I can talk bullsh|t here, so take it with grain of salt, but AIUI, in his current layout (vanilla), every part of booting process expect something to load from N900 internal storages (either correct modules from rootfs = NAND or eMMC = optfs), and to change it - to except something from SD - he would need a USB cable.

It isn't entirely tragic, though. He can establish connection using testpads beneath the battery - safely. Of course, it requires some care when preparing, to not mess something up, but it's perfectly doable.

@Pondake - as for re-creating connection from test pads, search forum. If You're interested in more permanent fix for USB port, I've sent You a PM.

/Estel