Upgrade problem: Not supported by your device

[White Flame]

I just got my N800 back from Nokia after having the no power on, no blue LED, nothing with battery yanking helps, problem repaired. Since it's freshly wiped with OS2007 4.2007.26-8, I decided to try the new OS2008 since it's fully released for the N800 now. I downloaded a number of versions off the Nokia site, through my own WLAN number, and ran the update wizard.

First off, "There are no automatic updates available for your device", which shouldn't be true now with OS2008 released. So I select a .bin file, and get the wonderful "The software on your Nokia N800 was not updated, because the update file is not supported by your device". I've downloaded the files multiple times, got reasonable but not fast speeds throughout without any retries or whatnot, tried the exact same OS version .bin that's currently installed on my device, and nothing takes.

I searched the forums as much as I could with the glaring lack of phrase search (made note of that in the Suggestions area) and didn't find anything. Thanks for any suggestions.

[akd]

Hi! If you have saved the OS2008 .bin, no matter what you should be able to select "change" the file location and then select the OS2008 .bin you've saved on your computer when you are executing the Nokia update wizard. If I comment you something wrong, let me know to go further.

[White Flame]

um yeah, I selected "Browse..." to try all the .bin files I downloaded. I tried with these 4 files:

RX-34_2007SE_4.2007.26-8_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
RX-34_2007SE_4.2007.38-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
RX-34_2008SE_1.2007.44-4_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

and got the exact same "The software on your Nokia N800 was not updated, because the update file is not supported by your device" for every one. There was not a problem with getting the update program to detect the N800; it just refused to install any N800 .bin to the device.

[akd]

mmmm...try/check this:
a) Have you installed netframework 2.0 on your pc?
b) If yes, try to uninstall/reinstall the nokia update wizard
c) try to rename the .bin files you have downloaded (p.e. OS2008.bin)

[White Flame]

mmmm...try/check this:
a) Have you installed netframework 2.0 on your pc?
b) If yes, try to uninstall/reinstall the nokia update wizard
c) try to rename the .bin files you have downloaded (p.e. OS2008.bin)

a) yes
b) yes
c) no

But it really doesn't matter at this point, seeing as it's gone back into it's not-powering-up brick state. How nice.

You know, I really liked this device. But judging from everything else on this forum about the power-on problem and other consistent issues, it's unfortunate that Nokia seems to be totally screwing up where a company of their size and repertoire should be able to do far better.

[akd]

Don't give up :)...anyway, I understand your frustration, because sometimes I feel the same. I also love my N800 (btw with the power on/off issue too). Sometimes, I asking myself if these Nseries are targeted for normal consumers..I think Nokia is letting passing a great bussiness oportunity; because of that, others mediocres devices are gaining space...

[akd]

Let's try to get the damn upgrade working...what OS are you running on your pc?

[bunanson]

Your download could be corrupted. what is the file length?


bun

Edit: a step by step here, http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=13572&page=8, thread #72

post back if problems,


bun

[White Flame]

The downloads aren't corrupted. The MD5's and the file lengths all match what's on the website, I made sure of that. The update software also doesn't say that it's corrupted, it says it's not for my device.

My N800 is totally bricked again; there's no way for me to try anything else. No blue LED, no screen on, no charger icon when I plug in the AC adapter (with or without battery), taking the battery out for short or long periods of time does nothing... bricked.

[akd]

The downloads aren't corrupted. The MD5's and the file lengths all match what's on the website, I made sure of that. The update software also doesn't say that it's corrupted, it says it's not for my device.

My N800 is totally bricked again; there's no way for me to try anything else. No blue LED, no screen on, no charger icon when I plug in the AC adapter (with or without battery), taking the battery out for short or long periods of time does nothing... bricked.
Sorry to hear that..:o

[metroeloise]

OK. How about, download a copy of OS07. not on th net run the wizard and flash in OS07 again. once that works recharge fully and enjoy the machine! Then write call nokia and send the baby back to them!
If you need a link for the os07 contact me i'll send you my copy

[bunanson]

The downloads aren't corrupted. The MD5's and the file lengths all match what's on the website, I made sure of that. The update software also doesn't say that it's corrupted, it says it's not for my device.

My N800 is totally bricked again; there's no way for me to try anything else. No blue LED, no screen on, no charger icon when I plug in the AC adapter (with or without battery), taking the battery out for short or long periods of time does nothing... bricked.

I felt bad for you.

My best experience at this stage, plug the damn thing in with the battery and leave it alone for awhile, maybe overnight and try to turn it on again. Other than send the baby back to Nokia, will also try to swap with a known working battery, provide that you have a working battery around. please post back about the situation.


bun

[akd]

@bunanson
Bun, swapping batteries never worked for me regarding the power on/off issue. I've got two HK batteries that works exactly like the original one, but they did'nt solved the power on/off enigma. (I'm talking about my particular case, of course).

[geneven]

I think that if there is a problem with no power and a battery without power is replaced with a battery with power, this would help in most cases. It certainly helps me on the rare times when my N800 runs out of power in the middle of the night and I wake up to a dead N800.

The danger with some of these problem descriptions is that several different problem descriptions can be linked together and treated as if they are all the same. Thus, a user with a perfectly fixable problem involving a dead battery might become convinced that he has a more serious problem.

As for this "upgrade problem," I wonder what Nokia says about it? I've never seen this message, but it sounds like the kind of message one would get if downloading and trying to install something intended for the N810. As I recall, the official os2008 N810 software is less recent than the official os2008 N800 software, so one might get such a message if one tried to install the N810 software on the N800.

