The Unofficial N95 User’s Manual

A guide to the smartest phone on the planet.

July 28, 2008

Camera keeps crashing? Try a hard reset.

By Chris in How-To | 3 comments | Viewed 995 times, 4 so far today

A couple of days ago, I took a photo with my N95, closed the camera app, and put my phone down. Less than a minute later I picked it up and flipped the camera switch to take another photo, and something went wrong. The camera app started to open, then a semi-transparent white screen flashed and the app closed, and I got the following alert:

Application Closed:
RRSensorServer
KERN-EXEC 0

It wasn’t just the camera app, either–it was any application that used the accelerometer in some way, including Nokia Step Counter and emTube (which I use to search for and download YouTube movies). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything online about the error, so I tried the following things in this order, testing it after each step:

  1. Deleted all accelerometer third-party apps
  2. Deleted python
  3. Reinstalled latest firmware
  4. Removed cover and cleaned out inside
  5. Removed battery and let sit for over 8 hours without power

The final step was interesting, because when I put the battery back in and started the phone the next day, the camera worked fine–but only for about 10 minutes. Then all accelerometer-related apps would crash when I tried to launch them, only this time I wouldn’t get an error message of any sort.

Finally I gave up and started looking around for a new phone. I figured I’d have to send the N95 to Nokia’s repair center in Alabama and wait two weeks or longer to find out if they could even repair it, which isn’t really an option for a phone you use daily.

Then I read on HowardForums that you can force a hard reset of the N95 by holding down the Connect Call, 3, and * buttons simultaneously while starting up your phone. It will wipe everything on your phone, so be sure to backup your settings to a memory card first. Note that you won’t be asked to enter a security code if you use this option–it will automatically reformat.

After I did this, the camera worked perfectly! I’ve been testing it for about 4 hours now and there hasn’t been a single problem, so I’m optimistic that this finally resolved it.

The three-button-press solution isn’t the only way to reset. Here are two other ways to reset your phone, and info on what they’ll actually do:

  • *#7370#  -  will wipe everything, including anything pre-installed by your operator. (Back up your phone’s memory to a memory card first!!!)
  • *#7780#  -  will factory-reset the device — you shouldn’t lose all of your apps, just any phone settings (you should still back-up everything though)
  • note that for both of these, you’ll need to enter a security code, which unless you’ve changed it is 12345

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3 Comment(s)

  1. Bob | Jul 30, 2008 | Reply

    Myself and others are having this problem as well. Hard reset has not helped though. Some people have said that reinstalling the accelerometer dll helped. Not for me.
    See this thread.
    http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/discussions/board/message?board.id=smartphones&thread.id=91250&view=by_date_ascending&page=6

  2. Fatrabbit | Aug 12, 2008 | Reply

    Welcome to the club of failing N95’s.
    As bob said above here.
    Check the nokia forum and the running discussion.
    I’ve tried all available tips, tricks, cleanings etc but i refuse to go to a service center and pay for a repair of nothing.
    Anyways good luck and we’ll keep each other notified on progress of testing.

  3. polo99a9 | Sep 16, 2008 | Reply

    hy. same problem. updated the firmware to 30.0.0.15 and the camera, and accelerometer doesn’t work. this is what i found
    1.first time, after the instalation, after activating the auto rotation screen, evering crashed, and the phone reset. the only way to stop it from reset it whas to hold the Symbian key. without relesing the symbian key i reset the phone using *#7370#. after this the phone stoped reseting, but the camera didn’t work.
    2.i got out the batery for 30 min, and the camera whas working for a few minutes.
    3. i reinstaled the firmware, took only 4 minutes (i think it whas strange), and now evering works. the camera and acceleromater are fine. but the front camera when activated, an error apears, asking me to restart the phone.

    i’ll live it like this for now.

    questions and updates for resolving the entire problem, pls contact me at email adress (polo99a9@yahoo.com)

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