Planned successor to Nokia N-Gage QD found! ("N-Gage IC")

[derSammler]

41 minutes ago, BodyZ said:

In normal state its shorted, and if we insert something to headphones jack circuit breaks and phone knows something has been connected to it and switch sound output to headphones.

I don't see how that contradicts to what I've written... It can use any of the 5 pins - e.g. L and R shorted (or one of them shorted to GND) unless you insert a headphone. This is very basic stuff and only requires a leaf spring contact inside the jack between whatever pins it's using for that. But I can't really comment on how the hardware works. We will know more once I got the write-up from the dev.

Edited October 16, 2021 by derSammler

[derSammler]

Ok, had a few minutes today...

 

MHP and The Roots are working as expected with BT turned on. Not sure if I would call the color-errors in MHP "mild", however. ;)

 

I always do *#7370# for a factory reset. Afaik the other one does not wipe all data.

[BodyZ]

1 hour ago, derSammler said:

I always do *#7370# for a factory reset. Afaik the other one does not wipe all data.

In fact, it's exactly opposite. *#7370# just executes some command-line alike script to remove most files and folders, but there are several types of data that can't be that easily removed.

  

On 10/12/2021 at 8:26 PM, BodyZ said:

"hard reset from switched off state via pressed keys - call button, * and 3 with Power button, like on 6600 and newer"

This on the other hand is making the actual "formatting" of drive C:/. On N-Gage QD with firmware 4.60 or newer, as well as all S60v2.0-S60v2.1 Nokia smartphones there is actual "Formatting" message displayed with progressbar in background.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2021 by BodyZ

[derSammler]

25 minutes ago, BodyZ said:

In fact, it's exactly opposite. *#7370# just executes some command-line alike script to remove most files and folders, but there are several types of data that can't be that easily removed.

No, it's not! *#7370# is the complete, hard factory reset. Every site tells this. It also fully wipes drive C.

 

*#7780# is a soft-reset. It does not wipe any data. And in case you need a serious, trusty source, here you go:

 

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/mobiledevices/forum/all/7370-7780-and-three-buttons-reset/20ee1bae-d82e-40f8-9c0c-50486f583bc4

 

I certainly don't care about the 3-button reset on a prototype, as it may render it unusable. There's no data pack available to re-flash the firmware should anything go wrong...

Edited October 17, 2021 by derSammler

[BodyZ]

2 hours ago, derSammler said:

MHP and The Roots are working as expected with BT turned on. Not sure if I would call the color-errors in MHP "mild", however.

Yeah, MHP colors problem is a bit more than "mild". What I meant,is that you can actually understand what happens on the screen in opposition to other games, like Asphalt Urban GT 2 etc, where everything on screen is complete mess.

43 minutes ago, derSammler said:

*#7370# is the complete, hard factory reset

Yeap, theoretically it is, but from my experience, in some rare cases it may leave some "leftovers".

I've personally experienced this a few times with several different Nokia Symbian devices. 

So just to be calm that everything is actually cleaned-up I do 3-buttons reset in most cases.

 

P.S. Microsoft Answers in this case is just another forum like community, where anyone can post anything they want. 

So, it's not more "a serious, trusty source" than this or any other forum is.

It's just someones opinion, like here is mine about this topic.

In this case it's mostly correct, but 3 buttons reset has nothing to do with "flashing" and primarily made for resetting devices that don't boot due to some software problem like bad 3rd-party font, or software.

 

43 minutes ago, derSammler said:

I certainly don't care about the 3-button reset on a prototype, as it may render it unusable. There's no data pack available to re-flash the firmware should anything go wrong...

Well, I've just asked, have you tried it) Not meant to actually try this)))

IMHO, doing any kind of resets on prototype devices is a very risky thing to do.

  

Have you tried miniUSB yet? Does it connects to PC as USB Mass Storage only device like it was on original N-Gage?

Or maybe it's like on newer devices like 7610, that require Nokia PC Suite to be installed on PC, so we can manage data in MTP style explorer windows and do contacts sync etc?

