One day last week, my dinosaur Blackberry was acting odd. It showed a screen with a battery with line through it. I took out the battery, left it to sit overnight, and when I put it back in the next day, it worked. So, I pretty much forgot about it.
This morning, when I powered it on, it did it again. No amount of battery pulling made any difference, it would just start and show the line-through-battery screen.
I have 5 bloody weeks left on my contract, and I will be damned if I am going to replace the phone. It doesn’t make sense to do so.
I assumed that the symbol showing on the screen was an indicator that there was no battery in the phone. Since the battery is virtually brand new (it and the trackball are the only things I have replaced in 3 years of ownership) and was holding a charge perfectly, I became concerned that something internal was wrong… maybe the OS was corrupted, or the contacts were bent. There is nothing visually wrong with the contacts, though… they are clean and in the positions they should be in. Unlike many BB users, I rarely do battery pulls, preferring instead to do the Ctrl-Alt-Del (well, Alt-RightShift-Del on the BB) to reboot it, so it isn’t like there has been a lot of wear-and-tear there. Still, I cleaned the connection areas with an eraser, made sure the contacts were up where they should be, poking them and lifting them with a toothpick.
Battery-with-a-line-through-it.
I’ve had 3 hours of sleep and had only noticed the phone problem because I woke up to pee. I’ve got a pounding migraine. I’m not firing on all cylinders – indeed, I’d call my condition substantially impaired right now. But, I turned on the computer and googled (and like an idiot, came here afterwards too).
The primary, most-recommended method to resolve this problem, according to BB forum users around the world?
Drop it.
Yes, hold the phone 3-4 feet off the floor, screen-side up, and drop it.
I’ve been protecting this phone and cherishing it for nigh on 3 years. On a couple of occasions, it has fallen off a 2-foot-high bedside table, or the windowsill in the bathroom, and I have nearly had heart failure every single time.
But like I said, substantially impaired. 5 weeks.
Nothing, really, to lose, if the phone is already dead.
So I held it up and dropped it.
Nothing changed.
I did it again.
And it works.
Percussive maintenance is a thing now.
