Hi all, have searched and found some useful threads but nothing has worked for me so far.

Basically, my N900 is showing a blank screen (black with backlight on) when I power on the device. The white notification light shows for a few seconds but goes off then. The screen remains backlit however with nothing being displayed.

Plugging out the batter and plugging it back in - the screen flashes black (again backlit) for a split second and goes off.

Plugging into USB (holding U key) windows recognises but can't install software - i.e. nokia usb rom drivers and some unspecified drivers.

Have tried using maemo flasher 3.5 - but all I get is 'Suitable USB device not found, waiting'. So I've let windows 'fix' any problems it found with the N900 and I've disabled signed driver checking also. I'm on windows 7 64-bit. Don't have access to another machine with XP or anything like that.

N900 just started doing this last night, really want my photos/music back

Any ideas?

You can read about different workarounds for your operating system here

Thanks, I've read through that already but still having a problem. N900 shows in update mode on the devices and printers window but Flasher won't recognise it plugged into USB.

you could try it with a linux live-cd

Install XP Mode (also known as: Virtual PC).

Easy

Workaround for if you don't have Windows 7 Ultimate:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/1...nd-home-basic/


Works like a charm
Good luck!

Thanks HtheB, just set up virtual pc. VPC doesn't recognise USB devices though? Windows 7 picks up the N900 however XP does not.

look in settings..

There isn't anything in VPC settings to enable it to recognise the N900 when plugged in via USB..

There is a button called "USB" at the top of the XP mode screen (be sure that the XP Mode screen is NOT maximized to the USB option )

click on it, then select the N900 from the list

that may or may not work "Selecting USB". in my experience, you have to select the N900 before it gets installed, so when it says something like "unknown usb device" you have to select it in XP mode.

I'm also using Win7 64. the problem with win7 64 is one of the driver always fails to install and thus you'll be unable to flash under it. so basically you need to select the USB device and have it passed onto XP mode for driver installation before win7 gives up on driver installation otherwise the driver wouldn't get installed even in XP mode.

Goodluck! it's not hard once you did it once, i've flashed mine about 5 times now under Win7 64 using XP mode