There may be hope!

https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=2673

See comment #13 from, it appears, someone at Nokia:

A soft reboot will serve the above
purpose,

xterm
sudo gainroot
shutdown -r now

or try a small utility, http://www.internettablettalk.com/fo...=12863&page=19 thread #186


bun

I solved the problem. I returned my n800 for a new one and the new one works fine. i re-flashed the old one with OS2008 and it still exhibits the same no-power-on problem. Its hard not to think this is a hardware problem but it sounds like nokia thinks its a software problem. weird.

anyway im happy now.

i bought it from dell online and they shipped me a new one and i am awaiting their instructions to send the old one back. i used them both for a couple days and had no problems with the new one.

My first N800 wouldn't power up most of the time when it was unplugged. After 3 days I RMA'd it and got a replacement from ca.buy.com. The new one powers up reliably without requiring any weird tricks or bad language. Both are running OS2008.

The only complaint so far about the new N800 is the screen is a fraction of a degree out of alignment. I have decided that this won't drive me crazy (I think).

It seems like a crap shoot whether you will get a good or a bad device. The serial numbers between the two units were just a couple of hundred apart. It makes one wonder about Nokia's hardware QA with so many flakey devices being shipped.

My new n800 also will not turn on after power off. Same problem out-of-the-box, and now with os2008 flashed. Will not charge either.

Turns out I just need to leave it for a few minutes. But I'm worried it may get worse. I'm in Australia, and bought from a US ebay seller, so warranty repair will not be easy. (But the purchase cost in Oz is double - why!?)

Someone suggested a software problem with shutdown, so i tried just dropping the battery out while on, but it still would not turn on again for some minutes.

If it doesn't get worse, I can live with it, but I ordered a couple of spare batteries, and swapping them will not be fun.

I just got a new n800 - have the same issue everyone else here is having.

My solution:
I got mine to turn on while pressing the power button and inserting the battery at the same time. If this is the only fix and it keeps occurring then there is no reason to keep this one. I will try for a new one and see if this problem comes up again... ugh.

-CK

Doesn't work for me. Funny all the different symptoms people are reporting.

One thing I notice, the blue LED should come on immediately when I touch the power button, or insert the charger. If not, then no amount of anything will help until I wait a few minutes without touching it.

Add me to the list. Got mine from Amazon 2 days ago.

Flashed it to 2008 after using it plugged in for a couple of hours. (Flashed it unplugged). Never powered on correctly afterwards. I have to futz with plugging in the charger to get it turned on. Once I get the charging indicator I can turn it on.

I really like the unit..... but this is a pretty huge problem. For now I just won't turn it off and try to just reboot it with a script. We'll see how that goes. Holding my breath for a patch.

Another victim of the "Power On" bug. Just got my N800 from Amazon 2 days ago. Everything worked fine until I shut it down to update to OS2008. After that - nothing. Dead on the water. Removing the battery for about 15-20 minutes did the trick to my relief. Worked the rest of the day without any problem whatsoever.

Just shut it down again to try updating again and I had the same problem. Tried several of the suggestions in the forums, but still I have not made it work again.
Hope I can update to OS2008 and after that I won't be shutting it down unless it is REALLY necessary.

Goes without saying that this is VERY annoying, although a working N800 is a thing of unearthly beauty

Install becomeroot and xterm in Bora. Plug the device into your computer with USB (eject any flash cards that may have mounted on your computer). Start the flasher utility. Open xterm, run sudo gainroot, then reboot. Start holding the Home key after entering reboot, and keep holding it until the flasher starts doing its magic.