Nokia Lumia 800: delightful smartphone but with a few irritations. If you have one, I recommend that you do not let the battery fully discharge – a challenge since the battery life is not the greatest – since if you do, you may have problems turning the phone on again.
I am not sure what proportion of Lumias are affected, but what happens is this. The battery runs out and the phone turns itself off as you would expect. You plug it into the charger, but even after several hours it appears to remain uncharged and will not turn on. The problem is discussed in this thread: Lumia 800 won’t power on or charge.
This has happened with my review Lumia. In my case, the phone vibrated when plugged into the charger and the charging screen appeared, with a red line showing an empty battery, and there it stayed.
So what is the fix? I have had the problem a couple of times, and each time it eventually fixed itself, though it is hard to pinpoint the exact fix. Things people have tried:
- Unplugging and reconnecting the charger to the phone
- Attaching the phone to a PC, then to a charger
- Reset the charging cycle by holding down the power button, while charging, for 8 seconds or so
- Warming the device to create a small charge in the battery, then starting to charge it
One theory is the battery discharges so deeply that there is not enough power to detect the charger, therefore it never charges. Kind-of too smart for its own good.
If the phone had a removable battery, I would suggest removing and replacing it, an old trick to revive a frozen phone. Should your Lumia not be covered by a warranty, you could try disassembly in order to do this.
The best hope is that a further firmware update will fix the problem.
my nokia lumia 800 accidently got disconnected during a update now it won’t power on goes to the nokia screen and that’s it help
i love my lumia but it wont turn on its been 2 days now .. i have tryed so may things …. none seem to work .. its gone off before like this but came bck on when i did the soft reset bt this tym it asnt work .. what do i do now tim
I had the same issue but I’ve manage to revive the phone.. Try plugging the phone to the charger leave it for a couple of minutes then press the power button for 8-10 seconds, release then unplug the charger then try turning on the phone.
The same problem happened to me, I’ve tried all tricks but nothing helps. I use this device for business but now I regret my choice. I’ll change to iPhone.
A few minutes after my previous complaint I found a solution: press down ALL buttons, including both volume buttons, the camera button and the start button, wait about 10 seconds and then … hope that it will recover. My device did.
Nevertheless, I am very annoyed, so my next phone will be an iPhone.
I can understand why you are annoyed with the Lumia, but why would that make you switch to a different mobile OS?
I chose for Nokia because of the free navigation system. However, the navigation system is quite poor and as on top of that, the Nokia has start-up problems, I do not see why I should move to, say, HTC.
Thanks a lot… I did this and viola… My nokia turns on!!!!
Thanks so much for your advice Tim! Really helped me out! I let my lumia run all the way down, (I was under the impression this was good for the battery but dont know if this is a myth?) and it simply wouldnt charge or even recognise the charger after several hours of waiting. So tried the hold down and putting it on to the nokia provided charger but still didnt work. I heard shaking the phone can sometimes help so I did this too and low and behold it came on!! Never been so pleased to see the little Orange sign!
Thanks again!
battery is definitely dead but when i try to charge it it doesn’t show me anything just keeps vibrating very very often what should i do?
My Phone just did that today. It was fully charged and it froze. So I did the usual ‘hold down the power button for 12 seconds’ deal and it turned off. It hasn’t turned back on again, despite several attempts accross a period of 6 hours pushing every which button. I’ll give it a day, otherwise it’s definately a trade in case.
Thank You
I had the same issue: which is I couldn’t turn on my lumia 800. I tried to connect the phone to my laptop, then pressed the power button for 10sec (i got it from the nokia support thread) and I was able to turn on my phone and now it’s charging..
I didn’t try to press power button for 10sec while directly connected to power, so I’m not very sure if this works only when connected to PC or it works when directly connected to power..
either way, it worked, so I just wanted to shared my experience 🙂
My Nokia 800 will turn off the WiFi by its self and the only way to reset it is to turn it off and then spend hours trying to switch it back on in order for it to reset. Pain in the rrse
My brand new lumia 900 was purchased at Helsinki airport so after 9 hours of transition, the phone had run out of charge.. Tried the service centre but the attitude of those guys is pathetic.. Either they didnt know how to repair the brick or they knew about the problem too well.. They returned it back saying they dont service handsets bought outside the country… Crap.. Tried everything mentioned on websites but no joy.. Just read abt charging thru laptop and touchwood the battery charge has reached 17%.. Why is Nokia selling such crap wen ppl can use it until it lasts a single charge.. Consumer forums wake up
Have had the same problem 3 months ago, took it back to the point of sale and it was sent away and I was told the problem was fixed. I have the same problem again today tried all the above still does not work and will be taking it back to the point of sale again tomorrow. I have lost a lot of work photos to the cost of £500 plus my valuable day off time X2. I believe if I take it to get repaired three times for the same fault Nokia have to refund my money or supply an alternative. My job electrical trainer my course today is fault diagnosis and rectification my diagnosis on the Nokia Lumia 800 is a patent defect.
