Got my 3rd replacement 8800 today and noticed that is was a pretty solid build (finally). however i wanted to play it safe and save my self the hassle in the future and decided to use the electric tape method.

when disassembling i noticed the top of the chrome sides were hard to remove. i carefully lifted it up and discovered that blackberry used extremely sticky clear double sided tape! this seemed to have cure most of the squeeking problem that the sides were having. however they only used it on the top, so i carefully placed some more double sides tape on the rest of the inside of each chrome side. and all i can say is what a difference. feels really solid compared to all the other 2 8800 i had. so it seems blackberry knows that the housing is squeeky and attempted to fix it.

Thanks for the quick fix recommendation.

This is good to hear. In fact, I have done the basic repair and my 8800 feels oh so much better than it did with the squeaks, I am still getting some creaky-ness from the top. It is not bad enough to bug me as you have to really grip it to do it plus I don't think you can avoid some old man sounds with a phone that does not have a single case encompassing the internals.

Just my $0.02 but good to hear.

I used a few layers of scotch tape inside my rails. They are much better, but I still have a slight squeek near the volume control buttons. I can't seem to make that squeek go away.

Merged.

First of all, it's a shame that RIM didn't spend enough time in testing this hardware bug, when consumers are foreced to emply their pockets for a product like the BB8800, the last thing they want to notice is the device to be squeeky when holding/talking. RIM really needs to ensure that this doesn't happen to any of the upcoming products. The reason is issue is one of the hot topics on this focums (and I am sure on many other such forums as well) should make RIM realize that they should have taken care of this small issue in house.

I had to open the BB up and the best solutio so far I found to be is to use one layer of electric tape in the empty space insude of the side rails (if you use more than one layer, then your sides might buldge out a little bit).

I know my pearl also squeaked as well. The dreadful way that it was fixed was when i dropped it and landed on the squeaky side. a few dings to the side, but its solid now!

This is where I am at with this issue. I think this is as good as it gets and honestly, my "creaking" now is not that bad and would be the same on any phone with 2 more parts than was necessary. The old squeak was bad and was due to squishy sides. The little creaking I get would only be bad to someone with above average OCD and seems to be less than a mm of "squish". I am happy with my 8800 now and it does feel very solid.

Looking at the 8700 or 72xx the casing enveloped the phone more and while it may have a front and back to it it was solid and did not move. I think no matter what phone used this design, it would have the same issue. RIM was in a situation where they needed more "fashion" or "style" to their design in some of their phones and this is the result. They will learn and they will improve IMO.

FWIW, I just invested in a bluetooth headset (I know, finally) and so the volume buttons are pretty much a thing of the past anyways.

The one-piece versus two-piece housing really shouldn't matter. While the 8700's don't tend to be as squeak prone my 8700c definitely squeaks. My 72XX's and 6230 never did so it's entirely possible to make non-squeaky two-piece housings.

I was just basically saying that the rails were not even necessary. Why add them to the sides? They serve no purpose other than "looks".

I picked up an 8800 today from one of my local cing stores, and I have to say the build quality is much nicer than the one I received when I ordered over the phone. The sides don't squeak at all, and the keys have a defined click to them, not squishy like the first one.

a few layers of scotch tape on the rails works great!!! thanks for the tip.
i agree that it is unacceptable that the 8800 and its intended target market has such a terrible design flaw.....rim should be focused on quality, details and aesthetics go a long way now with the market being so competitive.

mine started squeaking after 3-4 days

12 weeks and no squeaks...

Mine creaked right out of the box.... No worries though, it's not as bad as many are making it out to be....

out of the box, my replacement 8800 squeaked 10 times louder than my original.

However after reading through all the fixes, I just wanted to report that [as has been suggested] very careful application of a few very small drops of high quality [dupont] teflon silicone lubricant into the joint of the rail/body fixed it in 2 seconds with no need to remove anything etc

I'd recommend this over WD40 as WD40 is not actually a lubricant... its a penetrating oil.

it is now completely silent to all squeezing

hope that helps

Have any of the owners of the new 8830 experienced this "sqeaking"? Sounds like a real pain! (And quite surprizing I might add)

Just completed the dental floss fix. I only had waxed, so I stripped out the wax with a knife before working it on on both sides. Definitely reduced the squeak, though it still squeaks a little bit near the volume buttons. Who cares, this baby is going on eBay the moment I get my hands on a curve anyway!

I used the scotch tape under the rails method to fix mine. After three weeks the problem was so bad I couldn't type without disrupting people in a quiet setting. The tape under the rails seems to work great. Thanks to all for the good idea.