To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

Yello,

After two solitary years of having to explain to people who see my phone that it does NOT run on Android, I have finally met another n900 owner! YAY ;)

Anyways it turns out that his phone has a faulty USB port and has had to put it to one side to rest. He was never a big power user, even to the point of keeping the original maemo theme (you should seen his face when he saw my screen rotate) but he is still a big maemo fan!

So now I have the opportunity to buy it off him for £50 and was wanting to know if that is too much?

My other idea was a little more charitable, ask to borrow the device and attempt to repair it so I can give it back to him. Then IF for some unlikely reason I mess it up big time, then I give him the money and keep the broken n900 for spares.


I'm undecided right now as to what I should do or if to forget the idea completely. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated :)

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

if i were you i would buy it to test some stuff that im scared to do it with my own old N900 :) and for playing multiplayer in Webos games :D

./sifo

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

That was my thinking initially sifo, but I have the n9 now so can use my own for testing.

Still it would be nice to have a secondary unit for the really scary stuff to test before putting it on my own I guess :]

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

well I was in the same situation, it was a brand new device, i thought I coul repair the broken USB like I did with mine but I was wrong, cuz the camera rubber was cuted so dead forever, he told me that it was a faulty camera app... well now I keep it here waiting, if ever my screen broke (i touch wood) i'll replace it :)
So try to ask him if he already tried to repaire it.
hope this will help you

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

Sounds like it's worth a shot at fixing for £50.
Only going to waste sitting there...

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

Good point! I don't believe he has tried to fix it as he would have said, but I will certainly ask.


It is, that's for sure. If I do buy it out right I may have to take a closure look at it for scratches and all that.

I'm still half tempted to go for the more charitable option. I can't code for the life of me to make any awesome apps but I'm pretty good with my hands so if I can get one persons n900 working again, then it would be my little contribution back to the maemo community. :)

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

i would return it to him if i would fix it successfully though

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

So your "upgrade" is that you're now going to spend the next couple of years explaining to people that what you're holding is not a Lumia?

(sorry couldn't resist)

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

And install all my usefull stuff on it and get in return a "Wooaaawww! :eek: impossible!" lol
:cool:

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

exactly :D
i was doing it with s60v2 phones :D

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

Haha :D It's funny because it's true. It has already happening :( lol



Now that would make his day! A slight OC, power kernel, dibble dobble transitions with Anna theme and 5gb image with a few choice installs would be like a whole new phone for him.


You know, I will get in touch with him and put it to him.


Thanks guys, I start catching up on the Fix USB thread again.

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

i am upgrading to n900 too, in a week or so
can you do this to mine n900 and make usb stronger? i already messed 2 microusb ports (n97mini and e7) and really need to read all usb threads to prepare usb for me :D
that's a spirit :) make guy happy same as you were with n900 ;)

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

Before they have finish their sentences , I always just say no its not that phone on the commercials.

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

LOL I tried that once, then I found myself starting to explain what a windows phone was.

Re: To buy a faulty n900 or...
 

Well I finally got the phone and boy it has had a lot of use, the magnet has fallen out of the kickstand, there is a chip on the back, the screen has some play and the keyboard is wearing thing. In fact, it looks like it was a refurb at some point, It certainly does not have an original keyboard as the lacquer is rubbing off (?).

The USB port is still sturdy but twisted and will not respond when plugged in (as expected).

I got it home and started to looking to it as he what's the data off it at if anything at least and then I found there was no dev tools, back up menu or busybox. No root enabled, no ssh and no other repos added, this is definitely a users phone.

And now I am facing a problem, as I have enabled the repo's (extras & testing) only to find the darn thing is giving me "catalogues failed" error an will not allow me to update or remove them :/

Bugger. Let the fun begin :)