Dead N900?

So, my N900 got a few raindrops on it on Friday (really only a few, and
I'm not actually sure this was the cause of the problem to follow). When
I got home out of the rain, I put the phone on my table. It was still
on, and functional. Then a few minutes later when I came back to look at
it, it had turned itself off. Not thinking about water, I tried to turn
it back on. It gets to the white and blue NOKIA screen, but then shuts
off.

Then it occurred to me that maybe it had gotten wet, so I left it sit
out overnight with the battery out and the case open. Next morning it
still did the same thing, so I took it apart and left it in a bag of
rice (desperation). Same thing.

So I tried charging it -- i goes to the gray screen, with the green
light solid, and buzzes once every minute or couple. But won't turn on,
either while connected to AC or after being disconnected.

I reflashed it. It went into USB mode and seemed to accept the
reflashing just fine, but still won't turn on.

Any other magic tricks I can try before concluding something is wrong in
hardware?

--
-John Sullivan
-http://wjsullivan.net
-GPG Key: AE8600B6

2010/9/21 John Sullivan <john@wjsullivan.net>

> So, my N900 got a few raindrops on it on Friday (really only a few, and
> I'm not actually sure this was the cause of the problem to follow). When
> I got home out of the rain, I put the phone on my table. It was still
> on, and functional. Then a few minutes later when I came back to look at
> it, it had turned itself off. Not thinking about water, I tried to turn
> it back on. It gets to the white and blue NOKIA screen, but then shuts
> off.
>
> Then it occurred to me that maybe it had gotten wet, so I left it sit
> out overnight with the battery out and the case open. Next morning it
> still did the same thing, so I took it apart and left it in a bag of
> rice (desperation). Same thing.
>
> So I tried charging it -- i goes to the gray screen, with the green
> light solid, and buzzes once every minute or couple. But won't turn on,
> either while connected to AC or after being disconnected.
>
> I reflashed it. It went into USB mode and seemed to accept the
> reflashing just fine, but still won't turn on.
>
> Any other magic tricks I can try before concluding something is wrong in
> hardware?
>
> --
> -John Sullivan
> -http://wjsullivan.net
> -GPG Key: AE8600B6
>

It seems that only thing there could be wrong is the hardware.... If you
have the guts, open the device and see if there is oxidations or similars in
the board/components.

For the future: if you even suspect that water/moisture has entered the
internals of electronic device, remove battery asap and wait at least 24
hours letting it dry. Keeping device on is a mistake I've made too many
times but last time I learned from my mistake and my N900 didn't die even
when it got caught in horizontal summer rain.

Ossipena / Timo P

On Sep 21, 2010, at 22:59, John Sullivan wrote:

> So, my N900 got a few raindrops on it on Friday (really only a few, and
> I'm not actually sure this was the cause of the problem to follow). When
> I got home out of the rain, I put the phone on my table. It was still
> on, and functional. Then a few minutes later when I came back to look at
> it, it had turned itself off. Not thinking about water, I tried to turn
> it back on. It gets to the white and blue NOKIA screen, but then shuts
> off.
>
> Then it occurred to me that maybe it had gotten wet, so I left it sit
> out overnight with the battery out and the case open. Next morning it
> still did the same thing, so I took it apart and left it in a bag of
> rice (desperation). Same thing.
>
> So I tried charging it -- i goes to the gray screen, with the green
> light solid, and buzzes once every minute or couple. But won't turn on,
> either while connected to AC or after being disconnected.
>
> I reflashed it. It went into USB mode and seemed to accept the
> reflashing just fine, but still won't turn on.
>
> Any other magic tricks I can try before concluding something is wrong in
> hardware?


I've sort of had a similar problem. I let the N900 charge for a long time and finally it seemed to have enough in the battery for it to boot normally. (I left it on the charger overnight.)

Try that before you open it up.

Jeremiah