This is not a general or comprehensive FAQ so much as my personal idiosyncratic list of things that made me go "F!" while working with the NC and CyanogenMod 7, and how I got past them. Items are listed in roughly the order they were encountered.
F! Rooting, ROMs, 1.2, 2.2, 2.3.4, 3.1, GingerFroCoSammich: WTF?!?
Don't take every recommendation as gospel, but this guide is a great starting point to wrap your head around all the options: http://quinxy.com/guides/how-to-pick-your-nook-color-operating-system-and-install-options/
F! Win32DiskImager requires half a dozen development environments and still doesn't work!
Okay, it's shareware not freeware, so you may still need Win32DiskImager down the road, but WinImage is a simpler, standalone utility and it's free for 30 days--and get this, not 30 consecutive days, but 30 days on which you actually open the program. For instance, I installed about a month ago, and am currently on evaluation day four. You will probably get sick of messing with this stuff long before you run out of eval days.
F! I can't find and/or write the disk image in WinImage!
The command to write the image is Disk>Restore Virtual Hard Disk Image on Physical Drive. You will have to show file type All Files every time in order to find the .img file.
F! I don't have a card reader, and need access to the boot partition of my bootable uSD card.
The simple, smart solution to this problem is STFU and get a card reader. However, you can access the uSD card's boot partition from the NC's stock OS. Power off the NC, make sure the card is ejected, and power back on. Before the OS has fully loaded, for instance on one of the splash screens, re-insert the card. Once the stock OS has loaded, it will now recognize the boot partition as storage. Inserting the uSD after the OS has loaded only gets me a "SD is ready to remove" message.
F! Why isn't my NC showing up in Windows when I plug in USB?
CyanogenMod does not automatically mount storage when you plug in USB. Open your notifications, tap the USB notification, and it will take you to the USB screen where there is a big "Turn on USB storage" button. Push it.
F! Chunks are falling off of my USB cable!
Maybe it affects some cables more than others, but the plastic around the light-up "n" on the USB cable is very brittle. B&N is aware, and will not give you a hard time about replacing the cable at no cost if you just call up customer service.
F! Where is the serial number on this thing?
The SN is under the movable flap that conceals the uSD slot.
F! I want to revert this bootable uSD to simple storage, but it won't format!
Some people have reported success just formatting the card, but it was no good for me. The simplest solution for me after trial and error was to use the graphical 'slider' interface in EASEUS Partition Master (free) to delete all partitions except the storage partition and then drag the ends of that partition to take up the unallocated space.
F! The sound is terrible. Like, terrible terrible.
It kind of just is :( Maybe some NCs are worse than others, but tons of people report ridiculously low volume through both the speaker and the headphone jack, as well as some cases of hissing or other artifacts over headphones, particularly high-end audiophile headsets. The situation can be aided considerably on CM7 by installing the Nook Tweaks app from the marketplace and adjusting speaker and headphone gain there.
