I recently went through this ordeal myself. I am a very experienced computer programmer, so I am experienced in giving and following precise instructions. I have never had such difficulty flashing a device, because the instructions are unclear. The instructions on the wiki for flashing the N810 are currently confusing, since the wiki has been edited to seem like instructions for the N900, which involves holding down the C key while turning on the N900. You have to go to the sites:

http://tabletsdev.maemo.org/nokia_N810.php

http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/maemo-d...-downloads.php

with web browser cookies enabled and enter the MAC address of your Nokia N810 device without any punctuation marks in order to gain access to the files necessary to flash your Nokia N810 computer. This MAC address is printed in tiny letters inside the N810 case, which are revealed when you remove the battery. You might need magnifying glasses. You can also find the MAC address in the, "Settings / Control Panel / About product", window of the N810, which is easier to read.

Before you update the flash memory on your Nokia device, you should back up any files that you want to preserve onto an external storage device. The update process will erase the contents of the internal memory and file system.

Here are my modified instructions for flashing the Nokia N800 and N810 with 32 bit versions of Windows, which I believe are clearer and more explicit than the wiki instructions, since Nokia has stopped updating the flash images:

1. Download and run the

maemo_flasher-3.5_2.5.2.2.exe

which will install the flasher-3.5.exe, Nokia Connectivity Cable Driver, Maemo folder in the Start menu of Windows, shortcut to the flasher-3.5 folder command prompt, and documentation. The flasher-3.5.exe program usually gets installed to the folder:

C:\Program Files\maemo\flasher-3.5

by default.


2. Download the latest firmware:

RX-44_DIABLO_5.2008.43-7_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin

and save it to the folder:

C:\Program Files\maemo\flasher-3.5


3. Ensure that the battery is full.

4. Turn off the N800 or N810 device and unplug its AC power adapter.

5. Attach the USB cable to your N800 or N810 and the Windows computer, which will see your Nokia device as an external storage device. For the Nokia N810, you need a micro A or micro B USB connector on one end to plug into the Nokia N810 and a standard USB A connector on the other end of the cable to plug into the Windows computer. For the Nokia N800, you need a mini B USB connector on one end to plug into the Nokia N800 and a standard USB A connector on the other end to plug into the Windows computer.

6. Get to a Windows command prompt as Administrator by clicking on the, "C:\ Maemo Flasher 3.5", icon in the Maemo folder in the Start menu of Windows. This should be equivalent to the entering the following two commands from a Windows command prompt that has Administrator privileges:

c:

cd "\Program Files\maemo\flasher-3.5"

7. Execute the following program at the command prompt:

flasher-3.5.exe -F RX-44_DIABLO_5.2008.43-7_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R

That is a lot to type, but Windows has file name completion like Linux, so when you type the, "RX", of the file name, you should be able to press the Tab key to have Windows fill out the rest of the file name for you. If there are multiple files that begin with the same letters, then you can keep tapping the Tab key until the correct file name appears. Note that there is no space in the hyphen in the, "flasher-3.5.exe", file name, while there is a space before each of the other hyphens on the line.

8. The AC power cord has to be disconnected from the right side of the N810 before you turn it on. Turn on the N800 or N810 device while holding down the Swap button on the N810 or Home button on the N800. On my Nokia N810, the Swap button is the black plastic button which has the white square on it on the left side of the screen when you hold the N810 in a landscape orientation, with the longest part of the case horizontal.

The flashing process should begin and end with your Nokia N810 rebooting. You can check that the process worked by looking in, "Settings / Control Panel / About product," on the Nokia device, which should show on one of the lines:

Version: 5.2010.33-1

There are references in the instructions installed with the flasher program to special steps being needed for installing on 64 bit versions of Windows, but I have no first-hand experience with that.