Okay, here’s an interesting one. Was scuba diving a couple of weeks ago and on the way back in about 15 feet of (salt) water I saw something black and shiny in the sand. Popped down only to find a Blackberry 8800. Well, I tried handing it into the dive shop but they just handed it back to me. I opened it up to find that the battery and sim card and memory card were missing, almost as though someone had removed them before chucking them into the sea. I took it home and plugged it in to my laptop via USB. The light on it appeared, then dimmed, then died. Not to be outdone I took it apart, dried it completely, then cleaned all the circuitry and ports with alcohol. I put it back together and left it in a warm dry place for a couple of weeks then plugged it back in. Interestingly this time the light didn’t dim and the screen flashed into life with an icon of a battery with a cross through it (I’m no expert – but I have a sneaky suspicion that this means there’s no battery plugged into it). However, after wiggling the USB cable a little my laptop decided that it had found a “Blackberry” in a USB port and began downloading the drivers. Once this was done I had a new removable drive on E:\ Clicking on the E:\ drive just got the message “please insert a disk into drive E:\”

My question to all the Blackberry experts out there is this: Given that it had probably been down for around 12 hours (it was near the dive shop, and no-one else had spotted it regardless of how obvious it was in the water), and that the screen still works and it’s intelligent enough to realise that it’s got no battery and intelligent enough to tell my laptop exactly what it is – is it worth pursuing (e.g. buying a battery and sim card) to try and get it repaired, or does any of the above indicate that it’s definitely knackered? I’m not an expert on these matters and for all I know, the fact that it’s saying “Please insert disk into drive E:\” is a big problem (in spite of the fact that it’s got no sim card or battery in it) – or this could just be an indication of the fact that the sim card and memory card are absent.

I know it’s a long shot to try and get it working again, but I would have thought that all the above was quite positive. Am I wrong?

Also – where do I stand regarding the fact that it was found? I mean, is it never going to connect to any network because the IMEI number is registered as “missing, presumed KIA”?

Any advice gratefully appreciated.

I wouldnt bother its probally been reported as stolen and wont do you any good anyway

But what a story it would be!! It would be fun to see if the OS will load and he can get it to boot up! I'll bet it will!

If that's the case, how do I get it back to the owners and reap the tens of thousands of dollars reward that's inevitably mine after hours of painstaking repair?

Id just turn it in to the police. The carrier wont help you

Thatzmister2u - do you think given my tale of woe, there's a chance that it might work again? Or do you think anything I said clearly indicates it's buggered? Advice gratefully appreciated, mate! Cheers!

Is it carrier branded? If you call the carrier and provide the PIN and IMEI they should be able to tell you the status.

If what you said is true, Dawg, that's a waste of good alcohol!

Thatzmister2u - no branding at all. It's still shiny and it's black.

theres actually a good read on here about one of the regs here tried to return a BB and it was quite a story indeed.

I beleive that your PC just thinks it's an external memory device. You would need to get a battery and try booting it up, if it fails or is locked you will have to wipe and reload the OS. It is probably much more trouble that it is worth as there is a VERY slim chance you would get it back on the network because as Dawg stated it's most likely stolen.

Information on loading an OS:

How do I upgrade the OS on my BlackBerry? - BlackBerryFAQ

Thatzmister2u - funny you should say that - am downloading the latest desktop manager as we speak. Will let you know how I get on. The saga continues...

Why not just buy a battery and if it doesn't work, return the battery?

If the phone is a GSM 8800 (and not a CDMA 8830...they all have SIMs so might not be obvious, I don't know) then even if it reported stolen it will still work as US GSM carriers don't blacklist stolen IMEI numbers. Only the SIM, which you say was missing, would be unusable.

Is is Verizon??? If so, I can help.