Ramkumar K R

My Nokia 5800 developed this issue – restart automatically. One such occassion it crashed too and had all my previous messages removed completely from the external memory

I took it to the service centre, it was another month away from the expiry of the 1 year warranty period, the service centre people shocked me by saying that the warranty is already expired. Luckily I had my original bills (with the purchase date partially clear) which helped me get the service done on warranty. As usual they just reinstalled the phone software and gave, but mentioned that I need to scan my external memory for visruses, which might be the cause of frequent restarts.

I scanned my memory card from PC, nothing was found. Then I decided to format my external memory to boost up my phone.
Now the question – How can I format my Nokia 5800 phone’s external memory? I began crawling Google’s SERPs for the answer to my question – as usual it wasn’t so easy to find what I want – and hence this post, just to add more workload for Google crawler and Google’s search algo to rate my page high for searches related to this..

Here is the way to format Nokia 5800’s external memory

If you Google, you migt find solutions like soft reset which is by typing in *#7370# or holding RED+GREEN+CAMERA while starting. Remember, these WILL NOT FORMAT your external memory. I too tried all these before getting into the actual solution.

Now, here is the way to format your Nokia 5800 tube’s external memory.

Navigate to Applications > File Manager > External Memory Card > Memory Card Options > Format

Remember the above formatting method completely erases the contents on your external memory, it is needless to mention that you should have a backup of your important images and messages.

I happen to be one of the Nokia 5800 users, who face countless issues from this phone, but try to post my issues and possible solutions. Follow my instructions at your own risk. Feel free to post your experiences.

I did try Facebook for Nokia app from OVI store on my Nokia 5800.
Well, if you haven’t been to OVI store yet, open http://www.ovi.com and sign up for an account. OVI store hosts applications for your Nokia phone – both free as well as paid.
Coming back to Facebook for Nokia, if you are a Nokia 5800 user, you might have already seen a facebook widget under your internet and browser section. This is not a standalone application, but a link to the facebook mobile site. What I mentioning here – Facebook for Nokia is a full fledged standalone application through which you can even upload a new snap taken using your phone camera.
Once you sign up at the OVI store, you can download an OVI application onto your mobile phone to browse OVI store, and install application straightaway.
I did download OVI app and installed facebook for nokia on my Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic. The application looks really cool, why dont you try it as well?

I had posted earlier that Google has launched Orkut Application for mobile phones. Today I installed it in my Nokia 5800 and it looks great on the bigger mobile touch pad, similar to the GMail application I am using on my Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic .

This application is a beta release from Google (version 1.0) which allows you to access your scrapbook, make status updates and upload a photo from your phone camera. Main feature is the last one, you can use your phone’s built in camera to capture an image and upload into your Orkut account ! This feature isn’t available in the WAP version of Orkut which can be accessed on mobile. Another feature is the offline mode, even without internet connection, you can view scraps, friends’ photo album etc which you have already downloaded on to the application.

If your phone supports Java, you could try this app by pointing your phone’s default browser to http://m.google.com/orkut where you can follow the install link.

Those who do not have the java enabled phone (which is a rare chance now, but still few of you may be using those) you can still access Orkut through the mobile friendly Orkut site on the same link as above.

Have fun, post your feedback on using Orkut app on Nokia 5800 or any other phone and discuss it here !

You might have read that I was one among the early bird owners of defective Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic phones.
It all started with an earpiece problem which I didn’t notice much for ten days and was thinking that it was a network issue, but those speakers were defective.

I realized its hard to maintain a touch screen like what Nokia 5800 has and prevent it from scratches. My phone developed scratches.. I ordered a set of scratch guards from dcmugen store in ebay to protect my Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic phone from further scratches.

I got my earpieces fixed (replaced) and everything looked to be fine, but it was beginning of another set of issues. I updated my firmware to version 20 from 11. That was around the time I fixed my defective earpieces at Nokia care. Now what happened, the display used to get blank at times while in use and I have to switch off and on my key guard switch to get the display back. This too I didn’t realize as a big issue, but another issue was the menu colour in my Nokia 5800 used to change while in use for 3-5 seconds and used to get back to normal. This was an irritating thing on a phone I bought paying a very high price.

My phone was about 2 months old then, I waited for the version 21 update to see whether it fixes the problem, but it didn’t. I tried all other things I could do like doing a soft reset and formatting the C drive of phone.

