Larry’s Things .net

The following is just a documentation of what I did to clean the trackball module of my blackberry. The reason for cleaning the trackball was because it refused to move downwards. Left, right, and up worked ok. Follow and apply these steps at your own risk. Death and dismemberment may spontaneously occur! Even the act of reading further can seriously affect the curvature of space-time in your immediate vicinity and may also cause further death and dismemberment. You have been forewarned.

Each picture can be opened for a larger version.

Look closely at the silver trackball ring, you’ll see that there’s a small space surrounding the silver ring and the body of the phone. It’s just enough to stick your fingernail in to pry the silver ring out. Very carefully pry it out while changing sides frequently. Before removing it completely, I noticed that the silver ring only has 3 prongs (NOT FOUR!!) , remember where these prongs are positioned, and also notice that the prongs fit into a slot. REMEMBER that these prongs have to be seated into these slots… trying to put the silver ring back on without aligning into the slots will bend+break the prongs - I already made this mistake!

Once it has been removed, it will reveal the trackball module. It can be easily popped out just by flipping the phone face down into my palm. <— don’t do this yet! Very carefully flipped it into my palm and made note of how the module was oriented, this will ensure that I put the module back in properly.

Notice that there are 4 small roller things. Take note how they are positioned! Because after you remove the metal clips, they can easily pop off. They are also magnetized, so they tend to be attracted to each other. In order to remove the metal clip, I had to use something sharp, like a swiss army knife. Use this sharp instrument to carefully lift the metal clip off the plastic tab.

The pictures below shows the rollers and ball completely free from its’ housing. I then used some mild cleaning solution like soapy water or windex (basic ammonia based window cleaner) and some tissue to clean the individual components. I do not recommend using any strong cleansers which might melt the plastic.