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FAQ: How Do You Clean Your TrackBall?

by Ronen Halevy on Dec 22nd, 2008 at 12:52 pm EST
15 Comments »
 

blackberrytrackball Since the first trackball BlackBerry it has been a constant struggle to keep the darn thing clean and functioning. It got so bad on my 8310 before I got my Bold that I had to purchase a replacement. I tried everything from rubbing it against a towel to putting soap on a paper towel with a tad of water…

Andy sent me over a tip of his own. As a carpenter he is pretty handy with his tools but found that the easiest way for him to clean it was to lick his thumb before using the trackball and then the dirt and dust sticks to his thumb. I tried that on my Bold and the problem is that there is also finger oil on the trackball…

So how do you clean your trackball? Or better yet how do you keep it clean?

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This entry was posted on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 and is filed under BlackBerry FAQ.
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15 Comments to “FAQ: How Do You Clean Your TrackBall?”

  1. Posted by: Stuck in Magentaville
    December 22, 2008 at 2:03 pm EST

    A small amount of rubbing alcohol on a Qtip/cotton swab, use it to spin the ball a few times, dry it with the other end.

  2. Posted by: alin
    December 22, 2008 at 2:15 pm EST

    Thank you for this threat ..
    This question is disturbing me for few weeks …

  3. Posted by: rsm
    December 22, 2008 at 2:35 pm EST

    It’s like RIM decided not to learn the 10 year lesson of mouse trackballs computer users have dealt with.

    That being said, I really prefer trackball navigation over 5-way D-pad and the Blackberry wheel from earlier versions.

  4. Posted by: Wibbly
    December 22, 2008 at 2:44 pm EST

    So far… whenever the ball on my Bold doesn’t operate properly I just roll it rapidly against some plain paper (phone face down) in all directions with about half the pressure required to make it click. So far it’s restored perfect operation every time. Seems to take any grease/oil off it.

  5. Posted by: abc
    December 22, 2008 at 5:09 pm EST

    Wal-Mart sells these individually wrapped, pre-moistened lens cleaner cloths (kind of like the hand cleaner packages you get at some restaurants).
    Anyway, they’re called Zeiss Lens Cloths and they sell them in the Optical Section, up front where they sell eye glasses. They clean the BB from top to bottom extremely well and help brighten and clean the trackball. Package of 50 is like 2 bucks.
    I find with the q-tip method the cotton sticks to the trackball. my 2c

    • Posted by: rick
      March 21, 2009 at 11:45 am EST

      xavier – thanks for your post, i tried your suggestion for the Zeiss Lens Cloth premoistened wipes and it worked perfectly and I did not have to open the Blackberry Bold to solve the problem. I keep these wipes around for numerous uses in dealing with eye glasses, lens, or other similar uses. Thanks again.

  6. Posted by: CP
    December 22, 2008 at 7:03 pm EST

    No way you gonna clean it properly unless you dismantle it. When it got stuck, I took the whole ball unit out and found a big chunk of lynt gather up inside. The best way is to put it away from the dust and lynt ie jean pocket etc. And once you fell the ball rolling rough that’s a sign and until it doesn’t move then you need to do a major clean up.

  7. Posted by: John
    December 23, 2008 at 5:05 am EST

    Just spray it evenly with WD40. It does the trick all the time.

  8. Posted by: Vhato
    December 23, 2008 at 8:56 am EST

    I pop off the support ring, pull the scroll ball and mount out and drop it into a cap of finger nail polish remover for a few minutes. Clean as a whistle.

  9. Posted by: phil
    December 24, 2008 at 6:17 am EST

    So how does one safely remove a trackball and resinstall it after cleaning- on an 8830 for example? Someone said ‘ just pop the ring’ is that pry it loose like with a tiny screwdrriver? Or does it unscrew somehow? Thanks!

  10. Posted by: phil
    December 24, 2008 at 6:18 am EST

    So how does one safely remove a trackball and resinstall it after cleaning- on an 8830 for example? Someone said ‘ just pop the ring’ is that pry it loose like with a tiny screwdriver? Or does it unscrew somehow? Thanks!

  11. Posted by: Vhato
    December 24, 2008 at 11:19 am EST

    Yep, it pops off with my finger nail. Not hard to do at all. The pearl is then held in a container. The whole container falls out. drop the pearl container in finger nail polish remover cap and let it eat away the grime.

  12. Posted by: Luciano ES
    December 25, 2008 at 4:20 am EST

    “…the easiest way for him to clean it was to lick his thumb before using the trackball and then the dirt and dust sticks to his thumb”

    Eeeewwww!!!

    Get a new one, for crissakes!
    http://www.berryreview.com/2008/04/11/dirty-trackball-get-a-new-one/

  13. Posted by: Sandy
    December 29, 2008 at 3:26 am EST

    When my trackball got stuck, I just put a little spit on my finger and ran it over the trackball, and that did the trick.

  14. Posted by: xavier
    March 7, 2009 at 11:35 pm EST

    I just use alcohol & a Q-tip, or some eyeglass cleaner. Or I just blow on it really hard & roll it around really fast.