Heh heh I don't know if this is something I should be confessing but here it goes... ;)

My trackball hasn't been functional for almost a month now. It started out with the ability to go right being disabled, followed by up and as of yesterday it was only able to go down. After a few exchanges with the IT department, all I got was instructions on how to restart it (thanks... that helped...) and since I'm an impulsive, kinesthetic person I decided to take the trackball out and to see what was going on. There was SO MUCH DUST on the rollers that I couldn't even see them at first! Heh heh. Whoops. Any ideas on how to protect it better?

1- get a holster or case for it. Don't put it naked in your pockets (where lint is born, right?).

2- get a holster or case for it. Don't put it naked in your pockets (where lint is born, right?).

oops, did I already say that?

Good luck, Welcome to the Forums.

^^^ What he said...twice!

*smacks forehead* I forgot to tell you that I'm not a moron and already have an awesome case. I just live in an area where there is a lot of dust in the air and over a period of 6 months it got really dirty in there.

You can always take the trackball assebly out once in a while and spray it out with some compressed air.

last nite i was browsing and all of sudden t-ball stopped working. restarted couple of time and no luck. called t-mo so insurance claim. got up this morning and it was working. No clue what was wrong.

Christine--no offense intended. Please know I did not intend it that way, more in fun and for emphasis for the need for a case/holster.

Enjoy... you are NO moron for sure if you can disassemble and reassemble a trackball unit. I knew that!

prob the same issue as the OP, in your case it came lose due to something and the trackball can make contact with the rollers again. You can try to push the trackball down and roll it one direction continuously to try to get the debris out.

Oh hee hee I wasn't really offended I was just playing around.

Oh and my name is Marlayna.

You can always send it in for repair to www.CellularDR.com

Or if you are savvy and can do it yourself, you can purchase most parts here: RIM BLACKBERRY CELL PHONE LCD DISPLAY SCREEN, LENS, HOUSING, KEYPAD, BLACKBERRY CELLULAR PHONE SPEAKER, MICROPHONE, ANTENNA

How do you take the trackball out?

8100 Disassembly - BlackBerryFAQ

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ck-em-out.html

Thanks...I was hoping it was something I could do w/out a T6...guess I'll have to try upgrading the software and see if that fixes it. Otherwise Tmo needs to send me a new one!

You don't need a T6 screwdriver just to remove the trackball. Read the 2nd link I posted up there.

Fixes what? I don't see a question about fixing something.

edit

Thanks. I feel that it's a lot easier to just take it apart. Here's how to do it in non-technical terms:

1. Gently pry the silver cover off of the phone and pull the trackball out. There's a little octagonal metal thing that comes off easily, don't loose it. Turn the trackball unit around so the plastic plus sign is facing you. The little black things are the rollers.
2. Gently pry the metal prongs away from the plastic plus sign and remove the plastic. Now you can see the dust and crud making your trackball not work. Carefully clean it and put everything back together.

If you didn't understand that maybe you shouldn't be doing this. ;)