HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

My screen has gone black and no longer works. It sounds like the touch screen may still work (as there is a clicking noise when I press the screen). I can even call the phone and it will start ringing, however, for some reason, I am unable to answer the call by touching the screen where the "answer" button would usually be.
I have tried to retrieve all my data from the phone, however, when I connect the phone to my computer, it says I've connected my phone in a "non-compatible mode".
On my computer, it shows "removable drive f & g", however, there is nothing for me to access the phone's memory.
I've tried clicking on the on phone where I guessed the "PC suite mode" button would be, but it doesn't seem to work.
I am sure the phone is still working somewhat because:
1. When it starts up, I can hear the nokia tune
2. The keyboard still lights up
3. The LED light works as it should (flashing every now and again)
4. The side switch still turns the keyboard back-light on and off
5. I can still take pictures with the camera (as I see the flash goes off when I take a picture)
6. Touching the screen makes the normal 'clicking' noise.

Basically, I have 2 problems: I cannot see the screen, even whilst using TV-out mode and I need to access the phone's memory.
Clearly, the phone is not dead, so I am hoping that there's a way to retrieve all my pictures and files.

Nokia are happy to repair it under warranty, however, their policy is that they automatically wipe any data first, so I would lose everything stored on there.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

My first wild guess would be: did you install openssh or any ssh server on it?
If you answered yes to that question, you probably know how to connect to your phone via ssh, given that the phone is connected to your wifi of course.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Try to use your TV out cable...!

Woops..sorry, this isnt working either.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

You need to hit the area on the screen where the "mass storage mode' button should be. It should then show up as a storage device on your computer.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

He tried that already.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

All Nokia Care Centers have a policy of saving Data before flashing the phone. A fee of $30 is charged in Australia, and similar prices in equivalent currencies...
So go to Nokia Care and ask them to save ur data...
Easy and Simple...:)

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi.

No, I have not installed this on this phone.

Thank you for the help though.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi.

When I connect the phone, the "safely remove hardware" window shows it as a mass storage device. However, on My Computer, it shows "removable disk f & g" when I click on both, it asks me to insert a disk.

I have tried clicking the screen, but to no avail, even though the touchscreen is clearly responding when I tap it...

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

The reason I did not give the device to the people at the care centre is because I wanted to exhaust all options to retrieve my data before I hand it in.

At the centre, they could not retrieve the data for me as they said they could not access the right settings on the phone in order for the files to be saved onto a pc (obviously because the screen is black, and nobody knows where to click).

They told me that once my phone is sent off for repair, the data is wiped whether the phone is repaired or replaced. That is their policy for all phones.

-----------------

Surely it should just be one click of the screen for me to be able to access my files, but it is not happening. I cannot understand this, because the phone seems to be totally responsive, except for the black screen.

Thanks for all your help.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Sorry to hear that, FowG
I would try another consulting Nokia Centre just to be sure there is nothing to do.
I guess you have read the other posts about people sending their phone for repair and their respective problems. I don't want to scare you off, just make sure you know what you are doing even thought you don't seem to have a choice here.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=64014

I found a thread created by someone with a similar problem, attempting to fix it blindly:
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=64758
I hope this can help.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

I've been in this situation before. If you can find another person with an N900 that is willing to let you do a temporary screen swap, you are set. The procedure for removing the screen is relatively simple - IIRC it is simply a matter of taking off the backplate, removing six screws around the periphery (which are a combination of torx and phillips head), and then CAREFULLY disconnecting the ribbon cable seated on the motherboard (you can use a credit card to gently pry the connector off). Once you have done that to both phones, just connect the ribbon cable of the functional screen to your N900 motherboard (this might take a few tries since the connector is tiny and space for maneuvering is limited, just be patient) and you'll be able to use the phone as you normally do. Check out this N900 full disassembly video on youtube to get a better idea of what I just explained. You don't have to take apart the entire phone like that guy did, just take the top half (with the screen) off and stop at that point.

After you have gotten your data safely off, you might want to install openssh or x11vnc. Ssh will allow you to log into the phone from another computer and do stuff from the command line. You don't even need to have the top half connected to use the phone in this manner - the N900 boots up fine without the screen attached. x11vnc, on the other hand, will send the actual display to a window on another computer. For example, when you connect your N900 to your computer via usb, even though you can't put your phone into mass-storage mode by using the phone's touchscreen, you would be able to do this by clicking on mass-storage button that shows up on the remote display window. In my experience, x11vnc doesn't work right if you don't attach the screen to the motherboard, so make sure you put your crappy screen back on the phone if you try out x11vnc.

