Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

I dropped my N900 2-3 weeks ago.

- When I try to turn it off, white LED glows but no vibration.
- No nokia logo or anything else on the screen
- When I plug it to USB, PC founds drives
- Seems touchscreen does not respond. I try to locate and click on Mass storage button on the screen to get in into mass storage mode to access the files.. but it fails.

I ordered a replacement flex cable with camera from ebay and I replaced it today.
- When I turn on the phone, white LED does not glow... Nothing happens

I connect the old flex cable without assembling the board, white LED glows.

Do you think this new flex cable faulty or something? I bought it from an UK located seller. He stated:
This is why I paid a bit more than other items in ebay.

Any opinions?

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Additionally :

With the replacement cable:

-When I plug charger or USB cable, LED glows orange without flash.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

the flex cable isnt broken? or more than the cable is broken

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

i'll do that next week. Do you have any tip to me ? I mean, about the replacement process... How much time that glue needs to completelly dry ?
Any tip will be pretty much welcome.
Thank you very much.

EDIT: Just found a good thread about that: http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=86597

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Quick reply...
Ideally, the flex cable should arrive with its own glue-adhesive on the back, so you don't need to glue it on - the adhesive just works instantly as you put new flex cable into the place (don't leave any old glue from the old flex cable, though; I imagine that the adhesive of the new flex cable needs clean, not-dusty, not-oily, not-wet surface for the best results).
The original, Nokia's, adhesive was white in my device, and the new flex cable had transparent adhesive.
The main problem I experienced when assembling the device, after gluing the flex cable:
do not forget to put the small part (highlighted by red oval in the picture) of slider mechanism _under_ the keypad-keyboard, or it will cause much grief for you.
Best wishes.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Thaks for the tips wikiwide. I'm asking about the glue because the seller told me that he is sending "the glue as well". So, it seems to me that i'll get a piece os s* :(
I'll report back.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Quick reply...
Either it's a case of poor wording (and he means the glue-adhesive on the back of the flex cable, trying to reassure you), or you might have to get another flex cable (be aware that some glues can eat through plastic and metal, or be highly flammable and thus intolerant of high temperatures).
In case you need another flex cable, here are links to the one I used: CPA, EBay

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Is this flex with working camera? Thanks

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

:D:D:D Holy s* !!! I did it !!! I just can't believe that it works, but i did it !!! Now i've got two fully functional N900 .
Thanks all !!! I bought a suposelly broken N900 with that "all telephony functions disable" s*, just to take off the LCD from it and put on my broken N900. Long story short, the problem wasn't on LCD and i just change the ribbon and my N900 was born again !!! Plus, i managed to fix that "telephone functions" on the other N900 with the pen's spring approach and guess what ? It works like a charm !!! I don't remember now the name of the "spring fix" author but i'll will search just to thank him. Long life to the N900 !!! :D:D:D
And just for record, my ribbon came with the glue, so i think i just misunderstood the seller.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

i don't know about that one but mine is fully functional.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

[~fixribbon] Please Scroll down for repair pictures


I thought I'd share my experience with a potentially worn Flex cable.

Randomly one morning (two days ago) while browsing with Opera on my N900 display went blank but the backlight was on.
After a reboot the image was grainy and had horizontal lines.
Instantly I new it was a hardware fault as the issue was displayed during the boottime Nokia logo. However the device worked perfectly via the TV-Out.

After some pointers from members here (on #maemo - IRC) I swapped the display module over from my spare N900. This fault followed the display module.

Upon taking the N900 apart it was obvious that the ribbon on the faulty unit was not as glossy as the good one. However it doesn't look obviously broken, even on close inspection.

This is my main device/phone and gets used all the time for work as well.

I have ordered a new main flex cable from here and will report back when it's fitted etc.

https://www.halagsm.co.uk/Nokia-N900...th-Camera.1437

Thanks for the link jEORG.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Well they've arrived I'll let you know how it goes when I fit it.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Ok so finally got round to fixing my "main ribbon issue".
It was a sucess but not without it's troubles along the way.

Before I even got to replacing the ribbon a screw on the display modules was borked, it moved a quarter of a turn and then snapped my PH000 bit. It would be the last one of the six wouldn't it. :(

After it got rounded from trying to remove, I tried supergluing something to the screw and even cutting a slot in the head but it was solid.

In the end I removed the head with a tiny dremmel bit.
You can see the fun I had on the top right screw.

BEWARE these screws can be very tight the other three corners took a lot of pressure to remove.

Once inside I could detach the main ribbon from the screen ribbon, and remove the old main ribbon.

The adhesive holding the main ribbon was very strong.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Once the old ribbon was removed the adhesive from the old ribbon had to be removed.

I used "Stick Stuff Remover" solvent to disolve the glue from the slider chassis.

When clean and dry I stuck the new ribbon down making sure it lined up as the original. It came with it's own peel off adhesive.

It takes patience to plug the main ribbon to the screen ribbon, be careful.

Hope this helps future ribbon replacers :)

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

I ordered new ribbon few days ago and waiting for it...this will be very helpful. Thanks :)

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Ordered from this guy (eBay). It's cheapest one with real camera....and it works great.

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/9/...130404_003.jpg

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/9/...130404_007.jpg

http://www.fileden.com/files/2007/9/...130404_012.jpg

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

After years of ignoring the dust stuck in my N900's screen, I decided to clean it tonight and ruined the flex cable on reassembly...
I just ordered the cheapest cable I found in ebay. I hope I'll be able to repair it.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

I will share my experience in short:
my phone start loosing some colour in the indicator led functionality, later it was totally black no matter the situation.
After some weeks also the phone audio (not the speakers) was broken.
I decided to change the ribbon when I loose the touch function too.
After doing it the phone was restored completely.
That is it.

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

UPDATE: Was able to fix my N900. :)
I got the flex cable from this seller: https://www.ebay.com/usr/smartphonestation

Re: Replaced Flex Cable - N900
 

Nice to see this thread is still a useful resource. Good to know there are still spare ribbons available.