Nokia E61i Voodoo

My rocking Nokia E61i phone has suddenly started playing up.

It ran out of battery power yesterday while on a call. i don't think I've ever run the battery right out like that.

So when I restarted the phone I got a message: "Phone start-up failed. Contact retailer."

Not cool, although I can get another phone easily since it's a work one.

I left it charging until it was fully charged, then restarted it again. It started fine, but whenever I tried to access the clock function (to set the alarm for the morning) it would fail, reporting: "System Error!".

Trying to access Settings would not work either - it would just dump me back to the menu again.

I googled and found that I am not the only one who has encountered this:

Hi, I have an e61i that I use in Australia. If I try to enter 'Clock' or 'Tools' I get a system error. I live in Queensland Australia. When I fly to other states in Oz the phone works fine. If I change my Telstra SIM for Voda it works fine. If I put another Telstra sim in I get the fault. If I put my sim in another E61 I get the fault.

No replies to that thread, but I took the hint and tried it in Offline mode (next step was to remove the SIM) - it works fine with no problem when it is Offline.

I googled and got the reset codes for the Nokia E61i:

*#7370# - Soft reset
*#7780# - Restore factory settings

I backed up my phone's data to its mini-SD card (Tools > Memory > Options > Backup memory to card), then tried both. After the reset the phone will not restart with the SIM card in it until the internal clock has been set. Without the SIM card, and after the clock is set, it's fine.

According to this thread on Whirlpool, someone else has the same problem with a Nokia N73, but only when they are in Queensland. In Melbourne and NZ it works fine.

I read a bunch of other hits and found a recommendation (in the comments to this blog post) to set the Time mode to "Network Operator", which will set the clock via the network when it is connected. This seems to work.

So here's the formula:

Phone: Nokia E61i

Symptom: Cannot access Settings | Cannot access clock with "System Error!" message | "Phone start-up failed. Contact retailer" message on startup

Probable cause: Faulty internal clock battery or something weird with Queensland's cell network

Action:

1. Put phone into Offline mode, or remove SIM card if phone is switched off and cannot be restarted.
2. Access Tools > Settings > Date & Time. Set Network operator time to "Auto-update"
3. Restart phone with SIM card inserted or switch back to online mode

Result: Phone starts, clock and settings work

Science!

Thanks to Google, the wisdom of the crowd, and two years of troubleshooting in production support at Red Hat.

Update: The back up didn't work. I lost all my contacts. <>. Send me an SMS to +61431929675 (that's 0431 929 675 if you're in Australia) with your name in the message, and I'll add you back in. Thanks!