(2009-04-09) N810 Screen Calibration Problem

The TouchScreen on my Nokia N810 has gone hinky. When I go to the Screen Calibration app, it won't accept appropriate clicks for targets 1 and 4 (on the left side); 2 and 3 are fine. It seems to get randomly better and worse. Even after a reboot.

It started during my brief conference trip, I noticed it on the plane home.

Hrm, someone in this thread mentions FBReader, which I just started using a lot in the last month. (The thread is confusing because there's a mix of symptoms...) In general it seems like the problem often gets worse until the TouchScreen stops working completely. Hopefully it won't come to that...

Apr14 update: after another reboot, it seems a bit better.

Apr27: bah, it's been horrible again. I think I need to give up and take it back. I called the store where I bought it, and they said that if I drop it off there, they expedite the repair shipping. Since it's more than a year old, this could end up costing me $100! (The repair center will call me with a quote once they diagnose.) In terms of data backup, she said I could back up onto the card, then keep the card when I give them the N810.

May4: I took it to the store, then realized that, duh, backing up to the "internal memory card" didn't give me anything to keep a copy of for myself. So I'll have to go back after copying my Back Up to my MacBook or a separate card. In the meantime, I'm sticking with a Hipster PDA.

May12 update:

• tried various ways to copy Back Up to MacBook with no success. If I mount N810 via USB, I can see the existence of a 'backups' folder, but can't seem to open it. (Somewhere in there, 'System U I Server' started eating cycles until I rebooted.)

• ok, guess I need to put a card in there. Argh SD doesn't fit. Only takes Mini[[SD]]. Goes to 4 stores, can only find SD and Micro[[SD]].

• at home pull the Mini[[SD]] (actually Micro[[SD]] in adaptor) from my Digital Video Camera. I put it into the N810. Hmm, it doesn't seem to be recognized! Played around with it a couple times (boy is the physical design horrible!), with no change.

• Rebooted with the card in, and now neither the card nor the internal card are recognized! Did I mention how much I hate technology?

• Shut down, removed card, booted up. At least can now see the internal card.

May19

• check card in my MacBook, seems fine

• try again in the N810. Now it's instantly recognized. Do the Back Up.

May20

• drop off at Nokia store. Also buy extra card.

Jun3-4

• have heard nothing, call the store

• they call me back the next day, give me phone number to call plus work order number

• call the main number to approve payment ($108). It turns out they mailed the quote to the store on May26, so it's the store that dropped the ball. But that's a really stupid process.

• main support group called back later in afternoon: already taken care of, will ship Priority to store tomorrow (or maybe even late today).

Jun5

• main support group (Rose) called in morning to say it was sent yesterday, Priority-Red, so store should receive it today!

• store called later, saying they have it

• picked it up. They fixed it, didn't give me a new one. It looks like they wiped the main memory, but not the internal card. But that means I have to install all the apps again before restoring the data....

Jun6

• tried downloading/installing GPE apps, seems to keep failing

• set date/time/zone

• restoring from Back Up on internal card (even though have a more recent backup on the old Micro[[SD]]), just to see what that does...

  • not over-writing at least some files that are more-recent on main memory

• decided I was being silly, so stuck the Micro[[SD]] in and restored the most-recent backup

• after restore it rebooted itself, then launched Application Manager, then started downloading something right away. I think it was refreshing the available-applications list. But it just stuck forever at near-done, so I finally cancelled. Leaving me with an old/original app list.

• follow link to GPE from N810 As PIM page. Start with Contacts: it prompts me to enable maemo-extras application directory, which I accept. Then it prompts me to install the contacts app from there, which I accept, but then get "Downloading gpe-contacts failed."

• trying browsing repository to base file, but then that install fails because various prerequsite components are missing.

• ugly thought: how do I know that they installed the Diablo version when they flashed the memory?

  • when I go to Control Panel/About The Product it says I'm running "maemo version 2.2007.51-3" - dangit that is Chinook!

• Go through Upgrading N810 again, to get "5.2008.43-7", restore data again. Application Manager launches after reboot; after some bits, it's tells me about the apps it wants to reinstall for me (including Python), just like it should! It starts downloading apps nicely.

• All the GPE apps seem to load nicely, with appropriate data. Go back into Application Manager and add gpesummary (which puts GPE events/todos in desktop widget) and gpesynchd

• Install FBReader. When I launch it, it opens the last book I was reading at the appropriate place.

• use Terminal to launch Wiki On N810 - hit it with browser, and it works.

• filling in past/future bits from Hipster PDA

• argh gpesummary goes nuts if you change any of its settings (like to make it auto-update, so it's actually useful)