Buying a used N900
 

Hi!

Tomorrow is the big day! Im finally buying a N900, though second hand. The buyer says its barley been out of the box and have the recipet and everything.

But is there any known weaknesses to look for when buying one second hand? I've seen that some people have had trouble with the usbplug. but is there anything else to be aware of?

thanks in advance :)

Re: Buying a used N900
 

http://www.techbargains.com/news_dis...fm/208990?r1=1

Buy it used if it is considerably cheaper than this... otherwise, go with this one.

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Check if the microphone is working - there was a batch with non-working ones. Also check the screen for scratches and if the magnets on the stand and the back cover are in place (your camera won't auto start on hatch open if the back cover one falls).

Re: Buying a used N900
 

The keyboard is a known weak point. The keyboard slider should be firm in place and should come out straight (i.e. not skewed). You should not be able to move the keyboard up/down or left/right (so only straight out and in).
When you keep the unit horizontally before your eyes, you should be able to see only a very narrow gap between screen & keyboard.

Also check the earphone socket, the buttons (esp lock-screen button), the camera and the camera cover.

Check if the battery is genuine.

Try to download & run an app called "HealthCheck" so that you can also check for non-working pixels, and other issues.

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Make sure you know its lock code...

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Check the display for any hot-/deadpixels. My first two devices had a couple of them, my third one has just a single one. Use very bright and dark backgrounds to easily see them.

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Just as bioman suggested, download and run healthcheck.

Of course, you might need to pull it from the repositories during the testing, so you'd like to insert a sim card which can access to the internet; or you might get the deb saved in the SD card then dpkg -i it.

Other thing you would like to check is the firmware version, you may want to ask around in the local forum to see what version of firmware your place is offered. If it's different from the stock version (location specific), then it's very high chance that it has been flashed multiple times and it'd not sound good.

Third thing you'd like to check is the kernel verison. uname -r will show you. If it's running kernel power (has 'power' in its name) then it's also high chance that it has been overclocked and it'd not be a good news for you.

Of course, one could uninstall the kernel power. Therefore, you'd also like to check what package he had been uninstalled, it gives you a good indicator on what packages the last owner has been using:

Run the following command in xterminal would show you a list of uninstalled packages:
Of course experts can temper the installation list to cover his track. If the last owner is an expert then you are pretty much helpless against him. ^^

I can only think of that so far. Hope this help.

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Healthcheck needs QT 4.6.2!

Re: Buying a used N900
 

lol.... - darn these people who assume everything needs 4.6.2 ;)

It definitely does not... neither the version in development or the version in maemo downloads does ;) - i can tell you why.... i develop it on my device with 4.5 ;)


Anyway, healthcheck will help with some of the possible issues....
If you can call it from another phone and check the internal speaker works too :D

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Not all people assume things, I am certainly not the one, Sorry. I tried installing on my N900 and it gave me that error.

Screenshot below -

http://yfrog.com/0yscreenshot2010052015181p.

Re: Buying a used N900
 

Innnnnnnteresting :P ....
Thats gotta be an odd one though, as i can honestly say - i have never touched 4.6 :(
gonna investigate that one!

Re: Buying a used N900
 

It only installed for me after installing Qt 4.6 from the SDK repository.