[theLynx]

Three days ago, my Z30 showed me 0% battery charge and turned off. Connecting it to charger did nothing - no LED blinking, no bootup screen, just nothing (even if short or long power button pressing). After a 48 hours with charger plugged in it was still dead - just a beautiful black brick.

I have searched solution on BB support forums, but found only common BB answer: try to communicate with your wireless provider. OK, but my wireless provider doesn't sell BlackBerries and can't help me. Nearest authorized BB service center is about 200 miles far from me and wants $300 for repair (without any warranties).

The most common way to solve this trouble is to remove and re-insert battery but Z30 doesn't have a removable battery, so the solution will be a little bit complex.

Disclaimer

I am not responsible if this solution does not help you or for any damages you can cause to your phone or yourself.

Information

• English is not the native language of author, sorry.
• Pictures are gained from different sources as I can't take photos of my phone with itself.
• See update at the bottom of this post

So, let's go on.

Step 0. If you phone battery is drained and phone looks totally dead just plug in wall charger and wait for 1-2 days. In most cases it will start charging without any other steps.

Step 1. Remove back cover of phone (yes, you need no to remove SIM and MicroSD) and place it with screen down.

Step 2. Unscrew 10 bolts with T6 Torx screwdriver (see picture).


Step 3. Phone must be screen down. Push three latches in top part of phone and pry out upper side of black front screen at the same time. Do NOT apply much force - if everything goes right screen will go out easily. (see picture).


Step 4. Now you get upper side of screen free from the phone's body. Slide it out of body carefully. (see picture).


Step 5. There is a flex, that connects screen to motherboard. You don't need to disconnect it - just open phone like a book (try not to lose bolts from back cover).

Step 6. Pry out battery connector from motherboard (see picture).


Step 7. Plug in charger for 15-20 sec. Green LED will light.

Step 8. Disconnect charger, connect battery to motherboard, than plug in charger again. If red or yellow LED will light, then everything goes good.

Step 9. Wait for about 3-5 minutes, disconnect charger and reassemble your phone by following steps 5-1 in reversed order.

Step 10. Plug in charger. Phone will go into cyclic restart - red LED will light for 3 seconds, then yellow light plus BB logo on the screen, then nothing. And over again.

Step 11. Leave the phone in this mode for about 5 minutes then disconnect and reconnect the charger. Yellow LED will light. Everything goes OK, we need to wait about 15-20 minutes.

Step 12. Yellow LED will begin to blink slowly. Got it! Phone is charging!

Step 13. Wait for 3-4 hours to phone will be fully charged.

Step 14. Enjoy your BlackBerry!

UPDATE: Today I've got this battery issue once again. All described above steps were useless, until I use computer instead of wall charger. It seems that original BB charger is little bit too "intellectual". Hope this addition helps.

[kbz1960]

So never let your phone go dead. The pb has this issue and I'm shocked to see it continue to this day.

[Gooseberry Falls]

Yeah, LOL, sensitized to this charging issue from the PB. To be fair, other devices besides BB can suffer this. I have a backup phone so if this happens to me, my Z30 is going back for warranty repair. I might consider taking it apart when the warranty runs out. Nice post tho OP.

[kbz1960]

Yeah, LOL, sensitized to this charging issue from the PB. To be fair, other devices besides BB can suffer this. I have a backup phone so if this happens to me, my Z30 is going back for warranty repair. I might consider taking it apart when the warranty runs out. Nice post tho OP.

Pretty much same OS and drivers or whatever. I have plenty if devices that can be dead for months and charge when plugged in with no issue. Why can't PBOS or B10 do that? Seems if the battery runs down if you don't charge it within a day or two you have to tear it apart. Great feature!!!!!!!

[dustmalik]

OP, what variant of Z30 is it?

Posted via CB10 using my Gorgeous Z30

[tufcustomer]

I've had my Z30 hit rock bottom for battery a few times. Thankfully never had this issue.

Posted via CB10

[theLynx]

OP, what variant of Z30 is it?

STA100-2
And don't know what variants are on the photos.

[jpvj]

I never heard about this issue after PB.
BlackBerry won't make that mistake again.
With PB could could recover by charging a few seconds at a time for and repeat maybe 20-30 times.

All my BlackBerry 10 devices are often dead for weeks/months and charges with no issues.

Posted via CB10

[dustmalik]

STA100-2
And don't know what variants are on the photos.

