How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball

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June 13, 2007 at 2:43 pm · Filed under Howtos

I read a lot of articles where BlackBerry users complained about their BlackBerry’s trackball (aka pearl - which gave the Pearl its name) doesn’t want to move to a direction anymore.

To be honest, this is something I was afraid of when I first heard RIM will replace the BlackBerry’s trackwheel with a trackball. You won’t believe what happened to me two days ago … My trackball didn’t want to move to right. Well, that’s not good, I thought. After two days of drying everything from moving the ball as fast I could to shaking the Pearl until it got sick. Nothing helped. The ball didn’t want to move right anymore. That’s really bad because there is no way to select an application (address book, options, anything that is not in the left column) and therefor the phone is useless!

BlackBerry 8800 Trackball

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Today it was enough! The problem is, I cannot afford to loose that phone for maybe several weeks while it will be repaired. So I searched forums, googled (even yahooed) and found a lot of stuff which had not really an answer to my question. I remembered an article some months ago which mentioned the coloring the of the Pearl’s trackball by coloring the LED beneath the trackball. Finally I realized that removing the pearl’s cover would the best way to get access to its sensor and clean it. By the way, this should work for all BlackBerry devices that carry a trackball around like BlackBerry Pearl, Curve, 8800, 8820 and 8830.

The silver ring which covers the trackball can easily be removed if you use a small screwdriver to lift it at the outer side of the ring. Be careful here! Like you should be during the whole process as all parts have very small plastic nipple which can break very easy. When the silver plastic ring is removed you will see the inner trackball component which can be removed completely. Before doing this you should carefully remove the silver metal ring that holds the trackball component in its position. The trackball component itself can also be carved. For every direction the ball can roll to you’ll find a sensor wheel. Those wheels are mostly carrying some gunk you should clean them from. Once this is done put everything back together to the place the pieces came from and secure the trackball with the silver plastic ring you removed in the first step. Your BlackBerry’s trackball should be back working now.

BlackBerry Pearl Trackball Cleaning Screen Shot
Cleaning BlackBerry Pearl's trackball

BlackBerry Bold Trackball Cleaning Screen Shots

This is a bit more complicated because you need to disassemble all parts starting with pulling out the battery, unscrewing the cover, and popping out the circuit board. It is pretty though. You just need the right tools

That are lots of parts I know. But that’s it. Here is a high definition image of the BlackBerry Bold’s Trackball:

The trackball itself is the same as in the BlackBerry Pearl, Curve and 88xx Series. Just the metal cover is a bit different. So if you cannot fix this you might want to get one of the replacements below. They should work with the Bold as well.

If even this cleaning does not help you should consider to buy a new trackball for your BlackBerry. It is pretty cheap and you even know how to assemble it already BlackBerryInsight searched the web and found the best offers for you! You can get a brand new trackball replacement below via the famous Amazon webshop for just 5-8 bucks.

Amazon.com Widgets

Update: We have added a “BlackBerry Trackball Toolkit” to the widget above if you are in a need a full blown trackball repair solution

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Phreqd said,

June 15, 2007 @ 1:21 am

Do you mean the ball wouldn’t roll physically or on the screen? I had the problem where it wouldn’t roll on the screen, left and right, but would up and down. I did a battery pull and it is all working fine now.

k said,

June 15, 2007 @ 10:36 am

It was not a physical problem like the ball was stuck …

A reboot also didn’t solve this issue. Once I had the ball out of its box I saw the dirt that was before the sensor which tracks the ball’s movement. So cleaning seemed to be the only way here.

Johnny Prewitt said,

June 15, 2007 @ 11:25 am

Thanks for your article on trackball removal and cleaning. Mine will not scroll down..I’ll follow your instructions, carefully.

Johnny Prewitt
Larkspur, CA.

odo said,

June 18, 2007 @ 10:54 am

Thanks!

My trackball wouldn’t move to the right, the ball itself would roll, but it wasn’t registering.

You saved me a lot of time and hassle (Bringing it to the store, arguing that I don’t have to pay for repairs, waiting for it to get fixed. Took about 15-20 minutes, and it would have taken less if I hadn’t forgot how the really skinny ring went back into place (pay attention when removing the pieces). I used a very tiny straight screw driver and a touch of delicacy. Good luck to all blackberry-ball-cleaners.

Mike O
Toronto, ON

pete l said,

June 19, 2007 @ 11:22 pm

Thanks! Carefully following your steps worked perfectly.

Stuck Trackball - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community said,

June 23, 2007 @ 12:46 pm

[...] Stuck Trackball - Today, 11:46 PM I hope that I am not the only one who has had the misfortune of having their trackball get stuck and not move in one direction… But I couldn’t find any posts on it so here is a link that I found helpful in getting mine back to going. BlackBerryInsight » How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball I’m not so sure that the trackball is going to last out my contract on the phone, it just doesn’t seem like it’s sturdy enough to make it. [...]

SteveG said,

June 30, 2007 @ 5:15 am

I had the same thing happen to my 8830. The trackball would not register to the right (it rolled right with no problem). The phone was only 2 weeks old. It fixed itself after about 8 hours, but not a good sign on such a new phone. I could still return it to Verizon, but I don’t have the chance anymore.
Thanks for the tip. I just wanted to state I had the same exact thing happen.

Drzyko said,

July 1, 2007 @ 1:42 am

My trackball will not scroll down. I tried the cleaning thing but to no avail it still will not scroll down.

Adam said,

July 2, 2007 @ 2:09 pm

Worked like a charm!

Katie said,

July 4, 2007 @ 2:40 am

hi i had that same issue and i cleaned my trackball it now works but that small ring that surrounds the trackball after you take the main cover off will not go on it how do i put it back on i have it off right now and my phone works with no issues but i dont want a ghettofied phone i want my old blackberry back

P said,

July 6, 2007 @ 8:33 am

I think that the small internal silver ring goes on horizontal, that is the prongs go on the left and the right side. not top and bottom. I needed to guide them in with little screwdrivers. Interestingly, I checked out the bigger blackberry pearl (full keyboard/8300?) and its trackball does not have the silver internal ring. Not sure why they did away with the silver internal ring on that model.
Mine kinda works after the cleaning, but still thinks that it is scrolling up continuously at times. Hopefully it will “fix itself” in 8 hours like SteveG’s!

P said,

July 6, 2007 @ 8:39 am

Oops! Turns out I somehow managed to put mine together wrong. See link showing that they go verticle.
http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene…ll+disassembly

frederick said,

July 6, 2007 @ 10:51 pm

I’ve had the problem a few times. The first time it was, as the person above described, repaired by a “hard reboot” — removing the battery and restarting the device.

This last time though, it was a problem with dirt in the trackball, so thanks for saving my blackberry from a trip to the t-mobile store

I would recommend trying the battery removal fix before cleaning the trackball as it is a little easier process.

k said,

July 7, 2007 @ 1:54 pm

Sure. Always try any other attempt first before opening your device!

dino said,

July 13, 2007 @ 4:43 am

how do u keep the trackball white?
or clean it so that it stays new?
please help…….

Randy said,

July 13, 2007 @ 6:03 am

My 8800 would not scroll down, and the pearl felt “scratchy”. Finally, after a week of searching for a board with the solution, I found this one. A three minute job to clean out a grain of Lake Tahoe beach sand, now I’m back in business.

Jon’s Geek Stuff … & Stuff » How to clean your BlackBerryâ€™s Trackball said,

July 14, 2007 @ 7:28 am

[...] How to clean your BlackBerryâ€™s Trackball [...]

Woodsy said,

July 20, 2007 @ 9:06 pm

After about three months my trackball on the Pearl wouldn’t scroll to the right (well the ball would move but it just didn’t register). I tried to blow out any gunk with a can of compressed air to no avail but your fix worked like a charm.

PeterMeter said,

July 30, 2007 @ 9:31 am

Hola. My blackberry pearl refused to move to the right or up, so I took it apart and removed all the gunk from under the trackball. After I replaced it the problem persisted, so on a hunch I took it apart again and flipped the ball around. This did not fix it but changed the directions that didn’t work (instead of not going up or to the right, it wouldn’t go down or to the left). I looked closely and realized that two of the four little black cylinders on the back of the ball weren’t moving, leading me to believe these are the culprits of my Berry’s failure. How do I fix these??? It’s driving me crazy, I can’t BBM anyone!

Angela said,

August 1, 2007 @ 12:39 am

What should I use to do the actual cleaning? Canned air? Rubbing alcohol and a q-tip?

Trackball Sticking - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com said,

August 1, 2007 @ 4:16 pm

[...] Here are some link: 1 — BlackBerryInsight » Blog Archive » How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball 2 — Trackball Disassembly, LED Color Change & Reassembly - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community This second is best… __________________ Visit my moblog @ http://moblog.co.uk/blog/mattmarenic [...]

twotone said,

August 7, 2007 @ 12:04 pm

put a drop of waterless cleaner, aka citrasolv or a hand sanitizer. works like a charm!

Dan said,

August 9, 2007 @ 7:03 pm

Just had the problem where it was scrolling right but the sensor wasn’t recognizing. I have the 8830 and used a tiny eyeglass screwdriver to pop the metal ring off. The trackball on the 8830 doesn’t appear to have the glassy ring but the trackball assembly comes right out… I wiggled it around and blew on all sides… popped it back in, works perfect.

Thanks for the tips everyone. Too bad I’ve only had this 3 weeks and already had to replace it after 2 days because the software kept crashing to the point that it couldn’t be rebooted. Good times.

CP said,

August 11, 2007 @ 10:56 am

My trackball rolls in all directions OK, but when I press it down to enter it does not work. Any help, is appreciated.

THanks

Mike said,

August 13, 2007 @ 3:54 am

Mine wasn’t scrolling down, so I took the trackball apart, cleaned it (definitely dirty) and still had problems. I noticed that two of the black roller wheels looked like the black coating was scraped off a bit. I grabbed a Sharpie and colored the wheels black again…and back to smooth operation.

del.icio.us bookmarks for August 14th | Technovia said,

August 15, 2007 @ 8:34 am

[...] BlackBerryInsight Â» How to clean your BlackBerryâ??s Trackball - Aha! How to clean the Pearly on your Blackberry Pearl [...]

Rob said,

August 18, 2007 @ 10:16 pm

I was having the same problem - my trackball would function in every direction but down. I popped it out to check, but didn’t really see any visible build up of dirt, pocket fuzz, or anything else. I finally used a little rubbing alcohol to clean off the ball and it started working perfectly again. I think in some cases the ball just eventually becomes coated in a translucent layer of oil and gunk from your fingers which affects its ability to make contact with the tracking sensor.

thundt said,

August 25, 2007 @ 7:51 am

Here’s some more info for y’all. A couple of points which haven’t been mentioned. (NB mine’s an 8100.)

The trackball module itself can be taken apart from below. The ball falls out, and you can see four little axles that rub against the ball, and turn when you move it. The axles are white and have black barrel-like things on one end, which (when installed) hover above four black sensors on the circuit board.

The little black barrels? Those are MAGNETS. The sensors beneath them (when installed) are almost certainly Hall effect sensors, meaning, they react to magnetism. So, you don’t have to worry about keeping those looking good, they just have to be clean enough not to interfere with movement.

The white shafts (axles)? They have RIDGES going along them. This is to provide traction with the ball. So, the best way to clean them is by holding the black end and wiping towards the other end. (I used Windex and a paper napkin.)

I’m looking forward to new high scores in BrickBreaker now that this is all nice and clean…

MPS WIRELESS said,

September 2, 2007 @ 2:39 am

Thanks, its a freakn miracle. Worked like a charm. Opened up the trackball completely cleaned out all the dust and dirt, put it back together and it works just like NEW!!!! I had replacement quotes for part (trackball) only $50-$75. Here it costed me 5 minutes of my time. Thanks

Gigi Li said,

September 2, 2007 @ 2:41 pm

Thanks so much, I experienced the same problem couple days ago, and my blackberry is very important for my work..so I’ve found this page adn you saved me! Thanks so so much. Cheers, Gigi from Hong Kong

Eric said,

September 4, 2007 @ 7:10 am

CP, I am having the same problem. Cleaning it didn’t help.

Shan said,

September 6, 2007 @ 7:15 am

Thanks, it worked for me too.

Amy said,

September 10, 2007 @ 11:25 am

Thanks! I followed your directions and used rubbing alchol on a q-tip to clean the ball too. My trackball works now!

Ali said,

September 11, 2007 @ 4:30 am

And I thought I was the only one! Thanks so much for posting this! You’re the only resource I’ve found for this problem.

A few suggestions for navigating the Pearl when the trackball isn’t working (before you get a chance to clean it):

-If you’re having problems navigating the Applications menu, lock the phone (hold down the * key) and then unlock it. This will allow you to start from the top, leftmost application and continue on from there.

-If you’re trying to navigate the settings, including the Profiles, press the key corresponding to the first letter of the option. This will usually get you where you want to go.

I know it’s a hassle, but sometimes that’s all that you can do!

vicki said,

September 13, 2007 @ 2:20 am

Great Help! This fixed my problem.

I took my blackberry pearl to the beach and accidently dropped it in the sand - 2 weekends in a row! after the first drop I couldnt’ scroll left. Then after the second drop I couldn’t scroll right!! It made life pretty difficult. ha. But this 1 minute fix made it all better. Thanks!

Sanjay said,

September 20, 2007 @ 3:15 am

Thank you! My trackball stopped moving up today. This made the calendar very difficult to use, because once you look at next week’s appointments, you can’t go back to today’s! (Unless you resort to using Menu+T which I was doing for a couple of hours today). Googled for “blackberry pearl trackball stuck” and your site came right up, and it solved the problem. I used a computer toolkit (eyeglass screwdriver would have been easier, though). The fragile plastic clips on the Pearl’s trackball are on 3 sides — there isn’t one on top near the screen so don’t bother prying on that side. I think it must have been some invisible dust, because I didn’t see any real dirt inside, but just the act of taking the ball out, rolling it in all directions for a while, brushing off the rollers and putting it all back together made it work.

Jose L said,

September 26, 2007 @ 6:13 am

Thanks a lot for this post.

My trackball stop going to the right, at first I took the trackball apart and it didnt solve the problem, then I found out that the little black wheel wasnt turning, so that was the problem, then I read the comment that you can take it all apart and I did that to find that there was a huge ammount of pocket fuzz next to the wheel, and that was the source of the problem. I took it out with my fingers and now its better that ever, very responsive.

Thanks again.

