BlackBerry® Curve™

[scorpst]

After the second incident, we have yet to have another problem. I'll update if it happens again but for now it looks hopeful.

[Obsydian]

*sigh*  and now I join the ranks here of BB users that are having issues.  I have begun to refer to my phone as the chinchilla due to its tendency to die when i look at it funny. 

Normally, I keep my phone in a holster and its all good. No issues whatsoever. Tonight, I shoved it in a pocket to go to a friends house... and when i  got home, found this problem. i had this happen once before, bout 3 weeks ago, but that was due to having it in my pocket while biking.  this time there was no humidity or anything. Hell, there was an air conditionar. 

I got the phone off eBay, refurbished, about 3 months ago, and its worked mostly fine, other than this. so its VERY out of warrenty.  My provider has me scheduled for an upgrade in October...  but not till then. Hence the buying the phone off ebay. Which means that I'm pretty screwed in the 'getting it replaced' catergory.

I've been rather pleased with it so far, but ... am being quickly disillusioned.  It's my first BB, and my first smart phone, even. 

I've tried like 7 battery pulls, to no avail. I'm going to let it sit overnight without the battery and see if that works.  I'm a bit twitchy about opening it up though. me and technology don't work well together. 

I have a boy who's overseas, so i REALLY don't like being without a phone. 

So, I guess I'll let ya'll know what works. if anything. 

Thanks for the 12 pages of both solutions and reassurances that I'm not alone in this. 

[secretstorm86]

I'm having the exact same problem as katyd79. I've tried several battery pulls and leaving the battery out but nothing works. Has anyone found a solution yet?

[scorpst]

Try plugging it into your computer and uninstalling BlackBerry Messenger. If you don't currently have it installed, install it, then uninstall it. If it works, you can re-install BlackBerry Messenger if you want. It's just the act of uninstalling it that seems to fix the phone.

This has happened to my wife's phone 3 times and every time doing this has fixed it.

[apak]

I had the same issue,,, and no warrenty

here is what i did & it works perfectly now..

i have had the phone over a year,,,and it periodically get exposed to the elements,,,(moisture),,8830 is not waterproof

a couple days later the keybard it stopped working, but the trackball would work,,,i trled all the remidies, heating and waited for days with out any result...then finally deside to open it as a last resort, which proved to be the best...because its the keyboard whick is faulty and badly designed that allows moisture to settle under the puch buttons, corroiding it partially..my results works......so do at your own risk....goodluck

i opened my blackberry with instructions found here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiIl19G74C0

 then i proceded to partially remove the white sticker that is under the keyboard exposing circuit board , i noticed that the copper electrodes for the keys were slightly tarnished and correded along with the steel push buttons,,,

i used some wd40 on a rag and rubbed the circuit board cleanand did the same with the push buttons..

you dont have to competely remove the white sticker , but just enough to explose all the keyboard electrodes

then plugged the battery while open to make sure the side buttons worked ,,, which it did....

then carefully put it all back together...its a 20 min job....quite easy actually.

goodluck,,,

[mrielaBD]

Thank you very much for this information.

I had the same problem and thought my blackberry died. I found your advice here and that realy helped.

Thanks a lot

[steveor]

Another success story based on a lot of the above advice.  My wife's Boost Mobile 8830 started acting up; it locked up and the trackball and keyboard were not responsive.  Since it was out of warranty I had nothing to loose after numerous battery pulls, heating the phone, and a night in a cat litter filled baggy (the fresh stuff-not the lumpy stuff from the cat box). 

I took it apart with no problem.  I saw a little bit of light gray corrosion around where the trackball sits and wiped that away with an alcohol tipped Q-tip.  But that wasn't enough to keep the phone from acting up.  So I carefully peeled off the white membrane and saw a combination of tarnish and corrosion on the trackball contacts, the contacts for the top row of keys, the space bar and the #, *, and alt keys.  More wiping with an alcohol tipped Q-tip removed most of the corrosion and such.  The alcohol worked great in cleaning up the contacts without compromising the adhesion of the white membrane.  After putting it all back together it is working perfectly. 

Hopefully the phone will stay that way.  My wife is pretty responsible with her phone but I think perspiration from her fingers just found its way into the insides.  I don't think you have to live in a really humid area for this to happen.  Probably the only way to avoid this issue is to wear rubber gloves or keep the phone in a box. 

[jaybull]

I thought for sure my issue was moisture as I had just gone on a long bike ride.  I followed the dis-assemble video and cleaned everything (but didn't see any moisture issues).

Put it all together and it wouldn't boot.  I then booted in various stages of disassembly.  It turns out that the top screws (the first ones you take out) when tightened cause the keyboard problem.

If I tighten the screws, no keyboard.  If I keep them out, I'm good.

[jupiturschild]

  Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who contributed to this topic.  My phone has been down for a week now.  Finally let the battery completely drain and voila...It is once again functioning.  Did this after backup and restore and cleaning of trackball.  I have had this phone since they were first introduced and allthough we have an android backup.  The blackberry serves as our "workphone" because as fragile as it may be it is nowhere near as delicate as the android.  Thanks again for everyone who took the time to give their suggestions.  I truly am grateful!