Nuka and Pave (your mobile device) for Sanity's sake

When things go wrong, sometimes a nuke and pave is the best thing you can do to reclaim your sanity. Read on to find out how I fixed my broken Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
by restoring it to the original settings and then restoring all my data to save me hours of (re)configuration time.

The browser on my Nokia 5800XM recently stopped working. When opening a web page, it would load up halfway and then for some reason the loading would freeze and the browser became stuck. I could not exit; I couldn't force quit through the start up menu, and if that browser was launched by another application (e.g. gravity) then that app was dead as well. This was damned frustrating and I stopped using my 5800 and went back to the trusty N82.

But the 5800 is supposed to be my daily device. It's a great music, video, and social media device and fun to use, so I decided it was time to start over. Almost.

First, I connected it to my PC and performed a backup using PCSuite. The USB on the 5800 is pretty darn fast, so a backup only takes a few minutes. Then, unplug, open up the dialer pad and type in *#7370# (you may have to have the v20 or newer firmware, but you should be running this anyway). The phone will ask you for the lock code (12345 if you have never manually set it) in an annoying entry screen where you have to hit the '1' key five times because it is cycling through the . , ; : characters. Now the phone will power down and reset. When it comes back, it will be just like when you took the phone out of the box. Sorry, if you have scratched your screen or cracked the casing, a hard reset will not fix this.


When it came up, I plugged it back into the computer, associated it with PCSuite, and performed a restore. Because I use Ovi for syncing my contacts and calendar, I decided not to restore that information in the hopes of forestalling corrupted contacts and proceeded. Restart the device once again, and it looked very familiar. Because I restored the settings, the Ovi profile was there. I did a "copy all from server" option and it pulled down my contacts, calendar, and notes. A few apps were not restored during the restore process (Nokia Messaging and ScreenSnap) and the Amazon Unbox videos I had on the memory card no longer worked because it said I was missing a certificate. I suppose I merely have to reconnect it to theUnbox program, but haven't had a chance yet.

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