Comments on: FAQ: How Do You Clean Your TrackBall?

By: rick

rick — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 15:45:24 +0000

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.

By: xavier

xavier — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 04:35:34 +0000

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

By: Sandy

Sandy — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 08:26:43 +0000

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.

By: Luciano ES

Luciano ES — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 09:20:35 +0000

“…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/

By: Vhato

Vhato — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:19:38 +0000

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.

By: phil

phil — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:18:03 +0000

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!

By: phil

phil — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:17:29 +0000

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!

By: Vhato

Vhato — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:56:47 +0000

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.

By: John

John — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 10:05:54 +0000

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

By: CP

CP — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:03:32 +0000

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.

By: abc

abc — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:09:55 +0000

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

By: Wibbly

Wibbly — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:44:38 +0000

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.

By: rsm

rsm — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:35:27 +0000

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.

By: alin

alin — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:15:49 +0000

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

By: Stuck in Magentaville

Stuck in Magentaville — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:03:37 +0000

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.