Edited October 17, 2021 by BodyZ

[derSammler]

On 10/9/2021 at 2:26 PM, derSammler said:

Yes, it is. Also confirmed by SPMark04, which I just run. (confirmed CPU speed again as well).

 

It scored 566 on the proto. Stock QD is 495.

 

More results to follow.

Overclocked NEM-4 scores 615, btw. Wonder why they didn't go faster with the CPU.

Edited October 27, 2021 by derSammler

[BodyZ]

Hmmm, I'll run it on 7610 than. Wonder how much it'll score. Must be close to what your proto scored. 

And than compare it to 6620 which runs at 150 MHz. 

[BodyZ]

My results:

6600 - 465 (even slower than stock N-Gage)

7610 - 564

6620 - 563 (it's built on different platform, so I guess that's why it scored like 7610 despite having faster CPU, or it's underclocked for power saving)

D720 - 717 (192 MHz CPU)

X700 - 416 (even slower than 6600 despite having same CPU)

6630 - 986 (220 MHz Dual CPU architecture)

 

As I remember, at that point in time they simply didn't have faster CPU/platform, so I guess that's why they used 7610 like platform.

In feature models, starting from 6630 (even 6620, but it's USA only), they heavily modified platform, started using "Dual CPU" architecture and only than they leaped to 220 MHz CPU.

 

[derSammler]

The fact that an "overclocked" NEM-4 scores 615 shows that they had. The CPUs they used weren't rated at the clock speed they run at - Nokia decided to use that clock speed. It was a compromise between performance and battery life.

 

Of course, we don't know how fast the CPU would eventually be in the final product. And if they had plans to have the IC running all the existing games, they were very limited in making the CPU faster anyway. Some original games already fail to work on an overclocked NEM-4.

[derSammler]

Still waiting for the write-up from the Nokia guy. To keep this thread alive, here's a concept of how the final UI was to look:

 

(Source: Saadi Howell)

Edited October 28, 2021 by derSammler

[BodyZ]

On 10/28/2021 at 10:28 AM, derSammler said:

Some original games already fail to work on an overclocked NEM-4.

You mean cartridge N-Gage games? 

Because I didn't have any problems running games on overclocked N-Gage NEM-4.

Anyway, please, post names of such games. Would be interesting to try them on my overclocked N-Gage NEM-4.

 

And what about what I asked earlier about USB Mass Storage and MP3 Player ?

[derSammler]

I refer to original games only. Not to cracks or S60 games. Warhammer for example does not work when overclocked. Most likely none of the later games using ECP, as wrong timing will cause that to fail. But let's try to stay at least somehow on-topic.

 

I have not tested the USB port yet. As for the MP3 player, I tried looking at my NEM-4 for the equalizer stuff to know what to look for. But where are these setting? Could not find them. Have to admin that I never used an N-Gage for every-day MP3 playback.

Edited November 2, 2021 by derSammler

[BodyZ]

18 hours ago, derSammler said:

I refer to original games only. Not to cracks or S60 games. Warhammer for example does not work when overclocked. Most likely none of the later games using ECP, as wrong timing will cause that to fail. But let's try to stay at least somehow on-topic.

Thanks, I didn't know this. Do you know any other games besides Warhammer with overclock problem?

 

18 hours ago, derSammler said:

I have not tested the USB port yet. As for the MP3 player, I tried looking at my NEM-4 for the equalizer stuff to know what to look for. But where are these setting? Could not find them. Have to admin that I never used an N-Gage for every-day MP3 playback.

If player is launched and not playing anything right now, than on left softkey you should have something like Options, and there Settings.

If player is already playing something, than only way to acess setting menu is via pressing "Shift" (pen) key.

[derSammler]

On 11/3/2021 at 11:02 AM, BodyZ said:

Thanks, I didn't know this. Do you know any other games besides Warhammer with overclock problem?

RIFTS and Glimmerati, too, I think. From what I read in the past, it also depends on which overlocking patch you use. Not all clock up the CPU by the same amount.

