Okay so the other day the trackball on my 8800 started acting weird...pressing it immediately typed a "u" or sometimes a "lu" etc. Now it's just not responding to being pressed at ll. I am able to scroll with it, but unable to select anything at all.

I have tried taking out the battery and SIM card for over an hour...it boots just fine and never exhibits any other strangeness aside from this... Never spilled water/extreme temperatures/etc...

Any ideas?

Other than trying to to clean it out with compressed air or taking it apart.. it sounds like you have a bad keyb/trackball problem..

Lol right I can tell it's bad...what are my options in terms of fixing it? I live outside of the US (it's a US phone)... I *can* send it over (it's still under warranty) and have it sent back, but that's about a month w/o my phone. I have a backup, but I'd rather not use it if not necessary, of course.

All depends on how you want to handle it really :/ If you think its the trackball itself (assembly) then you can just purchase one to replace it if you don't feel like waiting. Or try calling your "dealer" and see if they will send you one (new phone) and you can ship yours to them once you get the new one..

Cellular Accessories - Alcatel, Samsung, NEC, Acer, Panasonic, Tools, Mobiado, Accessories Store, Apple is a good place for parts

Will replacing the part myself void the warranty? It's an AT&T

Did the device get wet or damp? If not wet the warranty will get the unit replaced.

As I stated in the original post, no it didn't get wet. I know the warranty will still replace it. The current state of the question is whether or not replacing the trackball myself will void the warranty.

you should be fine replacing the part. They won't eve notice if you do, if later you have to do a warranty. besides you can always keep the old trackball and put it back in if you have to send for warranty.

Also ATT will send you device then you would return defective unit. Atleast domestically that is the case not sure about international

I won't lie that was my initial thought totally overlooked that part of your intial post

The same thing happened to mine last Thursday, it seems to be happening quite a lot, as i spent the weekend searching the web to find a fix, but to no avail but found several threads in many different forums citing the same problem.

Cleaning the trackball, battery resets, none of them work. Ended up going into my local carriers shop yesterday, and it's seems they know of the problem, they were willing to replace the unit straight away, but I need proof of purchaase, (have to talk to the account manager this week).

The first thing the guy in the shop did was remove the battery and have a look at a small white square to the left of the serial plate, if that had been red it would have meant that it was water damaged and i wouldn't get anything. The carrier seems to know about it, and there is quite a lot of discussion about it on the web, but i still haven't been able to find the reason for it and no one seems to be talking. So til I get prrof I too am stuck.

Wirelessly posted (Opera/9.50 (J2ME/MIDP; Opera Mini/4.0.10031/286; U; en))

I was able to get thr trackball working again by pushing on it with all my might--i heard a faint pop, and now it's working... Dunno if this is a long-term solution yet :/

I suspect this issue appeared after the phone slipped out of my hand. Sleek design looks pretty but doesn't help in terms of sticking to clumsy hands :P

lol @ fix. Got to love those.. that must have scared you. I would fear I would push the ball right through the phone.

I too had the track ball issue described below occur to my 50 day old 8830.
That in addition to the ON/OFF button not working, you have to pull the battery. Tech support says this is not the first and the unit is defective.
The customer service on the part of TELUS was nothing short of appalling. They know there is a problem and being a bix client offered to exchange the unit after many hours of arguing with them over the phone. Course now they have backtracked and are only willing to exchange the unit for a refurbished one. Does anybody know the history of these units?
My understanding is these are the broken units that end up RIM. They can be the oldest or the newest. The software can be of any generation. They have been cosmetically cleaned up and shipped out. Is this accurate?

I'd try taking a q-tip and some rubbing alcohol (turn off the phone of course) and cleaning it by rubbing in circles and across for a while. It helped with mine...the trackball is basically just like the mouse pad ball.

Hope that works. If not, a good solid hammer always does the trick

My trackball was 'scratchy' so I ordered two additional trackballs from the site ez cites above. One to replace and one to spare. The new trackball is smooth and works fine. It was very easy to replace. About $10 each. I believe the company is in Singapore and I was charged in a different currency. But about $10 when converted. I also ordered a black shell for my 8830 with no problems.

How difficult is it to change a track ball without damaging the unit.

It is simple. Just follow the directions! It takes me less that a minute to change on now!

This is for cleaning. Just skip that part and insert the new one exactly as the old one came out!

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...rl-8100-a.html

E-

I would suspect that you probably should have mentioned that in your original post. Dropping it and breaking it voids the warranty. Don't try to return and swap for a new one if it was your fault.