[reddog187]

WARNING: Do this at your own risk

All thes pictures are thumbnails so if you need a closer look, just click on them.


Pop off the retaining plastic piece. You can use anything really(small screwdriver, fingernail, whatever) just be careful not to break off the clips that keep it in place. As you can see if you keep your Pearl in your pocket it quickly sucks up all the lint it can. Hehe :D


With the plastic retaining clip off you can now remove the assembly.

There is also metal retaining clip on top of the trackball assembly, you must remove that first. It is very delicate, so be CAREFUL not to bend it. It's already removed it the picture above.


Now as you can see the magnetic rollers is what actually makes the trackball work. It sticks right to my screwdriver, which makes for easy removal.


Now it's out you may want to blow a little canned air into the where the assembly sits and make sure all is clean in there.


Now out, from left to right is Trackball Assembly, Metal Retaining Clip, Plastic Retaining Circle, and of course my Pearl.


Trackball Assembly viewed from the bottom. Notice the tabs on the Left and Right sides. These tabs fit into the slots in the Pearl. Also notice the metal retaining clip that holds the whole thing together.


Trackball Assembly viewed from the Right side. Keep in mind the metal retaining clip and how it is a different shape from the bottom view. (You may want to mark this, just make sure you know which side is which and what is top and bottom) It took me quite a few trys to get this right the first disassembly.


View of the bottom of the Trackball Assembly.

Closer view of the assembly. Using Cardinal Directions. (North, South, etc, etc,) The orientation of the assembly now is where the metal tab is pointing South.(Bottom)

If there is lint caught in your trackball you will be able to see it now in the four openings in the North, South, East, and West. If you do not want to take the assembly apart then if you may be able to use a needle or some thing small to try and get it out.


Closer view of the North side of the assembly and how the tabs from the East and West sides will differ.


Closer view of the West side, if you're looking at if from underneath. Notice the different metal tab and the bottom piece of the trackball assembly and the little round knob. Remember these. Totally different from the North and South side.


Now the take the assembly apart! BE VERY CAREFUL not to bend this! VERY Delicate!!!!
As you can see you just need to get a screwdriver underneath the retaining clips and the assembly will come apart by itself. There are VERY small pieces. So don't lose anything!!!!


This is the Trackball assembly fully taken apart.
List of Parts:
4 Magnetic Rollers
1 Metal Retaining Clip
1 Top piece of trackball assembly
1 Bottom piece of trackball assembly
1 Trackball

Now if you have it all apart and this is your first time, and your trackball wasn't working, you probably find quite a bit of lint wrapped around the magnetic rollers.

If you look closely at them, you can see little tiny ridges that the trackball actually catches on and make the magnetic rollers move in turn moving your cursor. If there was lint caught up in them then you probably have come to the conclusion, that your trackball will not work if those won't catch. So clean them off and we can now put it all back together. :D


In this picture, I am puting the rollers back into the top piece of the assembly. I should be actually putting the magnets on the other side of the assembly. I got mixed up. I forgot about working on it from the bottom so it was suppose to be flipped. So all of the magnets should be flipped. If you put it back together wrong you will know. Look at the previous pictures on what it should look like.


Also in this picture the magnets needed to be flipped. Another tip is to have the metal retaining clip in place. I kept it off before I took the picture since the magnets kept sticking to it. It will help keep them in place so you can get the bottom piece on. I'm glad I have clean finger nails.


Picture of the assembly, without my fat fingers. (remember i had to flip the magnets) South side.


With the trackball itself and the metal retaining clip...now to stick the bottom piece on. Remember the tabs and the little plastic knob? This is a view of the south side, just stick the bottom piece with the metal tab sticking down. It may take quite a bit of jostling, but it should snap right back together. Just be careful not to bend the metal retaining clip.


Stick the fully assembled trackball back and in and it should work like a dream. It didn't for me since I needed to flip the magnets. Hehe, but I took it apart and flipped the magnets and all is well.


There we are, back in place and fully functional!!! It beats spending $60 on a new assembly!

Hope this helps everyone. If you have questions, just post I'm subscribed to this thread.

[cherrichiodo]

OMG! that is GROSS RED!!! j/p -- but seriously - that's like the kirby guy coming over and vacuuming up my carpet and getting all that nastiness that your 'normal' vacuum cleaner doesn't get

nice write up red...as always :D

[reddog187]

Yea the first time I did this it was NASTY!!!!! It was like dust bunnies making babies in my pearl. Crazy! :D

[jonnyxedge]

Thanks for that info. That's awesome info dude. Classic!~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~

[ChefScott]

Great info, I was wondering how to do it if I needed to

[MedicalNerd]

Great job with the instructions, You make it look so easy!

[reddog187]

Thanks MedicalNerd, I've done it quite a few times now so it's become routine.

I actually dropped a magnetic roller while taking pictures...totally freaked out since my carpet is cream colored with black specks. Almost went crazy but I did get it back, thank god! I just hope it helps everyone.

[Ranz]

Solid! Red a while back you said this was possible but i didn't really want to try it. now with the pics I did and man was it dirty! thanks !!!!!