Dexter said,

September 27, 2007 @ 11:50 am

I did what you did in the listing. I took it all apart mainly with a Exacto knife. Although it still doesn’t move where I need it to. Basically the trackball didn’t move down, so then when I did what you illustrated I ended up flipping it. So now it doesn’t scroll up. I cleaned it all out and stuff like that. I even found the little things that you said that give it direction, cleaned that out as well, still nothing. So the main problem is that it doesn’t scroll up now.

Thanks for this though it helped me out a lot. I will have a talk with TMobile about the trackball in general, if I can just get that part or have it replaced. I doubt it but it’s worth a shot. The phone works great, finally got it back working. But I’d rather have the ability to use the full features while I’m at it. Thanks and good lookin out man.

jane said,

September 30, 2007 @ 2:47 am

I just fixed my blackbery pearl trackball with vodka.

If you dont have hand sanatizer or rubbing alcohol - VODKA works just fine. Then you can celebrate your well functioning phone with a cocktail.

Tim said,

October 7, 2007 @ 10:10 pm

AWESOME, TIP. Went to use my phone and the down scroll was not working. Followed the directions above and cleaned it with some air and it now works!!!! Thanks So Much

Arthur said,

October 9, 2007 @ 6:44 am

Great suggestion worked perfectly!

Aaron said,

October 15, 2007 @ 9:16 pm

My trackball just quit working as well. It seems like this is a huge design flaw! RIM should definitely address this issue! I will attempt to clean it today.

Benjamin said,

October 17, 2007 @ 4:41 pm

Hey good fix my trackball stopped going to the right did a soft reset and it worked alright for a couple days then I took the ball completely out and now it works just fine thanks a lot!!!!

Woj said,

October 25, 2007 @ 1:36 am

Worked like a charm. I used my fingernail to lift the ring. Lift from the bottom of the ring (on the 8800 between the T and Y keys). Came out easy and I fixed it in less than 2 minutes. Mine would not scroll to the right. Must have been dirt but works great now! Thanks!

Rex said,

October 25, 2007 @ 1:58 am

Hey, great tip on cleaning the trackball. Mine gradually stopped rolling right and I suspected it was something like a ball mouse but didn’t know how to access the sensors until this how-to.

For everyone whom the initial cleaning doesn’t seem to work: this happened to me too and I found an extra step that might help. For me, the trackball would roll, but the right sensor wouldn’t register (the wheel didn’t turn). Look closely at the side of the unit where your non-functioning wheel is located. There should be a thin layer of metal over the plastic casing. CAREFULLY bend the metal upward (I did it with a straightened-out staple) and you can access the actual wheel axles. I found an absurd amount of dirt in there, which turned out to be the real culprit behind my problem.

Hope this helps!

Truth Told said,

October 30, 2007 @ 1:10 am

Thanks for the tip. I was sitting here all morning trying to figure out why my track ball stopped working. Mine wouldn’t roll vertical. I was already prepared to take it in to Cingular.

Thanks again.

Sam said,

October 30, 2007 @ 7:23 am

Thank you so much for this. I had the same problem except that mine wouldn’t scroll down. I popped it out and it was fixed. Thanks for the article!

Marty said,

November 4, 2007 @ 1:15 am

I had a similar problem with the screen pointer not responding to the mouse. I tried to remove dirt, but it did not make a difference. Then I used the sharpie to over up a part of the black that was missing. That solved the problem.

ixlr8 said,

November 4, 2007 @ 7:43 am

I dropped my phone running to first base at my sons baseball game. As soon as I picked it up full of dust I knew I was in trouble. The mouse is stuck and not moving well, plus it will not go left at all. I find this post, follow the instructions and presto. It is even better then before. After disassembly, I put the trackball under the faucet, moving it all directions to make sure I cleaned it well. Next I took compressed air and made sure to get all of the water out before re installation. You must get all the water out or it will eventually rust. Mission accomplished. BB 8830 is back online and better than new. Thanks again for this helpful info.

Mike E said,

November 7, 2007 @ 7:29 am

My trackball would’nt scroll down. Tried cleaning it and resetting, did’nt work. Just took the trackball out following the instructions above, it was not dirty, but taking it out and putting it back together has cured it! Only took a couple of minutes to do.

Bob e said,

November 14, 2007 @ 11:33 pm

I just did it and the it worked. The trackball is moving w/ no problem. Be careful w/ that inner silver ring. Make sure it does not bend when putting it back together.

James said,

November 15, 2007 @ 8:59 pm

I just tried it and it didn’t work. So I preceded to get a little more in depth. I took off the second metal ring off of the trackball. Next the bottom should come off. Then realized what was wrong, the rollers had dust on them so they would not turn. I removed each roller clean it of the dust and now it works! TRY THIS IF JUST REMOVING THE TRACKBALL DOESN’T WORK!!!

christina said,

November 16, 2007 @ 12:10 am

thankk uu very much!!! it worked perfectly..my trackball was stucked with sand and i couldnt go down so it was almost impossible to view my contact list or my messages etc… but now it works

thank uu you saved my life..

a hug from panama!
byebye

Michael said,

November 21, 2007 @ 6:30 am

Trackball moves physically, but does not register on screen movement. Simple fix for mine, I learned this from being a mac user, the trackball gets dirty all the time and the exact same thing happens. Easy Fix, alcohol and a Q-tip. Dip the tip into the alcohol and allow it to become soaked, then wipe off excess, I usually use the back of my hand, so that I can tell that the alcohol wont drip off the cotton. Then using the q-tip swab, rotate the trackball back and forth in all directions, repeat the procedure 2-3 times and it should be fixed. I just did it and its working perfectly! Hope this helps, its alot easier than taking it apart.

blackberry trackball problems — mark o’brien said,

November 21, 2007 @ 10:36 am

[...] a quick tip i’m happy to pass on…i was having trouble with my blackberry pearl’s trackball not tracking left. i had a mate who had similar issues, but i’d been fortunate to not having anything, in spite of me probably not giving my pearl the best care in the world - i just tend to shove it into my pocket, so i’m sure there is all kinds of dust and lint in the wrong places.the solution to this problem was to pull the little trackball out and clean around the magnetic rollers and sensors. it’s a delicate operation, but seems to work just fine. the best info i could find about this is here. read it careful, proceed carefully… and BIG TIP OF THE DAY… note carefully the orientation of the bits as you remove them! :-) have fun! [...]

Brian said,

November 24, 2007 @ 8:05 am

Worked perfectly for me. Thanks for the tip!

Mark said,

November 26, 2007 @ 1:19 am

My 8800 trackball wouldn’t select. It would scroll in any direction, but would not select when pushed. I lock my bb w/ a password, so I could enter the password…then there was no other way to hit enter. Phone was useless. Took out silver ring. (pry from the top. There are 3 little latches on l, r, and bottom, but not on top). Ring pops out then the whole module comes out if you flip bb over. Used rubbing alcohol w/ qtip to clean the black residue off of the contacts both on the ball module, as well as the brass looking contact on the board underneath. There was more black on there than on the module. Put it back together, and wa-la….works like a charm. Long live these forums and those who contribute. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks, to all who contribute.

Kamil said,

November 27, 2007 @ 4:51 am

Worked like a charm on my BB 8800. But getting off the silver ring with a small screwdriver can be rather challenging to do with no scratches. Thus i would abstain from doing it with a screw driver in the future if ever needed, and i would appreciate any advice for doing the same procedure using a more delicate tool, if any?

FIX IT CHEAP said,

November 27, 2007 @ 6:01 am

FIX IT / REPLACE IT (TRACKBALL) FOR $25 - CALL 323-651-5555. DON’T SPEND TIME TRYING TO CLEAN IT.

Franc said,

November 27, 2007 @ 6:38 pm

Thanks a million. Worked like a bomb. Took 30 secs.
Try this before paying someone $25 and losing your phone for 30 days.
Cheers, Franc

Luis said,

December 3, 2007 @ 7:30 am

Hey bro thanks a lot

Jerald said,

December 4, 2007 @ 3:41 pm

I had the same problem today.. but guess what i did? I just blew right into the trackball, with all my force (around the trackball).. believe it or not.. it actually worked. I dn’t know if it will work out for u guys.. but it did work for me

Raul E. Rojas said,

December 8, 2007 @ 5:48 am

I have a similar problem to all but not quite the same. can someone explain a possessed trackball. I’ve cleaned it but it still sounds like someone is moving the trackball. it wont move much just a few icons to the left and in a few minutes it will move up or down. Its probably the sensors or a haunted BB. I would appreciate someone shedding some light on this. Also, the track ball clicking sound can go on for minutes at a time…very annoying.
Thanks,

Yvonne said,

December 11, 2007 @ 7:39 am

Does anybody have a link to some pictures of disassemblying the trackball, some more involved pictures?

Jay said,

December 11, 2007 @ 10:42 pm

Thank you very much for this short but very helpful description. Managed to clean my pearl and it’s good as new.

Tyler said,

December 12, 2007 @ 5:46 am

WOOOHOOO!! Thanks for the article. I couldn’t track left and now after following the instructions I was able to fix it. Thanks again!

JayJ said,

December 14, 2007 @ 1:03 am

My 8800 is like new, after just 45 seconds of cleaning (following one week of cursing before reading this page). Thanks.

lee said,

December 17, 2007 @ 4:48 am

5 min later it works!!

Two BlackBerry Mysteries, Solved | BB Geeks said,

December 17, 2007 @ 10:00 pm

[...] If nothing else works, you can attempt to clean the trackball by removing the silver ring around it. Do this at your own risk. Here are some instructions on how to do it. BBGeeks.com takes no responsibility for any damage caused to your device by using this method. Subscribe to the BBGeeks RSS Feed [...]

bo diddly said,

December 26, 2007 @ 11:07 pm

There is no reason to remove the trackball assembly, because it is a sealed unit. Cleaning the trackball itself with a bit of alcohol will work. If you remove the silver ring you might not be able to get it back on again.

Patrice said,

December 27, 2007 @ 12:38 pm

Hey guys-
I just got a blackberry curve and the trackball moves, but it keeps makin me this clickin noise like it is stuck, and won’t move across the screen!! It’s like when a computer malfunctions and needs to be rebooted(which I did several times). I just got it today!! Any suggestions!? I’m so upset!!

Born said,

January 1, 2008 @ 12:44 am

You are the man. Article worked perfectly. I knew it would be similiar to cleaning a mouse ball, but didn’t know how to get in there.

Thanks

Michael A said,

January 3, 2008 @ 4:37 pm

Wow. What a pain in the a$$ but it worked! After several failed attempts to clean I followed Thundt’s advice & disassembled the parts around the trackball and found more schmutz. Reassembling was no easy feat. Do take caution taking this apart minding how the metal bracket covering the rollers and trackball fit back on.

Daniel a said,

January 4, 2008 @ 5:12 pm

i have had this issue a few times now, on each occasion it works a treat for a couple of weeks before creeping back to its non moving in a particular direction state.!! problem is now the parts are getting loose with the ball assembly not being as tight as it once was, gettign worried that maybe the next time it wont go back together and stay together.!!!

i cant believe RIM wont address this problem.??? its obviously a design default obviously not helped by those amongst us who keep our BBs in our pockets instead of girly holsters….

Hank said,

January 10, 2008 @ 6:50 pm

My trackball on my 8830 only registered right and left and not up and down. Since I hesitate to remove the trackball unnecessarily I took the battery out for 1 minute and put it back in to reboot. I works fine now. I suggest trying this before any radical removal of the track ball.

JMA said,

January 11, 2008 @ 7:57 am

WHOOO HOOO!!! Your tip worked…and for a second I sat on the phone w/ Tmobile talking about warranty issues..thanks for saving me time and now I can scroll left!! LOL

Vikrant said,

January 14, 2008 @ 1:16 am

Worked after removing the wheel completely and cleaning each roller axle separately. One should be very careful in opening the trackball encasing and removing the ball and axles.

JP said,

January 15, 2008 @ 10:39 am

I was having trouble with my blackberry…I removed the trackball & all its pieces, cleaned it out, but when i tried putting everything back i forgot how it went and ended up bending the little metallic ring. I decided to leave it out and the phone seems to work fine W/out it. Do yall think thats gonna be problematic? WHats the point of the metallic ring?

PC said,

January 15, 2008 @ 11:14 pm

This totally worked. I had my phone in the bathroom with me when I was taking a shower. I guess the steam had gotten to it because the trackball would move around, but would not let me select something. This trick worked like a charm. I just used a tissue to clean it out.

Sticky trackball and keyboard - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community said,

January 18, 2008 @ 3:04 pm

[...] Originally Posted by Soul Rebel To make a long story short, I dropped my curve in a cup of ice cream and now the buttons and trackball are extremely sticky, but the phone itself works fine. I already cleaned the trackball by removing it and alcohol swabbing it, but I still cannot scroll right, left does work however with a firm push. Basically my question is how would I go about fixing the stickiness in both the keyboard and the trackball? Just remove everything and proceed with more alcohol? How are other components affected by the alcohol? Mahalo in advance. We wrote a quite comprehensive guide on how to clean the sensors of the trackball. It is too long to write everything down here but you can check the article here. It’s also illustrated with some pictures

Please make sure to take of your parts. You should not break something

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Chris said,

January 22, 2008 @ 11:33 pm

My trackball worked but was a little glitchy. Followed your instructions and now it works like a charm.Thank you for your post.

vasilis said,

January 24, 2008 @ 5:58 am

thank you very much! you saved my life.
the dealers needed 10 days to SEE if it could be fixed,thanks to you it took me 10 mnutes.

thanks again

Abid said,

January 25, 2008 @ 12:57 pm

Thanks, worked like a breeze on my 8800 but broke the pins on the metal ring when putting it back

Pam said,

January 27, 2008 @ 3:17 am

Thanks so much for the instructions. A little more clarification on putting the silver metal ring back on would be helpful.

On mine there were three prongs on the back of the silver metal ring. I placed the 3 prongs - one at the bottom and the other 2 on either sides leaving the top free from a prong. It slipped in and snuggly attached. Back to normal! Yeah!!

Thanks.

BlackBerry 8820 cleaning pictures said,

January 28, 2008 @ 1:32 pm

Thanks for the post! I have posted some pictures while cleaning my BlackBerry 8820.

DaveT said,

January 29, 2008 @ 3:19 am

I have a blackberry 8800, my wheel would move in all directions BUT the press in option would not function. I took off the track ball as suggested with my finger. I removed, cleaned the track ball with alcohol and a Q tip. Still nothing. I cleaned the bottom brass plate also with the Qtip removing black gunk build up. I used the Q tip to ensure the botton brass plate would actually depress and pop back out. I did this several times. It works perfectly now. Since I am on the road in Europe this is a considerable help. Thank you.

chris said,

January 29, 2008 @ 4:22 pm

your awesome man, i called tmobile and they were no help, i google the problem and u helped me out. my trackball wouldnt select anything, i carefully unassembled it and cleaned it with air and a qtip. now i have a blackberry 8800 again. was kinda hoping it would’ve still been messed up because i want an excuse to my wife to buy a curve but oh well. thanks so much.

