For what it's worth, there might be a fix coming from the Maemo group. bugs.maemo.org

Ah. Count me in for another Canadian Nokia N800 problem right as of ten minutes ago.

Booted to 2007 right out of the Dell.ca-delivery box about two weeks ago and using the Nokia-provided SD card (with less than half full of photos and a vew other things last time I checked).

Went out today for lunch, checked my emails, didn't do anything to power off (as usual now), tossed in bag, brought out to check something and... black screen. Nothing.

Power buttoned. Five seconds of the first Nokia screen, two seconds of grey, off.

No display of low battery power just 90 minutes beforehand.

I guess I shall now do the following:

1. get home, plug it in and see what happens.

2. remove battery for a few minutes and reinstert and see what happens.

3. remove Nokia provided SD card and see what happens.

In any case, this sucks.

If it happens again, I'm sending it back to Dell.ca and informing Nokia. I don't mind getting another one but this is just unacceptable after two weeks, especially if Nokia can't provide me with a reasonable explanation and fix.

Blech.

I've updated to the latest OS2008 firmware and my N800 is working better than ever! The power on issue seems to have been fixed and the web browser does a much better job of rendering webpages.

The only downside is that applying the firmware will reset the device to factory settings. A bit of a pain, but worth it for a device that is working as expected.

Thanks to the maemo group and nokia who are both in my good books right now.

Really? In what way? Yours is the first report I've seen suggesting a browser update.

Did you do a backup before and restore afterward? I'm not sure how well that actually works for this sort of update.

Pages like ebay, for example, never rendered properly for me now seem to be much, much better. Maybe I had my own 'local' problem, but so far it's much better.

No, I had read that it didn't really work that well for some people, so I bit the bullet and decided to start from scratch. My data stored on my SD cards was fine, but I had to re-enter my email account info, configure my menus, etc. Not that big a deal. I also had to re-download maemo mapper and the FM radio app, but that also is pretty painless.

Has anyone had this button cell battery in their tablet die? If so, what were the symptoms?

I'm grasping at straws, but my N800 turned off while sitting on its charger sometime last night and has showed no sign of life since. I've pulled both SD cards, tried two different batteries and three different chargers, but it won't power on. The blue LED doesn't light and the screen stays black, unlit.

The button cell appears to be about the only internal part that a lummox like me could replace on his own. Therefore, I'm irrationally hopeful that, that battery is the problem. After all, dead CMOS/PRAM batteries give other, larger computers fits, and other internal tablet parts shouldn't just suddenly die while sitting still on a nightstand, right? Right? Please?


EDIT: I've pulled the battery from my N800, plugged the tablet into a charger, and checked the tablet's battery pins with a multimeter. When the charger's connected, there's power flowing through the pins. It appears I still have a BP-5L charger. Now, if only it would again discharge the battery in that useful way it used to do.

The button cell is fine. I found that out long ago, but didn't post an update as I was too disheartened. It's just as well though, the button cell is held in place by more than friction.

Anyway, I've now accidentally discovered that if I physically disconnect the LCD from the N800, then the blue LEDs light when the power button is pressed. It's hard to tell without the LCD, but I don't think the N800 is fully booting. It does signal its life though with long, slow flashes of its LEDs, grouped in threes, every few minutes. I'm guessing this is some sort of POST code for, "You ganked my LCD, you twit!"

Now my dilemma becomes: should I spend the money for a new LCD?

EDIT: I bought a used N800 with a wonky WiFi chip. The LCD from that N800 brought my N800 back to life.