Nokia you will have my details and I stand by what I say above, please take me to court then I can waste your time. All this heating up where phones are concerned Mike is dangerous, using different chargers may see customers loose their warranty. I will think long and hard before choosing another Nokia.
Thank you very much took your advice got my phone working thanks Tim Nokia should support this
I had the same problem, tried all of those things and it still didn’t work, really annoyingly.
Finally, I decided to use a blackberry charger, left it for about 2 hours – it kept vibrating but didn’t turn on.
After that, I took it out and pressed the ‘volume down + power button’ combination and it somehow turned on!
Hope it works for you guys…
my nokia lumia 800 was drained and now it powers on but it dosen’t fully show tha main screen only nokia and then att rethink possible. please help me fix it i really love the phone.
Hi im having the same problem with my nokia lumia nothing seems to be working i have tried everything blackberry charger and all still to no avail . what should i do now help 🙁
USE THE PROPER CHARGER. Lower capacity chargers have enough power to give the phone some function (vibrating, white screen, battery charge screen) but not enough to allow the phone sufficient power to turn on. It’s like when you use a smaller charger (iPod) on an iPad and will charge, but it will take an hour to charge only 2%.
I had this problem all day and then tried the first solution listed above (change the charger for a higher capacity). It worked right away.
ugh stupid phone wont turn on ! , this has happend about 6 times nw and i dont nw what to do to turn it back on? can anyone help ?
my problem is i updated my phone with the net after some time the updation got stopped and even my mobile too its a lumia 800 and only the update symbol connecting to pc is coming but the mobile is not oning at all i am worried can you help me out
thats administrator for your valuable information….my phone got drained the battery…and it dont get on.so i chager it for more than 2 hours,after it didnt start actually i really got tensed because i spent a lot of money for this phne,and i thought it got died.your trick got worked,i plugged to my pc,and it shows a empty battery image and after i attached to my charger and it got charged…hanks a lot for your help 😀 🙂
Tried evrything and can’t seem to get the phone to switch on….help!
My new Nokia lumia 800 which i have bought 2 months ago just died today morning. I noticed the low battery level yesterday night when i wen to bed but ignored thinking that the next day i will charge through usb cable from computer in my office but while making an urgent call prior to arrival at office the phone just go black and nothing happens.i tried every possible steps above but nothing comes out..what to do..plz help me out….
You can try all the tips and I have always been able to get mine working; I also think recent Lumia 800s are less troublesome and the battery life is longer. However in the end it may just be faulty and you will have to go back to your supplier.
Tim
Ohh God..Tim i did everything those mentioned above but noting results..I am just fade up. What to do guys..Plz help me out….I have necessary information in this phone…
Get some insurance for it, wait a week or so and then ‘accidentally’ smash it to smithereens with a sledgehammer. Mine’s had it coming for a year now, it might just be my Christmas present to the worst phone I have ever had the misfortune of owning.
Very frustrated with my Nokia lumina, it’s on a 2 year contract and I can’t wait until its up.ive had loads of problems with this phone switching itself off, it’s also been replaced! Recently it been ok up until now, battery went flat overnight and now won’t go back on, I ve tried all suggestions on this page with no joy. I ve always has Nokia s but after the problems with this one I won’t be renewing my contract with another, very disappointed this appears to be a re occurring problem the Nokia still haven’t sorted!
I have a Nokia Lumia 800 on a 24 month contract with Vodafone. Vodafone have replaced the phone twice now because of the reason above. I have to keep it charged or gamble with never being able to restart. I have all the firmware and OS updates. Nokia are just not that bothered and from what I read above have not bothered to fix it in the 900. I like the Windows OS, it seems that Microsoft have chosen a poor partner in Nokia. Can’t fault Vodafone, they know about the fault and will replace with very little negotiation, just keep the contacts and media backed up! This is my experience, I hope it helps someone choosing a new phone.
Thanks Mary B (commented above) took your advise and my phone started charging after being dead for two days. I had 50% charge on my Lumia 800 whilst using the web it just switched itself off. I was away on holiday, wouldn’t charge with my hubby’s samsung charger or with car charger. Had to use the orginal nokia high capacity USB charger into my laptop. Had to ensure the latest device software was downloaded just for the usb lead. When this is done the phone should switch on, making the normal vibration sound, and then the phone will be recognised as a device.
What happens if you dont have a PC/laptop to load the latest sofware???? When you buy a new phone you just espect to plug it into the wall charger like any other phone and any updates should automatically come thru via wifi/internet usage. I’ve read many comments about nokia getting out of responsibility for a lot of problems with this phone for at least a year now and agree it should have been recalled a long time ago, but yet they are still filling the shelves with the same model. I bought with a 24month contract, however, the phone only comes with 12 months warranty and then when taken back to the shop, who send back to nokia for repair, the consumer is then blamed for negligence and charged a huge fee for repairs. This will be the last time I buy a nokia.
P.S. My Bluetooth has never worked – sending or receiving – any ideas???