After nearly 5 years of faithful use, surviving many drops and fumbles, the N900 has finally died. Well, it is at least paralysed. I'll explain.

I've always been careful with the micro-usb port, but never strengthened it in advance, as I see some have been recommending. That's a slight regret.

Anyway, it came off, so I temporarily glued it with fabric glue (easy to remove when it came to actually soldering) to get some charge into the battery, considering external chargers first but ideally wanting a working on-board charge.

The next day I took it to a friend who could assist with the soldering job. Managed to get it firmly attached and was about to test when we decided to just quickly make sure the 5 USB pins were soldered, just applying the heat for belt and braces.

Well, it was either the first solder effort or the final 5-pin touch-up, but on attempting to re-boot the device I got the white LED and the screen backlight but no OS displaying. Not even the loved/hated 5-dots swinging back and forth. Then my custom email notification LED alert came on a minute or so later. The phone is alive in there, it just can't display to screen -- basically paralysed. The alarm still goes off, notifications show etc. but nothing on the screen.

- What, I wonder, could have caused this?
- Did we touch something we shouldn't have in the solder job?
- Could the board have been overheated, frying a display component somewhere?
- Is it really bricked?
- Could putting it in the oven be worth a shot at this point?

I have looked over the screen and other components, but can't see anything untoward with the naked eye.

I attach some shots of the connector, the soldered area (post-scraping between connectors to ensure no shorts) and one from the more exciting work-in-progress stage for fun. That one features the friend I mentioned, who I usually have to defer to for any electronics questions/advice.

EDIT: Just to let you know I have replied, but those replies are still in the moderation queue - new account... Thanks for suggestions. Replies ask if you both mean the connector between the detached body and screen parts - the main screen connector, I'd call it. I did notice a slight bit of damage to the pins there, so it could be the case. I'm on ebay for a spare now.