Moli said,

January 31, 2008 @ 12:43 pm

Thank you for posting this, I have a 8300 pearl, the trackball would move but on the screen it doesn’t budge, so I found this site, and I cleaned it myself following the instructions, great information, great help, saved me a lot of time, thanks again for sharing this.

Shayna said,

February 1, 2008 @ 3:03 pm

AMAZING!!! this would have been the 3rd one Verizon would have had to replace for me, but by following your advice, my trackball works again!

ryan trevino said,

February 10, 2008 @ 1:30 am

mine wasnt scrolling down either, i was recent at a job and had to anwser the phone while i was working. got a tiny grain of sand in there, and i could hear it scratching the pearl. took the pearl out in 2 mins, and cleaned it in 1. works perfect, thanks for the help.

Christine said,

February 11, 2008 @ 7:43 pm

Thanks for the help, it fixed my blackberry 8800. It wont scroll down so i followed your instruction and it works!!

Indy said,

February 12, 2008 @ 10:12 pm

Awsome article. 5 minute job, very easy to perform. I cleaned my 8800. The difference was that after you remove the chromed plastic ring, the wheel assembly comes off directly. Then at your leisure you can disassemble it and clean it. Be careful with the sensor wheels (4 count - one for each direction) they are small and once you remove the metal braket that holds the wheel assembly together, they may fall. If this happens, use a small magnet to find them - the black heads of those sensors are magnets themselves (yea, its not optical).

Indy said,

February 12, 2008 @ 10:14 pm

Sorry for the double post but here is a piece of advice:

Exchange one of the left or right sensor wheels with the bottom one. The bottom sensor wheel is the most used one, all other remain relatively new… like rotating the tires on your car

Michael H. said,

February 15, 2008 @ 3:38 am

Thanks for this most AMAZING post. I was about to call Verizon to have my Pearl 8830 replaced after just TWO DAYS because it suddenly stopped scrolling up and down.

But all is better. I wish they would go back to the wheel. =P

Caramelfox said,

February 17, 2008 @ 1:09 pm

GUESS WHAT?? I tried using the air in the can to get the dirt off of my track ball and it WORKED wonders!!! This may be another fix to those who are scared to disemble their unit.

Thanks

Ken Meyer said,

February 19, 2008 @ 4:35 am

Perfect Pearl fix!! Got your link from the ATT phone support person.

Lisa Grover said,

February 21, 2008 @ 5:54 am

Thank you for this article! This keeps happening to me and I was hoping to not have to send it back in. You’re a lifesaver!

Peter said,

February 22, 2008 @ 12:19 pm

Thank you very much, it really worked!!! I can’t believe that it’s so simple! This is actually my second Pearl, the first one I had had the same problem, so I replaced it.

Thanks again!!!

becky said,

February 23, 2008 @ 9:33 am

My scroll ball isn’t working on my new blackberry curve, I only bout it a few weeks ago (my first cell phone) i worked 39 hours of over time to buy the blackberry now the scroll ball breaks, i’m not all that tech advanced so i called the customer service at at&t and they are sending me a replacement hopefully they find that the scroll ball is under warranty and i dont get charged $300 i was going to try to take the ball out but it seems like if i try to pry the ring off i’ll damage the phone

Tony said,

February 26, 2008 @ 4:09 pm

Okay very easy fix once you understand how the thing works

First, take the trackball out and and clean everywhere you can see and then try it again. If that doesn’t fix the problem then most likely one of the Black cylinders is not turning which is the main way that the tackball works. I’ve noticed that the little metal sensor that makes contact with phone when the trackball is used is attacked to the trackball unit from the bottom! so that is where pocket lint etc. will collect the easiest and that is the reason that most people are having trouble scrolling down! so to easily fix it you have to fully take it apart or just pry the side that is not working up just a little so that you can see the axle and clean out all the gunk where the ball makes contact with the cylinder!

thanks for the help everyone

misha said,

March 1, 2008 @ 3:35 am

Hey thanks alot. My trackball wudnt scroll up. I tried turning off the phone. Didn’t wk. Got on the internet n yahood trackball cleaning. Thanks so much. I cud of been a little more delicate because I did get a tiny scratch on my outter ring, but I think that my trackball working is more important!!!

Mike said,

March 9, 2008 @ 3:53 am

Thank you so much for the article. It worked like a charm! I would have probably tried accessing the trackball from the back and thus probably broken my phone.

With my Blackberry Curve, it wouldn’t roll left. I tried, as Blackberry suggests, rolling it firmly in the affected direction to no avail (for about 20 minutes). Then, I tried canned air with no effect.

Finally, I tried this procedure, and it worked. One of the 4 magnetic rollers had some gunk in it (actually they all did, but the one especially). It’s not unlike cleaning a mouse roller ball if you’ve ever cleaned one of those, but it is a little more difficult. I had a little trouble putting the trackball component back together. Those four roller pins are magnetic, so they sometimes are thrown out of place by their charge. Then, I actually had to take it apart twice, since after cleaning it the first time, it still wouldn’t roll left. So, I cleaned it some more, then before placing the outer ring on, I tested it to make sure. I think one of the roller pins was slightly disjointed as to why it didn’t work the first time. Anyway, it now works like new again, and I managed to do absolutely no damage it.

THANKS A BUNCH!!!!

Andy said,

March 12, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

I was scared at first, but once I popped off the silver circle, the track ball came right out. I cleaned out the rolling parts on the sensor and IT WORKED!!!

***HINT: MAKE YOU TEST THE TRACK BALL before you place the silver circle back on. You could have placed the track ball wrong and up will be down and left is right.

THANKS!!!!!

Kevino said,

March 15, 2008 @ 4:38 am

Thanks for that. I was stuck only able to scroll down. Easy to flip the silver off, flip the metal bit out, roll the rollers round a bit to clean them and snap it all back together. Now I can go up and sideways again.

Mary said,

March 15, 2008 @ 8:24 am

Hey there,

Thanks so much for the tips. I used the alcohol swab dipped in alcohol and wow it worked!!!! I am soooo happy. I didn’t even have to take the trackball apart. Quick fix. Thank you , Thank you, Thank you!!!!

Maria

Cedar said,

March 17, 2008 @ 12:47 pm

After reading the article and feedback posts I removed the battery of my BB Pearl and took the trackball out cleaned it in alcohol and now I can scroll down

Thanks everyone.

dnl2ba said,

March 17, 2008 @ 2:34 pm

Holy crap. This will sound silly since it’s such a simple fix, but you’re my hero. I can now scroll up!

Namz said,

March 17, 2008 @ 2:47 pm

i’m SO happy this actually worked! my blackberry phones trackball wouldn’t scroll up, i tried everything from taking out the battery, pushing the ball in hard, asking my friends (who said it can’t be fixed) and just randomly scrolling on it, eventually I called my cell phone provider told me they’d send me a new phone…2 weeks pass no phone..I call them back and they say they cancelled my order (w/o telling me) as they no longer had my phone available in white (the one i have). Eventually they say they can send me a black or red one, but I wanted white so i asked them if they could give me a repair place. So i call this repair place and this guy wanted $60…Not willing to pay as my phone is still under warranty..I googled and came up with this forum, and let me tell you…10 minutes later and figuring out which roller was having problems…its WORKING AGAIN!!
THANK you sooo much!

Knowvice said,

March 19, 2008 @ 3:12 am

I’ve also been experiencing problems with the navigation trackball @ stumbled upon a ‘cure’ serendipitously, here goes….take a cotton shirt and dab it in some alcohol & clean the trackball by rubbing against it until you see movement(no need to dismantle the phone, it will not discolour the keys & it takes less than 5minutes). Hope this helps someone.

HB said,

March 27, 2008 @ 1:46 am

Thanks for this! My Pearl is working again - yea!

David said,

April 8, 2008 @ 3:11 am

Excellent article. with the AT&T pearl, the ring comes off, then the whole assembly comes out. The small metal retainer can then be removed to access the scrolling wheels to be cleaned.

shoe said,

April 8, 2008 @ 12:02 pm

Thanks for this.. mine stopped scrolling down, right in the middle of scrolling a webpage, just gummed up. Prised the silver ring off with my thumbnail, turned the phone facedown and the ball dropped out, sure enough a piece of plastic (left over from manufacturing? - things only a month old) was stuck in one of the wheels. Snapped it back together and works great now. Cheers

tricia said,

April 8, 2008 @ 10:24 pm

Rock on! It worked

Plane Fixer said,

April 13, 2008 @ 1:36 pm

Wow!ball wouldn’t move down. Thumbnail to the ring, dropped out the ball, cleaned it and blew out the gunk, rotated the tires and good as new. THANK YOU!

John George Peppers said,

April 16, 2008 @ 11:02 pm

Just wanted to let you know that your post here is continuing to help people. My Pearl, like a bad girlfriend, decided that it wasn’t going to go down, and no amount of asking nicely, begging, shaking or hitting was solving the problem. I really felt as if paying to get it to go down would make me feel dirty, so the only answer was to open her up and see what the problem was. Sure, I felt like I shouldn’t be doing this, but after prying her open with a screwdriver, there was no turning back. I will say that there were far more pieces than I expected inside, and some stuck to my screwdriver. I fashioned a pair of tweezers out of toothpicks and rubber bands to solve that issue. Pearl made a funny noise while she was lying there with her insides splayed out on the table, but I paid it no mind. After wiping down her internal workings with an alcohol pad, I began to put the pieces back together and unfortunately it was not as easy as removing them. When I finally finished the work, I pushed her buttons just right and got Pearl turned on again. Immediately, I gave the movement that would normally mean that I wanted Pearl to go down and it happened! I couldn’t believe it, I must have made it happen 5 or 6 times in a row and it worked without fail. Now, an hour later, I look at her laying there, with only a small scratch on her face as evidence of what had happened and wonder if she will be upset at me for what I have done. One thing I do know, Pearl will not hesitate to go down when it’s required to again, if she knows what is good for her.

princee said,

April 18, 2008 @ 9:16 pm

minez juxt str8 up broken haha

Matthew said,

April 21, 2008 @ 8:53 am

Thanks so much, this totally fixed my problem!

David said,

May 1, 2008 @ 2:57 am

This was a huge help! I’ve looked for advice on the trackball problem, and this was the only post that really addressed the issue. When I took it apart, there was a huge amount of lint and gunk preventing the mechanism from rolling freely. It’s amazing it had worked at all!

Suggestion: Try to avoid removing the silver ring holding together the trackball mechanism — it’s a real pain to put back together. (I’m not talking about the plastic ring that holds it in…) You can probably remove a lot of lint and gunk without taking it apart, once it’s free from the device.

Dawn said,

May 3, 2008 @ 10:23 pm

Hey I was cleaning my BB trackball, and the case that holds the ball came apart!!! I am having some difficulty putting it back together, is there a diagram that could show me how the parts all fit !!! Need help urgently. I have a BB Pearl

JT said,

May 4, 2008 @ 2:57 am

Pictures would be a tremendous help, but none of the sites above are current.
Please help.

Kevin said,

May 9, 2008 @ 5:49 am

omg! that shit worked it wasnt stuck it acted like it was on crack cliking a million times with out touching it. also when it stoped it would roll but when i clicked it didnt do any thing now it works thanks!

Mike said,

May 9, 2008 @ 7:50 am

You are a life saver! Thanks so much for posting this!

Joe T. said,

May 10, 2008 @ 12:30 am

I think that cleaning the trackball is not the perfect solution, because a dirty trackball apparatus is only one thing that can make the trackball fail to register in a particular direction.

I’ve had my 8830 for about 8 months now, and after about 3 months, I noticed the ball wouldn’t register upwards when rolled in that direction. I searched on the net and found that cleaning the trackball with alcohol might help. I wet a Q-Tip with alcohol, scrubbed the trackball, and sure enough it worked.

Periodically, about every month or so, the same thing would happen. The trackball would stop registering upwards when rolled… I’d clean it with alcohol, and it would start working again.

Within the past 2 months or so, a new problem has started. Every so often the trackball stops registering when rolled upwards. I cannot scroll upwards through my telephone directory, and I can’t scroll upwards through the display of functions icons. This basically makes the device almost useless.)

However, if I manage to get to the Internet browser, and get on the Internet, I am perfectly able to scroll upwards on a web page. It may be a little more difficult than usual, but it’s really no problem. The big problem is scrolling upwards when I’m not using the Internet. And no amount of cleaning the trackball with alcohol helps it!

Weirdly, when this happens, this problem sometimes solves itself spontaneously, after a few hours to a day. When it solves itself, scrolling upwards becomes very easy again, just like scrolling in any other direction. It becomes a breeze — which leads me to believe the problem is not a dirty connection in the trackball apparatus, but something electronic.

A couple of times while traveling in Europe in the past few weeks, I noticed around train stations, where there are a lot of electromagnetic cables, this problem arose. The trackball wouldn’t register when I slided it upwards, no matter how hard or how fast I rolled it.

Then after a few hours, when we were far from the train station, and far from all those EM wires and cables, the ball worked fine again.

Since then, this problem has been sporadic, and has not responded to repeated cleanings. So I think this problem can also be caused by a sort of EM overload or something, which may put a strain on the device. I’m not an electrician or communications technology expert, do don’t laugh at my guess…

All I know is that this trackball problem is very frustrating, and frequently makes my 8-month old BlackBerry 8830 almost completely useless. I am seriously thinking about getting a new phone… probably not a BlackBerry, because it is ridiculous that such an expensive, state-of-the-art device should be totally defeated by such a stupid component as a trackball, which the company didn’t HAVE to include, they just did it because they wanted to.

k said,

May 13, 2008 @ 3:48 pm

Washing the hands more often might be a solution as well

No, seriously: After my trackball got stuck the first time and I cleaned it (btw: that was the time the crappy images above were made :-)) I never had a problem with the trackball again.

Kayla said,

May 16, 2008 @ 12:10 am

Thank you so much! BlackBerry support from T-Mobile was NOT helpful, they kept telling me it was a software issue and that I needed to reset my entire phone system :-|. Thankfully I found this!

Alex said,

May 21, 2008 @ 6:45 am

I don’t understand why everyone has to tell this guy their problems with the phone…if the ball doesn’t work, follow the instructions exactly and it should be fine that’s it! Thanks for the help.

