[Tilghman]

I have yet to find a case/holster that suits me, and am a skilled enough leather worker to consider making my own. Can anyone tell me the location of the sensor that will put an 8820 into "holster" mode", and how strong a magnet is used? It's one of the pieces of information that I need to make up my mind.

Thanks

[BuddyL]

What kind of holster are you looking for and what do you want it to do. I use the holster that came with the phone and I've had no problems.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Tilghman]

I'll rephrase my question.

Does anyone know where the magnet has to be located in order to put the 8820 into "holster" mode?

[gt0075b]

I know how you feel, Tilghman. It's quite difficult to find a good holster with the magnet built-in.

To answer your question, the magnetic sensor seems to be located between the [V] and [B] keys, just above the [space] key.

I've played around with it, and the sensor seems to be fairly sensitive. A small ferrite magnet seems to work just fine. If you use a strong enough magnet, it'll even work on the back side of the Blackberry!

[Soloman02]

If you use a strong enough magnet, it'll even work on the back side of the Blackberry!

I would advise against using a strong magnet (even to test things). Strong magnetic fields and sensitive electronics do not mix. A magnet taken from a disassembled hard drive (rare earth) would constitute a strong magnet.

[keswan]

I would advise against using a strong magnet (even to test things). Strong magnetic fields and sensitive electronics do not mix. A magnet taken from a disassembled hard drive (rare earth) would constitute a strong magnet.

IF magnets and electronics don't mix then you just negated your statement when you mentioned the magnets in a Hard drive. Everybody says not to hold a magnet next to anything in a computer or it will wipe it, if that was the case then you would not find magnets in hard drives. the only thing that a "strong" magnet would really do is cause the metal parts on the phone to become magnetized.

[Tilghman]

The injunction against magnets and computers is real, but it dates back to the days of magnetic media such as tapes and floppies. I was witness to a classic example back in the day, when a tape reel that contained important new software bound for a corporate demo was placed atop a couple of deguassng bars by an airline baggage inspector. The data was unrecoverable.

Most people don't realise it, but a computer case is carefully constructed to be a shield against magnetic radiation. Otherwise, you would have trouble receiving radio or tv signals anywhere near an operating pc.

[freeagentbizsolutions]

In early February I was talking on the phone and playing with my BB case. It is the leather case with a magnet in strap that goes over the top of the BB. For some unknown reason I flopped it on the case of my Dell Inspiron 1525. That night, I had a hard drive failure. I asked the tech at the HDD recovery service if that stupid action could have caused the failure and he felt it was just a coincidence. After reading the previous threads, I'm not so sure.

[goofyengineer]

In early February I was talking on the phone and playing with my BB case. It is the leather case with a magnet in strap that goes over the top of the BB. For some unknown reason I flopped it on the case of my Dell Inspiron 1525. That night, I had a hard drive failure. I asked the tech at the HDD recovery service if that stupid action could have caused the failure and he felt it was just a coincidence. After reading the previous threads, I'm not so sure.

A teeny tiny magnet in a holster takes out a PC? I don't think so. Classic case of post hoc logical fallacy to assume that "B" after "A", therefore "B" resulted from "A". Correct me if I'm wrong, but blackberries don't use magnetic tape, do they? I thought it was a solid state device with flash memory only. Furthermore, a hard drive enclosure has a grounded faraday shield encorporated into its design to prevent stray magnetic fields from causing loss of data. The switching core power regulator on the motherboard right next to that HD generates far more intense M-field flux than any tiny litle fridge magnet they put in a holster or case...geez. Don't community colleges offer physics classes these days?

[keswan]

The injunction against magnets and computers is real, but it dates back to the days of magnetic media such as tapes and floppies. I was witness to a classic example back in the day, when a tape reel that contained important new software bound for a corporate demo was placed atop a couple of deguassng bars by an airline baggage inspector. The data was unrecoverable.

Most people don't realise it, but a computer case is carefully constructed to be a shield against magnetic radiation. Otherwise, you would have trouble receiving radio or tv signals anywhere near an operating pc.

Really??? that's a good one considering that I have an aluminum frame that I use as a test bed for different components and I have no problems at all with either my radio or my tv working near it.
A Hard drive is basically a magnetic field in and of itself, that old adage has no bearing anymore in today's technology.

[nbmz]

For some unknown reason I flopped it on the case of my Dell Inspiron 1525. That night, I had a hard drive failure.

This was not a coincidence. The holster magnet does wreck the drive.
Here's what happened to me:

I had a client bring in a hard drive in for recovery, and it was making a bit of a racket when accessing the disk. The client was also playing around with the blackberry magnet on her mac pro, around the area where the hard drive is located. In a matter of seconds, she had a blue screen of death, and could not get the computer to boot up in either XP or OSX. (ironically, I was able to recover the OSX partition and the info on there!)

I was not able to recover the disk, nor was the data recovery company that worked on it. The data recovery company mentioned that there were thousands of bad sectors on the disk, and it kept getting stuck.

Since the disk was 1 month old, and it was getting shipped to hitachi, I put the theory to test. I plugged in the disk to my mac pro via USB, and was accessing the OSX partition. Once I started moving the blackberry holster magnet around the disk, the hard drive went NUTS, and you can tell that the drive arms were touching the disk platters.

After about 30 secs or so, the disk was inaccessible. Period. No post, no boot, and a LOT more knocking upon boot.

I have worked on many a drive for the last 20 years, and have never experienced this. Perhaps on a smaller drive, it is more susceptible to magnetic fields?

Guys, be AWARE of where you put your blackberry holster. Do NOT use it for ipod (older disk models) or credit card storage. It is a powerful magnet.

I registered to this site to warn you guys, as the danger is real. If you don't believe me, get an older hard drive that you are not worried about breaking and test it for yourself.

Dan

[coolkids5]

wow thats sucks

[rsbrux]

This happened because my credit card was in an inside jacket pocket, wher it lay against th holster's magnetic catch. The magnets can cause problems. Use common sense.