I have been having a lot of trouble with my blackberry. (7230 running 3.8 - although i beleive that our BES is now 4.0) It seems that
it often goes into a mode where the screen blanks out except for the
hourglass. After a number of minutes it comes back and asks for my
password. Sometimes it does this repeatedly before I can enter the
entire password. Other times it lets me enter the password and then
"applies security settings" and then asks me to verify the date and
time. All will seem ok, until it starts this process all over again. I
have tried resetting the unit, but it has no effect. It seems to mainly happen during email (reading or composing). I also cannot replicate it at will.

Any thoughts? (IT is making the unit unusable).

Well first of all, they don't make 3.8 for the 7230.

Secondly are you aggrivated with the password or the date/time thing? I think the date/time thing usually shows up when you pop the battery or it is completely drained.

You are correct. I think it is 3.7 something. I am aggravated with the unit constantly blanking out and having an houglass for about 1 minute+. The date time thing is just a symptom. My IT department's first thought was a loose battery, however it does not appear to be loose, nore does movement (i.e. shaking) of the unit cause the event to be any more or less likely.

What version of 3.7 is it running? Some of them are known to be buggy. (options->applications)

I had a 6510 that did the same thing drove me crazy. I never did figure out what the issue was. I sold it and got a 7520..