I flashed with the COMBINED frimware like I usually do. "RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.19-1.003_PR_COMBINED_003_ARM"
right now charging the phone to try with the eMMC as well. will it work? did I break any GSM thingy?

the firmware you flashed with is PR1.2. if the phone was on 1.3 then the reason might be this.

Holy ****!!! I just opened back the link and found out that I flashed it with PR1.1.1
Yes my phone was PR1.3 previously.

i think you are not using latest firmware file!!
download latest firmware called

RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2.004_PR_COMBINED_003_ARM.bin

this may solve the problem !!!!!!

it ok...people make mistakes so dont worry ...download the latest filmware then use my suggestion to flash your device...

BTW i don't understand the concept of removing the battery.

A boot in this context is defined as any activity of the device (flashing LED, some display on screen) that doesn't result in and stop at the NOKIA boot screen with USB icon. Especially "charging" actually also implies a boot of the system, and there's no lower limit for duration of such an accidental boot, 5s are more than enough to ruin your freshly flashed system.