I've been browsing around here and some other places, and it sounded like the 770 was a pretty cool gadget. I've been looking for some kind of gadget to take around on trips that was easier to carry then a laptop, but would give me the same browsing experience, and maybe play some simple games too. Sounds like the 770 will do the trick much cheaper and smaller then anything else I've found.

So, I picked one up at a local Fry's earlier today. It's been acting flaky since I started it up. The web browser will crash frequently - when I try to load a website, it freezes up and then restarts itself. It'll run around the web fine for a while, then all of the sudden, it's gone. When it starts back up, it loads the webpage I was trying to load when it crashed no problem. And it's done it for several different pages. Sometimes it does this while using the other programs, like image viewer and video player. Also, sometimes it will refuse to see my wireless network. I have to restart it before it will see it again.

I haven't done anything funny to it yet. No new programs, root, R&D mode, or anything like that. It came with firmware 3.2005.51-13.

Anyone seen anything like this? Recommendations? Should I try to upgrade, or reflash 2005.51-13? Or just send it back? All of the hardware, screen etc, is fine, as far as I can tell.

You should certianly upgrade to the latest firmware before you give up on the device. Early firmware revisions were a bit flaky, but newer ones are much better.
As you haven't installed any new programs on the device, I would recommend you install the 2006 edition, recently released, see http://maemo.org/downloads/nokia_770.php (you will need the firmware itself and the upgrader.)

(If the info below is too newbie for you, my apologies. I am not a programmer or Linux expert in any way, and this is the kind of post I'm always looking for to help guide me. No offense meant if it seems too, erm, obvious.)

Please note that as of this post, so far as I can tell, you can upgrade your 770 to the new 2006 OS using Windows XP or Linux, but NOT Mac OS X. We're still waiting for a new OS X flasher (which is the program you run that actually installs the upgrade onto your 770) that will work.

The new Windows XP flasher is available on the same page as the new 2006 OS (see link in above post).

If you need a Linux flasher, you should use flasher-2.0, available on this page: http://maemo.org/downloads/d3.php

And here are some instructions on how to Flash your unit (ha ha, I wrote "flash your unit"): Maemo Wiki

Good luck -- I hope this will put an end to your crashing problem.

Got 2006 installed, and it works great! Thanks for the help. Now, back to the other forums to rave about how cool this thing is, and find some new apps.