Well, I've just installed the latest OS2008 (50-2) after spending ages trying to get it to reboot for flashing, and ... I have successfully rebooted four times with no problems with varying combinations of inserting and removing the AC adapter! This OS update appears to have fixed my power problem

Dammit!

Just tried again and it no longer turns on

BTW, my PCB under the battery has a '2005' stamp on it, can those with other stamps show consistent results?

Bought mine at amazon.de, same problem here.

I figure I should add my tale of woe to the others posted here, so here goes. I received an N800 from Amazon on 12/12. I put the battery in, plugged the charger in, and proceeded to play with the unit while it was charging. After a couple of hours (more or less), I shut the unit off, with charger still plugged in, and went to bed.

The next day, the thing was bricked, and I never got it to fully turn on again. I tried using another charger, buying a new Nokia battery and putting it in, and pretty much everything I've read on this board. Nothing worked. I couldn't flash it because I couldn't get it to turn on. By the time I finally gave up, all the unit would do while the charger was attached was cycle between the white screen with blue Nokia logo and the white screen with the little green battery, with a black screen thrown in here and there.

I admitted defeat and requested an exchange from Amazon, and the new unit arrived today. This time, I put in the battery and plugged in the charger, and got the scrolling charging symbol. I had NEVER seen this on the previous unit while it was allegedly charging. I left the thing to charge, and did not turn it on while it was charging. After a couple of hours, I got the message that it was fully charged (again, something I never saw on the previous unit). I unplugged the charger, turned on the unit, and all seemed to be well. After a bit, I crossed my fingers, turned it off, waited 5 seconds, and turned it back on. It's still on, and I'm tempted to just leave it on permanently.

So, all I can figure from this experience is that the problem wasn't the battery and it wasn't the charger. Either the unit had a flaw that somehow prevented the battery from charging, or my playing with it while it was getting its initial charge killed it. My advice for those having problems getting their ITs to turn on is to just go ahead and exchange them if you can.

It would interest me what the stamped (in ink) numbers inside the battery compartment said for the new and the old unit.

It seemed that here are older models available that have the startup problems. I exchanged my older N810 for a new one, which had a "2007 94" stamp. I do not know what the stamp on the older model was.

May be you noticed both?

I'm looking at the old N800 now, and don't see anything stamped in the battery compartment, so no clues there. I'm afraid to pull the battery from the new one because it might not start again.

My mistake, the stamp is on the N810 only. My N800 does not have a stamp either.

Hello everyone... i am sure you can tell from my nick that i am having problems too... but something has changed !!!

Just want to share with you some info...

In case you want to reflash your unit trying a different OS you have to:

- remove battery for 20 mins. this will drain the internal battery and make sure you will be able to power on your device and press the "home" button to activate the usb upgrade mode.

This is what happened with my unit...

It was brought by a friend travelling from the uk... and he did not resist playing with it a bit before delivering it to me (damn!!).

Apparently the unit it was fine until i upgraded to OS2008.

I reflashed and started playing with it... and was trying to install Canola 2.0beta.

In my various attempts I entered the "infamous" red pill mode (don't do it) and the unit hung while trying to refresh some repository.

So with the N800 "frozen" in order to power it off I had to remove the battery and this is when all the troubles started for me (i did not ever power off the unit prior to this "incident" to be honest so i am not sure the two things are related).

So i try to poweron the unit and "OOOH MY GOD" it does not!


Google them becomes my best friend... and I find out in this board that i am in very good company.

Of course yesterday i spent all Christmas day by trying to fix this issue... and i was very upset.

I did a last attempt... before bedtime... and apparently it DID work for me.

I downgraded the unit to RX-34_2007SE_4.2007.38-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin (downloaded from nokia dev).

Powered off / on.. it did not work... I had to remove the battery again for 20+ mins. in order to power it up.

I then played with OS2007 a bit and tried to power off / on again the unit with no luck (didn't like 2007 OS anymore anyway...).

So i said to myself.. ok let's try one more time to reflash OS2008.

Follow the steps now...

N800 powered off (battery is out for more than 20+ mins.) with USB connected to PC..

