[Ponkiki]

I have recently purchased the lovely Blackberry Pearl 8120 and I love it to bits, until recently.

It seems that if I run an application for too long, the screens graphics become all garbled up, and only portions of the screen become legiable. It seems to happen most with the media player, but the application keeps running, the phone itself doesn't freeze.

When it happens (quite often at the moment), I pop the battery to reset the device, and all will be back to normal until the next time.

As far as I know, I haven't dropped or caused any major shock to the Blackberry.

This is becoming really frustrating, does anyone else have the same or similar problems? I have seen a lot of people with problems of a white screen, but not a garbled up screen!

Please help, I love my phone to bits!

[Reed McLay]

I can confirm, that is not normal using the v4.5xx software.

First step, Options / About.

Which verison of the device software do you have installed?

If it is not, at least, v4.5.0.81, I would try an upgrade. This is the version currently supported by Rogers and T-Mobile USA.

[Ponkiki]

According to the phone, I am using v4.5.0.124 (platform 2.7.0.92)

[Reed McLay]

Thank you, that confirms you are using the latest available software. We can rule that out as the source of the problem.

When you refer to garbled text, it could be a developing failure in the screen, that would be a hardware issue and justification for replacing the device under warranty.

[Ponkiki]

Yeah, I was thinking that, but every time I restart the Phone (by popping the battery) it goes back to normal instantly, so that leads me to think that maybe it isn't a problem with the screens connections, as it would be garbled up again when it boots up.

Thank you for your help though! I was also considering the possiblity of the micro SD card I have in is as the problem, as it only seems to happen when I use any applications that read the card (eg the media player when listing to music). Could it be a case of corrupted data on the card? I'm not to sure, but I think I will try and use the phone without the SD card for a while to see how things go.

I will update on how this goes, incase anyone else is having the same or a similar problem.

[Ponkiki]

I have figured out the problem!!!

However bizzare it sounds, it is to do with the headphone socket on my phone. The reason that I said the screen failed when I was using the media player was because when I use it, I usually have a set of headphones plugged in.

After a series of tests I did, I have discovered that when I plug in a set of headphones, because of where the socket is located on he pearl (on the top of the left hand side) the headphone jack pushes the screen slightly, causing the connection of the screen to become loose or not set properly.

Also, if I leave the screen long enough after the graphics garble (until the light dims) it comes back to normal for a while. When there are no headphone in, I do not have this problem at all.

This is extreemly irritating now, as I do not own an mp3 player, and use my Blackberry for listining to music (hence the SD card).

Is this good grounds to return the device? I'm not sure if this will count as a hardware failure.