So, my old trackball finally gave out on my 8100. I bought a replacement through amazon.com for about $2.00. When I replaced it, it has a gritty feel and barely works - you have to scroll a million times to get the cursor to move in any direction.

So either i bought a crappy replacement, or my phone has had it (it's three years old). I cleaned out the contacts with alcohol when I replaced the ball as well.

What trackball replacement do you recommend? Any that are better than others? Any you've been especially happy with?

Thanks!

It's always best to go to the T-Mo store (or any other carrier that you have) to get a trackball. You'll pay a bit more but it will work properly. Quality varies wildly when dealing with these cheap items.

Always best to get OEM parts. Goto who you bought your phone from and they should have them. If not ebay is always a great place to look.

Wirelessly posted (The Dacia Sandero of data plan)

Or go to a reputable vendor like www.horizonwirelessonline.com -- I believe they are one of the major vendors of the site.

they carry the spare parts at the t-mo store? that would make it easy!

Turns out, they don't carry any spare parts - and looked at me like I was insane.

There's a story out there that T-Mobile will replace your ball for free starting on the 15th:

Check out tmonews dot com story from January 27th

Iv had to replace a few trackballs in my past BBs and my advice is this:
-Buy one on ebay from an AMERICAN SELLER, usually under 5 bucks shipped
-Get a clear one, and clear only. From my experience with colored trackballs, the colored dye that is used to dye the trackball acts just like sweat and finger oil that builds up in the trackball over time. I like the look of a green trackball in a red BB Curve, but it feels terrible
-Dont pay too much. If you order one from a phone carrier, chances are they will charge way too much

I hope this helps.