Nokia 800 Arrives!

My replacement Nokia 800 just arrived. I haven't had a chance to play with it yet since it's charging right now. The unit itself looks brand new as promised, but the USB cable and power supply look used. Not a big deal. I will miss the hard case of the 770 as this only has a pouch to cover it.

Nokia Comes Through

After not hearing an email response from Nokia support, I called their support line yesterday. I was told that since it has been in repair for over 30 days, I should expect a call from their Executive Resolution team in about an hour. I wasn't called though. This morning, about 20 hours later, I received an email asking me to call their Executive Resolution department. I was told, as a one time gesture, due to the delays with the repair of my Nokia 770, they would replace it with a brand new Nokia 800. Needless to same, I am very pleased with the outcome. After faxing a form back and forth, it should be about a week or two before I have my replacement in hand. Thank you Nokia, although I still have another 770 from the same purchase that I will always wonder when it will WSOD.

Emailing Nokia (Lack of) Support

I've sent a couple emails to Nokia support to find out what other options I have regarding my dead 770. I contacted them on the May 15th and they responded on the 15th. I also emailed them on the May 21st and we exchanged 6 emails all within hours of each other. I sent an email May 29th and they have yet to reply, so I emailed again 6 hours ago and I'm still waiting. My thread must have been flagged for ignoring. That way they can keep claiming Nokia is unaware of this white screen of death problem. I suppose if they admitted it, they would be open to class action lawsuit. If people are suing over returning crap to Fry's, this certainly would merit legal action.

On a positive note, I purchased the 770s with my American Express card so my manufacturer warranty is doubled to two years. Although, I think I'd prefer to have Nokia refund my money so I can get some Atom based UMPCs later this year.

Still No Nokia 770 Update

Yesterday marked the 5th full week the repair center has had my Nokia 770, so in honor of that (after my daily ritual of seeing the repair status online remained at "Repair in Progress") I fired off an email to Nokia support:

"Is my 770 still waiting for parts or has repair actually begun? It
has been in repair for 5 weeks as of today."

I haven't heard anything from them in almost 24 hours, which is odd as their previous replies came only a few hours after my emails...

Nokia Says No "known issues with the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet"

My email exchange with Nokia support continues. Here's the latest:

"...our records do not reflect that there are any known issues with the Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. As mentioned in our previous communication, Nokia does not comment on information provided on third-party web sites."

I wonder what they have to say about this post on their own support forum.

Microsoft to Pay Search Users

Microsoft is getting desperate and willing to pay users who find items and buy them using their search engine. Hmmm, I wonder if I can stack this with Fat Wallet rebates?? :)

The Nokia 770 is still stuck in repair. I emailed Nokia and this is what the rep said:

"...our repair center is currently awaiting the parts necessary to complete the repair of your Nokia 770 Internet Tablet. We sincerely regret any inconvenience that this may cause and appreciate your patience in this matter."

It's been almost a month. Why don't they just send me an 800 to replace the 770? I fired off another email to them asking will they honor the warranty on my 2nd unit (when it goes out of warranty) if it ends up with the same, well known hardware problem as the first. We'll see what happens.

Yesterday, I rebuilt an old Sempron 2800+ system. It had a dead mobo and I got a refurb board to replace it. I still need a new cpu cooler as one of the blades broke off the fan while the dead mobo was buried in a pile of scrap. So the system's sitting around til I get a new cooler and find a hard drive to stuff in it.

Free WiFi @ Starbucks

AT&T recently announced that iPhones can now get free WiFi at their hotspots, which are located at Starbucks, Barnes and Noble, etc. Apparently, you can do the same with your laptop. Just change the user agent of your browser to that of the iPhone browser.

On a side note, my N770 is still being repaired. I sent it out 4/21 and the Nokia repair center has had it for a week:

Repair History:
Status Date Status
04/24/2008 Repair in Progress
04/24/2008 Received
04/14/2008 Pending Receipt by the Repair Center

Nokia 770 White Screen of Death

Sadly, one of my N770s has died with the dreaded white screen of death (WSOD). Fortunately, it's within the warranty period. I've got it almost packed to ship to repair. I didn't it for a week, and when I tried the battery was dead. So I charged it up and got the white screen when I turned it on the next day. I don't understand how they Nokia can continue to sell these knowing about this fault (clearly documented all over the Internet). I bought a pair of these brand new 9 months ago. Are they going to fix it so it doesn't get the WSOD again? What happens if my other unit gets the WSOD and I'm out of warranty? Will they fix it free of charge since this is a known problem with their hardware?

HA Server Rebuild...Again

I had to rebuild my HA server due to a failure in my current server. It took a while to get everything configured, but it's finally up and stable. It's a Core 2 Duo e6420 running on an ECS mobo with 2 GB of ram. I put in an Antec EarthWatts high efficiency power supply. Compared to the Athlon XP 2800+ box, this one runs only about 100 watts (vs 145) and is considerably cooler. The exhaust air is only slightly warm compared to the Athlon's, which was hot.

I've been having problems with the RFID transmitters, which appear to be failing. However, when I send them back, the seller says they work fine. I've tried putting the receiver on the PC serial port, on an Edgport serial to USB adapter and on a Lantronix MSS-100 serial to ethernet adapter. I tried new batteries, relocating the receiver, etc. This happened 3 times, so I've returned them in exchange for some 8M units. Hopefully those will work better.

I've since relocated the receiver closer to where the cars are using the MSS-100 so that should compensate for the transmitters being 8M instead of 40M. We'll see when I get them later this week.

In the meantime, I'm also waiting for a couple Nokia 770 internet tablets that I wooted last week.