BlackBerry Forums Support Community

celticlad · 05-11-2005, 08:48 PM

Folks
I'm writing here..out of desperation for my wife who practically runs her business from her blackberry. Today in mid-sentence (with me) her bb went dead. This is the second one in the last month.
Cingular customer service has been absolutely horrendous. They sent her to stores for hardware replacement, and the stores told her they had no authority to do anything. She has spent hours on the phone trying to get some resolution other than a replacement, which will take 4 - 7 days due to backorder issues.... according to Cingular.
I have an old compaq "ipaq" bb, which has served me faithfully for years...however her devices keep crapping out. I looked over the device to see if there was a hard reset button, but couldnt find one. I removed the battery and smartcard several times to see if that would reset....but no joy.
Bottom line...we have a 3 week old device that is dead. The red led blinks 4 times about every 2 seconds...but otherwise is dead.
Does anybody have any suggestions for me....she is really frustrated...and is in the midst of an extremely busy work week...and is kind of freaking out about not having her phone/mail by her side. I've done a search of these forums for "blinking light" topics...but didnt come up with much.
Thanks much
Brian

Soapm · 05-11-2005, 09:19 PM

Can she put her SIM in your HP BB just to get going?

I would then go to a Cingular store and have them call CS while you are standing there and I wouldn't leave without a resolution. That way one can't refer you to the other.

mrogers · 05-11-2005, 10:30 PM

Yeah, if you get stubborn enough in the store they'll eventually help you. That's what we had to do to get a billing issue resolved.

By the way, what in the heck is an iPaq/HP Blackberry???? Only RIM makes BB's!

celticlad · 05-12-2005, 10:38 AM

Folks
Thx to those who have responded. BTW...my wife did call Cingular CS from the store (the second she visited) and after waiting 25 minutes to get to them...recieved the same response. The store declined replacement...citing no authority....and Cingular CS said there is no other option than to return the (second) non-functioning bb and they would send a replacement as soon as the back ordered units were available. The CS individuals "best guess" was 4 - 7 days.
In response to Mroger....Compaq (prior to the hp takeover) briefly licensed and resold bb's under the "ipaq" brand. It was essentially to the corporate market only...and more specifically to large enterprise "Exchange" accounts.
It is several years old..and the hardware doesnt have the capability to accept one of the cards from the newer family of BB's.
I searched all over the web last nite to try and find something that addressed the rapidly blinking red led's and what they meant. I downloaded the BB users guide from the RIM site..and searched elsewhere. I couldnt find anything that indicated what the blinking lites indicate. It appears from other threads in this forum that they blink differently based upon various hardware states....but I couldnt find any info that would indicate what these were.
I've got to say....based on my wifes experience with the 7290's she has had, that there seems to be some issues with this device. The mail, of course works flawlessly, as has my BB for years...but the phone has been absolutely horrible. I call her often, and the phone echoes, cuts out and signal drifts terribly. I dont know if it is cingular...or the BB hardware, but I suggested to her that if she is going to continue to depend on this as a business critical device to her business...she should probably get a seperate phone. Three BB phones in four months doesnt point to a strong track record on reliability.

Soapm · 05-12-2005, 11:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by celticlad

....based on my wifes experience with the 7290's she has had, that there seems to be some issues with this device. ...but the phone has been absolutely horrible. I call her often, and the phone echoes, cuts out and signal drifts terribly. ...Three BB phones in four months doesnt point to a strong track record on reliability.

I'm still waiting for my 7290 to arrive. I've been reading this forum for a while now this is the first report of this kind. I'm guessing you're implying it doesn't take a lot of punishment since others are happy with the unit itself.

I have a Cingular locked 7290 BB that is new and never been used. I bought it off ebay, opened the box (IT WAS STILL SEALED, ORANGE BOX), put in my TMobile SIM and found the phone is locked to Cingular. The seller claims to be returning my money but he hasn't yet (2 days). I paid $260. Let me know if you're interested. I will ship ASAP. Sounds like she can use a backup.

stonent · 05-12-2005, 11:27 AM

You should point out that Nextel overnights you a new phone. You just have to turn one into a nextel store that can do this (most) and you'll have the replacement in your hands the next morning.

agr · 05-12-2005, 11:52 AM

Sorry about the problems here. I would recommend trying to connect the dead device to PC and try to see if you can kick start it back to life by possibly reloading the device's OS back to it. The Blackberry Desktop software seems to be aware that the BB device lost its mind and tries to "do the right thing" to bring it back. My BB7520 had 2 flashing light failure, a solid red failure, and other screen-based failure indications but I was still able to bring it back. It can't hurt to try!

corey@12mile · 05-12-2005, 12:37 PM

I wholly agree with agr... use the desktop manager/apploader to redo the handheld OS... go grab the newest one from blackberry.com and give it a whirl... you should have it fixed in under an hour. Very simple and straight forward process... use all the defaults, cause at this point you would be wasting your time trying to figure out what options you should or shouldn't use, and you have nothing to lose but a bit of time at this point.

cd.

Soapm · 05-12-2005, 09:02 PM

FYI... The guy just refunded my money. I will ship it back to him in the morning.

FiftiesDean · 05-12-2005, 10:52 PM

you don't have to take your phone to a Nextel store, at least I didn't have to. they mailed me a return package to ship it right to them. Kudos to Nextel though, they really get things out fast.

As far as Cingular, ask to talk to your way up the ladder. I got out of my 3 year contract with them a few years back after I threatened to call the FCC and BBB (my cell phone, even after being replaced, wouldn't work and when I couldn't call 911 when someone was being robbed, I had enough) Threaten them, they can get you a BB out, or they can find a store to cough one up if you get to the right person. I strongly recommend if it's for business head over to Verizon or Nextel though.

Good Luck

matthewk24 · 08-03-2005, 01:12 PM

FYI..

I came accross the same situation and here is what I did to fix it.

1. The pc would not recognize the bb, so I uninstalled the desktop software.

http://www.blackberry.com/knowledgecenterpublic/livelink.exe/fetch/2000/8021/7919/8125/How_To_-%20_Perform_a_clean_uninstall_of_BlackBerry_Deskto p_M<br%20/>anager_software.html?nodeid=160545&vernum=0

2. Reinstalled the desktop software and firmware, both 4.0

3. Reconnect the bb.

4. Opened the Desktop Manager, opened Application Loader and followed the prompts.

I choose to load all of the apps (by default they were all unchecked).

The downside was that I lost all of the information on the BlackBerry, but I was able to get the device up and running in less than an hour.

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Help with dead 7290