Help with a Seriously Bricked N800

[frethop]

My N800 is seriously bricked.

I was watching a video, waiting for an airplane. After the video, while looking for another one to open, the unit starting claiming the removable medium (where the videos were) was unformatted or corrupt. Then it shut down.

I switched batteries, thinking the batteries were low. Now all it does is endlessly reboot. I have followed all the advice I have found in these hallowed pages: letting it charge for a couple of hours, removing the battery and pressing the power key, chanting, sacrificing my first born... nothing has worked.

Here's the serious brickedness: Thinking I need to reflash, I start the process. After two seconds in ready-to-be-flashed mode (pressing the home key when powering on), the unit reboots. This is not enough time for the Windows reflash tool to recognize the unit. Thus, I cannot reflash.

Ouch! Anyone have any advise? Would the linux reflasher do any better? I guess I could send it back, only to never see it again...

Many thanks.

-F

[penguinbait]

I know its a stupid question, but it really sounds like a power problem. What happens when you plug in the power cord?

[howardcb]

Maybe the media card really has failed. I had one go bad, and it caused me trouble (N800), although not as extreme as yours. Have you rebooted without the card?

[Milhouse]

It does sound like the 3 second reboot (http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4301) problem, although yours is 1 second faster (abuse of illegal substances or potato timing?)

Possibly a very flat battery.

[frethop]

Thanks for all your suggestions.

I have tried this on full batteries. When I try to reflash, it only spends 1 second in reflash mode before rebooting into regular mode. Even when I connect the unit to power and it displays the little charging icon, the screen fades to black. I've never seen that before.

I know the memory cards are OK. I have tried then with a friend's N800.

Oh well. I guess it's factory time.

-F