Recently a friend of mine at work asked me if I could "look at" his BlackBerry Bold. I asked him what was wrong and he told me that he couldn't get it to recognize his SIM card. The next day he brings it in and I take it home and begin playing around with it. The first thing that I did was to put my working AT&T SIM card into the phone to see if it was simply a bad SIM on his part. This proved to be a no go because I still saw the "Insert SIM Card" at the top and "SOS" where the signal indicator is. I then thought to use the "Desktop Manager" and update the software. Five minutes passed and the phone was updated to v4.6.0.297. I now hold an updated phone with the same issues. I then went to Menu Key > Settings > Options > Security Options > General Settings > Menu Key > Wipe Handheld, and cleared the device back to default. After doing this the "SOS" was gone but the "Insert SIM Card" still remained. I then upgraded the software again only to go back to where I began. The odd thing to me although is that if I go to Menu Key > Settings > Options > Mobile Network, it tells me that it's on T-Mobile. This is clearly an AT&T branded phone though.

Does anyone have any clue as to what might be causing all of this or what I might be able to do to fix it? If more details are needed I will be more then happy to provide them. I am somewhat a novice when it comes to the world of BlackBerry so my knowledge is limited, at this point I have done all that I know to do. I do although love the device and plan on getting one myself ASAP.

Did the device formerly for work OK for your friend?

Normally, an invalid SIM notification is that the device has not been unlocked for use on a carrier other than the one to which it is branded.

How do I determine if my BlackBerry is "unlocked"? - BlackBerryFAQ

If the device is branded to ATT and you have an ATT SIM, it should work, but still a new SIM could be gotten from ATT and it might allow the new SIM.

As far as I know, yes it did work alright for him. He said he tried to take the SIM card out and that's when he began having problems. I have checked and the device is not unlocked either. But it does show the AT&T startup and shutdown videos when turned on and off. I'm pretty sure that the phone is not under warranty either. If it was it isn't now because I have taken it apart and looked at the board around the SIM slot with a 25x scope to see if anything is loose or not connected and as far as I can tell it looks to be okay. This may not be the case although as I don't have another model to compare it to and can't find any high res pictures on the internet. I have tried my SIM card in the unit and another and both give the same outcome. He might just have to suck it up as a loss and admit the fact that he now has a $400.00 BlackBerry iPod and media device. I thought about unlocking it for him to see if that helped, but I'm already out the $6.00 I had to pay for the T5 to open the thing up.

You said, under mobile network it says its on t-mobile? despite being an at&t sim?
does it say automatic or manual for network selection?

It is currently under automatic network selection mode

wow.
thats really screwed up. unless for some reasoning its roaming on a t-mobile tower.
which sounds even stranger if it still says insert sim card.

Yeah, I'm pretty lost on the whole darn thing. I asked pretty much the same question on another forum and I am getting nothing but greif there. Oh well, such as the internet I guess. BTW, I'm a huge Lost fan and I can't wait till the final season in December.

December! I don't think so. January my friend! Or Feb at a push.
AS long as they don't do a reset (which it appears they may do) it will be fine.
If its season 1 all over again, i'll scream. And I hope Jack dies.

Anyway, back to the issue.
Id say something has damaged its hardware, it cant read the sim, or read it correctly anyway.
Id say time for new phone.

1. Find out for sure from your friend if it worked before, not "as far as you know", which to me, means you don't know if it did, right?

2. Even if not unlocked, if it is ATT branded and you are using an ATT SIM, it should be fine. Get a new SIM from ATT and see how it goes. Just do a SIM swap, I have seen that work many times.

I'm going to give it back to him and tell him that he is basically SOL. I've looked at the board again and it's missing two solder points and some connecting leads from where he tried to get the SIM Card out. I tried to get some pics for you guys to see exactly what I'm talking about but dealing with things that small it's rather difficult.

If you look in the attached images you'll see a red circle, this is the problem area. Almost dead center you see a large black chip directly above the three gold prongs. To the right of that chip is where it looks as though the board has been scraped clean. You can faintly make it out in these images.

Thanks for everyones help and advice, I really do appreciate it. Sad to say but it looks like he now has a fancy iPod for himself.

Yep he's definatly missing 2 little board critters I just checked in mine & its got 2 small capacitors or whatever they are there..

Hi i have the same problem, just look at the att. this is a photo of vodafone repare staff showing the damaged area. can anyone tell me where to find this spare part and what is it's name?
what cause it is: remooving sim card using a pen!!!!! don't do this

I'm not sure if this would work, but you could try replacing the middle housing?