Hey there guys, I don't mean to add to the whole horde of people claiming to have bricked their N900 (when in reality they only need reflashing), but I seem to have REALLY bricked my N900.

While it starts, it gets stuck at the loading screen after boot, indefinately (yes, I've left it trying to load for a day).

So, I did what any sensible guy would do and reflashed it. What I found out was while it COULD take rootfs reflashing, it seems to NOT be able to have its eMMC reflashed (gets stuck in the loading screen, flasher NEVER detects eMMC. (and yes, I have reflashed both successfully a couple of times before).

So, a dead N900 that starts but could never go to desktop and cannot be reflashed? I'd say it's bricked.

And no, this is NOT a hate thread or a flame thread or a rant thread (and I hope it could be KEPT THAT WAY). I just want to find out what went wrong so that I can avoid it in the future.

And as you can see below, A LOT could have gone wrong.

Okay, a bit of background, the N900:

1) Is 3 months old, bought back in April.

2) Is used constantly and heavily (I blame you guys).

3) Has most of it's system files modded directly by replacing the files in /usr/ and /etc/.

4) IS OCed with Titan's kernel, using starving voltage settings at 500-850.

5) (in respect to voltage adjustment) Has NOT shown any problems playing video files or recording them. Camera has been working fine as well.

6) Has NOT shown any obvious signs of data corruption, save for a few occasional reboots/lock-ups each week.

7) Has been dropped, say, a couple of times - usually clad in a hard rubber case of some sort (for the last week or so, an Otterbox).

8) Had 84.4MBs of free rootfs (prior to its demise).

9) Was running PR1.2. Has been reflashed a couple of times.

8) Used a symlinked dpkg cache relocated to /home/.

9) Had Nokia Maps relocated and symlinked to /home/opt/ as well.

10) Has the bootmenu-rescue stuff (by robbiethe1st) installed. Also tried to use it PRIOR to the first reflash - TO FLASH THE eMMC.

11) <ADDED> Has been partially disassembled a few weeks before to tighten the slider by a bit (it was getting uncomfortably loose) by liberal use of electrical tape (the TehkSeven way).


Next, these are the steps that led to the device's embrickment:

1) Was using the device as usual, 6 browser windows and was downloading something.

2) Device slowed down, most probably due to stuff being thrown into swap.

3) Restarted device.

...

4) DID NOT PROFIT.

So guys, what did you think went wrong.

And by the way, I'm intending to get the device repaired, or failing that, get another N900 and use the old one for parts. I just got TOO used to the N900 way of doing things, and can't go back to anything else now.

Attempt to flash again.

Keyboard out. hold u. connect.
Flash the Fiasco. but remove "-r" from the flashing command. This should prevent it from rebooting after flashing rootfs. If it doesn't, and you see the n900 gonna reboot, keep holding the power button to turn it off.

Enter flashing mode again to flash the eMMC (hold u)

Then attempt to flash the eMMC. You can keep "-r" this time

The idea is. you shouldn't get to see the "white dots loading screen" at all between flashes. Only after you're done with both flashes.

Did you try to flash the rootfs without eMMC first? Have you tried to flash with another OS? Is your battery charged >50%? Did you use a wall charger?

Found myself into that since I started to do more than only "use" the device.

Maybe the bootmenu-rescue stuff did something keeping it from flashing properly?!

Try flashing the eMMC from an Ubuntu boot CD if you've been using Windows, or from a Windows PC if you've been using Linux.

@Corso85: Well, I did exactly that, a couple of times (ten times to be exact). What happened was both strange and amusing at the same time.

1) Reflash rootfs without -r argument. Completed normally.

2) Device stays in flasher mode (USB icon in corner of screen).

2) Reflash eMMC with -r argument. Device detected by flasher.

3) Flasher kinda sorta wants to mount eMMC so it can be flashed, but the dots come up instead. eMMC (suitable USB host) is NOT detected and flasher can't continue.

Might just try again later.

Oh, and I DID go into R&D mode for a while to see if things got better. It did not, and simply complicated trying to flash the device (device gets turned on AS SOON AS I PLUG IN THE BATTERY - how am I supposed to press-hold U to enter flashing mode like that lol).

@chemist: That could be true as well. Did try to reflash rootfs through the boot-rescue-menu, which HAS been said to not work well. But didn't know it could mess up the hardware until it's unreflashable.

@gameboyRMH: Will try that... as soon as I locate a LiveCD torrent speedy enough. Net connection's... flaky... where I am right now.

ALSO: Merely plugging in the charger into the N900 (in its borked state) starts it up into the endless loading bar loop now. In other words, it wouldn't even charge as it was supposed to any more lol.

EDIT: New point added to the first post under "Things that might have borked my N900": I opened it up to take care of the loose slider a couple of weeks back.

Liberal use of the word "borked". Love it. Feel for you though fella, gutted your phone is FUBAR......

@eiraku i've read somewhere someone having trouble flashing cos of the same issue with N900 booting up as soon as the usb plugs in. As far as i can recall you have to unplug the battery aswell. I think this is the steps to get it to flash.
1. hold U
2. plug in usb
3. push battery in with backcover (maybe it'll work without backcover).
This is just on top off my head of what i can recollect of something i read a while back
Try it out if you like i'm pretty sure it couldn't hurt

Well, tried that too... It went:

USB Device Found at...
Found device....
NOLO version....
version of SW release...
Booting device into Flash mode... <--- in all my eMMC flashing attempts, this happens.
Suitable USB device not found...

And gets stuck after that.

this is a flashing issue u troll
search first
anyways
it takes a long time to load the os after a reflash
and if ure formatting u emmc, first, u type the command
then it says
USB Device Found at...
Found device....
NOLO version....
version of SW release...
Booting device into Flash mode... <--- in all my eMMC flashing attempts, this happens.
Suitable USB device not found
then it restarts and it shows the os loadinng again
wait for a minute
flashing will start
and i gave these exact same instructions to some other guy
do ur research first

seems like i have the same problem, my thread here........

But im waiting for 5 minute now still seeing a few white dots waiting and "Suitable USB device not found, waiting"........but no EMMC is updating .....