Hit me up if you have more questions.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

If the phone boots normaly you could install x11vnc, you will need to be root to do this, so I hope you have rootsh installed, if you don't this won't work.

Open the terminal with Ctrl + Shift + X
Type: sudo gainroot (you must have rootsh installed)
Next type: apt-get install x11vnc (I don't know if this requires prompts)
after it has installed type: x11vnc
Using a VNC viewer from a PC you should be able to VNC into your phone, from there you should be able to access screen functions. You may find it useful to do the same operations with someone elses N900 if you know someone with another one.

If you don't have rootsh installed then you might be stuffed.
It is strange TV out doesn't work, have you tried other TVs not all TVs are the same.

Best of luck

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

should do the trick without prompting

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Have you tried this:
1. Shutdown device.
2. Connect with usb to PC.
It should boot up in mass storage mode. At least with
a linux PC.

hope this helps

Nicolai

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

I have tried this a few times, and this is what happened:

On my computer, it shows "removable drive f & g", however, there is nothing for me to access the phone's memory.
I've tried clicking on the on phone where I guessed the "PC suite mode" button would be, but it doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for the help.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

I do not have rootsh installed.

I will try another tv, to see if it was the tv, or the phone.

Many thanks.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

A different tv did not work. It obviously detects the phone, as it changes from blue to black, but the tv remains black.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

I assume you run windows on your PC as you list drive f & g as what you are shown on the PC.

Maybe you could try booting your PC with a Linux live CD/DVD (e.g. Ubuntu) and then you could try the same procedure Nicolai suggests but with Linux instead of Windows and this may help.

If you don't know what a Live CD is it allows you to boot another operating system without installing to your hard drive.

Equally, if you have a friend who runs linux try it against their computer instead.

Not saying it will work but at least you can tick off another option you've fully explored.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Oh and in case you haven't been advised of this already (I have to assume you have but I'd hate to think no-one had stated the obvious to you), you can of course remove your Micro SD card and plug it into your PC with an appropriate adaptor. This would allow you to get data off of your external card at least (assuming it hasn't been corrupted).

For data on the internal card you will need to get a connection running.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

I was using the phone without a memory card. All the files and contacts etc. are on the phone's memory.

Thanks for the help.

I will also try creating a linux cd and try to connect the phone to my pc while running linux.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

...or...

Order a screen from ebay for around €40 shipped (including tools) and repair the screen yourself by following this guide:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDQ81cahD1c

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Just tried this on SuSE:
it asks for the security key (if set) and for the PIN and afterwards
for mass storage mode.
I am not sure if this a new "feature" of 20.2010.36-2 ?
If yes it probably won't help him.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

This would be a last resort for me.

I have had the phone for a few months only, and I am worried about voiding the warranty if I ever needed to return it for repair in the future.

I wonder how they would know that though? If there is no way for them to find out, I might consider doing this, and sending it back anyway once I have retrieved my files, if there are still other issues with the phone.

I am worried that there may be be other issues with the phone, and it is simply not the screen that has stopped working.

Thanks for the help/

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Considering that the TV out produces the same black screen, I'm afraid the problem is not limited to the screen, but deeper.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Not necessarily. My phone had no display and no tv out. Long story short: I replaced the entire screen and it is now working again.

Long story long:
I just dropped my N900 two weeks ago near the shower. The back cover and battery flew out. A few small drops of water ricoched across the room and landed inside the back of the phone. I left it unplugged for 24 hours (I would have done more, but the liquid seemed like an insignfigant amount).

When I turned it on, there was no video; but the phone powered on, the keyboard lit up and there were system sounds like it was normal. I plugged in the A/V cable and got nothing.

A week later, I purchased a badly used N900 and took both phones apart only to discover that it was my screen that was broken. Now I have my working phone horribly scratched screen. Video out also works again.

One of these days I will try to put the working parts of this screen into my old screen assembly. Although I am not in a huge hurry because I can barely see the scratches when the backlight is on.