[White Flame]

OP here. In the meantime, I've tried leaving the battery + charger in the unit for basically a full day, as well as left the battery out overnight. I think the battery itself is fine. While the unit was getting "repaired" by Nokia for this exact same problem, the battery was just sitting on my desk. When I got the unit back and popped the battery back in, it came right up with about 75% juice before it bricked again a few hours later. It's the original Nokia battery, original 128MB memory card, original Nokia USB cable, charger, etc. I didn't even install any software when it bricked this time, and obviously the OS update never started to touch anything on the device.

I've already paid shipping and waited a few weeks once to get this repaired, which obviously didn't work, I'm not looking forward to having to do this again, nor am I of the opinion that another repair cycle will actually do anything useful. I'll call Nokia again today since the holidays are over now and see if I can get a refund, or a new replacement unit if they won't do that. This one's just simply b0rked.

Sorry if I'm all grumpy in these forums, but it's pretty frustrating. I also think it's a good thing to communicate issues like this so that other people can see if what they're getting with their device matches others' experiences.

[munky261]

i would suggest sending it back to nokia along with a bottle of KY and a note detailing on where youd like them to insert it in exchange for a new unit lol

[White Flame]

@munky: heh, if only that'd get me anywhere.

Okay, for some strange reason the device started working today. I haven't had any power-on issues for a while of usage now. Unfortunately, that most likely means that I have a flaky device instead of a known-dead-get-me-a-new-one device.

Anyway, with the flashing issue I called Nokia and got bumped to level 2 tech support. They were convinced I was using a N810 image, so hand-held me through re-downloading the latest, which was of course the exact same file I'd been trying it with. Same result on the flasher. I'm running XP Pro x64, which is right there on the list of supported OSes for the flasher, but he basically left me with "Try it on 32-bit windows, if that doesn't work then ship it to us to reflash it." Thanks, *****, how would that solve my problem if I wanted to reflash it myself at some later point?

VMWare to the rescue. I tried it on a 32-bit XP VM and of course got the same problem; I'd expect to get Windows errors if running it on x64 was a problem. I then installed a Ubuntu VM and went through the incredible pains of trying to get vmware-tools to install for a shared directory, finally just falling back to SMB access to my host box.

...and got the "To flash the bootloader, you have to supply the X-Loader image" error. So time to snoop through the commandline options. --cold-flash sounds promising, but wants to use the serial port, probably a JTAG mechanism. Googling for that error phrase brought me back to these forums with OSX user problems who install each part separately, so I got it to work with --flash-only:

sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f --flash-only kernel
sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f --flash-only initfs
sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-34_2008SE_2.2007.50-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R --flash-only rootfs

"--flash-only nolo" just gave the same x-loader error. I suspect that Nokia repair put a different version of the low-level boot/flash stuff on my device which is confusing the GUI flasher program, and I have no way to update NOLO or the other underlying portions. Gee, thanks.

Hopefully this will work well enough. If it turns out to be some showstopper problem, I'm just in the same boat again with having to send to Nokia for a reflash.

[sjgadsby]

I suspect that Nokia repair put a different version of the low-level boot/flash stuff on my device which is confusing the GUI flasher program, and I have no way to update NOLO or the other underlying portions.

During the time when Nokia's servers were overloaded with folks trying to download the OS2008 releases for the N800 and N810, Texrat made available a "legacy" image for the N810 (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?p=110951&highlight=os2008#post110951) that he said provided the same OS, but with the ability to install on non-retail hardware. If your supposition is correct, perhaps a such an image would install on your device.

Of course, even if you could get a legacy image, and it installed for you, it probably wouldn't help long term. Future OS updates would likely be just as problematic.

[bunanson]

@munky: heh, if only that'd get me anywhere.

Okay, for some strange reason the device started working today. I haven't had any power-on issues for a while of usage now. Unfortunately, that most likely means that I have a flaky device instead of a known-dead-get-me-a-new-one device.



Mind to elaborate what difference, or exactly what have you done, since it bricked to get it on again? I know your main interest right now is to get on with the flashing/update thing. For me and a lot of other 'bricked' user, we WANT to know. Billion thanks,


bun

[White Flame]

bunanson:

Sorry, I guess I left that out. Let me recall. I think what happened is that I picked up the dead device and aimlessly tried hitting the power button yet again, and to my surprise the LED and the blue-on-white Nokia screen came up but quickly blacked out again, no startup bar on the bottom even started. I did that a few times and it was the same thing. I think it was unplugged from the AC adapter for a while. Now at this point, plugging in the AC still didn't bring up the charging icon. What finally did it is unplugging the AC, hitting the power button (which did bring up the LED and the Nokia screen), and immediately plugging in the AC adapter during the Nokia screen before it cut out again. I have no idea why it had suddenly started doing the proper LED/"Nokia" thing instead of just sitting like a dead brick, but once it did I was able to resurrect it like this.

I'm pretty sure the cutting out after the Nokia screen happened because the battery had finally drained. I'm not sure if it charges the battery at all when it's in its bricked/dead state. Again, I can't offer any advice as to why the LED/Nokia all of a sudden started working again. MAYBE you could try leaving the battery in, AC unplugged, and try turning it on now & again. I might have caught it just at the right point when the low battery caused some internal state to become inconsistent in a good way. My battery is still fine and holds a charge for hours, so that wasn't the problem.

I am running OS2008 after doing the in-parts update from the Linux flasher I described, so that part is done. I'm not sure if it will "take" for a full reflash when the next release comes out, so that'll just have to wait. It is working and I've installed some programs and haven't had any real problems besides the new web browser taking up all the RAM and preventing stuff from opening.