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?
 

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.

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

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
what about the icon ? can you see it ?

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

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:

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?
 

Yep, sure seems like it.....


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

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

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

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

Try this very simple fix. It won't work for everyone, but it un-bricked my N900 when I had similar problems:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php...82#post1193282

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

Thanks for your help, eiffel....just wish you had posted this an hour earlier.....

I just carefully packed up the N900 to ship back to seller to check out.....he said that if they can't fix it, they'll send me another one....

UPDATE

opened up package and tried that method....unfortunately, did not work.....

:(

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

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

OK, think your convincing me to open up the package and give it one more try....

and I did such a nice job bubblewrapping the N900...... :)

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

My n900 saved with that method, sorry, no meaning to spam on your thread sir, :)

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

No sorry needed, ibrakalifa...thanks for your help!

So, I just tried doing the cold flashing technique, but it did not work for me....in the second step

another window opened up very quickly, but then disappeared...
in the main cmd window, it just returned to a new prompt line.....

:(

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

thats strange, its work flawlesly on my n900

have you ever try to change your battery and flash it again? Sometimes thats help

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

Yes, just my luck.....

If you mean to put in another battery, unfortunately, I don't have another battery, just the one the N900 came with....

I'm thinking that since I bought what is supposed to be a 'new, sealed, in the box' N900, I should take the seller up on his offer to send it back to him to either fix or replace.....

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

yes replace your battery, its sound like 'dumb' solution, but believe me, its safe me alot, thousands times of flashing my n900, :D

and sorry for my bad english, :)

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

Thanks again for all your help....replacing battery sounds like a good idea....I think I'll let seller do that for me....

Going to ship N900 to seller now.....

Will report back after I get response after he checks out the N900....

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

Out of curiosity, how much did you pay for that N900? How much are they going for these days? (I may be tempted to sell one of mine in a pinch.;)

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

ah okay, goodluck and have a nice day, :)

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

Think I paid about $250 for it....but this was supposed to be brand new, never used, sealed box unit....box did come sealed with Nokia seal....

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

$250 for a brand new one would be hard to believe. In fact, brand new one at any price would be hard to believe at this point.

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

Out of curiosity - have you also tried coldflashing before you sent it to reseller? (connecting it via usb to computer without battery)? Is your Windows 7 32bit or 64bit? I couldn't get flasher to work with my 64bit install...

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

Understand your point...all I know is that is was in Nokia box and had the Nokia seal on it....the N900 looked new....and so did accessories....

There are other stores online that say they have some new ones left too...but usually those are at higher price....

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

Yes....no response from N900....nor was N900 recognized by flasher app....


32 bit.....

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

well i have it even worse...my phone got stuck in the reboot loop...and as i connected it to reflash as luck would have it the usb port became loose...is there a way to reflash WITHOUT the use of the usb? (similar to how other nokias had a 3 finger reset)

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

Hi mate ..
i got similar problem before.. and i tried many solutions but nothing happen..
but somebody told me to change the battery...
so i bought another battery and my n900 work's then i reflashed it and all is ok !
now to solve ur problem you have to buy a new battery or lend a battery from a friend :D

note:you can use that battery for nokia 5800 xpressmusic

i hope this help you :)

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

Thanks for your help, hadi43......

Yes, I hope it turns out that it's just that the battery is bad....we shall see....

:)

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

I wonder if your N900 USB port may be faulty.

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

Suppose that's a possibility....although, if this N900 truly is a new one and I am very gentle in attaching/removing USB cable, I'd be surprised if it is. However, you never know.....

Will be interesting to hear from seller what the problem is....should receive N900 by Saturday....

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

i found a solution to my problem...the n900 CAN be flashed without the use of a usb..the guys at the repair shop showed me how...they took the back cover off, removed the battery, and they attached some sort of cable to the area which is circled in red...and flashed the n900 from there...didnt know that was even possible

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

Very interesting.....

What kind of repair shop was this?

And did they flash the N900 the same method as we usually do, other than attaching the cable to the inside of the N900?

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

UPDATE

Got word from seller that my N900 had 'manufacturing defect'. He didn't specify what exactly.

However, the good news (for me...) is that he's sending me another N900....should be here in a day or two.....so, at least seller is very responsive and responsible....