[derSammler]

Another very special prototype is on its way to me. Not sure if it gets over the pond and thru customs still this year, but I hope so.

[BodyZ]

On 11/19/2021 at 7:25 PM, derSammler said:

Another very special prototype is on its way to me. Not sure if it gets over the pond and thru customs still this year, but I hope so.

Great news!

 

But what about this N-Gage IC proto?

USB, MP3 player, "write-up from the Nokia guy"?

[derSammler]

Did you lose your patience somewhere?

 

I have a life - and those questions about USB and the MP3 player aren't really that important to me that I take extra time just to test it.

 

I have no influence on the write-up other than reminding him to do it from time to time. He has a life as well and I accept it.

 

If there is new info, I'll post it here. If I don't post, there's no new info.

[derSammler]

Just like the camera, USB seems to be completely non-functional. Neither the PC nor the N-Gage reacts on a connection.

[BodyZ]

On 11/25/2021 at 4:57 PM, derSammler said:

Did you lose your patience somewhere?

I guess I'm not the one who "lost patience")

On 11/29/2021 at 2:59 PM, derSammler said:

Just like the camera, USB seems to be completely non-functional. Neither the PC nor the N-Gage reacts on a connection.

Shame, but i guess that's what to expect from such early firmware.

[derSammler]

1 hour ago, BodyZ said:

I guess I'm not the one who "lost patience")

Nevermind, I assume the meaning got lost in translation. ? It seems there is no English word that has the meaning of German "Geduld" only.

 

I was actually able to make some progress getting the camera to work by building my own app from the SDK. Not sure if anything similar is possible with the USB port as well. Not that it would be of much use anyway.

 

What bothers me most is that not even the hot-swap feature of the MMC slot is there. This makes testing anything really, really slow and annoying.

Edited December 13, 2021 by derSammler

[BodyZ]

On 12/13/2021 at 4:13 PM, derSammler said:

I was actually able to make some progress getting the camera to work by building my own app from the SDK.

That's really cool! And also strange, why 3rd party apps for camera not worked than.

On 12/13/2021 at 4:13 PM, derSammler said:

What bothers me most is that not even the hot-swap feature of the MMC slot is there.

Oh yes, I can imagine. It's almost like with original N-Gage, where you had to turn off device every time you needed to replace MMC) But with original N-Gage USB Mass Storage mode eased the pain a little bit.

[derSammler]

I'm closing this case for the time being. I was not able to get back in contact with the guy who designed the pcb. Last time he told me he was busy - that was in early December last year. Since then, any try to contact him again has failed. Hope he's well, but there's nothing more I can do.

 

Need to move on to other prototypes and get those documented.

[fonehacker]

On 2/2/2022 at 3:30 PM, derSammler said:

I'm closing this case for the time being. I was not able to get back in contact with the guy who designed the pcb. Last time he told me he was busy - that was in early December last year. Since then, any try to contact him again has failed. Hope he's well, but there's nothing more I can do.

 

Need to move on to other prototypes and get those documented.

  

Hi, I am also an N-Gage fan and I love everything related to N-Gage. I have A QD with 4.60 firmware in pristine condition and also have a JAF box to flash it. (that was my intro). Now getting back to the topic, I see that you have not posted any high quality review video or other videos with the device working or trying to play games on it or other experiments that the rest of the community requested. I get it that you are a collector and might not have time for these things but I can assure you that the enthusiast community would really ike to see and document more about this prototype any day without doubt. Not to sound rude but if you cannot do that (due to your priorities or real life), I would like to request you to sell this prototype to me or any other enthusiast who can spend more time with this prototype and let others see it in it's true glory. I would be happy to pay the shipping and customs and whatnot, just name your price. Thanks.

[+jgkspsx]

Yeah, good try.

[DeathAdderSF]

On 4/14/2023 at 11:58 PM, fonehacker said:

I would be happy to pay the shipping and customs and whatnot, just name your price. Thanks.