[a3bsoni]

Man that is awesome...thanks the pics help alot...

[greatbob]

This is great information to have. But how often have you had to do this? Is this a problem that the Pearl is frequently subjected to?

[reddog187]

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~

I've only had to actually take apart the assembly once. Second time was for these pictures. The problem that the pearl is frequent to is the trackball will sometimes stop working. If you keep it in your pocket lint will get into the mechanism and eventually cause this. Unless you have a lint free pocket. so basically try to keep it out of you pocket and get a holster.

[Zimmerman]

good stuff my 8100 is kinda new but when the time is right ill know what im doing. thanks

[Pimp C]

i was wondering how you make the trackball light up when someone calls

[reddog187]

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~
Call log> menu> options> general options> trackball lighting.

[COJO 24]

Did you get that from http://blog.myspace.com/cyberdrew or is it a different one that you made up yourself?

[reddog187]

Oh weird, nope I had to put it together myself. I couldn't link since some people copy right their pictures and so had to take some of my own. Since we can't link to the "other" forum where it had one of these, I decided we needed one. Some people don't like getting linked to so long story short Pinstack needed it so I made one.

His is way more detailed. I just did it because a member asked for this. To answer your question I did not get it from cyberdrew. If I had known about his site I would have gladly linked to it. I'm not sure if he is affiliated with the "other" forum, if he is then it's against the forum rules to link to it. I just made it to help out a member/community and it didn't break any of PinStacks rules.

Cheers.

[pda.teck]

Good job, as always Red, I could have used a week LOL> I did this and it was very trying!

[duchabeth]

This helped a great deal!!! Thanks for all the visuals as well!!

[cp6169]

Thanks alot.

[reddog187]

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~

Cp6169 do you even have a pearl? I thought you had a curve.

[ma077146]

Originally Posted by cherrichiodo OMG! that is GROSS RED!!! j/p -- but seriously - that's like the kirby guy coming over and vacuuming up my carpet and getting all that nastiness that your 'normal' vacuum cleaner doesn't get nice write up red...as always :D

Cherri, if the Kirby guy gets you upset, don't ever let the Dyson guy in!

[astroboy]

Wow,
Didn't plan on doing this, but when I got up this morning my trackball was LOCKED--could not move left. Luckily I had a spare half hour before work so I dug in and started popping things apart. Definitely follow reddog's advice and mark the parts. I would in particular put a mark on the two white plastic halves that sandwhich the rollers between--I spent probably 10-12 minutes of a half hour process trying to figure out how to those went back together. The way they fit is surprisingly hard to see and I'm someone who is fairly experienced with taking stuff apart and tinkering.
I do highly recommend this process to anyone having roller problems. After 8 or so months, my pearl had a tightly packed wad of fine lint nearly 1/2 the size of the trackball itself. I can't imagine how the "detergent dunk" of the whole assembly I've read about elsewhere on this forum could begin to
address that degree of lint buildup, even if you did it regularly.
It's actually a pretty easy process if you're careful to pay attention on dissassembly and mark the parts with a sharpie or something at every opportunity.

[dopeyloc718]

wow i waz on the train today and i was mad that my trackball cant click so i juz pulled a little bit with my nail and the metal thing came of im like oops. so i get home and i started 2 look at this thread. i did manage to open it and clean the dust but my trackball still doesnt click and its still black of dirt after i tried 2 clean it many times help plz

[reddog187]

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~

So what are you trying to do dopey? I thought you just got your BB?

[regor99]

Well my pearl finally stopped working up and down after much effort to fix. I disassembled it as per the pictures. There was a gisnt wad of lint trapped between the ball and the rollers. However I just can't get it assembled again! I've taken it to a few repairers in the area but they don't have a clue. If anyone can let me know where I can get a new trackball assembly in the London, Slough, UK area cheap please let me know. In the meantime Ive had to go back to my trusty 7105t.

[skip00319]

~via BB (wap.pinstack.com)~Thanks for the info. I did it in about 10 mins today at work. I didn't mark the pieces but I kept it together and only took one roller out at a time. Now I don't feel that grinding sensation when I use it. I actualy was telling someone the other day that the track ball needed cleaning instructions. I've been usein a trackball on my pc for years.

[reddog187]

Originally Posted by regor99 Well my pearl finally stopped working up and down after much effort to fix. I disassembled it as per the pictures. There was a gisnt wad of lint trapped between the ball and the rollers. However I just can't get it assembled again! I've taken it to a few repairers in the area but they don't have a clue. If anyone can let me know where I can get a new trackball assembly in the London, Slough, UK area cheap please let me know. In the meantime Ive had to go back to my trusty 7105t.

regor are you still having problems assembling it?

[regor99]

hi reddog . Im afraid so and my pudgy fingers has suceeded in knackering it forever. Im going to need a new trackball assembly. in the meantime I'm going through serious withdrawal from my pearl. Hopefully I can get one when I visit the Uk on Thursday.

[reddog187]

are you sure? What's wrong with it?

[regor99]

Metal retaining clip snapped. (Mighty pudgy fingers!)