[Horace2012]

Hello everyone,

I really hope someone can help me. A few things have been happening with my playbook the last few weeks and it's all come to a head this morning and I can't get it to properly turn on.

Here's how it started, a few weeks ago, I was watching some video that I had on the PB, I paused it, closed the flip case (didn't turn off the screen), and put it down. When I came back the screen was all weird - the only way to describe it was that the screen was scrunched to half of the actual screen size (couldn't make anything out). I was able to get everything working again by restarting the playbook (holding down the power button). It was annoying, but it did the trick. And this was only happening once in awhile.

Fast forward to this morning - it does it again (this time, I had an app on the screen). I go to restart, but this time, it doesn't work. The PB shut off, when I restarted it, the start screen didn't come on - but the screen did. I waited for a bit, but nothing happpened. I ended up turning the PB off a few times before it restarted properly.

When I finally got it restarted, I tested things out (opened a couple of apps, and then shut them down). I plugged in the PB to charge it and I pressed the power button to turn off the screen - but instead of just turning off the screen, it shut everything down and I had to restart it again. And as I was restarting it, I wasn't getting the start-up screen, but the screen was on.

Right now , I have it plugged in, and it's still charging. I have the green blinking light. I'm going to try and give it a full charge and try starting it again.

Is there anyone out there who's had this happen? Were you able to fix it? I love my PB and have already started looking for a replacement, but I would rather just fix this one.

Any help would be appreciated!

[Carl Estes]

Have you tried a "hard reset"? Hold down the power button AND the Vol. up and Vol. down keys at THE SAME TIME. Power button first, then immediatly press and hold down the vol. up/down buttons for at least 30 seconds. If you hear a clicking sound, you just took a picture of your screen. Remember, power button first then the vol. keys.

Hope this clears your issue with your PB!

C

[FF22]

How old? Warranty? It does sound like hardware. How FULL is your unit?

Even if beyond warranty, rim has sometimes fixed them for free

The PB has a one year warranty to the original purchaser. It also has 90 free Tech support. I do not know how Rim deals with "quasi-tech support v. warranty"

Rim Support
Tel:
Canada Toll Free: 1-877-644-8405
United States Toll Free: 1-877-644-8410
Puerto Rico Toll Free: 1-855-651-4936
Email: [email protected] (this route generally does not work and a call is necessary)

(UK Support) 0800 096 2805

Playbook French Support
Smartphones BlackBerry Z10 - Tous les T�l�phones Portables BlackBerry - FR - France
Phone : 0800 914 533 (within 90 days from activation)

BlackBerry� Customer Support Center
Austria:0800-297-476
Belgium:800-77-980
RIM (Brasil Support toll free number): 0800-022-3161
Bulgaria: 00800-118-1115
Denmark: 802-50198
France: 800-914-533
Germany: 800-181-6530
Italy: 800-789-272
Luxembourg: 800-2-2187
Netherlands: 800-022-7316
Norway: 00-1-647-426-7058
Poland: 00-800-112-43-59
Portugal: 800-827-760
Russia: 8-800-100-9643
South Africa: 0800988892
Spain: 900-866-969
Sweden: 02-079-4448
Switzerland: 0-800-802-492
United Kingdom: 08000962805

Phone-Numbers of BlackBerry PLAYBOOK- Helpdesks...

Germany: 0800 1816530 (Geb�hrenfrei)

North-America: 1 877 255 2377 (Toll Free)

UK: 0808 100 7466 (Toll Free UK only)

Outside UK: +44 1753 558400

Worldwide: 1 519 888 6181

[email protected]

(BTW: Helpdesk for BlackBerry devices -except PlayBook- for Germany:
0180 3302626)

[Horace2012]

Thanks - it's over the warranty. It's pretty full - I'd say about 70-75% full. I do take videos off as I finish watching the.

I'll give the Canadian support line a call.

[Horace2012]

I've done the hard reset a few times and it's a hit and miss on whether it works or not.

Thanks for the advice, very much appreciate the time you took to answer me.

[KermEd]

I used to work for a projector + touch manufacturer ages ago doing root cause analysis.

There is a little controller card (its a tiny motherboard + series of chips) - can't remember the name cuz I just woke up - that controls your displays output. On projectors it requires variable input (EDID) to determine how to display. Which is a fancy way of saying the tablet tells the card what resolution to use.

There is a very small chance it's an OS issue and it's reporting the wrong information to the controller. A corrupted operating system can cause that. An os reinstall would fix it.

There is a much higher chance the controller card is starting to die. They are cheap. Usually low quality China parts.

There is also a possibility it's a bug in an app. If it always happens using one app, the app could be the problem.

Posted via CB10

[Chaddface]

I've done the hard reset a few times and it's a hit and miss on whether it works or not.

Thanks for the advice, very much appreciate the time you took to answer me.

For a "hard reset" just use power and volume + . Press and hold both until the screen goes blank. The PB will restart on it's own.
It would be normal to see the screen back light on when charging with the PB turned off(green blinking light).

[FF22]

I'll throw in the instructions for reloading the OS. BUT BACKUP anything unique as it will wipe all data and apps off the pb. Apps that have not changed in price, you can download again.

Try the Debrick method....

Perform a backup of your pb if you can using Desktop Manager or, at least, manually coping any unique data, photos, voice recordings, documents, etc.

1) Turn your playbook OFF by holding down the power button
2) Let your playbook sit for about 10 minutes as earlier suggested.
3) After letting the PB sit (and still powered off) open up the Blackberry Desktop Software (the latest version)
4) Once the Blackberry Desktop Software is opened, use the USB Cable and hook the PB to the PC.. THEN power on the Playbook
5) A screen will show on your computer showing that the device cannot be found
6) Click on Update. It will take awhile

[Horace2012]

Thanks again for all the help! I'll try reloading the OS when I get home. I'll let you konw how it goes.

[Horace2012]

I used to work for a projector + touch manufacturer ages ago doing root cause analysis.

There is a little controller card (its a tiny motherboard + series of chips) - can't remember the name cuz I just woke up - that controls your displays output. On projectors it requires variable input (EDID) to determine how to display. Which is a fancy way of saying the tablet tells the card what resolution to use.

There is a very small chance it's an OS issue and it's reporting the wrong information to the controller. A corrupted operating system can cause that. An os reinstall would fix it.

There is a much higher chance the controller card is starting to die. They are cheap. Usually low quality China parts.

There is also a possibility it's a bug in an app. If it always happens using one app, the app could be the problem.

Posted via CB10

Thanks for the info.

[ThaSwapMeetPimp]

Reloading the OS should help, I haven't had all the problems you have, but I have reloaded my OS whenever the screen scrunching issue has occurred and not let it continue for more than a couple days. At this point I don't let my unit go below 10 gb storage either, that's when it starts to slowdown and apps stop working properly. Used to be 5gb but full disclosure I have dropped mine quite a few times, pretty sure that hasn't helped. I'm actually reloading everything right now from doing an OS wipe last night, I keep having an issue where when I try to hook up to one of our wifi networks and it tells me it has connected, but when it goes back to the wifi settings it has hooked up to my normal network. I delete my normal network, try and hook up to the other network and it says it connects but it's not connected to anything when I get back to wifi settings