Avoiding the dreaded N770 WSOD
August 8th, 2007 | 
Author: 
This past June, I was one of the many people who bought a Nokia N770 Internet Tablet (IT) from Woot. In fact, I bought two, one for my husband and the other for my daughter. I really wanted to buy three, but didn’t want to spend that much at one time. Besides, I figured that one of them probably wouldn’t like the Tablet and it would then revert back to me. Wrong! They fell in love with it. Of course I had the job of getting the tablets setup for them. So far they have been quite pleased with them. There are some buyers that have not had the same experience. There was a rash of White-Screen-of-Death (WOSD) among the Wooters, causing many potential buyers to rethink purchasing the device from other retailers that had similar prices. While I am sure that most of the WSODs are valid I also think you can avoid this tragedy. Before going forward, I need to state a few things. I have no programming skills what-so-ever. I have like negative knowledge of Linux. The little knowledge I have about command lines come from my long ago DOS days. I’m telling you this so that you won’t dismiss this as “Well, she’s a techie, of course it worked for her,” or to take what I say as gospel. The following has worked for me. Hopefully it will work for you too! That said, here is my experience with the Nokia N770.
1. After inserting the battery, I put in the RS-MMC card. I bought the max size (2gb). Now that the battery and card are in, I will never take them back out again.
2. Before installing programs I let the IT charge completely. However, I did go ahead and set it up on my wireless home network.
3. Go to Nokia and download the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard. Also click on the manual instructions and the tips and troubleshooting links. Copy and paste these instructions into your word processing application and save for future reference. I noticed today that the device is not listed in the product section. I had to search. Maybe I just missed it, but if it has disappeared, it doesn’t surprise me.
4. While it was charging I read as much as possible about the N770. I did a search on Google and found Internet Tablet Talk. I think that I may have read every post on the forum over next few days. By reading the posts I not only found out what works, but what doesn’t work, and more important, what not to do. While browsing posts, I also came across more links leading to the various application homepages, Blogs, and troubleshooting guides.
5. Before I installed the built in applications I checked for updates in the application manager. It then asked me if I wanted to refresh the package list and I picked “yes”. I did not get carried away at this point, but carefully chose what I wanted to install. All software is installed in the internal memory, not on the RS-MMC.
6. I then went to Maemo to take a look at what software was available. That was when I ran into repositories and deb packages. I also ran into problems installing apps due to missing files. I found that it was better to install the software that had the green install arrow on the site. I also found it easier to go online with the tablet and install directly as opposed to downloading to my PC and transferring the file to the Nokia. By installing these applications first chances were that new repositories are also added to the package list. This saved me from adding the repository and it also added more applications to the “Install new applications” list.
For those applications that I had to go to the application homepage to download, I made sure I read everything. Some of these will come packaged with everything you need, but a lot don’t. For those I had to add new repositories in the Application Manager- Tools- Application Catalog section. I installed what my family wanted over a couple a days and left it at that. After I installed one application I let them play with it to make sure it was stable before adding another. When I could not install directly to the device, I downloaded the install files to my PC and then transferred them to the memory card via USB. To keep it tidy I created a folder called “Install Files”. Then in Application Manager I picked install from File.
7. When adding repositories, everything must be typed correctly. I suggest adding one repository at a time. Once it’s added the tablet will ask if you want to refresh. If it doesn’t refresh, then the repository no longer exists, or more likely you have typed in something wrong. There is also a repository list on the Maemo site.
8. Now that you’ve installed your software. back up your N770. It won’t reinstall the programs, but it will reinstall your repositories and then you can get back to the installable applications section and reinstall your programs.
9. If you do get the dreaded WSOD, don’t panic! You can try re-flashing your device. Now you know why I put in Step 3.
10. You may be tempted to hack your N770 to OS 2007 / 770 hacker edition. You may be also tempted to partition, boot/run from the RS-MMC. Unless you are familiar with Linux, are the high tech sort, like WSOD, I would steer clear. I did install a theme for my daughter, but she decided she didn’t like it. It was a challenge to get rid of it. Finally I changed back to one of the stock themes and then uninstalled. It took a few tries, but I was able to do it.
