After recieving my tour I had a problem with the trakball moving horizontally left to right, vertical worked fine. I discovered an easy fix right there on the phone!!! Simply go into options and scroll down to screen/keyboard. In there lies a trackball sensitivity opion and it has both vertical and horizontal sensitivity boxes. I increased the horizontal sensitivity to 90 and problem solved!

I am on my fourth one. And think I got a later gen one like others, it seems to be working good. I keep it in the plastic hard case and then put that in my leather holster. Trackball has been great, hung once but blew it out with compressed air and seems to be ok. I am waiting for a screen protector from Seidio though till then will have to be careful not to scratch.

Not a clue what the serial numbers are. I was happy to get out of the store by the time everything was reviewed and a new phone was given to me.

This is my first BB and all in all it has been a good experience. I bought my wife the same phone at the same time and her track ball is working fine without the quirks.

Sorry I could help more. If you call the Verizon store and tell them about the problem I think they might log you in so when you do get back to them and your over 30 days at least there is a record of your problem early on.

ok... I took mine back to sprint & exchanged in store. I had the same horizontal issue. The other problem was the battery life of about 3 hours (we'll soon see how that works out). The new phones trackball is absolutely fine. BTW, there is no "green-dot' on the box...

Exactly what I was experiencing on my Tour

I had the same exact issue with the trackball on the Tour. The Verizon customer care idiots told me to take it into a store. The VZW stores are manned by some contract company Flextronics who are a bunch of retards. They accused that I had "water damage" on the phone, when all there was a 2 spots of perspiration on the outside of the back cover (not inside the device) due to it being a hot day (95 degree F) that day. So the Flextronics bozos refused to exchange the phone. I asked for the manager. He called me next day and I showed him how the trackball was defective and also how the back cover of the unit was loose which lets moisture and elements get through. I had print outs of forums from the internet that has reports of both these issues from various BB tour owners. The manager reviewed everything and was kind enough to exchange the device for me. I got lucky with this particular manager. Verizon should be ashamed to sell an expensive device like the BB Tour with so many defects in the device (bad trackball, loose battery cover etc.) They have absolutely no quality control. Same goes for RIM - this is what happens when they manufacture these devices in China, where you get cheap or no quality control ! I doubt that I will buy another BB ever again, unless their quality control improves !

i know and i completely get what you are saying.. How can people continue to purchase $300 devices and the simplest thing doesnt work properly.. there honestly is no excuse for it and i have voiced that fact to sprint.. I tried one last time exchanging my Tour for a new one and it was a good thing i did, because it works perfectly.. I do suggest exchanging for another one because it is a great device and once your not having that problem you will be satisfied, trust me! I too was tired of exchanging devices but was determined to get one that WORKED.. I suggest the same.. EVEN IF YOU ARE OUTSIDE YOUR 30 DAYS I SUGGEST YOU CALL YOUR CARRIER TO GET AN EXCHANGE IF YOU ARE STILL HAVING PROBLEMS! i am a witness that they will exchange after 30 days if you just tell them how many replacements you have gotten and that i get a $300 phone that doesnt work!

oh yea one more thing.. if they tell you just bring it to the store and let a tech take a look at it, tell them that you have done that already multiple times and that doesnt solve anything, because the device is still having that problem, which is true!!

My first Tour had horrible left/right trackball repsonse. I replaced it within 2 days and got on that was ok. Now a month later this 2nd Tour has even worse left/right response then the 1st. This is my first ever BB phone and although i love the phone, the trackball is useless. I just dont see how I can keep replacing the phone every couple of months for the damn trackball.

Finally exchanged my very early Tour yesterday. Trackball was fine north and south; east and west not so good. It moved like a bucking bronco with sensitivity at 90; at 80 it jumped; at 70 it froze almost completely. I set it to 80, went to VZW. The guy played with it for about 10 seconds, it got stuck right off and it would NOT move. He just brought out a new box. This one is perfect so far @70.

Putting a curve trackball is the solution for this problems. Odds are that exchanging the device is just delaying the problem from happening again. The only problem with putting a curve trackball in is that RIM has not given the phone companies the authorization (at least Sprint for sure) to open up the phones, so any technician that follows orders won't swap them out.

Prolly a rebuilt and by someone with dirty work habits

My Tour Trackball is Horid and I was about to return it. I will take your advice to my store! Thank you

I just got back from the VZ store and was told it IS a software problem with a fix due in the next couple of weeks. I was still given the option of a replacement, which I took. Had to be shipped though.

I would be THRILLED if this problem turns out to be software-related. A firmware fix is preferable to a hardware fix any day!

I count this one as very unlikely. There've been no software updates for the Tour, but people who have exchanged their devices seem to have had much better experience with the trackball... It doesn't add up.

Swapped trackballs with an old Pearl and all seems fine now. I set my horizontal sensitivity back to 70 and see no issues yet.
I did it myself with a T7 torx-driver and a credit card. Be CAREFUL if you try this! I almost broke the little tabs off of the top earpiece cover.
Yeah, I guess my warranty is in the toilet...

-BTW: The black Tour trackball seems to work just fine in the Pearl...

I'm still not totally sold on the Tour I guess. I miss the size and convenience of my Pearl.
?? Why couldn't they just make a Pearl with more memory??!!

(you'd think I've never seen smilies before eh?!!)

ive heard about swapping the trackballs. do you happen to have a DIY or some info about how to do this? i have an old curve can i can just take the trackball out of that phone and put it in my tour.

i wonder if itll work. its an old AT&T bb curve and i am trying to swap it into my verizon bb tour.

