I've been in this situation before. If you can find another person with an N900 that is willing to let you do a temporary screen swap, you are set. The procedure for removing the screen is relatively simple - IIRC it is simply a matter of taking off the backplate, removing six screws around the periphery (which are a combination of torx and phillips head), and then CAREFULLY disconnecting the ribbon cable seated on the motherboard (you can use a credit card to gently pry the connector off). Once you have done that to both phones, just connect the ribbon cable of the functional screen to your N900 motherboard (this might take a few tries since the connector is tiny and space for maneuvering is limited, just be patient) and you'll be able to use the phone as you normally do. Check out this N900 full disassembly video on youtube to get a better idea of what I just explained. You don't have to take apart the entire phone like that guy did, just take the top half (with the screen) off and stop at that point.

After you have gotten your data safely off, you might want to install openssh or x11vnc. Ssh will allow you to log into the phone from another computer and do stuff from the command line. You don't even need to have the top half connected to use the phone in this manner - the N900 boots up fine without the screen attached. x11vnc, on the other hand, will send the actual display to a window on another computer. For example, when you connect your N900 to your computer via usb, even though you can't put your phone into mass-storage mode by using the phone's touchscreen, you would be able to do this by clicking on mass-storage button that shows up on the remote display window. In my experience, x11vnc doesn't work right if you don't attach the screen to the motherboard, so make sure you put your crappy screen back on the phone if you try out x11vnc.

Hit me up if you have more questions.

If the phone boots normaly you could install x11vnc, you will need to be root to do this, so I hope you have rootsh installed, if you don't this won't work.

Open the terminal with Ctrl + Shift + X
Type: sudo gainroot (you must have rootsh installed)
Next type: apt-get install x11vnc (I don't know if this requires prompts)
after it has installed type: x11vnc
Using a VNC viewer from a PC you should be able to VNC into your phone, from there you should be able to access screen functions. You may find it useful to do the same operations with someone elses N900 if you know someone with another one.

If you don't have rootsh installed then you might be stuffed.
It is strange TV out doesn't work, have you tried other TVs not all TVs are the same.

Best of luck

should do the trick without prompting

Have you tried this:
1. Shutdown device.
2. Connect with usb to PC.
It should boot up in mass storage mode. At least with
a linux PC.

hope this helps

Nicolai

Hi,

I have tried this a few times, and this is what happened:

On my computer, it shows "removable drive f & g", however, there is nothing for me to access the phone's memory.
I've tried clicking on the on phone where I guessed the "PC suite mode" button would be, but it doesn't seem to work.

Thanks for the help.

Hi,

I do not have rootsh installed.

I will try another tv, to see if it was the tv, or the phone.

Many thanks.

A different tv did not work. It obviously detects the phone, as it changes from blue to black, but the tv remains black.

I assume you run windows on your PC as you list drive f & g as what you are shown on the PC.

Maybe you could try booting your PC with a Linux live CD/DVD (e.g. Ubuntu) and then you could try the same procedure Nicolai suggests but with Linux instead of Windows and this may help.

If you don't know what a Live CD is it allows you to boot another operating system without installing to your hard drive.

Equally, if you have a friend who runs linux try it against their computer instead.

Not saying it will work but at least you can tick off another option you've fully explored.

Oh and in case you haven't been advised of this already (I have to assume you have but I'd hate to think no-one had stated the obvious to you), you can of course remove your Micro SD card and plug it into your PC with an appropriate adaptor. This would allow you to get data off of your external card at least (assuming it hasn't been corrupted).

For data on the internal card you will need to get a connection running.

Hi,

I was using the phone without a memory card. All the files and contacts etc. are on the phone's memory.

Thanks for the help.

I will also try creating a linux cd and try to connect the phone to my pc while running linux.