I am really concerned about this power on/off enigma...the issue was posted several times as you can see

http://internettablettalk.com/forums...ad.php?t=11980
http://internettablettalk.com/forums...ighlight=power
http://internettablettalk.com/forums...t=power&page=2

but no final solution so far...A lot of people seems to be having the same, weird power on/off issue, and the strange thing is that not only affects the N800, the N810 is suffering the same fault as you can see in the threads!!!
I already know that you can leave the IT always on, but we should be able to turn the IT on/off at our own will, and don't cross fingers each time. Again, I think this could be a MAJOR FLAW and my intention with this post is to unify the scattered related posts. I don't want spam the forum with duplicates topics. Thanks!

¿Any serious clue about?

Maybe the answer is one of those other threads?

I'm not sure if there are any odd circumstances about your usage but here is my procedure (although i rarely turn off)

Unplug from power
Wait 5 seconds
Quickly press-and-release power button
Select 'Switch Off' from menu
Wait at least 5 seconds before trying to turn on again
Press and hold power button until screen lights up
Wait for boot up to complete
Return to power if needed

There are probably shortcuts but most weirdness i've encountered occurred when changing the power status (plug in or unplug power in the middle of that process). Is the above process something that will not work repeatedly? Since i rarely shutdown i've found doing the above is much better than prying the battery out of my n800.

I almost tried all the possible combinations, I mean turn the N off from menu, with a short press at power button, etc etc but same results. Curious is that the problem cames when I left the N off for +- 30 minutes or more...
The only way to have it back on life is several pressings at power button; after 6 or more short pressings then it turn on.
If you read the linked posts, all are experiencing almost the same..and maybe this problem is not more "popular" because we all have the N8XX on all the time.
I get more confused when I started to see that the N810 has the same problem as you can see in the posts.

Right... my 770 did the same weirdness so i learned then to do the above and it still helps with my n800.

The above is a reliable and repeatable process which requires no deviation (like a lotta little presses). Is the above process something that wont reliably work for you?

I suspect all the issues are due to nokia trying to be smart and only 'sleeping?' when on ac instead of full powerdown when not on ac. You can tell because when it was just sleeping there is no progress bar during boot... its as if it just logged you off and logged back on. And i think when unplugged it goes into sleep and then 5 seconds later goes into deep sleep. I would recommend waiting the 5 seconds for full sleep to complete power mode sequence.

All the above are just my observations but i think thats the way it works (as glitchy as that is).

YeS, it's reliable in some weird sense..but just imagine you sell the N to somebody and try to explain that procedure...
Thanks for make me see the things from another angle...I Am assuming the abnormal is in some way..the normal

Its not how i'd have done it! There obviously is something wrong with there logic if you cant turn on the device at all.... not good... and likely to cause alot of returns. The procedure i outline works around their bug.

But the ARM cpu it uses is so efficient (as opposed to x86 cpus) that you might as well enjoy it and leave it turned on, or accept to work around that glitchy power management.

If you really do this alot and are willing to accept your need to code your own solution (to something that should work better off-the-shelf) there might be workarounds by editing the /etc/mce/mce.ini file.

Maybe this has to do with powering on when the machine is connected to the charger? When the N800 (770 too) is turned off and then connected to the charger, it powers itself on in a special mode (presumably to monitor the charging). When it boots into this mode, or gets out of this mode (because you just took the charger out), it is indeed impossible to power it on.

Apart from that, my N800 has always started when I press the power on button long enough. I have to wait after the blue led below the direction keypad is lit.

Mine's never refused to turn on. The only time anything strange happens is if I plug in the charger and then immediately attempt to power the device on. In that situation I just wait for a minute and then try again and it works.

But really, given its bootup time, I just leave my N800 turned on permanently. When it starts bleeping at me I put it on charge.