Put battery back on and power-on the unit by pressing the "home" button and activating the USB upgrade.

I now reflash with RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin the latest version (i have both images mentioned on my HD ready to flash otherwyse everytime it would take too much time to download off Nokia servers).

The N800 powers up (right after reflash is completed you can hear the various windows xp BOINGS.. for usb units being connected and disconnected) and shows the initial wizard.

I complete the various steps (set time, location, wlan, pairing with bluetooth etc) and play with it a bit.

While the unit is still ON... (i am too tired to go on playing with it) I plug in the AC Adapter in (the one supplied with the N800 and not the one from my Nokia N70 i was using before to charge the unit which always worked on my old N770) and at around midnight i leave it ON charging and decide to leave it charging for all night.

This morning i find the unit fully charged and still on (of course!).

I unplug the AC adapter and the unit says "don't forget to remove the ac adapter from powersupply in order to save energy" a msg that i never noticed before (no big deal Nokia cared about the world).

Now the good news...

After playing with it for about 20 mins... i decide to poweroff the unit and try to power on again (all fingers crossed now).

I notice that while powering off... the upper left corner joypad area starts flashing for about three time before it shuts down completely (i did not notice this before).

Ok, time to power on.... this time it works 100% !!

It powers up just fine!!! (see the video on You Tube)

http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=d-C2a9ZvJD8

While writing this i am doing on/offs procedures.. it is still working (done this over 10 times now).

Make sure to press the button for more than 1 second while powering up!

Hope it works for you as well !!!

Not sure what i did was luck.. or just the way it is ment to do... but I think i solved my issues now.

Please try to do it on your unit and let's see if it works out for everyone.

2 things i would suggest to "new" N800 users:

- never play with the unit right out of the box.. allow for a full recharge and then the next day fire it up!

- try to use the N800 charger instead of using your Nokia phone charger (not sure about this but.. give it a try!).

Pls update this topic with your attempts.

Greetings professor Falken !!!

PS - If you download any firmware off the nokia dev website (http://tablets-dev.nokia.com) the one that asks you to enter your WLAN numbers.. you will end up with a file called nokia_N800.php which of course the windows flasher will not the able to open (it expects a .bin file). Solution: you can just rename it to the image name with a simple copy/paste (eg. RX-34_2007SE_4.2007.38-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin) and you will be ok.. It took me some time to figure it out but it worked for me.

I also received a buy.com unit that is exhibiting the same "power on" symptoms mentioned in many of the previous posts. I had already updated to OS2008, but the power button was bad out of the box with OS2007 installed. I will try sleepyN800's method, and post my results.

i've been trying to charge my n800 for the past day after it suddenly gave me a 'charge battery now' (red battery symbol) and shut off. it had been plugged in and on, running transmission and skype, for hours when this happened. it almost seems as if the file download was using more power than the charger was providing. the connector tip on my original nokia charger broke off, so i'm using a universal travel charger made for nokia. so, with the unit off (i removed the battery, let it sit for a few minutes, and replaced it) i plugged it in to recharge and the charging symbol would come on after a ~5 sec nokia white screen. but it then turned off completely. this happened a few times after unplugging and plugging it in, and then the charging symbol didn't come on at all after the nokia white screen. if i tried turning it on while plugged in, sometimes the blue led would come on, show the white screen, and turn off; and sometimes nothing would happen. i tried all sorts of button combinations and multiple power button pushes with no luck. it acted as if didn't have quite enough battery juice to start it's 'charging software' (if that makes sense. it doesn't really). and the charger didn't seem to supply the necessary power to start the charging either. i then plugged it into a usb charger using a cable purchased for this purpose. for a while i got similar results, then randomly the nokia white screen stayed on much longer than usual and the charging logo appeared.
it's possible that the replacement charger i got doesn't supply enough power to start charging a completely dead battery, but why would the battery be completely dead after having been plugged in and charging (the icon showed 'charging') for hours?
now i'm waiting for this thing, which i love and now hate at the same time, to get a full charge so i can re-flash the firmware and see if it turns on.
thanks everyone for all the info on this forum.