[SonsieSunday]

Greetings,

I have owned a Bold for a little under a year now and over time the tracking ball has lost it's outer grip and has trouble moving upwards. Despite the lost grip/outer coating on the tracking ball, it also seems the inner mechanism is having problems. Actually, it doesn't pan upwards at all anymore and it happened all at once a day ago.

Does anyone have some good advice for me? I'm simply wondering if this is fixable by taking it into a local store or shipping it back to ATT or RIMM... I really have no idea what the next step is.


... apologies if this thread topic has been posted again and again

[kirrinjones]

Wirelessly posted

I had the same issue with my trackball the other day. What I did to fix it is this.

I removed the battery, then I pressed in the trackball and rolled in the the direction that it wasn't scrolling properly. I did this for about 5 minutes. Just press the ball in, and roll it, I used my finger nails to do the rolling, after awhile it will feel free and then you should be good.

Hope this helps.

[miamirulz29]

I'm not sure how long the the bold has a warranty, but if it is not under warranty and you feel comfortable, you could also change the trackball. Cellular Nationwide Network - 3G, Sony, Panasonic, LG, SonyEricsson, Nokia, Tools, BlackBerry, has a bunch of trackballs and there are videos on youtube which show up how to assemble and disassemble the bold. Only do this if the above poster's method did not work.

[kriswilliams03]

I had exactly the same issue and tried every tip I could find. For about 2 weeks, it responded to wiping the track ball with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol (only slightly damp) and cleaning around the casing with a soft toothbrush. Then it got to the point that it just quit scrolling upward completely; the ball would move but the screen wouldn't respond. I ended up taking it in for warranty replacement.

[SonsieSunday]

Thanks thus far to those who've responded... I'm looking into the phone's warranty.

I'd imagine this problem happens all the time.. those little tracking balls must have a limited life time.

[L3stat]

Actually, why can't they make an optical one with a round hole that will retrofit? That wouldn't require a major redesign of the existing Bold/Curve/Tours anyway.