My Nexus One has been a brick for several months. It would boot to the X then restart in an endless loop. I was hoping an update would fix it but I did a manual install of 2.3.6 with no luck. Finally I decided to give in and use the passimg method to restore the os to 2.2.1. This worked!! Within an hour of turning it on it did an OTA update to 2.3.4 and the next day to 2.3.6.

My phone is now fully restored and works perfectly. There are several websites that explain how to do this. Just do a search for 'passimg nexus one'. It's a simple process but does reset your phone to factory condition. Something I had hoped to avoid.