Temporary Fix

If you just want to quickly check something on your mobile and want to use the trackball, you can do this temporary fix until you get the time to fix the trackball entirely. First lock the phone or put it on standby. If you have it, drop a tiny bit of isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol on the ball and use a cloth or clothes to rub the ball around vigorously, up and down, up and down. After the ball appears to be dry, it should be good to go. You can also try to do this without the isopropyl alcohol.

How it Works

The blackberry has magnetic proximity sensors, or reed sensors that basically detect a change in magnetic field. There are four sensors for up, down, left, and right.

As the ball moves, it presses against rollers which rotate a magnet right over the sensor. A ball mouse uses a ball and rollers to rotate a circular disk containing holes where an interrupter sensor detects pulses of light. The thing is, the ball is never the thing that collects the dust, its the actual rollers which gather the dust. The newer blackberry trackpad is actually the same as an optical mouse, detecting the movement of your finger along the trackpad.

Permanent Fix

To fix the trackball permanently is relatively. Easy, first you need to remove the trackball. I believe for blackberry curve’s its the easiest as you just remove it directly from the top. I’ll give you step by step instructions for the Blackberry Bold 9000. Other blackberries are probably very similar.

Shut the phone off, and remove the battery, sim card, and MicroSD card. Before when opening a Blackberry Tour, I snapped a MicroSD card in half while doing a teardown of the chassis, so its best to play it safe.

Remove all 6 screws with a hex bit, I believe its a T6, but double check. That black plate should then easily remove. Push out the PCB by pressing a bit on the keyboard and prying it out on all sides, then pull it out away from where the LCD is, its wedged in there. Do not use regular screw drivers to pry it out as it may damage components, use a plastic screwdriver if necessary.

From the front side of the PCB, you’ll need to remove the metal plate holding the trackball in place. You can see there are four metal clips holding it, pry those out with a metal screwdriver.

The circuitry under the trackball must be very dirty, I would use isoproypl alcohol and a cotton swab (Q-tip) and clean it out.

You can actually see the trackball in action by moving the ball and watching the rollers moving. When rolling the ball in one direction, only one of the rollers will move, the other will not. If you are moving it in one direction and both rollers do not move, then that roller is the problem one, this will be more clear later on.

The trackball will have to be taken apart, separate the metal clips on all four sides and pry it off, its very tiny. You may notice a severe buildup of dust on the white baseplate. Especially on the particular roller that was not working. Also see on the individual rollers. The problem one probably has the most dust on it.

Pull the rollers off one by one and clean them completely. You can use isopropyl alcohol to help you. Take note at which orientation all the rollers and parts are so that you can easily put it back, the parts usually only fit in one way anyways. As normal, if you’re forcing something together, it probably was not meant to be, take your time and don’t rush it.

• Digg
• Stumble it!
• Reddit

• Sony Cybershot W120 Teardown and LCD Replacement
• How to Hook up an N-Channel MOSFET
• LCD Screen No Power, No Signal