Hello all,
I just bought a used Blackberry 957 off of eBay (yes it's old, but it fits my needs.) It came with the charger and cradle but no software or user manual. The Desktop software I was able to get via the Blackberry website, but for some reason, I could not download a user manual. Other than a few scratches it works fine. The problem is that the previous owner never bothered to erase the data on the unit before getting rid of it. Can someone please tell me how to do a hard reset to delete the data and also to change the owners name in the options menu?? The unit is branded with a Cingular label. Does anyone know if Cingular is still supporting these old Blackberries?

Thanks
Pierre

The 957 is supported; there are thousands of them out there.

There are a few ways to wipe out a 957. One way is to start Desktop Manager, run Backup/Restore, and slectively remove (erase) files like the address book.

The other way is to download the latest version of the handheld software (which I would recommend anyway) from the RIM support web site. The latest 957 version is 2.7a, and install it. When you start Desktop Manager and it asks to upgrade one of the options is to wipe out all customer data :)

The last way is to get ahold of a program called "programmer" - it will allow you to completely wipe out the BB - programs and data. You open a DOS prompt and type

programmer wipe

You then must reload the Operating System via Desktop Manager.

That should help you out.

Where can we find this "programmer" program? Do you have a link?

Thanks for the help. Not long after I posted this, I ran Desktop Manager and found that selective deletion trick.

You can also simply set a password in the Options->Security menu, lock the handheld with the "padlock" icon fon the main menu, and then guess the password incorrectly 10 times. This seems to be the quickest way to wipe a device in my experience unless it's running V 4.0 software.