Kenneth said,

May 25, 2008 @ 1:02 pm

I’m telling you. I did the trackball pull and clean and hard reboot and nothing would allow my trackball to go left. One drop of hand sanitizer directly on the ball, then I dabbed most of it dry with paper towel, spun it like a mad-man and blam! It works!

Ronny said,

May 30, 2008 @ 6:59 am

The vodka tip is cool!

I returned my BB Pearl 2 months ago to the shop after having used it for 6 months, because the trackball wouldn’t register its movements anymore. I had to wait 6 weeks for a complete replacement of the device. In less then a month the same problem occurred on the brand new device! I followed the vodka tip, took a Q-tip and soaked it in some vodka - the brand didn’t even matter - then I moisturized the trackball and rolled it in all directions and tada! It worked again! Next time I’ll try gin :))

Franklin said,

June 3, 2008 @ 12:50 pm

I had it to where my Curve 8310 wouldn’t allow it to track downwards.
It’s actually rather simple people!! all u need is steady hands an slightly lift the ring out. Then NOTICE the prongs an when the ring is out lift on the corner of the trackball. ONCE again NOTICE how it’s set… Then carefully look at the 4 mini rollers an grab a air can an blow them loose of any debris. Take a tweezer or small screwdriver an roll the mini balls.. then WOOOOOOOSAAAAAA… put it back together by the way u took it an an you moving an grooving!!! took me all of 3-5 minutes.

Torben said,

June 3, 2008 @ 6:35 pm

worked like a treat on my 8310 - took 3 minutes and my ball was moving in all directions again!!! THANKS for the GREAT advise!!!!

Trackball Tragedies Avoided ~ IT Professionals said,

June 7, 2008 @ 12:49 pm

[...] you too finding that your trackball has suddenly stopped working? I would recommend this tutorial as it certainly served me well. Have a great weekend [...]

Trackball Tragedies Avoided | Technology Blog said,

June 7, 2008 @ 1:55 pm

[...] you too finding that your trackball has suddenly stopped working? I would recommend this tutorial as it certainly served me well. Have a great weekend [...]

News » Trackball Tragedies Avoided said,

June 7, 2008 @ 6:20 pm

[...] you too finding that your trackball has suddenly stopped working? I would recommend this tutorial as it certainly served me well. Have a great weekend [...]

j.smith said,

June 8, 2008 @ 6:04 am

I have a BB 8820. I’ve always noticed that my track ball would stick at times so I would mess with it and it would work again. For this type of problem (the trackball not working) it’s important to think about how you handle your phone. Do you use one of those gay belt clips that says, “My phone is a fashion accessory.” or do you keep the thing in your pocket?

Personally I keep my phone in my pocket… If your reading this, reach inside your pockets and turn them out. Unless your OCD and you think to remove all the lint from your pockets, this is what clogs your BB’s trackball.

ALSO, the pearl is different from the 8820, there is no internal second ring to remove. The problem is that in order to remove the lint from the magnetic sensor, you have to take the track ball assembly apart, otherwise you can’t get to the rollers that are covered in lint. BE CAREFUL, it is a pain in the ass to put back together. STUDY THE PARTS AS YOU REMOVE THEM AND TAKE NOTES ON A PIECE OF SCRAP PAPER IF YOU CAN’T REMEMBER. DO NOT REMOVE THE LITTLE ROLLERS, just the bottom half of the white plastic piece that is held in with the metal clips that cover the sides of the trackball assembly from the top. DON’t DROP IT Either.

Anyway, if you do remove this and you find yourself stuck you can call me at 5704552011 and I will walk you through.

ANYWAY, your article saved me from having to move down one line of text and move to the left to back up to the right side of the upper line. The phone is much more responsive now that it was before. PROPS…

v.kurri said,

June 10, 2008 @ 3:00 am

This article helped solve my little irritating problem and saved lot of time and money. I had the same problem, my track ball suddenly decided to go only right but doesn’t want to turn back, but will go up and down. I think this is the same problem we used to have with our old computer mouse which had the track ball and all dirt used to get stuck on the ball and we had to clean it once in a while. Any way thanks for your article and everybody’s comments. SHARING is CARING. Let’s have peace in the world.

pearl trackball enter said,

June 10, 2008 @ 10:27 pm

[...] [...]

Syrita said,

June 14, 2008 @ 8:07 am

Great article, worked like a charm! Thanks!

hkimbo2 said,

June 16, 2008 @ 6:23 am

I hope you all know that you invalidated the warranty the second you removed the trackball. And Don’t use alcohol because t-mobile says that is the worst thing you can do (after the first rep told me to do it) That will invalidate the warranty too. But since mine is out of warranty I am about to take the trackball out and try it since reloading the software has not worked. thanks

Devesh Sahney said,

June 16, 2008 @ 10:42 pm

Thanks so much for your web page. I repaired my 8800, in 15 minutes.
Trackball was working in all direction except down.
Used a credit card to flip open the trackball ring cover (over the Y key but under the upper silver ring).
Also used “hand sanitation liquid” to clean the ball.
Took longer than expected to reassemble the silver plastic ring.
Works perfect now.
Thanks.

Devesh Sahney

I hate Rogers in Canada said,

June 16, 2008 @ 11:48 pm

So, I called my wireless provider, Rogers, in Canada here because my trackball stopped working when I tried to scroll down. I was told the Blackberry 8800 I had was a month out of warranty and if I wanted a replacement, it would cost $325.
Considering the amount of money I pay them each month for cable, Internet and wireless, I found that ridiculous, so I went searching around and found this site.
The cleaning helped and the trackball works again.
I also found that Amazon.com sells replacement trackballs for $10.

These telcoms are such scam artists, it’s ridiculous. I want some competition in Canada.

Derek said,

June 17, 2008 @ 9:07 am

It worked. My track ball wasn’t scrolling left (is that weird because almost everyone else said that theirs wouldn’t scroll right?) and so I popped it out and dusted off the ball and rollers and it still didn’t work. Then I took it out again, dabbed it with a little windex on a kleenex, and now it works fine.

To the person who said it voids your warranty–here’s a thought–don’t tell them! As long as you don’t crack it in half putting it back together, they’ll have no way of knowing you tinkered with it.

Peter McCormick said,

June 21, 2008 @ 6:08 am

Amazing. In 3 minutes was able to resolve problem. Thank you.

Orion said,

June 21, 2008 @ 10:49 am

Same here. Followed the instruction… cleaned it well… now it’s working fine. Thanks for the help.

phil said,

June 22, 2008 @ 1:38 pm

Thanks, Fixed my phone in 5 min.

Cathy said,

June 22, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

Thanks to the article this helped me solve my problem. I was about to buy a new phone. I did remove the pieces above (shown in the photo) and when I put it back together my track ball still did not move up or down. I actually went in and took everything apart be advised it takes patience to put it back together and I did. I removed however the second metallic ring and it works perfectly fine.
Thanks =)

Simon said,

June 24, 2008 @ 12:01 am

Wow nice mortgage loan content and link drops… i hope the SEs penalize you heavily.

Sokphak said,

June 24, 2008 @ 1:54 am

Thank you very much, i used a really small precision flathead screwdriver, slowly pried it out just above the TY button and pop came off the silver ring, turned out the mini rollers on the corners are magnetic and small bits of metal were stuck to it, just picked it off carefully until it was all gone and put it all back together, presto, i love my blackberry again!

Angela said,

June 24, 2008 @ 11:04 pm

BIG thanks. Woke up this morning to my track ball not scrolling right. I was highly upset. This had happened before and seemed to work itself out after a couple of very frustrating moments!! I got to work this morning and type in my problem. And your post came up. I did as you explain and it still wouldnt scroll right but I put it in a different way. Then I decided to clean it for the second time and check on the sensors. After everything is said and done my bb now works like its suppose to. I was prepared to go spend money to replace the track wheel…had already been to ebay. Thanks again!!

Nelly said,

June 27, 2008 @ 2:54 am

I Broke mine, and I ordered a new one. It came the next day and I fixed it myself in a minute. It was so much cheaper than bringing it to someone else!

Simon said,

June 28, 2008 @ 5:31 am

I had a problem identical to yours, the truck ball wouldn’t move to the right. I did what you’ve said and it works!
Thank you very much!

Old Trackballs vs. New Trackballs - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community said,

July 2, 2008 @ 9:01 pm

[...] 8100, 8300, 8310, 8320. Although you may want to avoid the costs and simply clean you old ball, How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball | BlackBerryInsight Whatever floats your boat. [...]

Seth said,

July 5, 2008 @ 12:43 pm

Worked like a charm on my 8820. Popped the ring off from the top with a fingernail. Took assembly apart and cleaned with rubbing alcohol and a q-tip, but had to use tweezers to put metal clip back on. Plastic ring will snap back in easily if you have it aligned the right way, so don’t force it. It’s like I got a new phone, thanks.

PS AT&T store denied that any such fix existed, surprise.

Mayank said,

July 7, 2008 @ 5:12 pm

thanks tons..
Life saving link!!

Tatiana said,

July 8, 2008 @ 4:37 am

WoW! you save me so much time, thank you!
i was so frustrated bc my track ball would move all around but I was unable to press down and select anything.
The directions were very clear and easy, especially for someone like me who is horrible with anything technilogical.

thanks again!

Tatiana
miami, fl

Marla said,

July 8, 2008 @ 9:50 am

Floss!! I used floss to clean in between the little rollers. Worked like a charm.

Thanks for the directions — I was so frustrated with having a non-moving ball for so long.

melissa said,

July 9, 2008 @ 10:01 pm

My trackball would not go up on the screen. I thought I was going to have to completely disassemble my phone until I saw you site. I had my phone back to working in 2 minutes! Thanks for making it so clear and easy to understand. The pictures were super helpful too!

devonkaboom said,

July 9, 2008 @ 10:07 pm

thanks so much! I was getting really flustered because I couldn’t figure out how to clean it and it wouldn’t track down on the screen.
This was a big help, and it works like new again!

john said,

July 12, 2008 @ 11:56 pm

Thanks for the tips on disassembly and cleaning, worked well on my 8300

Kat said,

July 20, 2008 @ 7:51 pm

Thanks!! I was completely freaking out — worked like a charm!

henry said,

July 26, 2008 @ 4:55 am

I cleaned it but there are actually one more part that need to be taken off first. thin metal plate that holds all four rollers on. Don’t worry of they fall they can all go back in any order. After you remove the plate can scoop out the gunk. I also took a cotton tip and using goo-gone gently cleaned all the parts. It now works like new!

Hardware Review: Solar Charger for BlackBerry Wireless Handheld - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community said,

July 26, 2008 @ 7:27 pm

[...] My Problem..your The One Who Can Help Me…thank You So Much,,and God Bless.. Check this out: How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball P.S.: This is the wrong forum as well as the wrong thread to ask those questions! Blog | [...]

ilana said,

July 28, 2008 @ 10:18 am

thank you so much!
this worked perfectly and was very easy to do!

trinistarboy said,

July 28, 2008 @ 10:09 pm

yep! Nothing beats an internet how-to when contemplating a terrifying step!

Popped it out on a 8800 when it no longer would scroll right - first attempt at cleaning visible gunk and fluff didn’t help, but on the second go, cleaned the rollers as well as suggested by 19. PeterMeter - all systems are now “go”!!!

Pac-Man has newfound agility!

Lovely!!!

lance said,

July 29, 2008 @ 9:41 am

I had only had my phone for a couple of days and the scroll ball stopped moving up and down. the ball would physically move but would not move on the screen, I followed the instructions listed and removed the ball and cleaned the sensors and the problem has gone away. I have a blackberry curve 8310, the only thing different was my phone did not have the middle piece illustrated in the picture above.

chris said,

July 30, 2008 @ 1:33 am

for the longest time mine wouldn’t scroll down but i just cleaned it cause i cant afford to buy a new one im only 17 so i just did the cleaning everything is working but its tripping out like if i scroll it would open something i didnt want to open so yeah

Serge said,

July 30, 2008 @ 3:55 am

Thanks for the tip…
It is working like new.

Moutasim Waheed said,

July 31, 2008 @ 12:39 pm

TrackBall for Sale!
Contact: Moutasim Waheed - 0314-2002064 ( for Pakistan ).

D man said,

August 3, 2008 @ 9:52 pm

I have a 8130 ,fix sounds simple but the 8130 if your not careful
the roller ball has alot of pieces.If the rollers fall out ,your in trouble if you have big hands. It works but be careful!!!!!

BenMan said,

August 4, 2008 @ 6:15 pm

Thank you so much all!
Have the 8800, the tracker ball was is fine when using it to move sround the screen however stopped selecting.

I removed the ball unit, cleaned it with alcohol and a cotton bud, this resolved the problem.

Seems moisture had caused the problem as the device was in my pocket for the whole day whilst I was working.

cmtboy said,

August 6, 2008 @ 5:55 am

This instruction saved my life. I was soo close to throwing my phone against a wall. Now its back! Thanks man, God Bless!

Pankaj Kumar said,

August 8, 2008 @ 1:39 am

Thanks a lot providing such valuable information save my money & time too once again thanks a lot

six said,

August 9, 2008 @ 11:31 pm

First off, I’d reccomend getting 99% alcohol (isopropyl) available at any drug store…you can use it on other electronics (digital cameras ipaqs, etc) it evaporates 100% and does not eat in to casings or leave residue, like I heard someone using windex would (ammonia). Get some q-tips, kleenex does not work well around and inside mechanisms.
also get a needle or a pin.

I picked out all of the fluff, then put some liquid on the track ball and pushed all the wheels until they were clean (picking out even the tiny holes in the plastic with the pinhead. This still was not as I’d like it, so I cleaned the cavity out as well,paying particular attention to where those track roller magnets would seat on the sensors of the bb. I can tell you now after taking it apart and putting it together five times? It works better than when it was new now. Also if you’re trying to figure out which way the ring goes in…
take note that there are 3 sets of forks and the must be oriented in the 3, 6, 9 pm position on my 8820. Make sure they are set up on the female end of the fork on the sensor before you snap that ring in, those pieces could easily break off.

Despite this obvious shortsited design flaw, this is still the only phone I ever liked :)

six said,

August 9, 2008 @ 11:33 pm

p.s. make sure all of those foil tabs are properly seated on the track ball module. If any are bent or untabbed..this could pose an issue!!

erica said,

August 10, 2008 @ 7:50 am

this worked perfectly, thanks!

Richard said,

August 10, 2008 @ 3:30 pm

I did exactly what it said but it didn’t worked fully so I cleaned the trackball with a little alcohol and dried it very good and if you go to options and select screen/keyboard and go down to trackball sensitivity select a number higher than you had it and the trackball will be flying…

Jose said,

August 11, 2008 @ 12:40 am

Hey, great information on this site regarding cleaning the trackball. Just one problem….what can i do if I lost my silver plastic ring that covers the ball (dropped my phone and the cover wasnt’ recovered) I saw a keyboard and new trackball on ebay…don’t want to open the phone but may have to. Any suggestions?? Thank You.