Have a look at this: BlackBerry Tour 9630 disassembly tutorial
There are numerous youtube vids for "blackberry tour disassembly" also...
You can get a torx T-7 driver at radio shack- Or a better electronics store (if you don't live in cow-town like I do!)
Again- Be careful with that top earpiece cover! The tabs are very tiny. And pay attention to how to fit the main-board back into the top half of the shell... you kind of pull back the top edge of the shell so that the main-board drops straight in. (as opposed to "angling" it in...)


I am guessing that it will work. I'm no expert, but after cleaning and replacing the trackball on my old pearl(s) numerous times, and then seeing the trackball assembly on this Tour, I'm betting that they are all the same.
You can find new trackballs for as little as $6.95 at different suppliers online...

I got one of the first Tours at 8.00 AM the day it was launched and my track ball SUCKS. I Just changed the sensitivty to 90 and it seems to help! Thanks for the tip!

my trackball is so responsive I had to bump it down to 60!

I got my Tour early on day 2 of the original release for Sprint. The trackball was bad but I soldiered on and tried to adapt, get used to it. Finally I couldn't stand it, especially with my old Bold sitting on the shelf next to me, inactive since I ported to Sprint, silently mocking me for putting up with this poor trackball.

I received my replacement(s) today from cnn.cn and did the install tonight. I got an orange one (designed for the Tour), which I installed, and a black one (for the Bold) in case the orange looked hideous or didn't work any better than the original. I love the color orange in general, but in dim light this one looks more like a white trackball that's gotten dirty. In brighter ambient light it looks great. The real great thing is that it has completely fixed my trackball issue. The install took maybe 10 minutes total, a real piece of cake. Very straight forward, no special tricks or techniques. Now my Tour is the way it should have been from the factory! :-D

rambo, sorry if this is posted elsewhere, but is there an instruction guide on installing the new trackball somewhere? Sure was easy on the ol' 8830. Maybe not as easy on the Tour?

I watched a video on YouTube posted by CNN.CN, the company that sold me the replacement trackballs: YouTube - BlackBerry Tour 9630 disassembly tutorial

I've done a bit of BlackBerry disassembly/upgrading/maintenance in the past so it was nothing new to me.

Thanks. I changed the housing on my 8830 to a black shell. Which pretty much meant taking the phone apart. So maybe I can handle this as well. I'll stick with my black trackball for now as it seems to be functioning flawlessly. But with all the problems being reported, be ready to take to plunge.

My tour experienced the same problem. Luckily for me it was still within my 30 days and I swapped it out with the Sprint Store that I got it through. However, I discovered that the Sprint - Nextel Repair Shops here in Georgia no longer even repair the parts to replace the Tour's trackball. they just send you back to the store.

verizon is now replacing defective tours with new ones they will have a green dot on the Box

replaced mine last week after the trackball (that had some issue already with left/right) stopped going down. it would only go UP.

replaced it with a box that i noticed had the green dot.

Well it looks like it's a software problem. I am running test software now and the ball works great. Also has more memory. I can't tell you what ver. it is. But if it keeps going good you will see it soon on Verizon. I am sure that some one will leak the ver out soon. (4.7.1.**) I can't be the one to leak it out. I have done a search on the net and don't see it any were yet?

I agree with lostman72. The trackball issue is definitely a software problem. I exchanged my Tour three times and still had a problem. The last time was pretty good but there still was a trackball ag. Over the weekend I installed OS Beta 5.0.0.191 and suddenly the trackball issue is gone. The lag is definately gone. I even had to lower the sensitivity to 50/50. Besides fixing the trackball issue, this OS upgrade runs much faster than the OS that came with the Tour (4.7.0.0.40).

For those of you who have concluded that the issues is with software, pat yourself on the back.

5.0.0.191 fixed my trackball issue....

I installed a trackball from my old Pearl before the 5.0.0.191 leak and it alone made a world of difference. The OS upgrade DID allow me to drop my sensitivity back down to 70. The Pearl trackball just FEELS so much better.

Wirelessly posted

The ver. I am testing is not 191. Glad to hear 191 is working good.

The Tour trackball not scrolling side ways is a mechanical defect, and a very common one. I have successfully swaped out a Sprint Tour trackball with Sprint Pearl trackball. Actually, the Sprint 8830, Pearl & Curve all use the same trackball.

Its no where nearly as easy to remove the Tour trackball as previous blackberries. You have to be particularly careful when removing the plastic cover over the earpeice to not break the two plastic clips to expose screws below it.

Wirelessly posted

Yes some are hardware but most are software.

how do I get 5.0.0.191? Is it a BB update or something I gotta download and plug up?

the .191 leak is linked on most BB forums. When I took mine apart, i discovered that while the different trackballs have the same physical dimensions and connections, my Pearl trackball was manufactured with metal components where the Tour ball assy. used plastic. My pearl ball assy also has gold contacts. The ball itself is much rougher in texture than the Tour ball. I think RIM scrimped in manufacturing on the Tour trackball and it backfired.

I took the advice of changing the horizontal settings on the trackball. Now it works great. Horizontal is at 90 and Vertical is at 70.

There is another solution for the trackball problem - the Essex. I just saw a picture of the Essex (Tour with WiFi) and apparently the trackball is gone and the Optical Touchpad has replaced it.

Does this mystery firmware also fix the muted sound through the mic?? (no BT) If so I will wait it out instead of asking for a swap.