Help Please, Curve broken. Not just a n00b.
 

Hello everyone, while my company was "experimenting" on my Curve, one of my employees removed the 0603(s) on the backlight, but he said it was a difficult task (and we have more experience in that field than most others) and solder had gone everywhere and attached to the pads in the area (keyboard, end call/turn on/off, etc.) - Besides letting one of my employees work on my PERSONAL cellular device, not my business one, the problem is the phone will now not turn on, I put the battery in, with the phone together, LCD attached, keyboard, trackball, faceplate all on, and the red SMD lights up as expected, but no dice afterwards, the screen should display the hourglass, but nothing is on, the LCD acts as if it's broken, but that's a secondary problem. The phone just won't turn on, the on/off/end call button only works periodically, and when it does, the only thing that happens is everything lights up like normal, but nothing on the screen, and when I let go of the button, it all turns off, it does the same thing when I press the trackball in, and when I press the right caps button, and SYM button, basically that general area, I think it has something to do with all the solder that was attached to the pads, maybe bridging a connection, I do not know the schematics of the PCB of the phone, so I don't know where the traces connect. Also, my employee says, and I can see this, the paperish/plastic around the pads comes off with hot solder touching it, obvioiusly it cannot withstand the high temps, but I am wary that it has something to do with protecting the circuitry, if anyone could shed some light on this situation, please do so, I will start by clearing the solder from the pads, but I need a solution, this is my personal phone, and will cost a fortune to replace, many thanks in advance.

Joe - 360Modworkz

P.S. - If for any of you wondering, while encountering this problem, we did replace the SMD(s), well, three of them, and the schematics are NEG (opposite of T-side) facing right.

Lol, I understand that many of you don't like to read long posts, as I do sometimes blow off people asking questions on the forums I am a local around, but come on, 13 views, and nothing? I need some help bad. Thanks again.

Joe - 360Modworkz

I thnk the 13 views and no posts indicates the lost feeling your readers have.

r u saying that the guy who messed with it added a load of solder to it?

Why would you let someone experiment on your Curve?

Clearly you arent an en-hundred-bee.
I dont really think this is a bb issue. You may want to contact an electrician. And slap the crap out of whomever decided to try to reverse engineer your personal curve.

What kind of eqipment did this person use to solder? You can fry something very easy if you do not know what you are doing or do not protect from heat.

Joe, I agree w/your assessment that the excess solder may have created new connections in your Curve's circuitry. Therefore, your only choice is to carefully remove the excess. I would start with solder that looks added by hand. Circuit boards are machine made; their solder is essentially flawless.

Considering their size, you may require a very good magnifier to tell the difference, and a very steady hand to clean up.

Now, if you get to a point where you cannot differentiate which solder is original and which is hand-made, you require a board schematic to complete the job. I have no idea if getting such document is even possible for end users as it may contain proprietary info.

And that is besides the fact that you shall be exposing fragile components to a 2nd round of exposure to heat.

I wish I could say otherwise but, IMV, it will probably be cheaper to replace your Curve than to salvage it. (Can one buy a Curve circuit board? Anyone?)

My 2¢.

PS Since this experiment was done for business purposes, can your business just hand over your business phone to you and write it off as a loss?

PPS Another thing: The new circuit branches may have helped to fry components, even if not obvious to the eye...

If you going to do wild mad scientist experiments on a BB curve, why not go to ebay and get a used discounted device. In addition, this post sounds a lot like a hoax. Good luck with your wild and crazy experiments.
J

What more can you do than clean up the mess your experienced solderer made of your device.

Good luck, though I am afraid it could be a fruitless endeavor.

Considering the time and effort spent on this, first, slap your friend for not knowing what he was doing. Second, save your time and energy and get a used one on eBay. Unless you're ax expert in ISO 9001 manufacturung and soldering, forget about it, call it a day, and move on.

Thank you all for your help, especially you, Technocracy, I will try the best I can to salvage it and remove the solder from the areas, this probably will end badly, but I shall try, thank you.

Joe - 360Modworks

What is an 0603? Also, exactly what in the world were you trying to accomplish with this soldering job?

An 0603 is a SMT device, that emits color, 0603 refers to it's demensions, SMT devices (such as 0805, 0603, 1206, etc.) are used mainly in small and compact electronic spaces, they can be machined better than LEDs and are more compact, giving versatility, you can replace them on ANY device that uses them, including the blackberry curve and most other blackberry's. We were trying to change the trackball lighting and the keyboard lighting (originally lit up by 7 White, 0603 SMD(s)) to the color Blue, using different 0603 SMDs, just for looks, I was also going to paint my cover and faceplate of the phone, but now it's a brick, so we'll see. I hope that answered your questions.

Joe - 360Modworkz

On a corporate owned device. Interesting.

Oh, gosh... a SMD soldering job. Of all the people I know who know how to solder, I know *only one* person who actually does it as part of his job (he's soldered 100-pin chips). I hope you can get it fixed... I know y'all are trying to get the LED colors changed the right way

LOLZ!!!! in the future, find some blue saran wrap and place it under the trackball... works great and is a little less... ummm... precarious?

Well, my SMDs are intense lighted, so they would be better, but I may try that next time, so I can actually have a phone...:razz::razz::razz:

Joe - 360Modworkz