WSOD.

I called nokia since buy.com had special Manufacturer return policy. Nokia rep could not locate it using wifi mac id.

I eventually called buy.com. CSR had to get supervisor approval due to special return policy. In two days I had paid return label. And few days later I got my money credited back.

With experience of so many, I did not want to go for an exchange. Unlike shipping to nokia, I didn't even have to pay shipping. I would have liked to use it though when travelling.

How can a company like nokia market a product with such a fundamental design issue and then disown the reponsibility.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I keep seeing people say this but haven't seen any firm evidence to support it. As far as I can tell, every batch that has been released (via Buy, Woot, Play, Amazon, or Expansys) has had its fair share of failures. One would think that now these stores have sold off the last of their inventory, they would have been from late production runs?

If the "doesn't affect early or late units" claim is true, is there a list of serial number ranges anywhere so owners check if their model is vulnerable or safe?

Do the repair people do any mods or use an alternative part, or do they just replace like for like and hope that the next failure is out of warranty?

Have any people that have had their device repaired had a further WSOD?

If there isn't any proof that this issue has been fixed, (or that the repair is permanent), why give people false hope that they are immune from waking up their tablet to instant brickdom?

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

It's only my opinion, based on what I've seen posted in the past 2 years. It may well be inaccurate - I've never suggested it is the truth (hence the use of words such as "should have" and "hopefully"). I've asked for confirmation from Nokia about the early/middle/late batches, but received no response.

I'm having to guess at this based on limited information, similar to how you are guessing when you assume the cheap 770s sold via Woot, Buy etc. were late production units - who is to say they weren't purchased from a warehouse at a knock down price, and had been sitting in the warehouse for the past 12+ months?

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I got a 770 from woot, and it came out of the box with the latest firmware installed. Which, to me, indicates that it hadn't been sitting in a warehouse for a year. Got a WSOD last week, after about 2 months of use.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Fair enough - that suggests it was made during or after January 2007, which debunks the early/mid/late theory! :)

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Is it possible to use 770 after wsod for anything else as it seems unusable at all ;
any idea ;

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

If you had installed SSH on it, you can still use it remotely... as a server for example (well, the 770 can easily be used in USB Host Mode so you can use it to custom build a WiFi-enabled NAS system :)... but it depends on how much free time you have on your hands).

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

It could be used as an embedded development system or as an embedded web server .
However the lcd does not work at all .Thus how we can install a "light" httpd without seeing at all ?
I tried a fast search about usb to vga converter.A few converters are around but for windows platform only.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

My trusty old 770 just had it's second WSOD (the first time I had it warranty repaired - they replaced the screen... apparently not the WSOD cause)...

Now I've been checking out those cheap N800 prices, 260€ seems ok, but I wonder what the WSOD situation is on those nowadays? Do they have the WSOD fault?

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

No, they do not.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

N800's don't have WSOD, they just don't power up :mad:
Fortunately it's not permanent, but it just shows how cr*p Nokia are.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Did buy a N770 in December 2007. Did work fine 8 days. Got a WSOD last week.
Now in the Nokia repair pipeline...
I read in this forum that WSOD could happen again. Is that true?
------ after 20 days---------
my N770 is repaired and working. :) warranty: yes. Found my data on it so same OS.
screen hardware changed?
I will not shut down the system...

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

With the larger RAMs, 2 SD slots, camera and FM radio, faster CPU and now 2008Os, the 770 has to be dirt cheap to be attractive. How low can one get a 770 nowaday? The last one I saw was $105 from Woot.com. And, the going $ for a N800 remains $228.99 from Buy.com. I am still looking for one N800 and a N810 for the next 6 month. I am holding my horse to see if the new N800 will come in a different outfit, softwarewise or hardwarewise. The 770 does NOT has the power on problem, I admit.


bun

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

If they replace the unit, as opposed to repairing it, then yes. If you've had it less than a month I'd be tempted to push for a refund from the dealer and invest in a discounted N800, which is a much safer bet all round, particularly as it runs the latest OS and apps.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Well I'm annoyed. My 770 is bricked by the WSOD. I've only had the thing for 2 weeks, too.

I'm going to ship it off to Nokia to fix but I've heard some frightening things about their turn around times. Is it still taking them 6 weeks to fix the LCD problem? If that's the case I'm going to be raving irritated by the time I get it back.