11. Some people have reported that the N770 is hard to turn back on after a switch off. This happened to me. I simply plugged it into the power and tried again. My husband says he just holds the on button until he sees the start up screen. I just told my daughter not to turn it off, and to use the hard cover to put the device into suspend mode. I am not sure she always does this.
Here are some other sites that I have found helpful:
Found this link on Internet Tablet Talk. I agree with the poster this old ad in EBay is best described as a true tutorial. While it talks about the N800, all N770 folks will find the information invaluable. I have written the seller to see if he has a site. Click here.
Adding repositories here.
Tethering with Cingular or T-Mobile here. (Site says N800, but it worked for the N770)
Download software updater here.
Pythonfor Maemo
Pidgin for Maemo
Posted in 
Ellen, I am speechless with admiration for you writing skills. On target/helpful info in not many words. Thank you. I also found helpful your 8/6 comments on Teleread about refurbs. I had about decided to wait for the new Cybook, but think I will go ahead and order a N770 and 2gb card.
I am in the processing of backing up my computer so a techie friend can install Vista, so will be computerless for several days. Ugh! When I get it back be prepared for what I will try to make a succinct list of questions about the DT375. I have switched to it for reading and yesterday removed the battery from my Cybook.
Thx, again, for many informative past posts.
Ellen, thanks for the informative posts. I am trying to decide whether to get the N770 or the N800, with diferrence of about $200. Your comments are helpful in that the N770 is still very useful. Have you used the N770 on a public Wifi system? If so, what security measures do you take, and does the N770 (or 800) have encryption program preloaded?
I currently use an eBookwise reader, comfortable and good for the price, but I usually con vert ebooks from lit (ms reader) prior to loading. I don’t know an easier way right now unless all books are purchased through ebookwise or fictionwise to load directly.
Looking forward to visiting your blog in the future. Thanks to Teleread for featuring your entry.
Jessica
Deanna,
Thanks so much. When I decided to do this Blog I was so scared and I am still. I love e-books so much and it gets me how the people who make them, make it so difficult to use them. When you get your 2gb card, get the RS-MMC Mobile card. I have the one made by Kingston. I got it from Meritline.com. I checked today and didn’t see it. They may be temporarily out.
On the DT 375, I plan to get a review/tip post out next week. Sooner if you need it.
Ellen
Jessica,
If you are going to use it primarily for e-books, I;d go with the N770. The navigation button works better and the device being lighter feels better to me. My daughter and I went to a coffee shop and we used their free WiFi and it was great. Those Nokias are really good at finding signals. We had asked the cashier about their Wifi and she didn’t even know they had it! So we just fired it up and went to select connection. Saw and got on with no problems.
We didn’t use any security measures. Neither of us had any sensitive info on our tablet. I will look into this for you and see if anything comes up for ensuring your privacy.
I too convert everything. That way I can pick what I want to read on. Shame though, so much work just to read a book. There are tools to make converting a bit easier and hopefully I can get that on the site in the near future. Thanks for reading my blog!
Ellen
Ellen, I just ordered the N770 ($140) and a Kingston 2gb RS-MMC card ($46) from Amazon. Should be here late next week.
deanna
Deanna,
Congrats! I want to hear all about your unboxing and first impressions. I am so excited for you. You got a great deal. Also you did get the RS-MMC Mobile?
Ellen
What a useful and informative blog! I’ve been toying with the idea of buying an N770 for ages (starting with the woot listing) and I finally gave in this week. I am expecting mine tomorrow (from tigerdirect for $148). I’m probably going to partition my memory card (2Gb MMC Mobile from Amazon – $48) so that I can increase the memory for the device. I get the feeling that you think this will increase the chances of a WSOD, but I didn’t see anything on the internettablettalk forums to confirm this. Well, I guess I’ll let you know how it goes
Paul,
By all means go ahead and and partition your MMC. When I wrote this I had the faint of heart in mind. I didn’t feel right telling others how to do something I haven’t tried. I think that people who have partitioned theirs with bad results probably never hacked a device before. You should be alright if you follow directions. You can always re-flash if things go wrong. Make sure you do a back up first. Indeed let me know how it goes. I may even try it myself.
