Multiple issues

[osutuba]

My brother-in-law is in town for the week and has been complaining about his BlackBerry Pearl Flip (saying he wants a different phone, etc.).

He left his phone here at the house and I decided to check it out since I am considered the "family tech expert". Needless to say, this thing is a mess. If I scroll to the right on the home screen, 7s and x's start to appear on the screen. The back and end/power keys are working sporadically at best, and the regular keys don't appear to be working at all.

Of course, since all these things are going on, I'm having a devil of a time trying to get into anything for the sake of checking software version, etc.

This is a replacement phone he received using his insurance and he didn't complain about it when he first got it, so my guess is that the performance has deteriorated over time.

What should I look into doing to resolve this issue? Will upgrading the software do any good? Should I attempt to disassemble the phone and clean the trackball and keyboard? We also have our BlackBerry Curve 8330s, but I think that would be a downgrade for him.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

[Tiassa]

Sounds like something is frelled at the hardware level. If you are comfortable with disassembling and cleaning it, I suspect it would probably get a lot better, but from what I've seen that is a tricky proposition at best.

[osutuba]

Definitely not what I wanted to hear. Looks like a new phone will be in order, as I am not willing to do that kind of work just to clean it. Maybe I can talk him into taking one of our Curves.