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Tech News 101: Painful Unhanging the Frozen Hard Nokia N8

symbian nokia OS n8

(Nokia N8 is great but sometimes I forget that it is more than a phone – it has a very complex system running in the background. Image Nokia)

I somehow had managed to screw up my N8. Sometimes I forget that smartphones are just like personal computers when it comes to the installation of new software. It can very, very sensitive. After all, it has a complex Operating System, root folders, power-hungry applications, etc. So, if one installs the wrong application (especially from an untested, dubious third-party source) or installs it halfway, it will screw up the system. And this is exactly what happened.

I was reading about a virus that was been roaming on smartphones in recent weeks. I used to have NetQin anti-virus application for my Symbian Anna powered N8 but I started to note that the antivirus application (I should take the blame for this – I have been playing with the settings) started to get into the running of all other active applications.

And then one day, I noticed it starts to connect to the Internet without my express authorization. Bloody hell, this was getting scary! So, I did what I suppose to do in panic when these things happen – I simply uninstalled the AV application and left with an unsecured smartphone.

netqin antivirus nokia android

(A robust AV app for smartphone is a must and to be fair, NetQin does the job rather well. It is just that incomplete installation and itchy fingers playing with the settings can create major havoc to the phone. Image source: Android Authority)

So when I read about the virus on the net and realized that I don’t have any AV on board, I started to look for an AV application – with NetQin being my last choice. There were not many choices out there when it comes to free based AV for Symbian^3 powered smartphones.

NetQin was the only one I found that was available for N8 for free (although AV update will cost me I was ok with that – the main application was still free). Not wanting to spend too much money on AV or Internet Security applications for smartphones, for now, I hesitantly installed NetQin back, hoping not to play with its settings this time around. But something else happened.

The installation did not complete as there was a disconnection of internet and I was left with a half-installed AV application which I was not aware immediately. Only when I decided to restart the phone, I realized this problem.

The phone starts up – the home page is shown but I could do anything else, the whole phone freezes. After a couple of tries, I noted that the installation starts up and this is causing the rest to freeze up. Then there is another problem as well – normally it is easier to stop this installation program from starting but since the phone freeze, I was unable to click on the application option. I was left with a dead phone now.

It was time for Google things up and it seems like there was only one choice – a hard reset but as many have warned, this should be the last option as it will format the whole phone and when restored, I am likely to lose Ovi Maps and Ovi Store (it needs a lot of manual installation for this and this too may not work 100%). There is another option of resetting to factory settings but it requires me to navigate through to the application menus and click on the option before the phone freezes over.

I tried the hard reset first – it was not possible to do the normal reset as the phone keeps freezing up. But the hard reset did not work – nothing happens. Then I remembered my sim card was still on the phone – I took it out and instead of a hard reset, I tried the normal resetting for one last time.

When I restarted the phone, I noted that there was a long gap before the phone freezes over. That small gap was just enough for me to disable the installation apps that kept running in the background whenever I started the phone. When I did that, I then realised that NetQin was also running in the background too (it was a mystery to me because I thought its installation was not complete) and due to frequent startup of the phone,

NetQin had thought that the phone was under attack from virus and decided to freeze the phone to avoid further damages. I disable NetQin as well and proceeded with the safer and recommended method of resetting the phone to factory settings. Resetting was smooth and hassle-free.

It did not take too long as well – once restarted, everything remains intact. I then restore back my contacts from my earlier backups using Nokia Ovi Suite (I had to do it twice – the first time; I wrongly included the restore of apps settings which did not work well. I reset and restore back but this time, excluding the settings). I got back my contacts updated into the phone and then proceeded to update to the latest Symbian Anna manually. And after that, I was home free.

I opted to leave any AV or Internet Security apps from my phone for the time being. Considering the risk – I may opt for a proper robust paid AV apps to be installed but not for now. Nonetheless, it was a scary moment – having the phone freezing up just like that and almost not having any way out to resolve it.

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2 thoughts on “Tech News 101: Painful Unhanging the Frozen Hard Nokia N8”

  1. Hi Bj,

    I am having the same problem with my Nokia N8 Belle. I found out that my phone had a virus on it and the virus had removed my pictures, videos, and music. So i decided to download an AV. The first I downloaded was Kaspersky on the new Nokia Store. It was not working effectively and did not find the virus that was clearly there. So i went on to download the free version of Netqin. First I downloaded a version that was not on the Nokia store. I cannot remember the website. I tried to install it twice and the installation wasnt working. So i decided to download it from the Ovi store and install it. It began installation and installed pefectly without complications. I opened it up and clicked on full scan. As soon as i clicked it my phone froze and i held the off button for a few seconds and felt three vibrations. After a few seconds i turned it on and thought it would be fine, only to find it was frozen on the home screen. I turned it off or about a minute and turned it back on. But it was the same problem. I repeated this for more than ten times. But it did not unfreeze for a chance to give me to uninstall Netqin and Kaspersky. I have tried to put it on my laptop and uninstall it using the new nokia software, but it is not detecting the phone. I have tried calling it, but it is not ringing. I don’t know what to do!!! Please help me a.s.a.p!

    1. I did not try with Kaspersky but have you backed up (using Nokia Suite) before you installed the AV? And did you try without your Sim card in? From what I have “googled” when I had similar problem, there are 2 solutions available – hard reset and reset to factory settings. If these fails, then probably try your luck with Nokia Customer Support (in Malaysia, it is at the Amcorp Mall)

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