[cmolson]

Background:

Bought a bold 9000 the day it was released in Canada. Worked perfectly, maybe dropped it a few times but everything was working. Recently I upgraded to the 9700 and sent my brother my 9000.

He had it for a week with Telus (originally on Rogers, and unlocked). He then dropped it off his bed onto a hardwood floor (not very high). Since then it would not turn on, no red LED or anything.

I went over all the common steps to getting it working:

-Battery pull
-Take out Sim Card, and battery
-Try connecting to wall charger or pc with and without battery
-Basically everything listed in other posts with the same problem


So the above steps (search for details on them) work for some people, and not for others.

So it was dead, he mailed it back to me to try and fix. I tried all the common solutions again with no luck.

Then I decided to try something else...

How I fixed it:

You know when your computer is screwed up, and someone suggests to reset the bios settings? All computers have a little backup battery to keep your settings, and keep the clock running on your computer. So even when it is unplugged from the wall and you turn it back on the time is right.

Well the 9000 has a similar battery, I am not 100% sure what it is used for but removing it completely solved my problem. I know it is used to keep the time when the main battery is removed - what else i'm not sure.. Mine seems to work fine with it removed. It does not reset any other data it seems, all contacts, email themes and everything are still intact.

Once this battery was removed, I put the battery back in and everything works perfectly now! The only issue I have noticed is that the time does not advance once the battery is removed.. Since my brother always has his phone on, and it updates the time from the network there is no big problem with this. -Again, the time works perfectly as long as the main battery is in.


Here are the steps, you don't even need to dissassemble the blackberry:

1 - Remove the black plastic sticker on the back
2 - using a small screwdriver (or better yet, soldering iron) remove the small circular battery from the PCB.
3 - put battery back in and pray


The picture of my bold with the battery removed is here: bold_9000 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!



Disclaimer: This worked on my phone, but your phone may have a different problem. I suggest this only as a LAST resort on phones that are not under warranty anymore. I will not be blamed for anyone breaking their phone (more?).

[quintinalexander]

I had a phone like this with the same problem and this seemed like the only solution. I wish I had a soldering iron and done this to see if it worked again. I sold it since this seemed like the only fix and I didn't want to screw it up.

[oz1421]

Kudos for fixing your phone. So is the battery soldered on, or did you forcefully pop it out with a screw driver? didn't quite get what you did.

[cmolson]

Kudos for fixing your phone. So is the battery soldered on, or did you forcefully pop it out with a screw driver? didn't quite get what you did.

There is a very small battery soldered to the motherboard (see pics for where it used to be on mine). I simply pried it off, a more elegant solution would be to desolder it. It came of easily, and did not damage the board, so If I did want to solder it back on I could.

[Wagnbat]

So in theory, if this is the same as a computer 'cmos' battery, the purpose is to maintain a voltage on volatile memory to maintain settings while the unit is powered off.

If the main battery stays charged, there is no impact. If the main battery drains or is removed (ala, normal battery pull to reset) then you could lose all your settings which could *possibly* corrupt data.

Did you put your battery back in or leave it out? Did you test what happens following a battery pull?

[Bajanbastard]

I can confirm this works. Seemingly no negative impact on the phone at all everything is still there after a battery pull.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[cmolson]

So in theory, if this is the same as a computer 'cmos' battery, the purpose is to maintain a voltage on volatile memory to maintain settings while the unit is powered off.

That was meant as a very loose connection. As I stated I am not sure whether this battery powers a volatile memory or anything else. I assume it would keep a clock running in the event of a battery pull, so you do not loose the time. What else it does is unknown to me.

If the main battery stays charged, there is no impact. If the main battery drains or is removed (ala, normal battery pull to reset) then you could lose all your settings which could *possibly* corrupt data.

The blackberry does not store any of your personal data in volatile storage (unlike those old windows mobile devices...) All of your emails etc are stored in flash memory.

I have tested removing this small battery, and all my data was there as if nothing had happened.

Did you put your battery back in or leave it out? Did you test what happens following a battery pull?

I left the battery out, and the phone has been working perfectly every since.

With this battery removed, and the main battery pulled. The only thing I noticed was that when turned back on it would ask to confirm the date/time (it reset the date/time). As soon as the device regained a network/cell connection the time was updated and corrected.


So again, this will not destroy any data on the device. It also may not fix your device.. so use this as a last resort and only if your phone is not under warranty anymore.

[cmolson]

I can confirm this works. Seemingly no negative impact on the phone at all everything is still there after a battery pull.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Great, glad to hear another person confirm this!

[Wagnbat]

The blackberry does not store any of your personal data in volatile storage (unlike those old windows mobile devices...) All of your emails etc are stored in flash memory.

Understood... But there are settings which may be stored in volatile memory, and those settings changing if that memory is lost may affect the retrieval or storage of that flash the next time the unit powers up. Lack of effect may also reside in capacitors maintaining a trickle voltage instead of that small battery.

I'm nearing the end of my troubleshooting options on my bold, so I just wanted to ask those test questions.

[cmolson]

Understood... But there are settings which may be stored in volatile memory, and those settings changing if that memory is lost may affect the retrieval or storage of that flash the next time the unit powers up. Lack of effect may also reside in capacitors maintaining a trickle voltage instead of that small battery.

I'm nearing the end of my troubleshooting options on my bold, so I just wanted to ask those test questions.

You're right, there could be any number of things happen since we don't know what the battery is used for exactly.

Perhaps it is some kind of watchdog timer used on the device or something. It would seem silly that a bad clock (if that was all the battery was used for) would fix a bricked blackberry.

The best thing I can do is assure anyone who tries this, is that the bold I did this to is working perfectly fine after a week without this small battery.

[Wagnbat]

Still in progress, but not looking good. My battery had corrosion, leaked, and/or oxidation. Damage may already be done.

[cmolson]

Still in progress, but not looking good. My battery had corrosion, leaked, and/or oxidation. Damage may already be done.

Yikes, yeah that can be hard to clean. I once repaired a friends blackberry pearl (not the flip). It had been left in a snowbank and had salt etc in it. I took the whole thing apart and took everything I could off of the PCB (even the camera and lcd, but it is hard to remove/re-insert from what I remember). I then put the board in a dish with 99% alcohol (isopropyl from the drug store) and swished it around in that. It removed most of the 'gunk', and worked fine afterwards... Definitly not for the faint of heart, but if you have a dead phone there is not much to loose.


Good luck!

[Wagnbat]

End result, no change in symptoms. Boo.

[Notorious_Nig]

Ive had the same problem and have now resorted to the last resort as well but it still doesnt work which has me thinking if the battery was the problem in the 1st place...this problem only occured after i updated to OS 5 which seems to be the problem. Sighs..now i have a messed up phone and no hope...why God? Why RIM?

[Silencer96]

No luck on my end.

[Mr KLScott]

Yea, this seems to be a winner, but did anything else ever malfunction on your Bold 9000 before it bricked? I.E. Keyboard not working or media buttons not working?

Sent from my BB Bold 9000 using Tapatalk

[pilo0916]

i tried it the red light on also the key pads and the phone is overheating and battery what should i do thanks