no, I was having minor issues with software which didn't behave correctly and I wanted to try the flashing mechanism.

ye thats why i wanted to re flash aswell. then when i did reflash it bricked my phone

OOO MMYY GOD. it worked my phone is fixed. eyyesyysysyysysyyyyyeessssssss.
guys if you have a bricked n900 and it wont flash its because your battery is flat.
when i borrowed my friends n900 it must of had a low battery. when i borred my other friends
battery just now it was fully charged. yayayayayyaya and it worked. fixed wot wot


I want to thank the maemo community for all their help. you guys are amazing



bellow is what i did on windows XP


N900 (XP)

To flash direcly from the XP command line, follow these steps:


Fully charge the battery.
Unplug charger and switch off the device.
Open the command prompt on XP. Start + Run. Type cmd and press Enter.
Change directory to the flasher program
cd c:\Program Files\maemo\flasher-3.5
Connect the USB cable while pressing 'u' key on the N900

Run the following command:


flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-51_2009SE_1.2009.42-11_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R



The update will take about 4 minutes after which the N900 will reboot and display
the Welcome screen with Regional settings.

Felbutss, that's a really, really useful post. I have copied it for the FAQ. Is there any chance you could just tell me what you needed to d/l to do this, and where you got it from to make this as complete as possible. Thanks!

The steps were taken from the wiki that I updated two days ago. who knew! This feels great!

@feltbuss Glad to know your N900 is alive once again.

I'm trying using Linux Mint AND Vista, but getting nowhere, and using that wiki as my bible. CAN SOMEONE PLEASE work with me on a solution??

BIG UPS TO Jiiv, straight outta DFW, for helping me over the phone reflash my device via Linux and the Xterm. Saved my arse! I owe you a beer, bro!

Watch out, I might try to take you up on that when there's another meetup.
Glad to be of assistance.

FYI, I added a line in the wiki about using the flasher from the .deb install (to leave off the leading './'), but I don't know anything about wiki formatting...would someone mind cleaning that up for me?

speaking of wiki, I am surprised the flashing instructions for each OS aren't a little more clear.

For example I don't see the "u" key mentioned on any of the OS instructions.

I know what some are saying "Then update it. . . it's a wiki anyone can do it". I would but I don't have a N900 nor first hand experience flashing only what I have read here at Maemo.org

Something which may be helpful would be to break down per device how to flash. I know this may sound "low tech" but maybe even include images for people who don't have a tech background.

I know I know, "Are you some kind of *****"? No I actually do a ton of programming so this isn't a request or suggestion from a low tech person but someone who almost spends more time commenting code than the actual code itself.

Code is only as good as the comments that tell you what a nest does.

@OP

Glad you were able to get yout N900 working again! Also nice little write up on your experience and how you did it. That is the information which people may need if they fall into a similar situation.