From the pieces of infos i have gathered from the forums, i think STA 100-2 is the variant with the most defective units. Unfortunately, that's the variant i own, too. I have had my own fair share of problems as well.

Posted via CB10 using my Gorgeous Z30

[theLynx]

May be it depends on software version.
Anyway, I have got this issue and decided to share the solution. Glad, if somebody will find it useful.

[SK122387]

Wow. This is a very complicated fix for a problem that should not even exist.

My Z30 has been dead for over a month, and has been with BlackBerry for 3 weeks undergoing repairs, which I feel like aren't even being done.

Although this process the OP posted is complicated, I would have tried it.

This is an awful problem to have...fatal to the phone in most cases, as people aren't going to be taking the time to void their warranty and fix the phone.

Posted via CB10

[AnimalPak200]

Sheesh... Where's that removable vs non-removable battery "great debate" thread when we need it?

Posted via CB10

[scrannel]

So, pardon my ignorance, but is this essentially a "battery reset issue"? As in when an electronic device seems dead, removing all power (like, the battery) and then restoring power, will very often bring the device back to life? I have a laptop with a "fixed" battery and a week ago it became completely unresponsive. I was all set to take it in for warranty repair when I discovered a tiny "reset" hole. I stuck a pin into it and it momentarily disconnected the battery and restored complete use.

[theLynx]

Yes, this is essentially "battery reset". With Z30 you cannot just remove and reinsert battery, so this tutorial shows how to do it.

Posted via CB10

[dustmalik]

I just hope I never have to go through this kinda experience. This whole non-removable battery thing is starting to annoy me.

Posted via CB10 using my Gorgeous Z30

[bbaleno]

When I had this problem with the PlayBook. I just did a reset by holding down the volume keys
I had the charger plugged in . The red light went on then I let go. it started blinking yellow.
I would try this before that drastic measure essentially the method mentioned in this thread is a battery pull

[casave]

had this same problem with the PlayBook but didn't worked the same solution using the Blackberry software, your solution worked and My Z30 is working again, thank you for this post

[Makaveli@Beta]

I've seen this issue on other devices also.

A friend of mine let her hp touchpad hit 0 % and left it sitting in a draw for a weeks after that.

Wouldn't take a charge at all.

I had to debrick the device in linux

It was running android.

[laserx]

I've had a similar issue, only my Z30 was fine when I plugged it in for a night of recharging. When I plugged it in to charge up over night, I woke up and found it has gone from 25% down to 20% after being plugged in all night. Tried restart, hard reset, different charger and different plug. While trying all of this, it was continually discharging, even when plugged into the charger. I had to give up and send it in for warranty repair last week. I'm thinking process would have done the trick for my phone. Wonder what they'll do to my Z30 to fix it....new battery or just a reset? I'm really missing my Z30, the loaner Z10 (I had one before upgrading to the Z30) just doesn't do it for me, too small and slower than my Z30, hope it comes home to me soon.

[maddie1128]

My daughter's z30 just did the same thing. I have tried everything to get it to charge and boot up but nothing. I came here figuring someone would have figured a fix out..........I mean other than disassembling the phone (not up for that). I guess I will be heading to Verizon. Ugh!!

[maddie1128]

Ok....just got off the phone to Verizon- they are sending me a new phone. NOW... while I was talking on the phone to them- I popped out the sim and sdcards- then put them back in.... came out and put the phone back on the charger- 15 minutes later the squirqel came on and the phone booted up.........WTH????? So what do I do now- should I send this one back when the new one gets here (since it may do it again) or keep it??????
What do you think?

[Stupar Bogdan]

the battery drain last night.. in the morning it show in the black screen and the battery indicator (red) - emty battery.
I put the phone to charge.. but the phone won't start. so i use this steps... but it won't work.

[Stupar Bogdan]

I don't konw what I do, but the charger is working and my battery is full (green led). there is another problem. my touch screen is blank. it is not showing anything.

[kbz1960]

I'm trying this now. Not hopeful as my led was working. Anyone think the screen went bad? I did replace it a couple months ago and it's been fine. I still have the old to try if this doesn't work.

[james-007]

I know couple people I work with had the same issues. What I ended up doing for them was to hook the phone to the computer and had to reload the OS. After that no issue with charging the phone. If the phone is being replaced, try my method as you have nothing to, your data is already lost anyways.

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