AJ said,

August 11, 2008 @ 1:17 am

Cheers Mate!!
It worked like magic..Thanks!

Tim said,

August 15, 2008 @ 9:28 am

Thanks for this! I bought an ‘as-new’ 8800 and discovered it wouldn’t go right unless I gave it a bit more thumb pressure - couldn’t believe the amount of fluff stuck to the 4 tiny magnetic rollers inside the trackball mechanism (similar to taking the ball out of an olden-day ball mouse and cleaning the gunk that got wrapped around the two rollers). All fixed! Thanks again!

Steve K said,

August 18, 2008 @ 11:42 pm

You have my gratitude for posting this easy how-to. I was prepared to take apart my whole front face of my BB Pearl, until I found this. You saved me so much frustration and hassle(not to mention money because nothing in this world is free!). You explained everything very well without going details that would leave readers confused.

I pried mine open with a small pocket knife (carefully of coarse!) A quick tip for people doing this: don’t forget to rotate the tiny wheels to get every little particle of dust off, because I had to repeat everything 3 times over.

If the Termination story ever comes true all humans need to do is kick up a huge dust storm and the machines will be screwed. lol!

Thanks again,
Steven from Chicago

Dev said,

August 21, 2008 @ 3:28 am

Thanks so much for helping me. I have a Blackberry Curve (8310) and my trackball wasn’t moving up. I just took a mini screwdriver and carefully pried open the silver ring by pointing the screwdriver towards the return key. Then I turned the phone upside down and tapped the other side until the ball fell out (I read previous comments and made sure not to have the small rollers drop out). Then I took q-tip soaked in isopropyl alcohol and rubbed the roller, ball, and ring; I dried it afterwards with the dry part of the q-tip. I then snapped the trackball (arrow pointing down) and ring (with prongs in 3-6-9 position) back into place.

I used a tray so that I wouldn’t lose any pieces.

The whole process took me 5 minutes, and I’m the kind of guy who has to read instructions for setting the time on the microwave! Thanks again.

Pavel said,

August 21, 2008 @ 6:04 am

I cleaned everything including the small rollers (which I also took out). But the real reason was : the rollers are actually magnets, and California beach sands have inclusions of some metal, piece of which got stuck onto the magnet-roller. I could see it there and just removed with my fingers.

Thanks to the author!

Kyle said,

August 21, 2008 @ 2:23 pm

I’ve got the 8120 and after a couple months, I noticed it was hard to actually “click” the wheel in. I’ve never had problems scrolling, but it got to where I had to push so hard it hurt my finger to get it to click in.
I took apart with help from this article, cleaned the button that clicks in the phone with rubbing alcohol and a Q-Tip, and filled the lid of the rubbing alcohol bottle with rubbing alcohol. I just let the ball assembly soak in that for 5 minutes then let it dry for ten (sit for a minute, roll around on a paper towel, and let it sit another minute). My trackball now works like new!
it’s not white though, but I’m okay with that. it’s sort off off-white, like the plastic that holds it in.

Jo said,

August 26, 2008 @ 3:50 pm

Hi Everyone,

My trackball isn’t working anymore. When I click it, I enter the phonebook. To select an item in my menu, I have to push the enter button (bottom right)…should I try the same process?

Thx for your help.

Scotty Mack said,

August 30, 2008 @ 8:38 am

Great Post. This helped get me in the right direction, but you really have to take the trackball assembly apart as well. mine was so dirty that gunk had acumulated on the 4 roller assemblies. The part you have to take apart is the piece that holds the ball itself, and has the 4 black rollers attached to tiny axles. Do it with good light, on a surface where you won’t lose a piece if you drop it. They are tiny. Use tweezers to extract all the gunk. I used alcohol to clean the connections, and compressed air when I was all done. If unsure of yourself, take pictures of each part before disassembly. Works like brand new now.

RandomBantam said,

September 2, 2008 @ 1:11 am

thank you thank you thank you. after months of blackberry support telling me with 99% certainty that it was a software problem, I found this article and I removed the trackball. I found 2 years worth of “ew” and I cleaned it all out. Now my pearl moves in all directions again. Yayayay!

Tom said,

September 2, 2008 @ 11:47 am

Thanks. You just saved me $$$$ buying a new machine

Karla said,

September 4, 2008 @ 9:49 pm

Thanks a lot - very helpful. Blackberry was back to roll in a minute!

Rem said,

September 5, 2008 @ 11:00 am

This worked great! Thank you!

Nicolle said,

September 5, 2008 @ 2:07 pm

Awesome fix!!

J Ibarra said,

September 11, 2008 @ 10:08 am

dude this sh*t worked man its not 100% like it use to be but f**k it al least it scrolls down now bro THANX!

Corey said,

September 11, 2008 @ 11:04 pm

I popped the ring out with my finger nail (easy) and took a clorox wipe and qtip and cleaned my ball. Worked like a charm!

LBUG said,

September 12, 2008 @ 9:02 am

YESSSSSS it worked thanks soo muchh

Victhaney said,

September 13, 2008 @ 8:01 am

Yay! Thank you so much for your help my (bb.curve 8320) trackball works perfectly fine! I was actually going to sell it on craigslist just because the trackball didn’t work! hhaha

Mark said,

September 14, 2008 @ 1:56 am

Wow……….. Thank you. This makes my day.

John C. said,

September 16, 2008 @ 3:58 am

Thank you for writing this article! My trackball was moving in all directions ok but it was not responding that well in certain directions. I’d scroll and the selction would not change, scroll again, no change, scroll again and it would skip my desired selection. Repeat. Bad times. So the cleaning job really helped.

I did take it one step farther than you had in your instructions and didn’t take the time to read the shockingly large number of reply posts so sorry if this is duplicative:

After I had the trackball assembly removed from the chasis I proceeded to remove the silver metal bracket around the trackball assembly. This made it possible to completely remove and clean the trackball, rollers (which have these little teeth on them that were full of dirt in mine), and the inner trackball housing (which was also full of nasty dirt). WARNING: Once you remove the silver bracket, the trackball assembly will…disassemble…quickly. Be careful to keep track of all the little parts and how they fit together!! As long as you do this, putting it back together is reasonably simple; Just be patient and careful.

By the way, I did all of this using one large paperclip (unfolded - to remove the plastic silver ring), my fingers (and fingernails to remove the metal bracket), and some of those sterilizing alcohol wipes (for cleaning the parts and sensors).

B rone said,

September 17, 2008 @ 11:43 pm

I found that after taking the trackball component out, instead of taking it apart, i just soaked it in alcohol and rolled it around so that all the gunk would come out

just make sure its completely dry before re-inserting it

also… be careful of pulling the outer cover too hard… i broke on of the six prongs, if i broke more then it might not have clipped back in

Gary said,

September 24, 2008 @ 4:46 am

Works!! thanks Man, you saved me a lot of trouble

Ninda said,

September 24, 2008 @ 8:32 am

Thank you so much for your information. It helps!
I was afraid of couldn’t have my data while my BB being repaired, but voila I can repair it by myself guided by your post.

Tracy said,

September 26, 2008 @ 2:25 pm

My trackball would not move down. After a frustrating day of this, I found this post. However, I was not too keen on taking the trackball out after reading how difficult it was to put back together, particular since my company actually owns the phone. Instead, I went the route of a little isopropyl alcohol on a q tip and rubbed the pearl and surrounding silver ring with it. I could not believe the gunk that came off on the Q tip. I ended up using three Q tip ends before it finally came clean. At first, it seemed to do no good, but within minutes it was suddently working and scrolling down better than ever.

I would definitely recommend trying this method before you go to the trouble of taking it apart.

Clean it thoroughly, then wait a few seconds to see if you get any results. I also followed the tip of going into Options and adjusting the trackball senstivity. I went from the present 70 to 100 and it moves with such ease now, it’s better than new.

I am unsure why one person cautioned against using alcohol to clean; it should be perfect as it evaporates. Good luck!

MatthewP said,

September 27, 2008 @ 2:33 am

Thanks bro…worked like a charm!

Bampa-Dale said,

September 28, 2008 @ 7:26 am

Anyone who doesn’t dare to take the ball out - you can also roll a strip of tape across the ball. The adhesive on the tape will pull off some of the less stubborn stuff, but it won’t help with anything down below. It’s worth a try for those who fear prying the rings and ball out.

FLORIAN J MGIMWA said,

September 29, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

The roller is not working perfect.Goes rigth and up but not down.May it has jumped.So how can i do.Iam only receiving calls because i cant search names and some program through roller. It rolling with no searching.Second is the networking it ends at gprs means i cant send the sms what can do.

Shawn TJ said,

October 1, 2008 @ 6:43 am

Just be careful doing it and patience is all it takes.
Actually, everything is very simple to do it. When everything comes apart, just do not be panic, try to put all back together, there is no certain position to put all the parts back together.
Once it came off, you would not believe how much gunk in it.
Good luck!

LUNi G said,

October 2, 2008 @ 1:55 am

thankz man , yo my trackball couldnt move left , right , or down …. it workz now so im good , but yea good tip homie

Tony H said,

October 4, 2008 @ 7:38 pm

My blackberry is now working like new thanks to all the tips.
Just to add:
1) When prising ring off it has clips right,left and bottom. So to avoid them breaking prise off from the keyboard side, once slightly from the left until you hear a click, then once from the right and then it should come off all the way.Don’t prise from the screen side as you might snap the bottom clip.

2) I had to pull apart the trackerball assembly to get to the grooved rods out with the magnets on the end.Using a cotten bud and some lens cleaning spray as wiped off the dirt in the directions of the grooves. Only problem was I forgot which way around they were when I put them back. This endend up with my trackball tracking the wrong way, up and down instead of left and right. So I had to pull it all a part again to change them over. With the trackball mechanism facing down on the table, the rod at the top, the magnet end is on the right, one on the right magnet is down,rod at the bottom magnet on the left, and rod on the left magnet on the top. This is for a BB 8830.

3) When you put the mechanism back the two white lugs either side should go back positioned left and right in the phone.

Bubba Trak said,

October 9, 2008 @ 2:55 am

I have always had a problem with dirty balls and now no more. This worked so well I think I will clean my balls every week now.

Andrew H said,

October 9, 2008 @ 11:13 pm

I build custom cabinets for a living and one day when i found out that the trackball wouldn’t work I tryed every thing then I took it into the shop and used the air compresser to blow it out, holding the phone at a good distance this also worked great and only took a matter of seconds

Michael S said,

October 11, 2008 @ 3:33 am

Thanks!! it worked like a charm. I couldn’t track right and now
smooth as silk.

ertan from germany said,

October 12, 2008 @ 2:18 am

thanx sooo much to this articel above and all people who share there wisdom in the internet… internet rules and helped me so many times… actually the people around the world have….
cheers and thanx again…blackberry functions again the way it did before…

sahas said,

October 15, 2008 @ 6:42 pm

Thank you so much for this post
Now at least it works for 2 directions the bottom one which is most imp

Gabriel N said,

October 21, 2008 @ 12:16 pm

Easy to do. Took 10 minutes to take apart, clean, and put it all back together. watch out for the rollers, they do come out and you can lose them quite easily if you aren’t careful.

Mike said,

October 21, 2008 @ 12:42 pm

Thanks for this article. Mine wouldn’t scroll up on my Curve 8310. In the past, playing with it for a few moments or rebooting/pulling battery would work, but not this time.
Glad I ran across your article. Thanks!

Rashela said,

October 25, 2008 @ 4:30 am

Thank you SO much. I just bought a BB curve and it would not scroll down (you can imagine how annoying it was for me). I followed your instructions carefully and well..it works perfectly! you’re brilliant!

Clinton said,

October 27, 2008 @ 3:46 am

:)I’m not sure if I cleaned it the RIGHT way; but it works. I wasn’t to clear on what exactly I had to rub off, but I found the four 4 black wheels had….crap on them or w.e, and I used the side of a tooth pick to lightly scrub it off.
&Now it workss!

Thankssssssss

Bill said,

October 28, 2008 @ 10:00 pm

I was so disgusted when my track ball stopped rolling in the up direction last night. Tried the obvious pulling the battery, no luck. Shake, don’t break, no luck. Was ready to call it in this morning and decided to do a quick Google on the problem first. This page was the first in the list. Disassembly was easy (used my pocketknife), couldn’t see any crud but blew it out with canned air, reassembled, and the trackball works again!

GuyH said,

November 3, 2008 @ 12:36 pm

Saved my day!

Thanks for the tip!!!!!

David De said,

November 9, 2008 @ 9:54 pm

I was successful by taking rubbing alcohol, it will evaporate quickly a dab with a foam Qtip, brush around and then pushing and moving trac ball released the problem for me. this has happened a few times since I purchase. Good Idea to keep Bberry in a carrying case to avoid dirt etc. from getting into the swivel ball of these devises.
The phone is still usable without trac ball, the space bar or hitting the first letter of selection will take you to the function, just like using computer without mouse.

David De said,

November 9, 2008 @ 10:11 pm

OH and a can of AIr in a Can…just hit the keyboard with strong burst of air. You should do this routine every few weeks as a matter of course cleaning the unit .

Axel Roland said,

November 11, 2008 @ 7:22 am

Thanks so much! My trackball lacked two directions - now it’s working again like a charm :-))

Jen Brown said,

November 16, 2008 @ 1:30 pm

So great! I used a toothpick and rubbing alcohol - worked like no other.jb

k said,

November 17, 2008 @ 1:16 pm

Thanks a lot for the kudos guys! I had the same problem like you and therefor I just wrote this article. I never thought of it becoming that popular!

Anyway, I just sorted out the last line of defense. So in case you cannot clean your trackball anymore check out our recommended replacement trackballs below. They are very cheap just like the original built-in one.

Amazon.com Widgets

Colby said,

November 18, 2008 @ 4:06 am

I did the above after my trackball was not working in several directions to no avail. Then I took the actual ball assembly and took off the small and very thin aluminum bracket that holds the whole thing together. Then I could access the internal wheels that were LOADED with gunk. Its a fairly tedious process to remove all the stuff, but now, works like it is brand new.

Tony said,

November 19, 2008 @ 10:52 pm

Thanks worked great!!!

Angie said,

November 19, 2008 @ 11:47 pm

I just bought a blackberry 8100, having some weird issues with the trackball. Im not sure if its sticking or just going insane; last night while i was texting it suddenly started sending the message over and over then would bounce in and out of applications, making phone calls etc. It was funny but not really!

