My Blackberry Curve Died

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was basically required to give up my Palm Treo at work for a Blackberry Curve about a month and a half ago.

I liked some things about the Blackberry – the way it ads the . to web addresses when you press the spacebar, the better keyboard (and it had to be better, since there was no stylus or other input option), the size and feel, the better battery life. I didn’t care for others – lack of software available, problems getting it set up, no autocomplete when entering text, the needs for the college to buy a whole new server for the calendars to sync.

Today I go to use it and I discover the trackball isn’t working. It’ll go from side to side, but not up and down.

I contacted customer service. Evidently, this is a common problem (after a month an a half???). Dirt gets on the trackball and there’s no way to clean it. All you can do is replace the phone.

Luckily, I’m still in the free replacement period. But this is incredibly annoying.

2

I had the Pearl when it first came out and had very similar issues with the trackball, and it was a nightmare to use from then on. I have pretty much sworn off ever using any blackberry with the little trackball again.

3

I had a curve for twoish years and this happened a few times. I don’t know what they are telling you, because you can absolutely pop open the little clip that holds in the ball, take it out, and clean it with a q tip.

Here’s the first Google search result on it. I didn’t go so far as those guys, I just popped out the ball, swapped around with some alcohol, and all was well.

I have a Bold now, though. 100000 times better than the Curve, just saying!

4

I wonder if a few drops of alcohol on the ball might help. Since I’m getting a replacement anyways, I should experiment.

5

FYI–I just got a replacement for my curve and it came without a battery (which makes sense, my old battery wasn’t messed up, so I popped it in the new one). So just saying be careful to not get any alcohol down in the battery in case you’re keeping the old one.

6

Or, you can just replace the old trackball with a shiny new one: $7.95