I plug in my N810 to my PC to update and I try to connect, but the computer always gives me an error message that there was a problem installing hardware, and then after a few seconds my N810 just boots as normal. When I hold down the swap button it flashes to the USB symbol for a second then disappears, so my gut says it's aproblem on the 810's side, not my PC.

Any tips?

Make sure you have a full battery but do not have the tablet plugged into power while trying to enter USB mode.

I assume you've previously been able to access the memory card(s) over the USB cable from your PC? If not, perhaps you'll want to find your way into your Windoze Device Manager and check for items flagged with ? or !, possibly labeled as Unknown. As long as you can normally view the cards as mass storage devices (removeable media) within Windows Explorer, using the update wizard should work fine.

Check everything over thoroughly- the lack of need for power gets many of us.

Thanks for the help ... I am able to view my memory cards normally. I didn't have the ac adaptor in when I did it, so that's not the problem. I'll try recharging it to 100% then immediately going for the upgrade to see if that works.

One problem with USB mode is knowing when to RELEASE the home button. I finally got that one down. The proper time to release it is as soon as the Nokia program says that it has found the USB device. You have to release it within a second or two after the program recognizes it.

It is dumb to have this essential function so picky about executing.

Ok, I just tried this a few times, and within about a second of turning on my 810 the usb icon on the top right part of the screen disappears, makes the sound on my computer of connecting then disconnecting, and then the 810 boots normally and doesn't update. ... getting very frustrated now ...

Yes, timing is everything, so they say. I kept using the wrong button initially on the N800 as I was so used to the N770 and I thought X was Home (and the old wizard stated Home) and now it's labeled the Swap button. Amazing how I felt so brilliant for getting a $100 N800 at CompUSA's closing and then so dumb for not pressing the right button.

You may want to try tricking the device - pull the battery along with the USB, then insert the battery then plug in the USB cable, then go for it.

Like some things, just when you think you need to press harder you don't, and vice versa.

My N800 was in an endless reboot cycle where it'd only progress 2/3 of the way on the boot meter. I figured as long as I could see the USB icon, I had a good chance of catching the rom at the right moment to flash it. What I think helped me was realizing I had the power plug inserted and removing it when the wizard failed. This actually caused my USB icon to get suck onscreen, so I cancelled the wizard and ran it again, pointing to the saved .bin image file and it loaded in a jiffy.

If you can see the icon, and read through the port, I think you'll get there. I was fearful of a hardware problem but if I succeeded you should too.

I'd say play around with the wizard, the button, the battery, and maybe even the power plug. It certainly wasn't as difficult with my N770 when I flashed it in the past. But if you haven't done so already, definitely have the .bin image file on your PC first.

Let us know when you succeed!