I tried taking the ball out and cleaning it, although i may not have been thorough enough. Does this sound like a trackball issue or a possessed phone? Thanks for any help!!

jiffles said,

November 20, 2008 @ 3:31 pm

i licked my finger and rolled it a few times. solved the problem within five seconds.

zat said,

November 23, 2008 @ 4:21 am

Thanks for your article, my trackball would not scroll down and I was able to fix it myself.

rohit said,

November 24, 2008 @ 1:21 am

No Need to remove the assembly rub bit of alcohol on the track ball and it would work.

Mamapajama said,

November 24, 2008 @ 8:03 am

This worked great, my trackball was moving, but wouldn’t scroll down on the screen.
Removing the battery to reboot it did not work.
I have a Blackberry Curve 8310.

Cow Poke said,

November 25, 2008 @ 6:24 am

I am a dairy farmer and needless to say I don’t treat my BBerry Curve like a temple. I removed the outside ring but had to remove the inside ring and remove and clean the axles to get it to work properly (thats where I found oodles of cow debris)it was a bitch to get back together with my big farmer fingers. May be a good job for a small fingered woman. My wife likes fixing my ball anyway.

BlackBerry Bold has been disassembled | BlackBerryInsight said,

November 26, 2008 @ 5:23 am

[...] our quite popular article “How to clean your BlackBerry Trackball” I needed to disassemble a brand new BlackBerry Bold. Even though I was just playing Texas [...]

Eric S. said,

December 1, 2008 @ 1:54 pm

I had one of the more serious stuck trackballs tonight, and was about 2 minutes from saying to heck with it. But then I noticed that one of the little axles/rollers underneath the ball assembly wasn’t moving when I moved the ball. So after much frustration, I *carefully* popped open one of the really tiny brackets underneath that specific roller… the bracket shaped like /–\. Under that, I could see another ribbed roller in the middle of the edge of the assembly, like a cog that turned when the ball would move. Looking carefully in there, without bending that open bracket too much, I found some VERY miniscule pieces of lint and dust that I was able to clean out with the end of a needle. Once I did that, the roller moved freely, so I snapped the bracket back in place and reassembled. So if you have tried the simple cleaning method and that didn’t work, and tried using alcohol and a swab on the rollers underneath without much success, I guess then you’ll want to make a judgment call as to whether you have steady enough hands and are desperate enough to attempt slightly lifting the thin metal bracket at the stuck end to see if you can clean lint or dirt out of the cog-like roller. It worked for me. I actually had to do it twice since the first time it still wasn’t rolling 100% smoothly, but after the second cleaning of that little barrel-shaped cog inside, it works like a charm.

That said, I may go out and invest in a $10 piece just to keep as a backup for the future. I would hate to be without my device.

martha cuevas said,

December 3, 2008 @ 4:11 am

how do you make your trackball change different colors when you are recieving a phone call

Stuart said,

December 11, 2008 @ 12:43 pm

Thanks for you article, I took my 8830 apart, cleaned it, it now works fine.

Thank you. Stuart

Darren said,

December 11, 2008 @ 6:20 pm

Bloody Fantastic !!!!!!
I have not been able to go up on my 8100 pearl for months now very close to smashing it to bits and getting a I-phone !!
took the silver casing off then the ball component then read this and found out you take a third bit off the the little magnetic wheels fall out covered with loads of fur balls.
Thanks again

franco said,

December 11, 2008 @ 7:29 pm

YOU are my heroe!

Andy said,

December 13, 2008 @ 5:45 am

Blackberry Bold, couple of weeks old, very concerned that wouldn’t scroll down (and to potentially go without whilst being fixed). This also happened to a Curve I was setting up almost fresh from the packet. Definate design weakness.

Compressed air didnt work until I depressed the ball at the same time as blowing air. Happy again. I think the ring is smaller and more fiddly than on a Curve, was pleased not to have to disassemble, but thanks for tip.

Laly said,

December 13, 2008 @ 4:46 pm

aah! i had to clean it like 3 times… ugh! But finally it works

thank you!

Jon Wesley said,

December 15, 2008 @ 7:19 am

Thanks for the help! My BlackBerry curve had dust and dirt all in it. Just taking the trackball out itself help tremendously! I deeply appreciate it! Also, while I had the trackball out, I decided to take a Sharpie and color the LED light blue. (tip for all you people who cant color your trackballs on the curve.) Thanks again you all are a big help!!

Jennifer said,

December 16, 2008 @ 7:35 pm

i had the same problem (my trackball wouldn’t scroll up) but i just used a q-tip and some hydrogen peroxide and it works fine now

Wajahat Ali said,

December 18, 2008 @ 12:11 am

thanx alot i was preety mad bt now i fixed my not mine i mean my pearl’s track ball haha thanx alot guys
peace out

debmarst said,

December 18, 2008 @ 4:01 pm

I was panicked because I’m leaving the country and just put in the global sim card which must have rearranged some lint on the sensors. As I pulled off the chrome ring I bent one of the brackets and when I bent it back it broke. I leave in two days and couldn’t find a repair place in town so continued messing with my 8830. it worked fine without the chrome holder but I couldn’t get it to work with it. … I got a brighter light, needles and now after cleaning and replacing the chrome piece correctly it works fine. So if you do this be sure to lift the chrome ring off from two sides at once and when you replace it put it back EXACTLY as it comes off. also have a backup plan if you break something!

Rav said,

December 19, 2008 @ 5:39 am

Thank you so much, this 2 minute fix really worked!!!

The ball is working again!

Chris said,

December 19, 2008 @ 12:37 pm

Thank you for posting this. I have had the problem that my trackball wouldn’t go down anymore on my blackberry pearl (not physically, but on the screen). I carefully disassembled the trackball and found the cause: lots of tiny hair got caught in the roller that is trigger the down sensor. Now it works perfectly again. Only bummer is I should have investigated this sooner, then I could have spared many moments cursing my blackberry… Thanks!!

Jenn_N said,

December 20, 2008 @ 5:32 pm

this worked awesome! i have had a blackberry curve 8320 for about2weeks now,( if that) and it got stuck today. it wouldnt scroll to the right very well at all. it was annoying. i thought i was going to have to turn it in or something. but i follwed the steps closely and cleaned it(i used a Qtip) and now it works perfect! thank you!

Rob said,

December 21, 2008 @ 3:32 pm

it worked on my 8330 Curve - tiny flat head screw driver, worked slowly - once out i really didn’t see any gunk inside, but I still cleaned it using a damp Q-tip. I had not turned my device off, but had to when I put the track ball back in followed by the silver ring because pushing the silver ring back in kept selecting things… so with it off, I snapped the ring back in and wah lah… it’s working again. thanks for the photos and thorough description

simon said,

December 22, 2008 @ 8:28 pm

It is people like you who make all our lives just a little bit easier - many thanks - I can now use my phone again! I find it incredible the time and effort put into the design of these gadgets for them to be distributed with such glaring flaws - it takes so little time for the trackball (and phone) to be rendered completely useless. Whatever happened to scrolling using the keypad?

amanda said,

December 23, 2008 @ 12:34 am

thank you, thank you, thank you. you have no idea how frustrating this phone has been and you have resolved my most major problem with it! it was so easy to fix and i am by no means technical. i was so nervous to take it apart, but it literally took me one minute to fix. THANK YOU!!!!!

Matt said,

December 23, 2008 @ 5:07 am

I have the Pearl and if worked perfect in about 3 minutes. Thanks. Matt

Michael said,

December 28, 2008 @ 4:50 am

Thanks dude! I was getting worried that I’d be screwed into paying to have this fixed. Took me all of 5 minutes and it’s good as new.

James said,

December 29, 2008 @ 10:49 pm

Mine wouldn’t scroll up, works awesome now. thanks.

JWalker said,

December 31, 2008 @ 11:54 pm

Totally worked and it only took a minute. Thanks

Jenni said,

January 1, 2009 @ 1:53 am

WOW! Thank you so much for posting this. You really saved me. :] THREE THUMBS UP!

revee said,

January 1, 2009 @ 11:41 pm

Thanks! My trackball on my 8820 stopped scrolling upwards completely. I followed your directions and its working perfectly. I just flipped the silver ring up with my finger nail and took the trackball component out, played with it some, didnt have peroxide or anything to clean it with but i did find a little grain of something, now its working perfectly. thanks a lot!!

Jessica said,

January 2, 2009 @ 12:16 am

Thank you SO MUCH!
I got my pearl two weeks ago and I am in *LOVE* with it, so I was traumatized when I woke up and discovered that the trackball refused to move right.

LV said,

January 2, 2009 @ 10:19 pm

thanks. i too had problem with my BB’s trackball. the downward scroll was not smooth. i cleaned as per your suggestions and its now working fine.

subbuteo sonicalo said,

January 3, 2009 @ 2:55 am

Thank you BlackBerryInsight Superheroes!!

My trackball gave up today, but your link came to my rescue immediately. The sharp end of a pair of dividers had the silver ring off in a trice.

I applied Gordons Gin instead of Kryptonite to the square contact beneath the trackball. After that It was up and running in seconds, leaving ample time for a celebratory Gin and Tonic!

DSN said,

January 3, 2009 @ 2:14 pm

Thanks for this post. I’d about lost my mind trying to get my trackball to scroll up and down. Took about 15 mins to get it all done and it’s like new. BRICKBREAKER!

roymartinez said,

January 5, 2009 @ 1:08 pm

wow it took me 30 mminutes because i dont know how but wen i put it again wen i rolled up it went left or down it went right but it was fun

Kelly said,

January 6, 2009 @ 1:36 am

Hay thanks a ton my tracking ball would not move so it was had 2 play brick bracker! i could not find any web site half as good as this one for help!
Thanks again!
Kel

Kelly said,

January 6, 2009 @ 1:38 am

I mean Brick breaker

CB said,

January 6, 2009 @ 12:30 pm

BB 8820:

For those who venture to taking the assy completely apart, here’s what I learned (the hard way):

From upside down, the rollers are oriented this way-
Right-magnet down
Left-magnet up
top and bottom follow logically.

Drop the ball in next.

Orient carrier (the white thing containing the ball and magnets): The 8 posts that stick out to the side are different. Two have “shelves” that stick out to the side, the other two are flat. The sides with the “shelves” should be pointing left and right. The flat posts go up and down.

Place on metal clip- Very carefully bend the metal clips back so they’re all slightly inward facing of 90 degrees. Place ball/roller/carrier assembly on metal retaining ring so metal posts with holes are on left and right side. It doesn’t lock to anything yet so you have to hold it all together. Just try to hold by the sides and don’t push on the ball.

Place the back with button lever so the metal post sticks upward. The bump on the button should “bump out” toward you. Place the back on the assembly and secure the metal clips. Use a nail/needle/dentist tool to coax the four clips on. They should all fit on flush and not stick out at all. It doesn’t take much effort. If you find it taking more effort, you probably goofed the orientation of the ball/magnet roller carrier and the retaining ring, rotate one 90 degrees.

Once the whole thing is together, there are two bumps that stick out on the back, orient them to the left/right and drop the thing in. It should fit in easily. Snap the plastic ring back on, the posts should face left-right and down. Don’t force it.

alex said,

January 9, 2009 @ 2:06 am

Thanks a lot, I did the cleaning in my BB Pearl and now is working just fine.You saved my phone.

Paul said,

January 12, 2009 @ 5:52 am

Hey Dude..
Thanku so much.. My trackball on my 8100 stopped scrolling upwards completely. I followed your directions and its working perfectly. I use plucker for take it out trackbal :))lol.& it was realy easy to do by your instraction & now its working cool. thanks a lot! Man..U rock

dave said,

January 12, 2009 @ 9:32 am

Dude, this article saved my phone from being thrown into a wall. Thanks so much!

cel said,

January 13, 2009 @ 5:28 pm

Thanks! my phone works now. I was about to throw it too on the wall just like Dave. It sucks if trackball don’t work.

steve said,

January 13, 2009 @ 8:34 pm

it worked!

took 3 minutes - i also found that for some reason, after i fixed it, initially it didnt work properly.

However, I borrowed another blackberry from an unsuspecting colleague, swapped the trackballs and found that both blackberrys now work!

go figure

Christine said,

January 14, 2009 @ 3:15 am

There is a GOD!
I read the gadzillion entries and was paralyzed at the idea of disassembling my blackberry pearl. AT&T pretty much didn’t want to discuss any device issues… they just want you to scrap what you have and buy new. Thanks to a guy at Radio Shack, I found this site.

It is working for now. I turned my phone off. I took an alcohol swab and rolled the ball in all directions..pressing the ball with the alcohol swab and rolling it in all directions. I did see a few little dirt speck on the swab. (I would be skeptical of a Q-tip if anything with lint)

TAH DAH! I pray it lasts…. But I do have more of those things they use at the hospital!
Very grateful for everyone’s imput!

Claire said,

January 14, 2009 @ 8:53 am

Worked great! Thanks!

Ryan Wiggins said,

January 15, 2009 @ 8:42 am

Thanks, you rock!

CrestView Blue said,

January 21, 2009 @ 4:46 am

Freaking-A, bro! Thank you. Working like a charm and done well within confines of weekly project status call

Jeremy said,

January 21, 2009 @ 4:48 pm

Howdee All Crackberry Fans

Have a Pearl 8100 and the trackball wouldn’t go down but would go side to side and up. Like many of you out there I was a bit hesitant to take the phone apart ….. so I used the classic “wet wipes” or baby cloths as we call them here in New Zealand and Australia. They are just plain old cloths soaked in a cleaning solution and marketed under so many names. So it worked for me (after no help from Vodafone what so ever) and I didn’t have to take my phone apart !

Trackball and keys on 8820 messed up - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com said,

January 24, 2009 @ 9:09 am

[...] to Crackberry! I would try cleaning the trackball first. Here is nice tutorial on how to do that. How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball | BlackBerryInsight Often, this is a sign of liquid or moisture damage to the device. Also you can try under options, [...]

D Dews said,

January 24, 2009 @ 11:08 pm

Hey Great Tip…If I can do this anyone can!!!! My pearl wouldn’t scroll down..so took it apart and cleaned it… Now it works great.Thanks so much

J Dale said,

January 26, 2009 @ 7:34 pm

Thanks, the instructions were right on time. I called the OEm and was told the systemwould have to be replaced. I read and followed your instructions to disassembly the sytem and found all the crude that kept the roller from working. I used an eraser and a small golf club brush to clean the roller and the contacts. The BB works now. Thanks again.

