[ernopena]

Does anyone have any help or suggestions of fixing the WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH on a Blackberry Bold 9700?

Google doesn't have anything on the 9700. There's a bunch of suggestions regarding electrical tape on certain spots on the mainboard, but none of them are 9700 specific, and they all talk about areas that do not exist on the 9700.

Here are screenshots of a disassembled Bold 9700. We have 11 of these 9700's with T-Mobile and this is the 4th BB that's died 1 month after the warranty ends.

Unlike most posts here, I do not think the WSOD is caused by software. Pulling out the battery and wiping/reinstalling doesn't work. It's got to be a hardware failure that involves static buildup or connector/cable failure, originating from a Blackberry's poor design or substandard parts.

Does anyone have any knowledge of what part(s) to patch, replace or cover with electrical tape to fix this?













BTW, as soon as our business plan expires in July 2012, we're ditching the Blackberries with T-Mobile for iPhones from Verizon...

[Dubdub]

You need to figure out why you have a white screen before you try to fix it. Do you know what caused it - dropping it, got it wt, corrupt files, etc.?

[ernopena]

Yes, all 4 of the Blackberry Bold 9700's that have the white screen of death have been dropped, gotten wet, had corrupt files, etc. I've wiped all 11 of our Bolds and reinstalled v5 at least three times each. And all of our users take the battery out for a while over the weekend. Every time anythings happened, it comes back working fine.

There was no specific action or event that started the WSOD for these 4 9700's. All of them started slowly, white screening a little over night, or over the weekend when it was just sitting there. Eventually all of them white screened over 50% of the time, and we had to pull their SIM cards and put them into the spare phones. All four white screenings happened between Labor Day and last week.

So to answer your question, I don't think it is a specific thing that caused all 4 white screens to happen. I think there is some flaw in the Blackberry design or some defective parts that causes a deterioration of the hardware through the course of the one year warranty. I definitely don't think it's a software issue. BTW the exact same white screening also happened to 2 BB Curves at my old job last year.

[Dubdub]

Geting wet is a tough one to fix, if that is the cause (and it probably is). If they were not properly dried before putting the battery back in, then as soon as you solve one issue, another is likely to pop up. My advice on devices that have gotten wet, damp or otherwise close to water is to replace them.

Dropping can be the same, especially if they hit on a corner of the device.

I think getting wet and/or dropping the device is the root cause of your problem. I don't see it as a manufacturing, defective parts or quality issue. You have a user problem, not a device problem.

[ernopena]

I know 2 of these 4 were dropped in March. No physical problems appeared in the 4 weeks right after.

One was dropped in a toilet over a weekend this summer. I told her to take out the battery and have her husband blow it out using the air compressor in their garage and let it sit for 24 hours. She did, and that Monday she popped the battery back in and it was up and running.

One was dropped by their kid when he grabbed it out of his bag and threw it across the room. The battery popped out, but it all worked. This was Memorial Day.

The second 9700 that white screened was well pampered by one of our older users who never dropped it or got it wet or had it crash. It had nowhere near the wear and tear of the other 3. And it white screened slowly over the course of a week.

The only times I've had to wipe a device and reinstall the BB OS is when it crashed while opening an app or receiving email.

All of the major incidents happened months ago, and no major problems occurred in the weeks right after. Nothing happened in the weeks leading up to the white screening. And it's interesting that all 4 happened within the same 2 month period.

If you do a search for WSOD on these forums, half the incidents happened out of the blue, NOT immediately from a drop or getting wet or system crash. I still say its a defective hardware issue...

[aiharkness]

Not sure why you think most people here think it is software.... All threads I have seen on the subject shortly have responses that it is hardware WHEN it is an all white screen with no error message.

My one time personal experience was with my daughter's 9700 a couple of years back. She let it slide off the bed onto a hard floor. White screen. No other symptoms. Wiped and reloaded OS ok, but still white screen.

I don't think the 9700 is fragile. My daughter's was beat all to hell. She is rough on things. That drop did the trick, however.

Still this is happening a lot going by posts on the forums. Wish I knew the answer to your question on what to replace or patch or reconnect. I still haven't come across the solution.

[ernopena]

Thanks everyone for your comments. But getting back to my original question: Has anyone had any success in fixing the WSOD by adding electrical tape to any component? Thanks!

[ernopena]

WHITE SCREEN OF DEATH FIXED WITH ELECTRICAL TAPE!!!

