I have to support the licking method, too! I woke up, and my trackball wasn't scrolling down and to the right, making it pretty much useless. so, I read the thread and saw that licking it was making a difference. so, I tried it, and ran the track ball in all directions on my pants leg, and sure enough it works without problems now! whee!!! I thought I was gonna have to take apart my BB 9000! ^_^
Truthfully, that's just nasty!! But hey, I'm not here to judge. Glad it works!!!
It's just one little flick of the tongue. It's not like I'm playing tonsil hockey with it. I should also note that I don't lick my screen. I do, however, spit on it and wipe with a microfiber cloth.
The simplist way to clean the blackberry track ball is to clean it with SPIT on a soft peice of cloth. Keep cleaning in the circular motion patiently and trackball will get cleaned .
When I took my Bold apart to replace the the ball, I was shocked to see how much of a crap/lint deposit had collected between the ball and the contact in the socket it sits in. I used a Q-Tip and 99% pure rubbing alcohol. It cleaned up right away and worked 100% again. Except I liked the pure white of the new ball compared to the of colour of the 2 year old one.
Just watch the video linked earlier in this thread. It's not hard to do at all.
.... or you can just gently pry off the plastic piece that surrounds the track ball (the BB icon and return key). Stuck in the Gobi desert without my trusty tools, I slowly pulled the plastic off with a fingernail. BE CAREFUL. Mine came off just fine, then flip back the metal retainer and remove the ball.
With ball in hand, lick or blow as you like.
When done, just dab a small drop of glue on either side and you're back in business. Did this once and it's been fine now for the past year.
The (track)ball leans against - and rotates - four cylinders, one for each direction. Each has a small magnet on it, and a corresponding magnetic sensor on the board.
What happens is that fibers and dust accumulate on and around these cylinders (even if the ball seems clean), preventing them from rotating.
If you are lucky you can get enough of it out without dissasembling the phone, by your favourite method (including the one that involves your tongue and may get you in trouble if your wf/gf sees you).
If not, the proper method involves dissasembling the phone ant the trackball assembly - only for the experiences ones, or the rich ones who don't mind replacing the phone if things go south.
my screen went to **** the other day, so i ordered a new one and got impatient and took the phone apart. curiosity drove me to have the whole phone disassembled, i took apart the whole trakcball assembly and cleaned the little rollers. its just like a computer mouse. very simple when the right tools and a little know how are present
I used hydrogen peroxide. I didn't disassemble it. I used some tissue + hydrogen peroxide to wipe it up. I think someone here said to do something like that, I just followed that person's suggestion.
Did someone really say "spit"?? Gross. Just plain gross.
As previously mentioned, regular cleaning with an alcohol wipe goes a long way for those that don't want to rip apart their phones to replace the trackball (which isn't difficult at all).
i don't think the lick or alcohol ****s work in most case. didn't work for me.
check the dust accumulated on my clitoris :
eggrz7.free.fr/clitorisblackberry.JPG
so don't hesitate to dissassemble it, i did it, it's pretty easy
it works perfectly now
why not buy new a new one? because the delivery delay from asia is around 15 days !!!!! i don't want to send post office letters to my friends during those two weeks
edit : wtf link and images for new users ?! crap rule
Easiest method I found is this.
*Lock the k.b
*Face down your phone
*Take a paper sheet and a writing pad,put sheet on pad
*Now with down face rub your BB,you will see dirt comming out of the ball,do this several times on cleaner surface of paper and trackball will start working again.
Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
i been using bold 9000 more than a year and never have problem with my trackball, i use to use my 2 finger and rub the trackball left/right up/down very often and till today it's like the same as i bought
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