[eamon]

Hi all

I am posting to see if anybody has had problems with the track ball on their curve. Mine is 3months old and I have returned it to O2.
The problem is that the track seems to have a mind of its own. It will iniatate commands and functions etc of its own accord. It texted/emailed a business contact at 3 in the morning about 20 times. Thankfully it was their landline!
It is akin to a trapped nerve and the arm spasming of its own accord.

I also bought a pearl at the start of the year online and had to return it to the seller as it developed the same problem as above.

Is it just me or is there a serial problem with the track ball mechanism?

cheers


eamon

[tomdkat]

Do you work in a for a lack of a better term a dirty enviroment?

[sd5187]

I have had issues with the trackball on the 8800 series. My issues were usually in regards to the trackball not working in a specific direction.

No issues on my 8310 so far though...

[boo23]

I've seen trackballs move fine vertically, but not horizontally (at all) until they mysteriously began working again after navigating through enough menus. I was trying to go to Options, Trackball to check scrolling Sensitivity when it started working again...

[murpheous]

i had the issue of it working left to right, and not up and down. It seems something got inside the trackball mechanism, after a few minutes of rolling the ball, it cleared up and has been working fine since.

[jbutwin]

you may have water damage. try using a hair dryer while rolling the trackball slowly. that has happened to me before- the ball clicks itself, doesnt respond to your touch- i think water damage

[eamon]

hi

many thanks for the quick replies

Yes I tend to work in a mixture of environments ranging from dirt free to down right silly. There might be stuff in the track ball...?

Dont think I got it wet. Have been careful on this frontier.

It is a bit annoying as this is the 3rd blackberry (2 x pearl & 1 x curve) for this to happen to me.

Maybe I should become a phone tester...


eamon

[Thatzmister2u]

Originally Posted by eamon

Hi all

I am posting to see if anybody has had problems with the track ball on their curve. Mine is 3months old and I have returned it to O2.
The problem is that the track seems to have a mind of its own. It will iniatate commands and functions etc of its own accord. It texted/emailed a business contact at 3 in the morning about 20 times. Thankfully it was their landline!
It is akin to a trapped nerve and the arm spasming of its own accord.

I also bought a pearl at the start of the year online and had to return it to the seller as it developed the same problem as above.

Is it just me or is there a serial problem with the track ball mechanism?

cheers


eamon

The trackballs can get debris lodged in them. If you lock your keypad and the roll the ball while keeping it depressed in several directions. Do it a few times and it will start working correctly again.

You issue however is different. The behavior your described is normally encountered when the device is exposed to liquid or moisture. If that is the case it may be too late but here is a link if you do get your device wet.

Got Your BlackBerry Wet? - BlackBerryFAQ

Cleaning techniques:

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ck-em-out.html

[I8UB4]

I had the problem you described, and it had nothing to do with dirt. My curve was about 3 months old. It would scroll up, down, left and right fine, but it would trigger itself (the button would push in) with just the slightest touch. Then, it wouldn't trigger at all (I could push it 20 times and it wouldn't select anything. I replaced the trackball with a trackball from my Pearl, and the same thing would happen. The problem, I believe, was with the metal contact on the phone body that the contact from the trackball touches to create a connection.

I'm not sure, though, how this would explain the ultra-sensitivity of the trackball (maybe a sliver of metal got dislodged and was creating an easy contact).

In any event, I returned it to AT&T and they sent me a new one. Now it works fine again.

I think that with extensive use, the trackball contact just wears out.

[eamon]

Will have a go at cleaning my old(!) pearl.

what I8UB4 describes is more akin to what I am experiencing. I have returned the curve to the carrier and am awaiting the return from the service depot. It is only 3months old.

thanks


eamon

[churchill]

Well, It might be cat fur. I have a 15 pound seal pointed ragdoll cat (google them if you've never seen one, they are second only to maine coon cats in size and have very soft and long fur). About every 90 days, I have to get my compressed air can and blow out the trackball area to keep it working. I have taken apart the assembly and its always got fur stuck in there. I learned this from having a pearl for the last year--so you may have something like dust or dirt interfering with the connection. While you are in there take a sharpie or something and color in the white led on the right hand side and you will get the bonus of a color trackball while you are at it. Theres a great step by step process in the 8100 forum about how to do this without destroying the silver plastic ring around the trackball, I would read that carefully if you decide to take it apart. I just to my 8320 assembly apart and it was easy to do and I also now have a blue ball, just what every man needs. Good luck.

[Sandman1967]

My 8300 started doing the out of control thing, I would wake up at 2AM and see it open the address book and select someone and sometimes the select push of the trackball would not work at all and the next time it would go crazy and just keep selecting things. I have my BB in a leather case and I keep it in my pocket. one time when I took it out of my pocket to make a call I noticed moisture around the ring of the trackball. I dried the phone out by putting it on a lamp, everything returned to normal and I now use the holster that came with the phone and try not to have it in my pocket when I am hot and sweating.

[biggem001]

i did, then face down blew in, and moved the trackball around, and then WALLAAA it worked amazing again!