Ellen
Ellen,
thanks for offering to find out about privacy/security with use of the Nokia tablet. I have ordered the N770 from Amazon with a 2gb mobile MMC card. I will let you know how things go.
Jessica
Jessica, This is all I could find. Here is the page. http://maemo.org/downloads/security/ The only ones that seem to fit what you wanted is Maemo Krypt and Password Safe. If I find anything else, I’ll let you know.
I hope you like your 770 and I can’t wait to hear about it.
Ellen
Thanks again, Ellen.
The 770 is supposed to arrive by Aug. 15.
I will definitely try the Maemo security downloads.
Great to have a generous resource for advice.
have a great weekend.
Jessica
Thanks Ellen, I love your guide! I’ve bookmarked it and saved it. Im praying i don’t meet the WSOD.
Laura
Keep praying, but I think that if you are going to get the WSOD, it is better to get it earlier than later.
Mom
Jessica,
I hope you see this. I think what you are looking for in security is Privoxy. Here’s the web site wwww.privoxy.org
Ellen
Well, I’ve been playing with my 770 for about a month and finally plucked up the courage to partition the MMC card in order to boot from it. I followed the instructions laid out here – http://maemo.org/community/wiki/howto_easily_boot_from_mmc_card/
I should point out that I’m a computer programmer and am very comfortable with linux, which probably makes a huge difference in how easy I found the process. Anyway, my experience so far (2 days) has been very positive: The system is faster, I have tons of space for applications and even web surfing has improved (i.e. decrease in page rendering time).
Paul,
I may just get brave enough and try to get mine to boot from MMC. Does it make it run faster? I know that the N770 seems alot slower than my N800. Love my 800, but I just like the way the 770 feels. I also like the hard shell cover that also puts in sleep mode. Also for reading the 770 looks like it should be an e-book device. I just wish the buttons were different.
Ellen
Yes, it definitely runs faster. I also set up swap memory on the MMC card (you can do that through the “memory” section in the contol panel on the 770). The combination of these two things has made the 770 much more pleasant to use.
I’d still love to know how the two machines size up, Ellen
Especially after these modifications.
You just said nothing about wsod…
Ppip,
So true. The WSOD is alive and working. My daughter’s N770 went down at the end of November. I sent it in (to Nokia) and they sent out another one immediately. I was hoping for coupon or some discount for a N800 since they are no longer selling the N770. Oh well.
Ellen
White screen of death? I think I got this a few times.
What I did was I just kept pulling the battery out & restarting until it just worked.
Maybe I’m more obstinate than the average bear, but it seemed to only require a couple minutes of cussing before it worked again.
I’ve found that my N770 does not turn off! I press the power button and select “turn off”, and it does indeed shut off, but then it just reboots again right away.
It is a fantastic little machine. I bought it for $100 or so off eBay, new-in-box. One thing I highly recommend anybody get for it is a screen protector. My 14 yr old has a Nintendo DS and this is what he found out, actually he was quite lucky & the unit broke down so he had to send it in for a replacement anyway — the display had become horribly marked up. I learned & ordered the screen protectors at the same time, I am so glad that I had.
I’ve had my N770 for nearly a year now. It’s a wonderful machine, one time when I got sent to Moscow (Russia) on business I just left the horrible old work laptop behind and brought the N770 instead. With the 2GB RS-MMC I had plenty of storage for everything I needed.
The battery still works wonderfully, easily 3 hrs of WiFi time. I had a little windfall lately & bought an Everex 12.1″ laptop. So the N770 seems a little superfluous… but I still enjoy the heck out of it.
I wish it had more bluetooth profiles in it, it would be a terrific MP3 streamer to my Sony bluetooth stereo. As I understand about bluetooth, all the dongle is is a radio; and all the profiles are enacted in software. So it’s just a matter of putting the bluetooth A2DP / AVRCP profile software into the N770 system. Will it ever be done? N770 bluetooth last update was Dec 2006, so I think that project is dead.. but incredible that an external keyboard / GPS can be paired.