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For the not so technical people who are among us:
Well, I tried. It did make the storm behave worse than it did before the fix. So.... I was disgruntled a bit. I took the fix out and put the storm back together again. But of course, not without trying to mess about with the torx screws some more. And whaddayaknow.... the storm now clicks perfectly all over. Just had to release the bottom two (longer brass ones as shown in the video) about (not even) half a turn. That's it. Appearantly for the clicking "sensation" to feel complete its precise/delicate details that make it work. Tenth of a mm kind of details. Which actually makes sense since, wel... ever put a stick in a small hole which was just about a mm too big? :-P That stick would move at the end not 1mm but maybe 5 cm, depending on the length of the stick. That is also true for the piece of glass when measured out from the middle. I have the middle torx both half a turn more loosened and the lower torx too then when I got the phone. When loosening the middle torx, the whole gets a bit "flexed" when pressed down. This would seem unnatural, but when you look at the device and its innards when pressing, its almost like.... the thing isn't quite completely in balance when it comes out of fabrication. A very little bit change in the screws is enough to put it back into balance. Look at it as if it were a scale, balancing on the foot, the base in the middle. A very small deviation in the middle to either side is enough to make the end of the scale move quite a bit. In the case of the storm the device is helped a bit when the middle torx are loosened up but since the torx on the bottom are still VERY tightly in place it doesn't give enough (the scale is kept in place) AND the base will even flex a bit when pressed a little too hard, which might end up creating new problems in the long run. When the bottom torx give just a tiny bit of space to the rest of the structure by loosening them, the scale gets to balance itself nicely again without flexing the plates.
I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself really clearly... I guess not
Blame it on the fact that its not my native tongue, english, and a bit of alcohol and tiredness. So don't shoot me if you think your storm is a scale now... :P Which is a cool idea for RIM for their next Storm.... a pressure measuring clicking button in the middle 
Again, a whole new range of applications can be created with that. But.... please, first make this system "assemble-fool-proof". The design is fine by now. Just the tightness of the structure should be taken into account more with assembly, or there should be worked around this principle all together if its not possible to balance the screws better in relation to the glass, button in the middle and the rest of the frame/shell structure.
I'm gonna stop typing, there is more and more **** coming from my mouth..... :X
If you're going to try the fix in the start of this topic please..... please... before opening the casing of the phone completely, just remove the lower and upper cover plates first (like in the topic video) and fiddle about with the torx settings somewhat. Worked for me! I really hope this works for others too. If that won't work, its never too late to open up the shell and place a piece of tape in the middle on top of the button.
My MAIN issue was that the screen did not click evenly throughout the bottom of the screen, mostly in the middle. That is a lot better now.
Andabout the screen wiggly-ness some are talking about: the glass plate is being held above the backplate by means of some sort of "gummi-bear" -like material which is sticked to the glass. If these come loose, or are somewhat longer, the screen will start to wiggle. Most likely the phone will be repaired using new "gummi-bear" strips. I guess these are there to give the whole somewhat of a cushoning effect. When the screen is wiggly I wouldn't worry BUT STOP!! wiggling it about. Then you will break it in the long run. ALSO if you get it repaired or exchanged because of that, you will break it again when you start to wiggle again...
Now I've seen the device from the inside myself I am not afraid anymore that the clicking function will be lost over time, UNLESS the button itself starts to wear away. I'm guesing you'll be using the device for a couple of years before that starts to happen in the design as it is now. The gummi thingies could push up the glass plate just a tiny bit more and be made somewhat softer and bigger, thus making it more solid and still comfortable to press down on. Also the screen wiggling could be solved reasonably well by that.
RIM, use this info... I can't imagine your designers haven't seen this, or haven't thought of this, themselves really, so I'm guessing you have and a new revision of the phone is underway to the market already If it isn't you guys should be spanked quite hard.
For your consideration... :PLast edited by TheMisses; 01-20-09 at 02:40 AM.
01-19-09 03:09 PM - No no, don't be sad The fix worked, just in another way: trust me, it was seated properly in the frame/chassis. It is floating free right now. The screen feels good all over but when I tighten the torx again up to the point where they were, the clicking issue in the lower part returns. If I tighten them even more then that the screen stops clicking alltogether in the bottom. When I tighten the torx in the middle completely too, the screen is virtually sheit. And virtual sheit or real sheit, putting your thumbs on it and pressing down doesn't really feel nice
I have had only the pleasure of dealing with one storm and its issues so I dear not say that this will work for all storms with clicking issues. BUT I do know for sure that the storms with the clicking issues IN THE BOTTOM PART of the screen WILL be helped by this most definately. And if I hadn't come across your posting I would have never tried this. But seeing as the torx fix works for the most part on the first run of devices with clicking issues (mostly on the sides, middle and the bottom part, top usually seems to click ok), it makes sense that either loosening or tightening the other torx on the different parts of the machine will help the remaining issues. That also seems to coincide with the conclusion made before: the lower part of the screens clicks less good than the top screen.
I think the reason for the statement of RIM that 90% of the devices returned has nothing wrong with them is due to mainly the OS being sheit. Secondly I think the screen clicking issues on this generation of devices is being solved by RIM in the same way. There must have been something wrong with the making of a couple of runs of molds for the device. Something that didn't jump out at them because it was such a small thing. Maybe when the molds for these devices were cast and then cut, the excess plastic was "sanded" off just a couple of tenth of a mm too much. Which seems to make sense.
Also the screen rests on the gummy plastic, which actually helps to keep it up (apart from the button in the middle itself) and especially on the edges (the button does click, you just don't feel that all too well) making these cushions just that bit taller will help the feeling of having a longer travelling time for the screen, certainly in combination with the torx being just a tad loosened. I think it makes sense on all fronts... Your fix too, it justs lifts the screen up a tad.
Which can make the claim of RIM that there is nothing wrong with 90% of the devices correct. There are no physcial defects. BUT that is a matter of interpretation, just as a garbled OS is. DOES the device function correctly? NO. Is there something really broken? No... So its semantics and statistics once again.
I call shenanigansLast edited by TheMisses; 01-21-09 at 03:43 AM.
01-21-09 03:38 AM - Ok here is what I have been encountering.....Ive taken apart 2 BB Storms as I was hoping to figure out how it works. Anyways, flaws I have found with all the fixes.
Card behind the battery door, tape, etc. Good fix but dont like the bulge that it causes and the pressure it puts on the sim and the main board not sure the long term effects.
Torx fix to me makes the screen a lot more wobbly and feels like its going to pop off or something. Also doesn�t provide that click it should have but more of a mushy feeling to it.
Electrical tape was by far the greatest fix from what I thought but��..as the phone charges, being used, heats up, etc. the electrical tape tends to shift off the button causing the click to worsen at certain areas which sucks cause Im at work and cant take it apart till I get home.
Im going to go home and play with the spacing of the boards and also alternative fixes and will let you all know of what I come up with.01-28-09 01:36 PM