Dentaku » How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball | BlackBerryInsight said,

January 26, 2009 @ 11:33 pm

[...] How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball | BlackBerryInsight [...]

paul b said,

February 2, 2009 @ 4:40 am

thanks work good

Kazmi said,

February 2, 2009 @ 11:27 am

I bought BlackBerry Bold after few month my track ball is not working.

I am very disappointed.

allen aksu said,

February 6, 2009 @ 10:46 am

It is easy to clean the trackball of a Blacberry without removing a lot of parts. Simply pop up the ring around the trackball with an exacto knife. Pop up the assembly holding the trackball. Clean the debris at the bottom of the trackball as well as the piece right below it. Push the pieces back in place making sure they are in the right orinentation.

Greg said,

February 9, 2009 @ 8:17 am

Thanks ! ! Great instructions. I feel like I should be a Blackberry fix it dude !! I worried my Blackberry was shot. Trackball works even better now.

Sudhir said,

February 9, 2009 @ 1:35 pm

Thanks for your post! I have re-arranged my mobile existance when my perl would not scroll to the the right at all and limited movement downwards. Losing down was easy to get around as there is a keyboard pagedown option, but not being able to go right was a bitch. I moved my “most used” apps to the left most position so I could acess what I needed with just a scroll up/down! About a month has passed and my 2 yr contract is about to come up for renewal next week. I thought I would definately be forced to get the new curve (javalin) which I am not excited about as it is not 3g. The 3g version should be out mid year, so I can now get a bit more milage out of my PERL! Thanks again…

Michael said,

February 12, 2009 @ 2:59 am

I had the same issue, and I fixed many of the trackballs (since I work for a wireless company) - its relatively simple to clean the trackball and the other four wheels thats just below the trackball. Make sure your hand are clean when operating the phone, thats one of the many reason you end up with a dirty trackball.

Ryan said,

February 13, 2009 @ 2:32 am

Cleaned the trackball thoroughly. Still no up direction. I just sent the phone off to a repair service for the charging port and didnt have this issue before. After getting it back, the date and time are all wrong, which makes me think it could be an OS issue.

Would replacing the trackball help at all?

What about a software issue?

8820 clicking on its own - BlackBerry Forums at CrackBerry.com said,

February 13, 2009 @ 10:59 pm

[...] noise when using the trackball. Here is a link that shows how to clean the trackball as well: How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball | BlackBerryInsight Good Luck! __________________ Blackberry Lecture series :: Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts :: [...]

Adam said,

February 16, 2009 @ 3:27 am

Great post! You saved me $200.
I used tuner cleaner spray from Radio Shack on the trackball and it works like new.

lesny said,

February 20, 2009 @ 9:59 am

this is a great website…thanks for the tip mine works just fine now

Darrell Holowaychuk said,

February 21, 2009 @ 11:21 am

All I can say is…THANK YOU!

Fluffy said,

February 22, 2009 @ 1:44 am

Lots of good advice, but I can’t believe the ease with which everyone manages to clean their “Ball”.
I’ve tried the Rubbing Alcohol, Hand Cleaner. Metho, Turps, Preen & Gelzyme (Laundry Pre Wash), Dish washing liquid, Spa Cleaner (Off the wall), Sugar Soap, Neat Bleach, Ammonia, Assorted bathroom cleaners, several types of Nail Polish Remover, Industrial strength Degreasers & Detergents, Concentrated Windscreen Washer Additive, Car Polish, Toothpaste, Citrus cleaner, Eucalyptus, Lavender, Hydrogen peroxide and hours in an ultrasonic bath.
I also tried beer because I don’t have any Vodka, but after my efforts, I’m tempted to buy some as by now, I NEED a Drink!
I look after maybe 20 handsets and quite often repair one to give to a new user and trying to make it as new, is the reason I’m looking for the perfect solvent. Certainly, most of the discoloration is gone, but there is always a “Patchy Brown Cloud” that is seen when the “Light is On”. Either the surface is permeable / porous or it has a “skin” and dirt can get underneath.
Does anyone have a “Silver Bullet” or should I just give up and perhaps find a pusher that can supply my habit (well some new balls at least)

Debbie said,

February 26, 2009 @ 9:17 am

Woo-hoo, worked like a charm. Just used an alcohol swab to clean it, popped it back in, and I’m back in business. Thank you so much!

Legal Tech said,

February 27, 2009 @ 2:29 am

For all of those not sure about this let me offer my two cents. I work on Blackberries on a daily basis as I am the Blackberry tech for the law firm I am employed by. This is a VERY common occurance that is not unlike the rollerball on an old school mouse having problems. As with those devices you need to clean the ball and the bars that it makes contact with. The problem isn’t so much that the ball gets dirty but that it tracks dirt onto the bars that actually affect the movement of the mouse on the screen. Each bar has small little grooves in it that allow the ball to catch thus turning the bar and thereby the magnetic end that is sensed by the movement sensors on the circut board. It is when these grooves get full of gunk that you will see diminished manuverability. Simply clean these and reasseble and you should be golden. If your device is older I would recommend just purchasing a new trackball assembly as the ball and these bars will get worn with use and not work well no matter how much you clean them.

mackenzie said,

March 1, 2009 @ 12:15 am

my blackberry 8110, u can see the scroll on the screen but u cant click. i mean it will Fiscally click but the screen/thing wont recognize it!!

marc said,

March 2, 2009 @ 2:53 am

I just cleaned mine as best I could with basic dish handsoap with warm water a few times and it now works….For how long it will??????

HTC Copied The Trackball! | BlackBerryInsight said,

March 3, 2009 @ 9:08 am

[...] March 3, 2009 at 9:08 am · Filed under Hardware Though BlackBerry users sometimes have some problems with the trackball - they love [...]

jamar h for chesapeake VA said,

March 4, 2009 @ 12:43 am

my trackball a click, but it won’t scroll… i think i’ll try the cleaning procedures

Mike said,

March 4, 2009 @ 7:50 am

My 8830 trackball became unusually sensitive, such that just pressing it moderately (without the click) was just like pressing it to click it. I had to scroll with a very light touch and then press slightly harder (without even clicking) to simulate clicking on my screen choice. It was “touch-and-go” for a while until my warranty got the entire unit replaced. I beat the warranty deadline by a few weeks, fortunately. Unfortunately you can never quite get the replacement 8830 set up the same as the original and one spends a lot of time reloading and adjusting the add-on software onto the replacement. Oh well….

Andy said,

March 5, 2009 @ 10:36 pm

Just perfect! Removed the covering ring using my thumbnail, removed the trackball assembly, gave it a blowjob and popped it back into place. Good as new!

Only thing worth noting is that I couldnt locate that second ring thats mentioned in the tutorial. I’m guessing the 8120 doesnt have one.

John said,

March 7, 2009 @ 11:45 am

my blackberry you can see the scroll on the screen but u cant click. i mean it will Fiscally click but the screen/thing wont recognize it!!i did all the cleaning, but still not working. any suggestion?
john said,

Fluffy said,

March 8, 2009 @ 4:58 am

Regarding the 8120, I too noticed that the locking ring seems to have been discontinued. On the 8100, many people have trouble getting it back in and leave it out and is doesn’t seem to matter. Regarding my recent post #287, I forgot to add the Fizzy denture cleaning tablets, but really, can everyone get their balls clean with a quick wipe??Operationally, my trackball assembly works fine, the ball just looks “nasty” after a while and I can’t find a way to make it look like a new one.
As for the “Click” not working (post #296) or working too easily(#294), I have a cure for the brave and this also applies to any other key that may stop working.
Each Key (including the pearl) is in fact a seperate switch and is just a small convex metal disk stuck over two circuit tracks with a tiny square of sticky stuff. Moisture (coke, coffee, etc…) can get underneath and cause corrosion and the key to stop working.

Using the tip of a small knife or the tip of a pin, it’s possible to lift up a corner to start with and then peel off the complete “Key”.
Use EXTREME caution to avoid damaging the circuit board although I’ve done 6 by now without any casualties.
You can then clean the tracks with a cotton bud (Q-Tip) and alchohol (eg metho) You need to also clean the underside of the small metal disk, but use care not use damage the sticky around the disk so you can put it back and not to use too much force because if you deform the shape, it will change the pressure and feel of the switch (see post #294). You must be precise with the location when you put it back. If the Pearl click is too light a touch, swap the key for a location that you don’t care about so much.

If when you finish, the key repeats or gives two different characters, it’s most likely because the “key” is misaligned or that there is still moisture from the cleaning that will need to dry out.

Since I discovered this, I’ve taken three handsets out of my “Junk Box” and put them back into service. Hopefully this tip will see many other handsets back in action, because it seems the failure of a key is quite common.

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Susan said,

March 17, 2009 @ 3:05 am

Thanks so much for that tip. The last time it happened I had the ball replaced. Unfortunately, it cost me US$50 as I am in the Caribbean. This time I decided to check online for a solution. You just saved me US$50. I used my eyeglass screwdriver and had to remove only 2 parts on the pearl - the silver ring and the part with the trackball.

Matilda said,

March 17, 2009 @ 6:06 am

Thank you!! I didnt even need the BP toolkit. I used my twizzers & a hair clip! The trackball even held on to the hair clip due to the magnet. I hope this doesnt happen again. I didnt see any junk in there but whatever it worked

Roberto said,

March 18, 2009 @ 1:22 am

The trackball on my Curve wasn’t moving to the right. I was getting ready to go to Verizon to see what they could do, but I decided to check some forums and found this one. I took out the trackball component and used a swab and rubbing alcohol to clean the trackball and the rollers. It now works like new! Thanks for your advice and possibly saving me some money!

Yung Nash said,

March 18, 2009 @ 10:00 am

Well when i was searching through my apps. i found out that one my trackball wheel wouldnt go to the right. so what i did was took off the trackball wheel face plate and i rolled it each way and i found a little metal object stuck in it so i removed it and my trackball worked again like new.

Jason said,

March 20, 2009 @ 9:52 am

Googled clean blackberry track ball, this site came up, with some courage I took a screwdriver to my fragile piece of technology and removed the ball. Cleaned away some dirt and it’s working, still can’t beleive it was that simple.

randi said,

March 29, 2009 @ 11:20 am

thanks for all your help!

meldy said,

March 30, 2009 @ 10:39 pm

thanks! it was very helpful!!! I almost spent $50 for this…

beware of contact spray said,

April 2, 2009 @ 2:59 am

Beware of using contact spray when cleaning the contacts of the Blackberry Pearl (or any other). I couldn’t find any alcohol, so I squirted a quick burst of contact cleaner directly into the trackball circuit board area (trackball was removed). Now I have a display with a back shadow image which looks suspiciously like the spray cleaner (leaves no residue!) has affected the display.

I would recommend spraying the contact cleaner onto a q tip and then using the q tip to clean the area. Alcohol is probably the best route. Just lightly dampen a q tip and gently rub the dirt and residue away.

I am hopeful that leaving my B’Berry off for a few hours may allow the solvent to dissipate and I can get my former clear screen back!

Elliot said,

April 5, 2009 @ 9:54 am

Thanks man, that help me out a lot. Good luck

zoyd said,

April 6, 2009 @ 11:34 pm

I found some weeks ago some clever pictures about how we can disassemble Bold’s trackball and cleaning. Follow these instructions I resolved my problems. Now I have the same problems but I dont find pictures. I dont remember exactly how I can reassemble trackball. Someone could help me? Thanks a lot

melissa said,

April 7, 2009 @ 11:35 am

you save my life! thank you….

melissa said,

April 7, 2009 @ 11:35 am

you saved my life! thank you….

Vinay said,

April 9, 2009 @ 3:18 am

Thanks a lot. it worked for me. Saved my money too. Other closeup pictures are available at http://tylerkeen.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-remove-and-clean-your-blackberry.html

Bob Marley said,

April 13, 2009 @ 8:20 pm

I had to do a it a few times but I got mine fixed. I had to completely remove the ball from the casing to clean out all the gunk with rubbing alcohol that was preventing it from scrolling down. Now my 8800 is back to normal.

Joseph Jones said,

April 15, 2009 @ 8:24 am

Why go to the trouble of cleaning it when you can buy a replacement trackball online from Mr Mobile for $29.95 and get next day delivery for $5.95.

I just got 2 new trackballs and keep one spare.

MIchael said,

April 18, 2009 @ 10:34 pm

Thanks alot. I have the Pearl and the whold process took me about 10 minutes!! With it, I actually dissasembled the entire rollerball assembly and soaked them in cleaning solution. It really gets all of the dust out of there. Then by marking matching sides with a Sharpie, I was able to put it back together very easily!

Thanks again

Kat said,

April 19, 2009 @ 4:19 am

My trackball kept sticking and wouldn’t move to the right. I didn’t want to take it apart, so I tried the idea of putting a drop of hand sanitizer on it. I put just a drop on my microfiber cloth and rubbed it around and the ball works perfectly now.
Great idea, thank you!

Joe P said,

April 21, 2009 @ 5:57 am

Worked like a champ! Thanks for posting a great tip!

Ryan D said,

April 24, 2009 @ 8:51 am

Hey I got the curve 8330 and when I scroll the ball just feels like it has a lot of slop to it and it hope around the screen after I release it. When I have tried other peoples curves, one that was purchased a week after mine, they all seem tight when I touch the track ball almost like a spring hold up the ball is weak. Any suggestions? I had Veriz send me another, not just for the ball but I wanted a diff color, but the ball feels even worse than the one I have already. Please help and thanks for your time.

Ryan D said,

April 27, 2009 @ 3:58 pm

Oh hey one last thing is it normal for the curve to sometimes not have the keyboard lights turn on or the track ball light turn on unless it gets shaken around??

k said,

April 27, 2009 @ 4:31 pm

That’s not normal mate

Sheri Ann Johnson said,

April 27, 2009 @ 9:08 pm

Perfect advice!! Spent the weekend without being able to check my beloved Blackberry. Found your instructions & it took me just 5 minutes to pull the track ball out, clean the wheels & put it back together again! I found a thin piece of metal lodged in between one of the wheels. Works fine now!!

Called Sprint & they advised they had plenty of track balls & the repair was free, if needed (so keep that in mind). You can also always purchase a new track ball on eBay. Thank you!!

Tall Tone said,

May 8, 2009 @ 3:08 pm

Cool! I had no idea that the trackball cover just popped off. You’ve saved me the cost of a toolkit to dismantle my old 8800 and maybe even a new phone when I’d broken this one

I can even see the light under my pearl again

chris said,

May 9, 2009 @ 3:49 am

just wet your finger a little bit with some water . Don’t saturate your finger! Just enough to clean the ball. Then start using your trackball move it back and forth and side to side. I just did it and it worked.