Tomorrow is my birthday, too, and my husband gave me copious amounts of money to play with on fictionwise. So much for e-book shopping. Plus when I get it back I will have to reinstall Garnet VM and all the maemo stuff like Xterm I've spent the last two weeks getting arranged to my satisfaction. Phooey. :mad:

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

The turn around time for my 770 was a little under three weeks from the day I sent it in to Nokia for repair. They replaced it with a new unit instead of repairing it which was fine by me.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

My 770, which I've had since the Woot last summer, just went south today. While it otherwise appears to be working, the screen colors are smeared, something like a VERY badly tuned analog TV broadcast which makes some screens nearly impossible to read.

Reflashed, pulled the battery and waited -- tried the usual stuff -- but it's still messed up. Sigh.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Two weeks - aren't you covered by the retailer? Take it back and get a new one, or a refund (put it towards an N800!) :)

Seriously, something which fails in the first two weeks should be replaced by the retailer or refunded in full (at least that's how it works in the UK - statutory consumer rights).

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

I just sent and they received it, now they said they are waiting for parts to repair. Hope they will send me a new one. I love my 770, smaller than N800 and N810. And I like the hard case. It does what I need and more. When they sent you a new one, did they send you a full new box with everything? I hope they will send me a new battery, I still have the old battery with me. An extra one would be nice for a long trip.:D
Here is the status from Nokia:

Repair History:

Status Date Status
01/04/2008 Awaiting Parts
01/03/2008 Received
12/25/2007 Pending Receipt by the Repair Center


This information is provided as a courtesy. The online information reflects the latest status update provided by the repair center for customers and is the same information available to the Nokia Care Contact Center.

Re: 770 WSOD - White Screen of Death
 

Mine sat for a week with "Awaiting Parts" before they issued a replacement. The replacement wasn't a full retail package, just the 770 with a new stylus, battery cover & hard cover. No new battery unfortunately, that would have been nice. :) I highly doubt they'll repair your 770, it seems easier for them to just replace it.

White Screen of Death?
 

I had reflashed OS2006 in October with success. Since I'm into repeatability, i saved a script at the time with exactly what i'd done.

In the mean time four things have happened. First, i got a 2 GB Kingston MMC card. It is very slow to write to it, and sometimes it even fails. Also, a new kernel patch came out which is supposed to fix corruption which is supposed to happen sometimes while connect to WiFi. I never experienced this issue. Then, the repository on my unit became corrupted, and i could not install new applications. I had not broken root, and it seems that you need to break root before you install much else, so it looked to me that i'd have to start from scratch to get root, which i'd need to fix my broken repository anyway.

:(So, i reflashed, using my script. On reboot, the screen has become mostly white, though you can kind of make out outlines of NOKIA, and even the hands bit. The chime sounds as in a normal boot, and there is a ghost outline of the final booted setup. However, i can't read anything, and you need to see what you are doing to get anything into it. I've since tried a variety of reflashes, under the idea that it can't hurt. But it appears to be dead, and i'll have to send it back. It was an accident waiting to happen. I'd been putting off reflash, but could no longer make progress without it.

Have i described the typical WSOD?

As an aside, i'd been evaluating languages, python, guile, and C with an eye towards development on the unit. I'd come up with several candidate projects, all of which would eventually require root. I'd really like to have the unit 1) have a fast driver for the 2 GB Kingston (or get a 1 GB Sandisk for it), 2) have a swap file or swap partition on the card, 3) have an ext3 filesystem on the card, 4) have a relaible backup system that copies everything over WiFi to my Linux host, 5) have a database, like Mysql or Postgres with backup, import and export tools, so that i can write 6) a calendar program that can wake up the unit and beep.

Re: White Screen of Death?
 

Sorry to hear about your WSOD. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't happen to mine. I try not to power it off unless absolutely necessary, and just let it go into sleep mode when I'm not using it. I got it brand new off eBay, and I'm 95% sure I'll have trouble getting the warranty honored in Canada. :-(

When you get your tablet repaired/replaced, I would strongly recommend you install the Wi-Fi fix from an MMC card before you enable the Wi-Fi connection. I also strongly suggest installing the high-speed MMC kernel patch by fanoush that hugely improves the stability and speed when reading/writing to the memory card. I noticed a great performance improvement when I enabled the 64MB swap file on the MMC card after applying fanoush's kernel patch.