How screwed up is my N900?
 

I bought a "new" N900 off eBay in the spring. About 2 months ago I started having problems with the power button not responding reliably. Read some threads here that suggested it might be a hardware problem, and reflashed rootfs - phone started up, but still no response to the power button. At some point I let the phone run down too low, and it turned off and I couldn't get it back on. Read some other posts about putting it into R&D mode, and that will let it boot up when plugging in. Got R&D mode enabled, and it would start to boot up when I plugged it in, but wouldn't make it all the way (I'd get the white R&D mode Nokia screen, and then it would give me the dots on the black screen for a couple of rotations, but then go black).

It sat that way for about a month, and then yesterday I finally reflashed (both rootfs and eMMC). Booted up after that, but power button still doesn't work, so I'm scared that if I let the battery run out I'll have to reflash again just to get it turned on.

So two questions:
1) Is it possible to get the power button fixed? I called Dr Cell Phone (which I saw a link to here as a place for N900 repairs) and they said they can't get the parts to do a power button fix. I don't have the expertise (or the tools) to open it up and see if I can fix it myself)

2) Even if I get the power button fixed, does the fact that it won't boot in R&D mode when plugged in indicate something else more serious might be wrong with it? Once it powers up everything seems to work fine.

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

Is it a "new" N900 from Hongkong?

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

Yes. Which I realize now just means refurbished and put in a new box, but I think a bit too much time has gone by for me to go back to the seller and complain about being ripped off.

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

When you open the slider and look on the other side of the screen, what can you read: "Made in Finland" or "Designed in Finland"?

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

I have a real new N900 from Newegg.com that is "Designed in Finland"
and a fakefurbished "new" $200 brick from HK
also "Designed in Finland", I can look at my wife's N900 too if I remember.
I would contact paypal and ebay anyways at least they will put it in the guys file.
Maybe there should be a sticky in the forum that warns against HK/China "new" bad refurb N900s on ebay.

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

Ok, that is interesting. On my fake stands "Made in Finland". It came from Hongkong, as well. I thought, on fakes stands "Made in Finland" only.

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

I just looked at my bricked HK-N900 board, the switch is a pretty standard SM microswitch, you might be able to desolder one to fit from another old mobile phone.
Pretty much just two solder pads that need a momentary connect that in a super pinch you could make a crap replacement from two bits of copper wire.

Re: How screwed up is my N900?
 

Yes. This was a $200 "Designed in Finland" fake from HK. When I got it I kind of assumed it would be refurbished, but it seemed to work well, looked new, and I thought that was still a good price for a refurbished phone (I'm really surprised the guys don't go to the trouble of flashing the device though, because mine came with a bunch of software installed that I later learned wasn't stock).

I'd like to say that I would be able to solder in a switch from another phone, but I don't think I've got the skills even if I hadn't lost my small screwdriver set to open it up. There's a guy in the city who says he'll fix it for $45, but I'm a little skeptical that he fully knows what he's doing either.