What setting/application is causing N97 (20.0.027)...

Question

Hello,
I have a Nokia N97 RM-505 black with firmware v20.0.27
Before updating to 20.0.27, I reset the phone with the so called 3 finger salute:
(shift, space, backspace, power button to start), then formatted mass memory, then deleted anything deletable
on c/e drives, then reset to factory setting, and applied 20.0.27 without problems.
I have a lot of applications installed on it, mostly free or purchased from handango
(I don't use ovi store since they don't let me download what I bought for backup). 
It took several days to install the applications, I also downloaded a lot of maps to the phone,
as well as mp3s.
The phone worked beautifully, with all installed apps it had around 45MB free,
and responded reasonably quickly.
the problems started when I attempted to restart the phone, it got stuck on
the white startup screen with the blue nokia (so called white screen of death).
After having to do a hard reset and reinstall all several times (not fun),
I googled for a solution (removing/replacing batter and restarting didn't work
after hundreds of attempts. Finally I found a consistent workaround on this forum.
Namely:
1. Make sure phone is not fully charged (at most 2 bars)
2. Shutdown  phone
3. Disconnect usb cable, and remove battery
4. Replace battery
5. Reconnect usb cable until you see not only the blue nokia but the animated charging icon on top
(you may have to disconnect and reconnect the usb cable several times for it to show up,
if you don't see it I found it helpful to disconnect the cable from both sides on subsequent attempts)
6. Once you see the charging icon, quickly press and hold the phone power button
(it may not vibrate like you're used to)
until you see the shaking hands connecting people animation and the phone starts
7. tada, you may now use the phone
If it wasn't for 1 downside, I could almost live with this workaround since I have chargers both at home at work,
the downside is that when you do this the phone will be stuck in portrait mode.
Keep in mind that even on 20.0.27 (in fact on all version of the firmware) and even
on the original store bought factory settings phone with nothing installed,
starting the phone while it's charging may cause it will sometimes get stuck in portrait mode.
(forcing you to restart after disconnecting the usb cable)
The difference is when using starting N97 while charging as a workaround for
the white screen of death issue, the phone is guranteed to be stuck in portrait mode,
instead of it only occasionally happening.
In any case, hoping to break the cycle, I took a full backup with ovi Suite 2.0.1.35.
(All checkboxes checked including applications and data).The backup is around 7GB.
I am hoping to do a hard reset (shift, space, backspace, power button),
then format mass memory,
then restore the backup in hopes that I will be able to boot up the phone
without it crashing.
I'm worried about doing this since I've never restored an ovi suite backup before,
I'm also worried because the ovi suite has been very poorly coded to begin with.
2.x is better than the prehistoric 1.X the phone came with
(try opening ovi app maanger on 1.x with 20+ apps installed)
but still even 2.x is beta quality at best,
and it returns strange error codes when i sync contacts.
I have the following questions:
1. Will following the above restore procedure restore all my applications,
music and map data ? has anyone tried it ?
2. There is a distinct possibility that the white screen of death issue will not be resolved
by the restore, in which case I badly need some method to determine what
setting and/or what application is causing the WSOD to begin with.
Preferably some sort of bootup or system log ? Is there even such a thing ?
Keep in mind that when the phone is turned off, and the usb cable is connected,
and the phone is charging mass memory is visible on the PC it is connected to in
windows explorer. Strangely, that is the only time when the sys/system/private
folder content are also visible.
In any case If I can determine what application (if any) is causing the issue,
I'd be happy to give up using it and uninstalling it,
(it beats having a $2000 brick).
3. Is there some method to apply the power on while charging workaround described above,
without having the device get stuck in portrait mode ?
I should mention I also opened a ticket with Nokia support with the same 3 questions,
but I have my fingers crossed, and expect them to simply ignore the questions,
and ask me to either reset it or take it back to the service center. I also requested,
that on some future firmware they consider having some key combination,
to allow starting the phone in (safe mode) with no extra apps or installations on bootup.
I also suggested a visible detailed. bootup log on the root mass memory folder to allow 
troubleshooting such issues (if they're worried it can affect performance,
it can be enabled by an option). I don't expect either option to be implemented though.
Nevertheless I would say the WSOD is currently the number one problem with N97 today,
it's a complete showstopper.
The only other issue I suffered after the 20.0.27 upgrade was the stuck lock issue,
where if you click the power button, 
and selct lock phone and keys, it is impossible to unlock the phone with the keyguard key on the  side of the phone
(it just doesn't do anything). but that has a workaround (have someone call your phone,
then swipe the bottom line right to left to unlock (the top line left to right answers the call).
Cheers and if you've read all of this, thank you for your patience.
Hani
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Answer 1

