Finally I ordered a Nokia N810 with my discount code provided by the Maemo project on Tuesday. It arrived Thursday. With all my tenseness and pleasant anticipation, it looked and felt great while having a quick glance. But the disenchantment followed right away:
Huh? What’s that? It doesn’t power on after shutting it down the first time. Putting in the charger doesn’t help. Removing the battery and putting it back doesn’t help. “Charging” it several hours (without any sign that it does so) doesn’t help. Removing the battery for several minutes doesn’t help. Checking with a original Nokia battery and charger from a colleague doesn’t help. What to do? (Already really frightened of having received a broken device…)
In the evening, I decided to remove the battery and put it on the balcony. On the balcony? Why that? It only was a very vague suspicion…it’s currently winter in Europe, you know ;-). Waiting…(and maybe praying) about another 30 minutes. Device was cold now. Inserting the battery, pushing the power button, and voila! The N810 turns on and powers up properly. Happy about thinking that this was only a temporary failure, I tried again some minutes later and the device kept silent again. What a mess! Next day, another colleague came to me telling me that he has exactly the same problem. And I already had a temporary solution for him…(Skip the next paragraph if you want to read it immediately)
Yahoo‘ing around, I found out that this is a well known problem, at least for the customers, I don’t know how it behaves to the Nokia company/manufacturers. There are plenty of reports for this issue. On Internettablettalk and even in the Maemo bugzilla known as “N800 Power up Drama”. Interestingly, the problem seems to also be present on N800 devices. But only the new and recent ones. So it seems that some electronic parts like capacitors installed in recent devices (N800 and N810) are causing this issue. I tried everything people are suggesting, waiting a specific period of time before switching it on again, making sure that everything fits properly, enabling r&d mode, and so on. Please don’t tell me “Just don’t power off the device”, because that’s what I’m generally doing, but that’s no choice when you’re on the road running out of battery. And you sometimes need to power down the device for development, too.
The only thing that seems to help:
- Switch the device off
- Remove the battery
- Put the device to a fridge (without the battery) for about 30 minutes. If you are impatient like I am, put it into a deep-freezer for about 10 minutes to get it cold. Hint: Use a plastic bag to protect it from moisture, and more importantly, don’t forget about it while doing something else
- Take it out and insert the battery
- Turn it back on, you’ll see that it works
This procedure was already verified on two devices.
Strange, I currently know of five people having a N810, with two of them showing this issue. This is really bad percentage. I already fear that this is like the issue I encountered with my N800 and the display issue where the right side of the touchscreen became more and more unresponsive. Also widely known. To that time, I returned the N800 back to Nokia, and it lasted solid 6 weeks until I got a repaired device. I do not want to repeat that! I do not want to develop inside a scratchbox without the possibility to see the outcome on a live device. But the most frustrating thing I encounter these days is that there is no official statement from Nokia about this issue. There’s still not even one for the display issue with the N800. Please correct me if I’m wrong.
The only thing which keeps me alive ( ) and which prevents me from returning the device immediately is the hope that it can be fixed via software. I just hope that there will be a statement by the Nokia or Maemo people telling me: “Be patient, we’re working on the issue with high pressure and we think it can be fixed with a firmware update”. If it really is a hardware issue, I at least hope that the issue is handled as “we’ve sold broken devices, process returned ones with high priority!”.
Getting away from the bad news, if there wouldn’t be those, I would really be amazed by this gadget! As long as it’s on, I just have fun with it. I’m just very frustrated.
HiOn my 770 I find that if you press the on/off button repeatedly followed by a final long press wakes the device up!! Also in my experience (on the 770) re-flashing the operating system can completely cure this problem. M
This has to be the most absurd fix for what is obviously a DOA N810. SEND IT BACK!!! Nokia should be ashamed for knowingly shipping units with what is now a unofficially acknowledged hardware failure. OUTRAGEOUS!!!
I had the same problem on my n810 so I send it back to where I bought it after having spend hours of reading and trying to fix the problem.
It was a Danish version so it must be newer than the American, but, alas, the problem wasn’t fixed.
It is hard to let go of because it is so kewl. My advice is to send it back to the vendor. That way nokia will hear of the problem and take it seriously if more broken devices need taken care of. I’m now waiting for it to return and it is pure torture!
Same error here with my brand new N810: Dead like a brick after charging and when the device is a bit warm…. The freezer trick works. I hate to return my brand new device to Nokia but i just called them and asked for a RMA.
BTW: My 770 never failed this way…
Sounds like you may be the first one with at least a temporary solution to the ‘N800/N810 won’t turn on’ error. Unfortunately I sent my new N800 back this morning, too late to try the technique out after a maddening weekend trying every combination of replacement chargers, batteries (my Nokia E61 shares the same battery and charger). In three days I only managed to get it to turn on twice, it probably cooled down over night. I dearly hope the replacement is fixed since this problem has soured a beautiful relationship. in the short time it was running I had already loaded applets for a single shot camera, the FM radio, Gnumeric spread sheet and Abiword word processor. It really is so good I could probably ditch the laptop. All we need is Nokia to do the decent thing and fix this appalling manufacturing defect.
I have the same problem, after 1 month i have to wake up it from fridge…
I had the same problem with N800. I found the best method was to leave the battery out of the N800 for about five hours, after which it worked.
I sent it back, and the replacement is working perfectly. There is no point in suffering a faulty unit.
Just got my N810 and it wouldn’t charge. The freezer trick worked. Thanks for the suggestion. I just got it and don’t want to return it for fear that the new one will also be defective. I am torn between what to do!!!
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
I purchased my N800 on e-bay. It was NIB. I broke the Nokia Seal on the Box… IT was BRAND NEW… now I have this power on problem, Nokia says since it was purchased on e-bay, they wash their hands of any responsibility.
I repeatidly conveyed that it was BRAND NEW. Nothing.
I’m praying for a software FIX
I had this problem as well. It appears the newest firmware (OS 2008 version 2.2007.51-3) fixes the issue although I couldn’t find a changelog to confirm it - it has worked for me so far.
http://maemo.org/community/wiki/HOWTO_FlashLatestNokiaImageWithLinux/
I have had this problem, but I noticed a small pin on the battery cover. I think its supposed to make contact to the main device. Bend it out a little with your finger and see if that doesnt fix the problem.
-Andy
Don’t bend anything! It’s a timing issue in the bootup code that’s why cooling helps (changes the timings of the circuits). And most importantly it has been fixed with the 2.2007.51-3 firmware. I don’t know about the changelog, but the developers claimed on the bugtracker that 2.2007.51-3 fixes the problem (and of course it does fix, for me and quite a few at least
)
I have this problem with my new n810. It worked perfectly for a week until I loaded the newest Diablo OS/Flash (on may 26th 2009) and after using it for a couple of hours I turned it off. It will not power back on or charge now so the newest flash destroys the n810. It has to be the software because it was never dropped and worked perfectly until I reloaded it. I’ve tried all of the suggested fixes except the freezer which I will try tonight.
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i had a similar battery issue with my blackberry when the battery would not charge using a wall unit charger…i kept the battery in the freezer for like 30-40 mins and i was then it started working again…
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