Photograph attached for diagnostics.

Appeared after a fall of N900 from the bag onto a wooden chair.

Thank you. Best wishes.

Oh, sorry for your little...

Disassembling the phone should easily tell you if the problem is in the flat cable (if partially detached or if moving it you obtain to change the "effects" on the screen)

But, if i had to make a guess i would point at the lcd.

looks lke damaged lcd

I think so, too. It seems that the fall wasn't as "nice" as it seemed to me, and the LCD encountered a sharp corner in its flight (it happened all too fast, and it was a dark evening, so difficult to see how exactly it was falling). Fortunately, the touchscreen is working fine, so it's only LCD to replace...

Thank you. Best wishes.

Check the main ribbon hasn't come loose first.
I would guess LCD but worth trying.

I have a spare n900 LCD you can have, if you want.

Just paypal me postage if you want it quicker than the cheapest way to you.

I had a similar problem, I'll try and dig out a photo. Drop damage.

The video out worked, the splash screen was clean, but once booted the screen was garbled. Worse than yours. It was a 'kink' in the flat ribbon that attaches to the main board.

Thank you. It would be really, really nice to have the LCD. In my case, the screen is "garbled" all the time, including boot. It shows a clear line where it cracked, with display being worse off (white-ish stripes obscuring everything beyond readability) in one of two halves. Touchscreen works nicely, though. Thank deities for small mercies...

I am currently having a Bluetooth problem - hoping it's not hardware problem. It can send first photograph, but fails (yellow banner, cannot read it) at second file being sent. It may be anything, from file damage due to continuous battery-drain-replace-fsck cycle, to full home-or-rootfs filesystem. Currently trying ssh -X to talk some sense (aptitude update; I got no graphical program to show itself on large screen - not getting why -X does not seem to work as it should, but I never tried that before) into it. Would be nice to get twenty-thirty photographs out of it, before I make some more (that's an adventure, I tell you, photographing half-blind...).

Also, even half-blind like that, it still is wonderful middle-man for Bluetooth file transfer. Default file manager on Maemo serves as FTP client for Bluetooth (on that topic, can N900 be used as FTP server for Bluetooth? doesn't matter much, since I know of no other FTP client for Bluetooth, here...), and (Share button in this file manager) can send files from device A to device B while serving as middle-man between them. Saves headache when device A cannot send files directly to device B (device A is so-called feature-phone, with obscure and possibly proprietary software; device B is dusty laptop, with windows xp and toshiba software for Bluetooth).

Thank you. Best wishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...

[Edit]
After aptitude update; aptitude upgrade; and some restarts, the Bluetooth somehow worked, again. Honestly, it seems to me that my phone is as moody and unpredictable as a human can be :-)
[/Edit]

Anyone know of a good way of checking if it's the lcd or the cable?
my lcd black as in off after i fell down some steps and landed on the phone. touch screen works fine and the tv cable is how i was able to use it to verify phone works and touch screen too. i've taken it apart and the cable seems secure and lcd no damage but i don't know what to do next. i miss using the phone, hate android that i'm stuck with.

Are there any cracks visible? In my case, I can clearly see crack(s) in the LCD (I didn't see them that clearly in the beginning - I imagine that continued use of the display made the crack more pronounced) - but that's because the display is not black at all... Cracks are difficult to check for on a black display, I imagine...

Checking the hardware may be as simple as opening 6 screws (do not damage their hats!) of the display-part of the device, and detaching-re-attaching the plugs-connections (there are at least two of them: main flex ribbon to the board, and display to the main flex ribbon). Since touch-screen works, it's likely either the connection of LCD to main flex ribbon, or LCD itself. If the main flex ribbon was damaged, then I imagine that touchscreen and front camera and light-proximity-sensors would also not-work (depends on extent of the damage).

Read the service manual, please! I have not taken a look at it for a long time.

Thank you. Best wishes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Per aspera ad astra...