I think you may be referring to my workaround, as posted here (and various other forums):-
/discussions/board/message?board.id=smartphones&thread.id=179596
I've posted a few times about this. It's not an exact science, and having done it several times since this posting, I've realised that it is not necesary to actually "see" the charging icon. I really only mentioned it so you would recognise what's happening.
The fact is that, with the phone switched off, and then plugged into either the mains power supply, or the PC, by the USB cable, the screen on the phone shows white, as it starts to charge. Whether or not the "charging" icon starts to flash depends on the state of charge of the battery. If it is already full, then the white screen will go off after a while, as the phone doesn't need to be charged.  If the battery needs charging, then then flashing icon will show.
This is all largely irrelevant . I only tried this "charging" thing in the first place to distract the phone from whatever problem is stopping it from going through its normal boot process. I thought if I could get the processor doing something else at the time I pressed the power button, it might just pass straight by the boot problem. Given the fact that it has been successful, my guessed logic seems to have been near the mark.
All this logic comes from many years of supporting PC systems. As has been said, this is only a workaround. The reason I've had to do this, is because I've had to do it many times since installing firmware V20.
Now, I have an unbranded UK model, code 0585162. I waited ages for V20, and, in the end, changed the code to get the euro V20. Since the UK V20 has been released, I've been wondering what the difference is, if anything, between the versions.
So today, as I do with my PCs every now and again, I had a good clearout of my phone, and rebuilt it from scratch, using the proper UK V20. I do this with Windows PCs every now and again. It gets rid of all the partially installed and uninstalled apps, temporary files, etc etc.
To prepare, I connected my phone to my PC via USB, and copied the whole of the E drive onto the PC. I gathered together all my downloaded .sis files, .wgz files etc, and made a list of all installed apps to make sure I had all the downloaded installation files.
I "backed up" my phone using PC Suite. I also use Ovi Suite sometimes, but I find PC Suite better, simpler, more technically reliable for "techy" tasks. When you do a backup, you are asked what you want to backup. Since all my music and photos are already on my PC, I don't need to back them up. Similarly my Contacts and Calendar are on the PC. For me the important thing to backup is my phone Settings. By only backing up the Settings, the backup is very quick.
Having made sure I had all my original stuff safely stored on my PC, I then reinstalled the Firmware release V20.
First I did factory reset *#7370#
Then I formatted the E drive.
Then I ran NSU to look for, then reinstall the UK V20 frirmware.
I then did another *#7370#, to be sure.
Then I restored the Settings from my backup
Then I copied the old E drive contents back from the PC (having deleted all the stuff I really didn't need)
And finally I reinstalled all my downloaded apps.
It's only been 24 hours, but so far my phone hasn't frozen at the white screen with the Nokia logo.
Fingers crossed.
As I said earlier, as with PCs, its good, every now and again, to reformat the hard disk and do a fresh install of Windows, then re-install your apps. My laptop seems to be slowly grinding to a halt, so I'm about to do the same for it.
More fingers crossed.
Message Edited by 2bad on 29-Nov-2009 09:55 PM