This is when I concluded that my phone has a hardware issue, and not a software issue. I decided to take it Nokia care again. It was 10 days back. The next day I got a call from Nokia Care to come and collect my phone. I went there, but withing my initial 10 minute inspection, I found a blank screen again and the phone was again taken back for servicing. I waited further, but yesterday they confirmed that I am getting a replacement handset in the place of the defective one.

They didnt provide me a sealed box, instead a new one with my old battery in it. I am writing this review after using it for a day and I feel more relieved for now.
Thanks again to Nokia Care, but Nokia should have taken more care while releasing their first ever touch screen phone which incidentally happened to be my first Nokia phone

My adice to fellow Nokia 5800 users

• Within warranty, do not try to experiment with your phone. There are many tricks around for repairing the issues such as varying valumes in earpieces. You do it yourself, you are breaking the warranty. Nokia will not answer your questions for free afterwards.
• As far as possible try to go to a main Nokia Care centre with a phone which is within warranty, they would have got better experience with this set than a guy sitting in a shop at the corner of your road.
• Try to use a scratch guard for your phone if you are concerned about keeping the screen scratch less.

Well, Nokia 5800 is cool, but equally buggy. I had posted the earpiece volume problem on my Nokia 5800, then my Xpressmusic’s touchscreen got scratches within one month of use, I didn’t scratch it purposely, but used the stylus provided by Nokia in the usual way..

Here is another one in the list.. (sadly)

I upgraded my phone’s firmware to 20.0.012, then started this typical issue. While in use, the colour of menu buttons change once in a while, it can be greenish yellow, greyish yellow and things linke that different from the color which we see usually. The colour then gets back to the initial one within a couple of seconds.

I also noticed that this happens usually while working with an application which try to use some phone resources.

Well, I am not the only one who face this issue, there are many more facing similar issues? Is this a hardware issue or a firmware issue? No one has a clear idea, no clarifications from Nokia about this.

I called up Nokia care and explained this issue. They do not have any information on this, they asked me to bring the phone. Well, I do not want to keep the phone with them for some days for them to experiment, that too within 30-40 days from purchase.

Are you the one facing this issue? Please post when and how you are able to see the colour change, may be that can help us find a common solution.

For someone who is planning to buy Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, WAIT!! Let Nokia fix all these issues, else you join us debugging this phone, I am not saying this phone is bad, but are you ready to feel some headaches too??

[UPDATE] Nokia replaced my 5800 Xpressmusic !

Well, I had posted earlier that few were developed few on my tube’s screen, I do not feel I am the only one facing the same. There are certainly many around the world concerned about damage on their touchscreen like me..

I have ordered for a screen guard from ebay for my tube, well Nokia should have given one bundled with the tube

I looked at my web analytics tool, there are many people reached this blog by searching on Google with terms like

This clearly gives a proof of the worry and frustration on Nokia 5800 users..

What do you feel?

I own a Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic ! Well there are things to be proud about owning this as well as some negatives. I faced the earpiece problem of Nokia 5800 which the initial lot of them had. Luckily it got fixed.

Then came scratches on my Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic’s touchscreen. I liked using the stylus provided by Nokia for my 5800 tube, but once scratches developed on my touchscreen, I went back to using just my fingers for everything on it. Stopped using handwriting recognition and adapted to using just the full qwerty keyboard using my fingers. Thanks to the different editing options provided.

I learnt that using a screen guard is must for these phones for using them for a considerable duration without damaging the screen. I researched on ebay to buy a good screen protector for my tube and finalized a clear screen protector for my Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic. Actually the seller sells two types of screen protectors – clear screen and mirror screen. Clear screen is the usual transparent thing, while mirror screen gives a flashy mirror like look when the phone is not in use (backlight is off). I chose the clearscreen one as it is cheap over the mirror one. It costed just 5$ (USD) for me for a set of 5 pieces. You can replace an old one with a new one as it get worn out, hence the extra pieces were bought. So hence just 1$ a piece.

The screenguard which I purchased is still in transit, so anxiously waiting for it and for using the stylus again !

By the way, if you have bought Nokia 5800 Xpressmusic, make sure to use a screenguard if you are planning to use the stylus. The stylus is soft, but when the phone is exposed to tiny dust particles, it gets stuck to the screen and when the stylus moves it pushes these particles and make tiny scratches on the screen. These scratches can be of any size depending on the pressure you apply on the screen. thats my experience. If your phone is new, try getting a screenguard before the screen get spoiled. These screenguards are easily removable, hence you can replace as they go bad.

Post your experience with Nokia 5800 Touchscreen here.