Pantokrator | # 1 | 2012-01-01, 20:32 | Report

Hello!

I have a problem flashing my n900. I just bought my phone used and wanted to flash it to clean it from the junk the previous owner had left in it.

I read instructions in the wiki and watched a couple of tutorials in youtube.

I installed the flasher, downloaded the .bin files and flashed according to the guides. All seemed to go well, but I can´t get my phone to start.

When I boot it (after flashing first FIASCO then VANILLA and again FIASCO), nokia screen appears (with backlight). Then the four dots roll for a second. After that the screen turns black and orange led lights up and blinks for a few seconds. After that yellow led flashes and the n900 seems to turn off, but it reboots after a while. It keeps repeating the same sequence over and over again. The odd thing is, that the color of the flashing led varies, sometimes it is red, and sometimes white, though mostly yellow.

I have tried to flash my phone several times now, but haven´t found any solutions. I have tried varying the flashing process, ie. removing battery after every flash, changing the order of fiasco and vanilla flash etc, but nothing seems to work. I have followed "the complete foolproof flashing procedure" in the wiki, but haven´t had any success.

I may have found some leads though:

When I flash the emmc, the flasher tells, that the flash was succesful. However, when I look at my phone, I see the four dots (which roll when flashing emmc) stop when the flasher says [writing 0%]. The counter goes to 100% and the flashing completes, but the dots on the n900s screen stay frozen. The dots stay on the screen even if I take the usb cable off. Also, if I try to flash the FIASCO when the phone is in this state, the flashing stops in 2 seconds and the last thing flasher says is "Using flashing protocol MK II".
I´m not sure if this is just normal. To me it seems like the phone somehow freezes during the emmc flash.

Other thing I am pretty sure is that the flashing leds during bootup are some sort of signals or/and error messages. I don´t know their meanings, though.

I charged the battery full before starting flashing. The flasher seems to work as it should, so I don´t suspect a pc related problem. I'm using windows xp sp3.

I'd really appreciate any help ! I need my phone often, so this problem is quite urgent for me

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Last edited by Pantokrator; 2012-02-24 at 15:21. Reason: Problem solved !

Mike Fila | # 2 | 2012-01-01, 20:45 | Report

Sounds like this bug
https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=6350

Are these the images that you used?

RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin
RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin

If not try those, there have been problems with other images.

geneven | # 3 | 2012-01-01, 20:55 | Report

This is a tough one. The dots can stay for quite a while. Try getting to the dots stage, don't remove the usb cable, and wait for maybe half an hour or longer for the dots to go away.

Pantokrator | # 4 | 2012-01-01, 21:12 | Report

Yes, I used the latest images. Now trying to find out, if the dots appearing during emmc flash disappear, if I wait long enough

Mike Fila | # 5 | 2012-01-01, 21:38 | Report

Actually those arent the "latest" images that is pr 1.3 some people have found images for pr 1.3.1. Also those are the international versions not country specific ones ...it makes a difference.

Pantokrator | # 6 | 2012-01-01, 22:11 | Report

I have used the global images, marked as "latest" in the repository. They are the images you mentioned. (RX-51_2009SE_20.2010.36-2_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin and RX-51_2009SE_10.2010.13-2.VANILLA_PR_EMMC_MR0_ARM.bin)

However, I don't know about pr 1.3.1 images, I could try finding them.

I have now waited over half an hour, but the dots haven't yet vanished from the screen of my phone. Also, a curiosity, the dots stop in a position, where the second one from the left is active. Some people seem to have had similiar problems with dots stucking in the same position during startup. These problems happen be caused by corrupted directories. My problem is bootlooping though, and it happens after flashing, so I don´t know if there is a connection. Maybe some corrupted data could freeze the flashing of the mmc?

I'll download VANILLA bin again, maybe the bin file is corrupt.

Mike Fila | # 7 | 2012-01-01, 22:43 | Report

First thing I would say is try to charge the unit since it's been running for an hour probably without bme so the battery has to be low before you attempt anything else.

Maybe the bootloader is corrupt(shrug) usually though when this happens regular flashing doesnt work at all. Cold flashing maybe what you need to do. There are 2 options using the standard flasher

http://wiki.maemo.org/Flasher

or Pali's open source flasher

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=80840

I've never needed to use either so I cant really guide you if this will help or not.

Edit I dont have images for pr1.3.1 available to me from the image page either ..I have only seen posts of people "claiming" to use them ... who knows if it even exists.

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Last edited by Mike Fila; 2012-01-01 at 22:49.

Pantokrator | # 8 | 2012-01-01, 23:01 | Report

Ok, I redownloaded the VANILLA bin, but nothing changed.

This is what the flashing should look like? at 4:21, when he starts the emmc flashing, his phone displays nokia logo, and a green progress bar on the lower edge of the screen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O54KdLvTA2U

Something definitely goes wrong, when I try to emmc flash, because my phone looks completely different when doing that. As I've mentioned, I just ger four dots, which freeze when flasher starts "writing". Something is not right, but I can´t figure out what.

Could corrupted data on the mmc cause this? The phone worked perfectly before flashing though, so there shouldn't be much corrupted data in the memory. Isn't flashing bit like formatting a hardrive? So that the contents of the drive shouldn't affect the outcome?

Maybe this is a pc related problem after all. In the video the flasher seems to recognise the phone nearly instantaneously. Yet I'll have to wait for ~5 seconds. First the when I connect my phone, the flasher gives the message "no suitable usb device found". However, few seconds later it finds the n900 and starts flashing. I get also three "device plugged in/off" beeps from windows. First one I get when connecting the phone, following with "device removed" sound nearly instantly. Third sound is a "device plugged in" beep when the flasher recognises the phone. I'm not sure, if these have anything to do with the issue, though.

Maybe my phones mmc has just broken during the first flash ... Though that should be impossible.

Pantokrator | # 9 | 2012-01-01, 23:03 | Report

Going to try that cold flashing thing now !

Edit: Actually this cold flashing stuff seems to be quite difficult to comprehend, so I'll leave trying anything for tomorrow. I'd appreciate, if somebody could explain it a little, especially what it does and what kind of problems could be solved with it. I wouldn't like to try things that I might not be able to reverse. (Ok, I started all this by flashing even though I had no actual need to, but at least I thought I understood what I was doing . Now I don't have the sleightest idea, so I wouldn't like to experiment too much on my own)

I understand cold flashing is about repairing damaged bootloader etc. But shouldn't I be unable to flash at all if that was the case?

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Last edited by Pantokrator; 2012-01-02 at 00:37.

Mike Fila | # 10 | 2012-01-01, 23:53 | Report

yeah my phone doesnt look like that either ...its dim nokia with the usb in the corner, never saw the green status bar ...glad I didn't see this video when I flashed my phone for the first time, I would have had a heart attack lol

It does take a few seconds to recognize it, im using xp as well and the device connect sound idk I have systems sound shut off. It all seems normal to me, except the problem obviously.