Thanks to AGorman and THX992 for the help. The white screen on 2 of the 4 Blackberries is back to normal, all because of 2 well placed slivers of electrical tape.

Here's that we did:



I placed 2 thin slivers of electrical tape on both sides of the fragile ribbon cable of the LCD screen. Apparently, this little ribbon cable is being cut or crimped too much over time by the case and/or circuit board. Placing tape on both sides lessens the pressure on the ribbon cable.

Little slivers of electrical tape fixed 2 of my 4 busted Bold 9700s. I'll fix the rest tonight. This is what I mean by poor design and defective hardware from Blackberry.

I hope this helps other people...

[aiharkness]

Post updates. I'm curious about how long it will last.

Good to see what and where the damage is done.

Thanks for following up.

[ernopena]

Here are 2 more pics on what I did:





For this BB Bold 9700, I used 3 pieces of tape. 2 on either side of the LCD video ribbon cable, and 1 around the metal edge of the circuit board. I should also mention that on this one, I also broke off the plastic clip on the rear half shell of the case that was pressing against the ribbon cable. I don't have pics of this, but it did the trick, and over 24hrs later, no WSOD.

Thanks again for everyone's help and suggestions...

[carlittobbery]

Hy i am having a very similar problem, i have 3 blackberries: bbery a,b,c

a: i had it a long time ago it lasted me around a year then, i cant say i was easy on it but one day i showered and had my cellphone in the bathroom. I came out it had some vapor on it from the steam in the shower i wiped it off and it was perfectly fine. 20 minutes later i take it out of my pocket and the screen is white. Then i kept turning it off and on sometimes screen becomes normal then it gets white in 1 minute if not less.
I said my blackberry had died, after that i got a new blackberry, and i kept the old one with me

blackberry b: my dad dropped it in the lake and it got ruined so this one's gone when u put the battery the flash turns on and the cellphone doesnt do anything
blackberry a and b are 9700


blackbery c: blackberry c is a newer version its 9780, my old one was stolen so the insurance got me a new one. i never dropped it and took care of it cause i figured they where sensitive. One month after i bought it, i was in las vegas so and i was walking around the hotel when i take my cellphone off my pocket and its a white screen. i got sick of white screen its the 4th cellphone in a year and its geting on my nerves
i first went to tmobile to fix it they said its more than 1 year since i got the original phone and that's not the original phone, its a phone from the insurance (that died after a month).
They said i had to buy a new one since prepaid does not have insurance. i started searching youtube and i found out that if u press on the lower right of the screen, over the end call button the screen works i tried it on my old phone a and on my new phone c both of em worked.

At this point i started searching how to fix it i bought the opening tool for blackberry and i started the experiment.
i opened my (a) blackberry i found out that the plastic tape on the usb of the screen is almost torn by the piece of plastic next to it the one "ernopena" removed. so i got a new tape and i taped it. i tried it again it did not work and even worse when i pressed hard the screen stayed white. at this point i did not bother closing the cellphone i kept it open and then i turned it on through the charger. I was working now with only the green plate and the lcd screen. i turned it on screen is white, i tried to move the usb cable and wiggle it see if the screen works, and the screen stayed white.

At this point i realized maybe blackberry b the one my dad droped in the water still has a good usb cable and a good screen if it didnt get damaged in the water. So i oppened blackberry b took the screen out of it placed it in blackberry a. They are both 9700 so there shouldnt be a conflict. i turn on the blackberry its not a white screen but a screen with random colors, i guessed here that the usb cable is good but the screen is dead. Now i kept the cellphone turned on and removed the (b) screen and i put instead the (a) screen to see what happens, (a) screen turned white. So (a) still has the same usb connection problem. Now i removed screen (a) and installed screen (b) again while keeping the blackberry turned on. Screen (b) was fully white just like (a) was.
At this point i turned the cellphone off and on again to see if (b) is permanently "white screen" it turned on with the original random colors.

i tried to turn the cellphone off then on again with screen (b) it came as black and if i disconnect and reconnect the same screen it turns white.

Blackberry c i dont wana touch it since its the newest until i have more information.

[rnewyear]

Originally Posted by ernopena

Thanks everyone for your comments. But getting back to my original question: Has anyone had any success in fixing the WSOD by adding electrical tape to any component? Thanks!

I tried it but didnt work. I replaced the LCD with a new one and it worked fine again.

[ak77pro]

i can sometimes get a screen image if i unplug the ribbon on top guess its for the camera and micro sd card slot . so i will have to test that area for problems