Recently the trackball on my blackberry 8300 curve stopped working. What is the cause of this? Can The Tech Center fix this? Finally are the touch pads used on the new Blackberry's any better?

--Lindsay R. 

Hi Lindsay,

This is very common on the older Blackberry cell phones that used trackballs. The newer models have moved to touch sensitive touch pads (similar to the touch pads used on laptops) which have a much lower failure rate due to a lack of moving parts. The trackball on your phone sits on top of a sensor which picks up the movement of the ball. Over time oils from your fingers, dirt and grime all can accumulate and cause the sensor and the trackball to have intermittent contact or to stop working completely. Our solution is two part, first we take the phone apart and clean the sensor. Next we install a brand new clean OEM trackball assembly. There isn't an awful lot that you can do to prevent this from happening besides trying to keep your phone (and fingers) as clean as possible when using the trackball.