[~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.

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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