WARNING 0n Tour Teardown for trackball

In an attempt to fix my Tour's trackball, I ordered a Curve trackball from Crackberry's accessories. Research on Crackberry revealed the Tour's trackball changeout is not simple like popping the assembly from the front (as in the Curve). The whole case must be disassembled and the trackball removed from the inside. And, it's important to note you will void your warantee by doing this.

The following link shows (very well, by the way) how to do the "teardown" of a Tour. HOWEVER, there is one very important thing missing...

IF YOU HAVE A MEMORY CARD (SANDISK OR ??) IN THERE, YOU MUST REMOVE IT OUT AS SOON AS YOU COME TO IT. Otherwise, you will, if you are lucky, break it in half when you separate the board from the front case/keyboard pad. If you aren't lucky, you will rip apart the board and goodbye Tour.

I snapped my 8 gig di$k in half - part fell on my desk and the other half with the contact points was buried inside the Tour. With a Helping Magnifier (magnifying glass on a stand - essential all the way through this process) and a jeweler's screwdriver (smallest size), I managed to poke the broken part out without damaging anything else.

This link, from another Crackberry thread, shows how to take the Tour apart.

sommacero

All is good advice, but I would add I had to use a Torx T7 and not a T6 as mentioned in the other thread ( http://forums.crackberry.com/f3/how-...issues-307681/ ) with great strength and lots of care to back out the ultra-tight 6 screws. They are tiny, tiny and strip with ease. Very tough job.

All in all, the trackball seems to be working OK, certainly better than before. But I haven't had a chance to really test it out because I wanted to get this warning out. When I recover from the trauma of my Tour in pieces with a snapped memory card stuck inside, I will test if further.

PS -- I recommend that if you have trackball issues, get a replacement Tour from your carrier.

Originally Posted by Atira

PS -- I recommend that if you have trackball issues, get a replacement Tour from your carrier.

Indeed. I was beyond the 30 day exchange period, but there was a "Like New" replacement on my doorstep 18 hours later; goodbye trackball problems.

When the tech at my store had someone else's tour apart he said that they ball on the tour had a cable that ran off the housing to a connection. Is this not correct, or are you not talking about the 8330 verizon curve?

Besides ripping ur Tour apart Voids the warrenty....

I never advise taking ur Tour apart ever when its under warrenty

Originally Posted by Nvr2nd

When the tech at my store had someone else's tour apart he said that they ball on the tour had a cable that ran off the housing to a connection. Is this not correct, or are you not talking about the 8330 verizon curve?

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think he's talking about the orange looking pad thing that the trackball sits on

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by wm2485

Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but I think he's talking about the orange looking pad thing that the trackball sits on

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

The key dome? That would make the most sense, but I wasnt around to see the inside of the customers wet tour...

Originally Posted by Nvr2nd

When the tech at my store had someone else's tour apart he said that they ball on the tour had a cable that ran off the housing to a connection. Is this not correct, or are you not talking about the 8330 verizon curve?

Yes there is a cable inside the Tour 9630. I forgot to mention that. It's very thin and runs from the trackball to the board along the right side. It's very delicate and would be extremely easy to break or disconnect accidentally. In the U-Tube demo on how to take apart the Tour, this isn't mentioned and I was surprised/concerned to find it there.

Also not clear in the demo video is the cable connector between layers on the left side. This must be unplugged and re-connected carefully as it's very small, yet has many "teeth" in it.

As I said before, get a replacement Tour if yours has trackball problems. The change-out operation is too easy to screw up and you are dead in the water with no warrantee and no Tour.

PS -- So far, the Curve trackball does indeed solve the trackball problem. Wonder what the difference is. Size?

It really is a T6, you just might have a stripped or poor fitting bit. Try WIHA bits or another german brand, germans make the best precision tools.

Originally Posted by Atira

IF YOU HAVE A MEMORY CARD (SANDISK OR ??) IN THERE, YOU MUST REMOVE IT OUT AS SOON AS YOU COME TO IT. Otherwise, you will, if you are lucky, break it in half when you separate the board from the front case/keyboard pad. If you aren't lucky, you will rip apart the board and goodbye Tour.

I snapped my 8 gig di$k in half - part fell on my desk and the other half with the contact points was buried inside the Tour. With a Helping Magnifier (magnifying glass on a stand - essential all the way through this process) and a jeweler's screwdriver (smallest size), I managed to poke the broken part out without damaging anything else.
.

I broke an 8GIG memory card just 2 days ago trying put a white housing on my tour.lol, and yes part of it was burried inside, but i had to go exchange my tour because of Trackball issues so this gave me the motivation, sprint didn't say anything about the warranty and they DID SEE THE WHITE STICKER ON THE SCREW WAS MISSING! but ya lost an 8gig memory card :(

Originally Posted by mas0n

Indeed. I was beyond the 30 day exchange period, but there was a "Like New" replacement on my doorstep 18 hours later; goodbye trackball problems.

same thing for me they replaced after the 30 day was up