BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[sahilahmed]

So I haven't used my PB for a long time and a few days back when I woke it up, it wasn't displaying things properly. I kept it for charging and it's still giving me the same problem. I know that its powered on, I've tried rebooting. Even responds when I try a screen capture, but the display isn't working. I tried updating the software but after BlackBerry Desktop Manager finishes downloading the update, it says setup is not complete on my PlayBook so I cannot do the update. Please help!

[JSanders Resident Expert]

Can you explain what is not displayed correctly?

[sahilahmed]

Nothing is being displayed. Just some vertical lines.
Hope this picture helps. Thanks for the early reply!

[JSanders Resident Expert]

OK. Try the debrick process below.

If that does not work, call your PlayBook support number.   Worldwide: +1-647-426-1108

***********
You need to follow these instructions to "debrick" your PlayBook:
1. Do a backup of your PlayBook using your computer and BlackBerry Desktop Software version 7 installed. It can be downloaded from http://us.blackberry.com/apps-software/desktop/
2. After the backup is finished, unplug the PlayBook and on the PlayBook press and hold down the power button until the unit forces the device off.
3. With the Desktop Software still open on your computer and the PlayBook powered off, connect the PlayBook to your computer once again. Press and hold the power key for 20 seconds.
4. You should see an error screen from Desktop Software popup with the options to Retry, Update, or Cancel.
Very quickly choose the Update option.
5. All information will on your PlayBook will be erased and a reload of the Software will commence to install on the PlayBook.
6. Once this is complete your PlayBook will go back through the initial (as if new) setup wizard (entering the BlackBerryID, etc., and then you can perform a restore using Desktop Software to return your personal data from the backup. Applications which you downloaded from AppWorld won't restore, but they can be easily reinstalled using AppWorld > MyWorld section of AppWorld.
 

[sahilahmed]

I have tried that. BDM keeps saying that setup is not complete on my device. Remove device from computer and complete setup! Please help! I can't complete setup because I can't see anything.

[JSanders Resident Expert]

I'm thinking you have hardware problems.

I suggest you call your Playbook support for assistance and/or warranty support.

Worldwide: +1-647-426-1108

[juliemur1965]

Don't know if this is helpful but recently my HTC phone did the same when I was upgrading the software. As it turned out, to upgrade it first deletes everything but if there's a glitch at that point, you can do soft re-boots, hard re-boots or whatever and get nowhere because all the previous programming was wiped off. I had to send my phone back to HTC to have it reprogrammed and now it's fine but this sounds very similar. Good luck

[TroyTempest]

---

juliemur1965 wrote:

Don't know if this is helpful but recently my HTC phone did the same when I was upgrading the software. As it turned out, to upgrade it first deletes everything but if there's a glitch at that point, you can do soft re-boots, hard re-boots or whatever and get nowhere because all the previous programming was wiped off. I had to send my phone back to HTC to have it reprogrammed and now it's fine but this sounds very similar. Good luck

---

The Playbook USB "de-brick" process JS described is designed to avoid that scenario. It will raise a completely empty playbook from the dead provided the hardware is intact.