The positive aspect of having a scratched screen is that I am more violent with my stylus when I use the phone than I used to be. The stylus works great when you use tons of force.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

I have looked into one of my backup file and written a script to replicate what the backup process copies, hopefully this will be good enough for you. Somethings will not get copied as they have a colon in their paths and colons don't work with fat file systems, these are mainly bookmark images, so the least of your worries.

Download the attached file, if you need the contents of your MyDocs directory, and you have enough room on your SD card, use the mydocs version (this will save you from having to edit the file and introducing windows newline characters, which linux doesn't like), rename without the .txt extension.

Copy the file into the root directory of your SD card, put the SD card back into your phone. Power up the phone and wait until you are sure it has fully booted up (give it time), next press Ctrl+Shift+X to open XTerminal, let it open as it can take a few seconds.

Next type:
depending on the version you are using. The phone should buzz once to let you know you got things right, once it has finished it will buzz twice, assuming you havn't broken the vibrator as well.

You will end up with (hopefully) a directory called backup and an error file which has a log of all the files that couldn't be copied.

Good luck

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Great work JonWW!
I'll keep that in a safe place as well, hoping I never have to use it.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Yeah, I'm keeping it on my SD card as well. At least with linux you can read nearly everything as user. Just hope it works for him!

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

If you usually have the wifi/gprs networking turned off (to save power during the day), and then your screen breaks, is there a way to login over openssh / x11vnc? E.g. some way to access it over USB?

My screen hasn't broken but I'd like to be prepared for the possibility.

Thanks.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi,

I will try this asap. First I have to buy myself a micro sd card.

Thank you very much for this. I will get back to you with the results.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Ok, so I've tried doing this. I turn the phone on and wait for the Nokia sound. I give it a couple of minutes and then I try what you said. So far, I've only tried the 'mydocs' longer version. I'm now going to try the shorter version without the 'mydocs'.
Also, I noticed, the phone must still be working because when I checked the new flash card after trying to back up the phone, a DCIM file had been created. However, the phone had failed to back up the data.
I'm going to keep trying in case I've done it incorrectly.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Did the phone's vibrator buzz when you ran the script? If it didn't then either you didn't open the terminal or you typed something wrong.

Both scripts are the same, just the none MyDocs one has MyDocs commented out

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hello again.

I have tried running the script many times now, carefully following the instructions each time. I cannot understand why the phone does not vibrate after entering the script. It just doesn't seem to work.

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Make sure you have not edited the files I put up, as you don't want to introduce Windows or Mac style newline characters, as this throws Linux.

As MMC cards can get corrupted and then not show in the N900's file manager, place the MMC card in your PC and format it with the FAT file system.
Then copy the script onto the card and rename it to This way you will have less to type and hopefully fewer mistakes.
Place card in phone and boot up phone.
Next open XTerm by pressing Ctrl & Shift & X all together not one at a time.
Then type
Good luck!

P.S. You could try also looking here: http://wiki.maemo.org/Manual_backup_and_restore

A copy of that script is here:

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Hi, my friend's N900 is having this problem too:

- Screen's gone black
- Phone boots and you can hear taps on the touchscreen
- TV out gives a blackish or garbled image on TV
- N900 doesn't go on storage mode

Fowg (if you still are around) , were you able to repair this?

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

hi
i have the same problem.
my N900 device was broken (probably screen).

few facts:
1) device is not rooted
2) i know the pin
3) when connected to win PC based i could see it is 'Not compatible USB' mode.
4) i can see removable device icons on 'my computer' but cannot access it.
5) the data i want to rescue is inside phone's memory . no card.

can someone share info how can i give it a PIN through the cmd or something?
like i can work/debug an android device (adb if someone want to understand what i meant)?

i plan to give the N900 somehow the pin using a cmd or debug or something than hopefully able to access it using my computer.

will appreciate any info regarding a process i can follow - link, tutorial , movie ..

i tried also to connect a OTG usb keyboard and supply PIN without help
so i am looking for a utility i can use to view my N900 screen on a pc (will try TV after reading this thread) like i can do with DroidAtScreen on an Android devices.
http://droid-at-screen.ribomation.com/

please please please advise.
thank you!

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

Maybe connect it to your WIFI and try WinSCP?

Re: HELP! N900 Broken screen but need to retrieve memory.
 

hi,
how can i connect it to Wi-Fi if i don't have access to the device (cannot see the screen plus cannot enter pin to enter it).