Rescue data from a dropped (pixelsalad) FF3

[hacklschorsch]

Hi all!

I dropped my FF3 from my guitar amplifier today (30 cm?) onto the wooden floor onto one of the phone’s corners. The phone froze - I was in the middle of tuning my guitar with it - and I thought I’d reboot and should be set, but since then, I get only colorful pixel salad when booting.

I haven’t tried dis- and reassembling so far, I am ATM away from home and don’t have my tiny No. 00 screw driver. I will try that on the weekend in’shallah.

Apart from that, what can I do to access my data? The phone vibrates when turned on, and after a while shows up in ADB, but unfortunately my computer is unauthorized to access it. I can’t authorize it with the screen garbled like it is. The phone runs the stock OS and recovery (is the standard boot loader considered a “recovery”?)

Luckily I had my pictures and videos on a microSD, but I would very much like to also get my password stores, message histories etc…

From the picture - can anyone guess whether this is a display or a mainboard problem? If the latter, do I stand any chance to get back my data without a (probably very costly) professional recovery service?

Thank you very much! Take care,

Florian

[urs_lesse]

The contact between display module and core module is disturbed. As long as you haven’t got access to your screwdriver, you can only (gently) press together both modules at the margins – they are held together not just by screws, but also by several plastic clips. If the latter got untied, you might hear them clicking together again when you press the margins.

[hacklschorsch]

Urs! That did it! I pressed along the margins and edges of the phone - when I did that to the long left edge, it clicked just as you said - and now I am in my phone again. Super rad!