Smarter technique to clean the ball

I recently have discovered that Using Hand Sanitizer is great. Put a few drops on the ball and roll it.

You Phone will act a bit weird typing erratic characters for a few minutes .. perhaps switch off. But when it recovers you are almost as good as new!

Getting around with a bad BLACKBERRY trackball

Most Blackberry Bold users are in for a shock when they realize in a few months their trackball isnt as smooth as it once was.


You must note that the Bold 9000 trackball is much more difficult to take out and replace, compared to the previous versions.
Here is a video the validates that:
How to Repair / Clean Blackberry Bold 9000 Trackball


From the video, it is probably advisable that you do not try that at home!
So how does one get around till you get the ball cleaned by a professional?

Here are some tips & tricks to survive this attack:

1. Try to clean using Spirit solution or after shave: I have found that taking a *tiny*amount of aftershave or preferably some pure spirit based solution (NOT WATER); on an ear bud can be rolled over the track ball. Leave it to dry for 5 minutes. And try to roll.
   
   There is a very high possibility that the above will not yield instant results. But it does help; so be patient!


2. Use a clean cotton cloth, and roll with a dry clean cloth surface (like your T-Shirt): I found that due to the moisture on our finger tips, it makes the track ball slip. Sometimes using a clean dry cloth surface the roll also gets around the issue.
   Note on the fabric: Frictional yet soft so that it does not damage anything and it should not have threads sticking out. That's why pure cotton is a BAD idea!



3. Solving Uni-directional Roll Issue: 99% cases have an issue where the ball will roll on one side, but refuse the other. In my opinion; vertical scrolling is more common (if not significant) than horizontal scrolling; as you use it much more.
   
   Lets say your track ball, scrolls up but not down. In this you can use " PAGE DOWN" keyboard short cut (alt + space). And then once you are at the bottom, you scroll your way up. Use "ENTER" key on keyboard if pressing the trackball is an issue.
   
   PAGE UP = (shift + space)
   
   • Scrolling between volume setting and Quick Launch apps on Home Screen: There is a special case, lets say you cannot scroll down. You scroll up to change your volume setting from normal to vibrate mode. Now you have an issue that you cannot go down. Fear not; press the black berry button (the one on the left next to the green button). And now press Undo/Return button. You will find the control has come back to the bottom part. Alternatively, this maybe dumb because by pressing the blackberry button you goto the App window where you see all your apps anyway. But worth noting nevertheless.


...I have not found a hack for horizontal scrolling, but noticed with the cleaning tricks mentioned above, for some reason horizontal scroll does work so is a lesser issue.


4. Selecting Dialog Options: The dialog box does not use Page Up & Down. Many of the modal dialog boxes, show an Underline in the word. This signifies that by typing that character on the keyboard, it will directly take you to that option. And on selection you can press enter



5. Black Berry Menu: The black berry menu has no Underlines; but there is a key board hack here also. The first letter of every option is that hack. Say if the menu contains the options "Compose SMS, Compose Email ..etc". When you pres "c" on the keyboard, it will goto the first option with "c". When you press "c" again, it will select the next option starting with "c"... so on, till it loops back to the first option.
   

....Hopefully, with the above tips, you can survive a dirty trackball attack day.

Do let me know if you found this useful. Share it if you will with others!

thanks
Arjun Dhar
arjun.dhar@neurosys.biz