i9000 gone faulty, need to factory default, but want to save sms messages

Hi,

I've got an i9000 Galaxy S phone and it is running the 2.3.6 firmware (not latest value pack yet). Stock phone, not tampered with. No external SD attached.

It was running okay, bit sluggish (since previous firmware updates, never had a factory reset after upgrade), but okay. This weekend, the battery went empty so had to be restarted. There is where the problems got exposed. The background is reset to stock (sand and dunes or something).
Apps don't work anymore (Google Play is faulty, throws error and returns message 'app stopped unexpectedly'), lots of times the SamsungAppUna2 (or something) throws an exception. lots of apps mainly (but not only) Google apps are faulty (showing an android symbol with small sd card) saying 'this application will not be installed' when activated. This includes Places, Lattitude to name just two. I also have lost contacts from my contact list that were on my Google account, nor can I add/connect to my google account anymore (the google partner process for that crashes too, so I can't select that account type at the account settings).
What worries me more though, is that when I had set the background image back to what it used to be, it worked. I had the battery removed and started it again, and the background image is back to stock again!.. perhaps the phone isn't able to store the settings properly anymore now that it's faulty?

While Play is faulty, I cannot install new applications anymore. I would like to backup the sms messages before trying a full reset. There are a lot of messages, so it's not an easy copy/send action per message.

Is there a way to copy them by hand? like with file explorer, in a certain (which???) folder, copying the messages off the phone? Whatsapp creates a backup every night so hopefully I will be able to get the backup off it and back when the phone has been reset.

Once the sms messages are off, I'm set for two scenarios:

- Factory default reset then upgrade to value pack or
- upgrade to value pack and then a factory reset or

If by chance one can share which take preference, I'd be glad to hear about it...

thanks a lot in advance for suggestions on how to investigate the problem OR where to find the sms messages.

cookm75, thanks for your suggestion.. As it appears, the phone's Google Play doesn't function, as the push isn't initiated.

Is there a way to run applications without installing them? so I would put the application (SMS backup) on an sd card in a way that it can be run, then put the sd card in the faulty phone hoping to backup the messages?