Patrick (19, redneck farmer) said,

May 10, 2009 @ 4:54 am

hey. so i got mine out no problem. and i though i’d recap on everything i found fo rthose who re like me. dont knowmuch about computers or anything. i personnaly am a dairy farmer from south western ontario.
so any ways i have a pearl and i followed the instructions above anddecided i’ll put details about what i saw.
i didnt, however, see the little ring in the picture i only saw the outside ring and the ball assembly (i guess it should be called)
ok so any ways i used my finger nail for th cover which was easy but i read the bit about how theres littl plastic parts to hold it is (the word ued what nipples but im sure theres more technical wordfor it). there were three on the bottom, and the sides all facing downwards. i used my nail at the top and after getting it slightly out i started working on the other sides slowly (i didnt know what i would find).
after i got it off i looked and tough the ball assembly would be held in there by something so i tried working it with a small flat head. i only bent a sall peice of metal (which latter helped me acctually). (surrounding the ball and its ring is a smal metal plate i bent one corner of it, which was easy to bend back latter)
after this i realised it wasnt held n by anything and i just flipped it over and gave it a pat on the back and fell out no problem.
on i should have mentioned the problem was having was the wheel wouldnt respond to going up. (dust problem)
so i looked at the back peice. theres a little metal tab that canbe bent back. and there u can see the sensors and the dust. u will need something ike a needle or whatever. i just pushed out the ball (cracking the white ring,,, oops) and took out the dust by blowing on it. if you do take the ball out i recomend u put the metal peice on the back, bend it inwards a bid.and had the wheel on the bottom while i was pushing the assembly with my thumbs on my desk.
and then everything goes back together normally.
i am thankful i did bend the one plate a bit because i knew which way the assembly goes in. i dont know if this makes a diffrence or not but its all back together the way it was before. no problem.
works better now though.
oh one more thing i should mention is a section of the ball light was dark before i took it out and fixed it. i think this is a indicator that it is dust and now a softwear problem.
(ps dont mind my spelling. my next project is fixing my laptop keys)
i hope i helped some one out

patrick said,

May 10, 2009 @ 4:57 am

also forgot to rate this page. this page was a butt saver

MICK said,

May 10, 2009 @ 9:02 pm

Thanks for the trackball cleaning advice. Works like brand new!!

erika said,

May 11, 2009 @ 7:25 am

someone please help!
i have a blackberry curve 8900 && my ball works when it feels like working. i would try the tips sugguested but i don’t have the silver holder like the pearl does.
any ideas?

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May 11, 2009 @ 7:29 pm

[...] http://www.blackberryinsight.com/2007/06/13/how-to-clean-your-blackberrys-trackball/ Share and [...]

Jess said,

May 11, 2009 @ 11:06 pm

Thanks! mine wouldn’t scroll down anymore but I followed your instructions and it works great again.

Sarah said,

May 14, 2009 @ 3:45 am

THANK YOU THANK YOU!
I am not a techie by any stretch of the imagination… today, out of nowhere, my trackball wouldn’t go up anymore. Very limiting. In searching the Web, I found this site and IT WORKED! Only took about 2 minutes. Unfortunately it popped out quickly so I didn’t really get to see how it came out to put it back in… but if you look at the back of the track ball, there are three areas for the three prongs on the ring to fit. The prongs go on the left, right and bottom of your blackberry. Anyhow, my thanks - I didn’t want to have to take it in to get fixed, and definitely didn’t want to have to replace it. THANKS AGAIN!

Demetrius said,

May 14, 2009 @ 4:41 am

The trackball on my wife’s BB gets “stuck” all the time. I’m too much of a coward/cheapskate to take it apart. It’s less than a year old. But, I can get it working again by applying a couple of drops of rubbing alcohol to the ball, spinning it around a bit, and blowing it out with air. I have to give this a couple of tries sometimes. But, it works. I know all that crud is going inside the phone *somewhere*. So, maybe when I’m braver and the phone is older I’ll take it apart and give it a thorough cleaning. (This is reason #8 why my Dash is better than her BB!)

Debbie said,

May 15, 2009 @ 12:48 am

Thank you so much for these simple repair instructions. My trackball would move every direction but up. AT&T suggested I get the trackball replaced for $60 or replace the phone. But using your instructions and a sharp knife to remove the round silver plate, I fixed it myself i 3 minutes. Thanks!

Stephanie said,

May 16, 2009 @ 9:23 pm

I was on vaation in Florida when the problem happened and needed the blackberry and didn’t expect the store to be able to replace it immediately. This worked great. Thanks!

Angel said,

May 17, 2009 @ 10:03 am

Thanks a lot for you explanation on how to solve this problem.
My track ball was kind’a faulty from the very beginning however it worked . But, today I could not scroll down anymore. So I followed your advise and that did not work.
Went and order one of the universal track balls you suggest via Amazon.
Still needed to get the matter solved asap, so I dismantled the track ball again. I could not identify the sensors you mentioned , but just went with a Q- tip slightly dipped in alcohol and cleaned as much as I could see. That did not work either. Then I read on another page, a guy saying something about pressurised air and dirt on the ball itself. So I went and just blew the hell out of my lungs on the ball, and VOILA ! it is working now.
Thanks for your help, as you signaled it might have been dirt on the system, causing problems with the tracking ball.
Cheers !

Anon said,

May 18, 2009 @ 11:32 pm

Wow I read one of the tips here that said blow directly on it with all of your force and it worked for mine. I was trying everything and for some reason when I that it worked. So i guess if you are not very technical I would try that first.

T. Leiferman said,

May 19, 2009 @ 5:38 am

This is not the only cause. After hours of dissection of my Blackberry Pearl, I’ve studied how the pearl works… and within the little gears of the ball that captures the ball’s turning action, dust or lint can actually coat (depending on how much) but none the less get in there… Most likely from your pocket.

Meaning, if you get a case or something and it’s not broken it should be fine.

It is not too hard to clean, I used only my fingers and an exacto-knife for the whole operation. I will never visit this forum again, but if you would like help e-mail me.
tlfrmn@gmail.com

I understand how annoying something that doesn’t work is…

Colleen said,

May 19, 2009 @ 9:29 pm

this is great!! i just followed all the steps and got by ‘pearl’ unstuck. i didn’t have a screwdriver at the office, so i thought i’d pass on the info that i used a staple and that allowed me to get all the parts off/out and clean around the edges of everything!

Kim said,

May 21, 2009 @ 5:11 am

Hey umm well my trackball justs kept randomly clicking things and like spazzing out does this thing work with that or should i take it to the store to get it checked?

ZDR said,

May 25, 2009 @ 5:25 am

This is a great post! I have had this problem repeatedly and previously had gone to my service provider for service. They fixed it 2X, but it took lots of time and frustration during down time! This time, i fixed it just as you suggested and it is working perfectly. THANKS!

Melanie said,

May 26, 2009 @ 1:42 am

Thank You! Mine wouldn’t scroll down so I took apart and cleaned following your instructions but then it would only scroll whenever it wanted to so I took apart again and soaked in alcohol and dried thoroughly with hair dryer and now it works great again.

Chris said,

May 26, 2009 @ 5:08 pm

Sensational! i can not believe my pearl is back to life, thank you for saving my phone.!

Reed said,

May 27, 2009 @ 9:19 pm

Another satisfied user. Thanks to the OP!

Nick said,

June 1, 2009 @ 11:33 am

Fantastic.

I found heaps of fluff stuck to the rollers, removed it and now it`s like brand new.

Thanks.

kelsey said,

June 3, 2009 @ 1:31 pm

Okay. So somehow a droplet of water got on my trackball, so when I rolled it, water went underneath it, and in the bottom of the screen. Everything on the phone works, even the trackball scrolls, but the button underneath it doesnt react when i push it. I removed the trackball like above and was able to scrape off dirt on the underneath that was on the copper piece…but still nothing. Any other suggestions on ways to get it to work?
thanks

Demetrius said,

June 4, 2009 @ 7:03 am

@kelsey - The water is probably shorting the contact on the button. Try blowing the water out with compressed air.

tj said,

June 7, 2009 @ 1:14 am

thanks dude this fixed my problem right away!

Carla said,

June 7, 2009 @ 11:06 pm

this helped a lot!!!!!
thanks times 10

Nunzio said,

June 7, 2009 @ 11:54 pm

My trackball moves in all directions but when I press down it doesnt work. Need help.

Debbie said,

June 11, 2009 @ 8:27 am

PERFECT!! thanks a lot!!!

BERRYGOD said,

June 11, 2009 @ 10:47 am

U CAN CLEAN THE ENTIRE BALL ASSY SIMPLY BY TURNING OFF THE BERRY, THEN DIP A TOOTHPICK INTO RUBBING ALCOHOL ( GET AT ANY STORE ) AND DROP A DROP ONTO THE BALL AND MOVE IT AROUND… DO THIS A COUPLE TIMES THEN BLOW INTO IT REALLY WELL A FEW TIMES TO BLAST OUT THE ALCHOL AND DUST… THE ALCHOL WILL CLEAN, AND WHEN YOU BLOW IT OUT IT WILL REMOVE THE GUNK AND EVAPORATE.. TAKES ABOUT 1 MIN TO CLEAN AND YOUR DONE..

ALSO USE A SOFT TISSUE OR BROWN NAPKIN TO CLEAN YOUR SCREEN SPOTLESS WIHT ALCHOL… MAKES IT LIKE NEW…

IF YOU HAVE SOME MINOR SCUFFS OR SCRATCHES ON LENS OF DISPLAY USE ANTI FOG PASTE ON IT… PUT TINY DROP OF WATER AND SOME PASTE ON THE SCREEN WORK IT AROUND IN CIRCLES WITH YOUR CLEAN FINGER TILL IT GETS A BIT DRY..THEN BUFF OFF WITH DAMP CLOTH…

LOOKS NEW !

Luke said,

June 13, 2009 @ 5:13 am

I was having issues scrolling down. I’m sure this was caused by using my Curve while I was working on the bike. Grease and the trackball don’t mix as well as you’d think, lol. Took it apart as per the directions above and it is working like new.

Thanks for the help!

jkim said,

June 13, 2009 @ 7:15 pm

Exactly what I was looking for, will try.

Geoff said,

June 17, 2009 @ 1:42 am

Rubbing alcohol is your best friend to fix this problem. I bought a brand new trackball and still had problems moving left and right.
Took a small cotton swab, dipped in rubbing alcohol and cleaned those 4 black magnetic pieces in the phone, put it all back together. worked like a charm. I was almost ready to huck this Curve out until i did this!

Doug said,

June 19, 2009 @ 3:06 am

After reading all this…I think I’ll just get a STORM

Doug said,

June 19, 2009 @ 3:07 am

After reading all this…I think I’ll just get a STORM…Its got no balls

Bryan said,

June 19, 2009 @ 10:41 am

Life saver of an article, exactly what I needed. My trackball stopped scrolling down and following the steps here I cleaned it and everything is a-ok now.

Ralph said,

June 21, 2009 @ 8:14 pm

Before I tried this I dipped a Q-tip in alcohol and move the ball around. Whatever was keeping the cursor from going up was cleaned by the alchohol. 5 second fix and no disassembling my Curve.

DotumChee said,

June 22, 2009 @ 12:53 am

@Doug - So… you’re saying that the Curve is some kind of “One Balled Got Stucker”?

Klutz! said,

June 22, 2009 @ 10:48 pm

I tried the cleaning method and it worked great! My friend, on the other hand, had a bit let luck. She somehow (maybe she’s the bigger klutz??) broke the trackball while cleaning it. Has that happened to anyone else? She ended up getting a new one from blackberrytrackball.com and was fine. Anyone had similar thing happen?

Jam Chin Lam said,

June 23, 2009 @ 7:01 pm

I was travelling by train when my Blackberry trackball stubbornly refused to click. Just the day before I cleaned the trackball (without taking it out) with spirit, because it used to refuse scrolling in certain direction(s).
Now the scrolling is just perfect. I can scroll in any direction, but when I clicked it, it just won’t happen. I have to use the Enter key instead. I even took out the trackball and cleaned it. The mechanism (pad) for the click purpose also seems to work fine. But it just won’t respond. This becomes frustrating.
I think this is the same problem other BB users faced. Scrolling problem, Clicking problem.

I don’t know if it is a software or, hardware problem. I hope we can somehow solve this problem. Anyway I loved my Blackberry, and I am still going to buy a Blackberry, and I hope my next BB will not have this problem.

Anyway happy cleaning, Blackberry Ball Cleaners.:)

Zak said,

June 25, 2009 @ 9:21 pm

NO DISASSEMBLE!

Demetrius said,

June 27, 2009 @ 9:07 am

@Jam Chin Lam - Spirits are oil based. Oil will clean out the gunk at first. (Any liquid will.) But, it will cause a much BIGGER mess when it dries or gets into the switch. Stick to cleaning the ball with alcohol!

Barb said,

June 28, 2009 @ 12:21 am

I also am having problems with being able to scroll, but the contact or clicking device will not make contact. Is replacing the entire trackball worth trying or a waste of time?

Kat said,

June 28, 2009 @ 5:30 am

AWESOME! Although I did chip a piece of the silver ring trying to take it off, cleaning it worked perfectly. I had trouble getting the silver ring back on too.

Ken said,

June 29, 2009 @ 7:49 pm

Thanks!
Your instructions worked like a charm.

Simone said,

June 30, 2009 @ 1:06 am

Thanks! You saved my life! I figured that there was a problem with the trackball (I had the same issue as you) but I thought it was impossible to clean it without disassembling the device.

I almost got blind cleaning all the small parts, but now it works perfectly!

chris said,

June 30, 2009 @ 4:55 pm

thanks so much works perfect now but you have to be carfull!

Laurena said,

July 1, 2009 @ 1:00 am

You guys are amazing!!!! My BB Pearl trackball stoped scrolling down a week ago while I was away on a business trip, I wanted to die because most of the functions were disabled because of this! I started going through your WISE advise and the first thing I tried before going into the trouble of disassembling it was rubbing an antibacterial wet pad up and down and all around, sticking my finger nail all around the ball AND IT WORKED LIKE A CHARM!!!! To the less experienced in the assemble/disassemble of devices, try this, you will be AMAZED!!!! THANKS TO ALL!!!!

Scott Turner said,

July 3, 2009 @ 9:58 am

I disassembled the trackball assembly and removed a lot of dirt + dust and then reinstalled. It didn’t work. i then removed it again and took apart the trackball sub-assembly (the unit that is under the ring - I have an 8820) and then cleaned that. Unbelievable amount of crap came out and now the trackball works as good as new. Thanks!

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How to clean your BlackBerry’s Trackball

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